What I've Been Up To

So I feel like lately I may have been a little M.I.A. Well lets just say life has been a little crazy. First there was the school play. Shoot me. Just shoot me. See as the high school art teacher I was in charge of designing and painting the sets for the play. Originally when I hear this last year when I took the job I though no big deal, paint a back drop paint some boxes black. Wrong. These sets were meant to be professional grade, with balconies and set changes and what I would call pure insanity. However the teachers that have been here for years don't see anything wrong with this. This is why art teachers here only last 2 years, and often have mental break downs. Oh well, so I gave up a lot of nights and weekend to create this craziness. Luckily I changed their minds on letting me have students help to paint the set, really I didn't give them a choice. So I created a set for the production of "Once On This Island" breakdown free, at what they may think was a sub-par level, but I thought it was fabulous.

Set during rehearsals, and us still scrambling to finish it up. 

So while there was the chaos of this there was also the chaos of my IB students doing exams. IB in the great wisdom decided that this year they would make the exams for the Visual Arts students on April 10th, a full month before everyone else. It was almost impossible to get the students to get their work finished and documented. But it got done and after several computer glitches, it was sent off. 

Then there was the art show, which was good, but once again it seemed to eat my life. So after a successful high school art show last week, we have the middle school one to look forward to this week. 

Lastly this Sunday we went over the final pages of this year's yearbook. Everything has been corrected and signed off on, and if there is a mistake at this point I don't care. 

So this has been why I've been a little busy and this Monday was taken off to relax and finally get back to my project of finishing up my bedroom. Remember about a month ago at Easter I decided to paint my bedroom, well that has been put on the back burner for a while. But as of 7 pm the room was complete. I probably will replace the curtains to something a little nicer. But in the mean time it looks so much better than blinding yellow and it's done!

Power Outage

 I arrive at school and there's no power, which means no air con. With humidity it is 48 degrees Celsius. So I get a free day!

Cockroaches

Today I was at school (yes on a Sunday), painting the set for the high school play, (not a fan) when I had to go clean some paint brushes. When I entered the room with the sink I was greeted by four dead cockroaches and one semi-alive one on the floor (they had recently sprayed). Gross.

And then I though, cockroaches would be so much less icky if they were different colours instead of icky brown/black/tan. For example if the cockroach was red with black stripes, or yellow with green dots, or blue with purple swirls, you would be less inclined to scream and run away but instead you would think 'oh cool' and perhaps take a closer look. If the looked pretty would we still reach for the nearest killing device that would insure that we don't touch it while you smush it into a pulp to make sure it fully dies, or would we trap it and set it free like a ladybug.

So cockroaches I understand your apparently evolutionary geniuses that can live through anything (nuclear blast) and on anything (garbage, decomposing things, tooth paste, Twinkies, their own young). But I would suggest you take the next step and improve your wardrobe  because otherwise we will continue to try and kill you with everything we have. Because you're icky.

Boracay

The weekend after our week long Easter break, we were granted a 4 day holiday by the Philippines President, I have no clue what holiday it way, but I was greatful for it. So my co-work Erin and I went to Boracay, a very small island in the middle of the Philippines, which is considered one of the best beaches in the world (the ranking can vary from #5 to #24 depending on which list your consulting). There we meet up with some of the teachers from the Manila campus of our school and proceeded to do a lot of nothing.  

In front of our hotel.

The first evening we went for a sunset sail.

The water only got rougher from here, and by the end not one of us had an inch that was dry. The next two night the water was smooth and this would not have been an issue. Oh well it was an adventure.

Evening drinks on a hut/bar right on the beach. 

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One of the main things we wanted to do while we were here was try kite surfing. So we purposely booked a hotel on the kite surfing side of the island, which also happened to be the cheaper side, a whole 10 minute walk from the beach on the other side,  (I wasn't excruciating when I said the island was very small). Unfortunately the winds were shifting and the ocean was calm the whole time. So when we woke up one morning and saw this guy kite surfing we got really excited. 

It turned out that this guy was a professional and was training for a competition and unless we had 10 year of intense kite boarding experience, there was no way in hell we were going to get up today. So kite boarding wasn't meant to be. Oh well, we went an lied on the beach, and read books, and swam, and drank fancy fruit drinks with umbrellas in them. Could be worse.  

Day 6&7: Baguio

So on day 6 we drove to Baguio which took forever. Once we got there we didn't do a whole lot, we went to the mall, we ate food, we saw a movie and of course there were hot showers. It oddly rained which unseasonable and made it miserable to be outside. I had plans of seeing different art things, but it wasn't meant to be. So at the end of it we headed home early.

On the way to Baguio, here the rice terraces turn into vegetable terraces, growing things like cabbage, carrots, beans, and eggplant. 

We hit a lot of construction along the way. This is the Philippines equivalent of the stop/slow sign worker. 

After Baguio which we didn't really do to much to exciting, but I did buy paint for my bedroom walls! (still has not been completed, I'm waiting on a ladder from the school to be delivered to my house. Its been occupied with trying to paint the set for the school play). We headed home, where were stopped in many Easter processions, which included people carrying candles, statues of Mary, statues of Jesus, and actual cross. Which one could only presume that they would then later be the poor guys who were crucified on that cross in the far too real reenactment. 

Here is us stuck in traffic, this is when I realized that the car in front of us didn't have a real licence plate, but rather a piece of metal with random letters and numbers hand painted on to it. It wasn't even the right colour (Philippines licence plates are green). 

Day 5: Sagada

After a 2 hour drive along windy mountain roads we arrive in Sagada. And then all of a sudden it feels like I'm back home in Canada, minus the snow of course. The temperature drops to 23, there's what looks like red pines everywhere, rocks and cliffs. Then I see a banana tree and the whole thing's ruined.  

We check into our hotel which of course is at the top of a hill. Just what I wanted after Batad, more inclines. 

The next day we head out for our caving adventure. There were many times where you wonder is this actually safe? And then you remember your in the Philippines, so not, its probably not very safe. But it was cool. It was a 3 hour journey through the cave, climbing up walls, around ledges while hoping you don't fall into the black whole that's below, and fitting through narrow holes. Luckily because it was dry season we never had to swim at any point, only walk through a foot and a half of water. This made me much happier.

Stop 1- hanging coffins, the traditional way of dealing with the dead in Sagada was to hang the coffin from a cliff or to stack them at the mouth of the cave, depending on how the person died. About two thirds of the way through this photo are the coffins on the cliff. The last one to be hung was in the 90's.

  

Our guide Zel at the mouth of the cave.

Stacked coffins at the mouth of the cave. These are of people who had a natural death. The bodies are put in the fetal position in the coffin, making the coffins look very short. My first thought was that they were all for children. The last one to be added was in 2003.

Our guide told us this was a maple leaf. So we posed. 

The fossils in the cave wall. Despite being in the mountains 5,000 feet above sea level at one point this was apart of the ocean, as you can see with the different shell and fish fossils that line it's walls. 

After our cave adventure was over we did some souvenir shopping, I was on a mission for the Sagada pottery, Lauren for a woven bag. It took us most of the afternoon but the mission was accomplished! I also picked a carved wooden bowl.

Then we had dinner, afterwards we went exploring the town were we ran into some other tourist, and went with them to this bar. So we were talking about our travels and experiences when all of a sudden we realize that its 11:30. Fun fact: Sagada has a 9 pm curfew and everything closes, your not supposed to be on the streets, if your Philippino you can be arrested. But because we were in the back the owner just shut the shutters to windows and door at the front and let us continue without informing us of the time. So we left with fear the we may not be able to get back into our hotels. Luckily for Lauren and I our place was more like a hotel, were the door to our room opened onto the balcony outside, so we would still be able to get in. This is as long as you have the key. Which Lauren had lost. And because of this curfew, there was no one at the front desk to let us in. There was no other hotels open that we could just check in for the night. So what did we do? Slept in the van. I wasn't impressed.

So after an uncomfortable sleep, we got back into our hotel, slept for another hour, and then left for Baguio, with dreams of finally having hot showers. Oh didn't I mention? We hadn't had hot water sense Banaue.

Day 4: Out of Batad

After the hike of death the previous day what I really wanted was more hiking. Because when your joints are about to give out and your legs are screaming in pain what you really want is increase that by hiking up and down and around a mountain.

And of course because I didn't plan the route, we took the hard way out.

Early morning in Batad

So tired

We packed up, and started our hike along the rice terraces.

And up the rice terraces

And along the rice terraces

And down slippery steps

And then through jungle

At which point I was prying that it would be over soon.

The answer was no...

So we walked along more terraces

Until we finally got to the end, where we meet some local school children, who liked our trail mix and thought Lauren was a little crazy. 

 We then went back to Banaue where we gathered our stuff and our van and headed out to Sagada.

Here's the look out where the image for the 1000 peso bill was taken from

Carabao and a Jeepney, doesn't get much more Philippino than that. 

We arrived in Sagada by 4 and got settled into our place. Next day was cave exploring. That night all I could think was shoot me. 

Attention!

We interrupt this vacation posting to announce that I HAVE BOOKED MY FLIGHT HOME!

I will be in Canada from June 5th until July 28th. For those of you who would like to see me then, have events that I should attend, and live in the Canada area-ish please message me so I can start to plan my summer accordingly. Priority is put on those who live in cool locations, propose fun activities, family and friends.

Can't wait to see you guys!

Day 3: Batad and The Never Ending Hike

Early in the blog I described the never ending bus ride that I took from Laos to Cambodia, well now we have the never ending hike. On our 3rd day of the trip we went to the small village of Batad, which is know for having the best rice terraces in the area, which is saying a lot because this particular area is known for having the best rice terraces in Asia. The problem, you can only access the village by hiking in, which means hiking up a mountain and then back down a mountain into the valley where the town is. And if that wasn't enough we then hiked around the terraces and to a waterfall on different mountain. All in the same day. At elevation.

Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful. But I thought I was going to die. With every step pain shot out from my joints and I was waiting every step for the time that my leg would give out. I survived, did I enjoy myself... its debatable, but I got some cool pictures.

The mountain we hiked up.

On our way down. This boy was hiking in a 50kg bag of rice into the town

We made it... sorta, there was still another 25 minute hike into the actual town.

Made it for real. 

Our hotel.

Starting our next part of the hike.

Trying my hand at separating the rice grain from the plant material. I was pretty good at it, I credit all my time at Nana and Poppa's farm.

Looking down at the valley.

Danwil and I on our way down the mountain.

Lauren: "Look Dana don't worry, we're almost at the waterfall."

Dana: "You realize we still have to hike back right?"

Relaxing before our way back up.

rest time

Post-hike in our super posh hotel. Note the weird red stain on the wall by my bed.