Compliment?

The other day after school a parent stops me to talk to me about his daughter who consistently does not hands in her work. I've been taking the 'you don't hand in your work you get a zero approach' which I feel is the logical choice.

So the father told me that "You could easily be the fun young teacher with the messy blond hair, but your trying to be a good teacher." 

I'm not entirely sure how to take this?

Day 3: Puerto Princesa

 UNDERGROUND RIVER DAY!!!! This was the day I was looking forward to the most! We would travel 2 hours north of the city to a protected park where we would paddle through a river inside limestone caves. Its one of the Seven Natural wonders of Asia, and a UNESCO world heritage site. We had heard amazing things about it and I was really looking forward to it. 

So after leaving at 7am we drove up the island along switchback roads until we came to this place, where we waited for our Banca Boat to come and take us to the park. There are no roads into the national park to try and preserve the wildlife ad habitat there. 

Fisherman bring in his boat while children play on the beach.

Bringing in the catch of the day.

Just enjoying the view on the ride over.

We're Here!

Waiting for our time slot, we were boat 32, we arrive at 20, so we had 20  minutes to kill, who would want to hang out here? 

So we went swimming, this is where the river joins the ocean the water is cool and clean and beautiful. But apparently your not supposed to swim here, so there were several Filippino workers who came yelling at us very nicely for us to get out of the water. 

Mouth of the cave

All ready to explore the cave!

So the tour that we took through the cave was interesting to say the least... I can tell you that the are around 14 different types of bats that call the cave home, and that the water that flows through the cave is actually brackish water, a combination of both fresh and salt water. But that were the facts stopped. After which we were subjected to the guide pointing a light at different rock formations and told us what animals, religious figure or food they looked like. The Filippinos behind us in the boat loved it. Us not as much... But it was over all it was petty cool.

Cave ceiling 

BATS!

After this we left the beach, had lunch and headed back to Puerto Princesa where we flew out. We originally were going to kayak mangroves, but we didn't have enough time before we flew out. So we landing in Manila just before 6 and eventually after hours in traffic we got back to Subic around 11 pm. Over all it was an amazing weekend.

Day 2: Puerto Princesa

 Day 2 we woke up around 8:30, had a pancake breakfast and headed out to the adventure park outside of town where we were going to have a morning filled with an assortment of activities. First up was the sky walk, where you were suspended on bamboo bridges in the jungle going from tree to tree. At first I wasn't sure how I would do with this considering I'm not the biggest fan of heights  however we were only 10 feet off the ground. The course was short and my balance was impeccable.

Next there was zip lining through the jungle, the place boasted the longest zip line in Asia, it was actually 3 zip lines that you switched on and off from. It was really cool, and a fun way to see the jungle.

Then we took a caribow cart ride to our lunch destination, which really we could have walked, and I just felt bad for the caribow.

Then in the afternoon there was market shopping were I picked up some carved masks. Then off to the beach. We were told by a worker at the hotel that this one was a good one to go to, it was free and there was ice cream. The place was beautiful, but the whole thing was a sand bar and the water was less than a foot deep for over a kilometer from shore. It was a local beach clearly, because most Filippinos surprisingly can't swim, despite living on islands and being surrounded by ocean.

Lauren teaching the local kid how to play hopscotch. 

That evening we had a firefly tour, which I wasn't exactly sure about but, it was amazing! We were three to a boat plus our guide "Ranch" who paddled us down this slow salt water river, in all the trees that lined the banks, where hundreds of fireflies. The trees looked like they had been covered with Christmas lights. 

There's an unofficial rule of nature that all tropical bugs must be bigger and scarier than bugs from cooler climate like Canada. Red ants here don't just bite you but they remove chunks of flesh. Spiders can kill you with one bite and are often enormous. Mosquitoes carry malaria and dengue fever. And cockroaches are everywhere and the size of house pets. So natural I expect these millions of fireflies to be much larger than our beetle size ones from home. But after catching them I was surprise to discover they were very similar to flying ants. They also for some reason were attracted to my hair, so I glowed for the majority of the tour, our guide said it was a sign that I was healthy, because the fireflies only like the healthy trees. 

About to embark on our journey down the river. Of course you have to dress the part.

Day 1: Puerto Princesa

So for your reference I live on the island call Luzon, on the left side of the square box. Puerto Princesa is on the island of Palawan in the circle area.

On Friday we left after school, drove to Manila, spent the night in order to catch our 6:30 am flight to Palawan. Once we arrived we checked into our hotel and proceeded to make it out to Honda Bay, where we went by Banca Boat to different islands in the bay and snorkeling. 

Heading out on the boat, it was a gorgeous day, as we got further out into the bay the waves did pick up and everyone got soaked. But we were taken to various different islands. The first of which was slightly more busy, but at it you could get a massage on the beach in your own hut for the equivalence of $7. Not the cheapest massage every, but after the 4:45 am wake up to catch our flight it was well worth it. Then after our picnic lunch on the beach of rice, fried chicken, fish, pork spare ribs and cucumbers, we walked around the island then headed off in our boat to our next stop snorkeling!

This was my first snorkel experience, and although it won't be my last, I'm pretty sure it will be at the bottom as one of the worst. 

Problem #1 you had to stay in this small roped off area, so you couldn't explore as much as I had hoped. Problem #2 you had to wear a life jacket at all times which made it difficult to swim/snorkel well.

 Problem #3 the smallest size of life jacket they had was a men's medium, indented for someone roughly 45 lbs heaver than myself. Therefore the entire time the life jacket was choking me and would start to float up by my head. So every time it popped off  the workers would freak out and start yelling at me. 

Problem #4 the snorkel I was given had a crack in it and water kept leaking in. 

So eventually I just held my breath looked through my mask while trying to hold down my life jacket. The coral was cool, and there were cool fish, but the whole experience was just frustrating. 

Then we went to another island/sand bar. It was a great way to end the day. 

You had to jump at the right spot where they had dug out the sand, otherwise the water was only 7 feet deep. 

Starfish!

White Girl Problems

I'm packing for my 3 day outdoor adventure weekend in Palawan which is an island south of here (it is 100% safe, no to be concerned for my safety). My flight only allows for carry-ons. I just realized all of my sunscreen is over 100ml. Shit.

Just Another Lazy Saturday

New Discovery

I'm feeling better and thanks for all your warm wishes and tips for staying healthy!


While I was sick, I split some soup on the floor, feeling lazy and gross I left it there. So a couple of days later when I was feeling better I cleaned, and what I discovered was terrifying.

I had always thought that the grout (it's the cement stuff in between tiles for those of you who didn't grow up in homes with renovation experts, I thought it was common knowledge  but a lot of the teachers I work with were lost) in my living room/dining room/kitchen was a grey brown, like the grout in my bathroom. I was wrong. It's white. Just another joy of living in teacher housing.

This picture fails to capture the extreme and awful colour difference,  I blame the bad lighting. 

So obviously I started to clean the entire house.

Home Sick

The last couple of days I've been feeling a little blah, today I woke up and that blah turn to sick, but being hardcore like I am, I thought I would tough it out, because making sub plans are annoying. Having to run out of my first period class 3 time to go throw up, kinda proved that powering through was not an option.

So I've been sent home with power-aid, anti-nausea medication (which i haven't tried yet cause foreign pills scare me), and a thing of soup.

This flu better get done soon, because it's ruining my beach plans this weekend.

Chinese New Year

So I've been back teaching for less than a month, and I already feel like i need/deserve a vacation. Almost every other Asian International school is getting a long weekend for Chinese New Year. Our school does not, because Chinese New Year lands on a Sunday and therefore we already have the day off. This is bad, I now expect random holidays off, I have truly become an international teacher.

I did just finish doing the inventory for the entire art department (aka me), it took forever, and I completed the supply order for next year, which was less fun than I thought it would be. Sticking to a budget sucks all the excitement out of it. So that's gotta be worth a long weekend right???