WOW

I'm only on the second week of school and I am beat. I'm teaching a very full class load that keeps me at school a lot more than I was last semester. Last school year I had no Friday classes, now I have 6 hours of class on fridays. LAME. Besides that all of my classes are a straight three hours long.

Besides the marathon of knowledge that is my schedule I've also stepped up my involvement during class. In our new set-up the first hour of class is mine. I've developed a 100 word program for my students where they learn 10 new words every week. If they learn all the words and pass their quizzes they get a snazzy prize (like dinner at my house). They're not doing as great as I want...but how is that surprising? At least they're trying is my motto, and that gets me through the days.

My other fun task is working with speech training. I'm using all my summer research and work to give my students the gift of understandable spoken English. They're excited to learn this too, but there are some big hurdles. Like in music, my students have bad speaking habits that i have to break them of. One of the worst is getting them to make -TH- sounds correctly. The TH sounds only exists in English and Greek so I've been told a lot of people have issues with it. I feel good about this challenge though, and its re-energized my care for teaching English.

I'm also really excited because this coming weekend we're having a 4th of July party in Bacolod. other volunteers are coming to the area to celebrate with us! Although I'm not the biggest patriot, this 4th of July I'll proudly celebrate things like hamburgers, hotdogs, and potato salad. Can't wait!

False Start

I'm halfway through my first week of school. We were supposed to start a week earlier, but everything was postponed a week because of swine flu. My take is that the president says that since college students travel more they might have the virus and carry it to a campus. As such we complied, and everyone got an extra week of summer. My students barely have money to leave their houses, so it was silly for us, but we didn't really have a choice.

I'm happy though to be back at school. I have a very full course load (7 classes) but I'm excited to teach the sections. 4 of my classes are on speaking properly, which is what I spent my summer researching and getting ready for. My other 3 classes are "Study and Thinking Skills" classes. This is the freshman class on how to use the library and do basic scholarship. I'm less happy to be teaching these sections, but its good for them to get exposure to me, and there are no other courses for me to teach.

Well that's life for now. I'll update more soon. A lot has happened in the past weeks that will make for good posts, but no point using all my material at once.

The Barber Shop

I've been going to the same barber shop as Marlo now for 4 months. Its a nice little place 10 steps down the street from our market. Inside there are 5 chairs, 2 TVs, and lots of mirrors. The walls are cream colored, as are the tiles on the floor. Its in a row of 5 barber shops and it seems like most people just pass ours by. Maybe its facilities aren't as nice, or maybe people just don't like the guys who work there, or maybe they just have a small and devoted clientele. For whatever reason there's never a line.

It may be small and stuffy and is certainly no salon, but the barber shop is constantly one of my favorite places here. When I walk in, my barber is always available and quick to get me into the chair. He knows exactly how I want my hair cut, and goes straight to work. He doesn't know my name and I don't know his. He doesn't ask me questions about my work, where I live, what I do, why I'm here. I don't have to speak in another language. I don't have to speak in English. The most communication is when I give a slight nod to indicate that my bangs are even.

When he's satisfied with his work he dusts off my neck and gives my shoulders a little massage. We both silently agree that my hair is as good as its going to get on this occasion. I pay. I walk out the door and hope my hair grows fast.

What Do You Think?

I'm used to the "Hey Joes" by now. Everywhere I go some Filipino thinks its cute to yell "Hey Joe" at me. That's cool. I get it...whatever.

Recently though they've stopped with the Joe and have moved onto American movie stars. Because I have brown hair and glasses I've gotten Harry Potter, Spiderman, and as always-- Superman. My students back in the US called me Superman, and so I'm sort of okay with that...maybe that's a weird ego thing. I would love a second opinion. Which is most like me??

A Special Summer Promo

I live near a hospital. On the gates to the hospital entrance are several banners congratulating new nurses, or some doctor for doing this or that...who really cares? Well recently I was riding my jeep home from the market and noticed a new fun yellow sign. The new sign had a cartoony sun in one corner and a palm tree down the other side. In the middle written cute, green, dancing lettering were the words that so many Filipinos I'm sure were dying to hear:

Summer Circumcision Promo
500 peso all inclusive!

500 pesos is roughly $10 so I'm not totally sure what "all inclusive" would entail. So yeah...awesome.

Boracay

Just went on a very short trip to Boracay. Boracay is Philippines' answer to Miami. It is a very long beach with lots of little dance clubs and restaurants along the beach. Its absolutely beautiful, but def. designed for tourists. Sadly, it is slightly out of the volunteers' budget in some ways.

Happy Birthday To Me

My first birthday here has come and gone. I didn't do anything too big because in Filipino traditions the birthday boy gets to pay for everything...and that wasn't about to happen.

Another volunteer used her connections to get us into a very nice resort located in the foothills of our volcano. It was beautiful, but rainy so we weren't able to really take advantage of the fresh, cold-water pool. We did have a cook out though with some of our Australian friends.

The next day there was the Pasalamat Festival in La Carlotta City, about an hour from Bacolod. My coworkers took me to a party where there was lots of great food. Then we all watched the big fight. Only after the fight could we watch the parade and lots of street dancing. The costumes were very exciting.This is my favorite shot from the day. She's really selling it, even in the rain.
On my actual birthday I was a little sad that I couldn't spend it with my friends back home, but that's okay. There'll be other years for that. It was kind of the first time I've really really missed home though.

Anyhow, thanks to all for the birthday wishes!