Things Students Say

One of my grade 6 students comes up to me today looking all concerned

Student: "So I hear your mayor smokes crack-cocaine.... is this normal in Canada?"

Me: "What do you think?"

Student: ".....No....?"

Me: "Right answer."

Student: "Oh thank god, I was worried about you for a while."

Visitors!

       My first visitors arrived a week ago, my dad and step-mom flew into Clark airport late Monday night/actually it was Tuesday morning. I rented a car that day and drove the forty five minutes down to get them. 


       While coming back from the airport I made a left turn where I shouldn't have. Traffic laws are different in every town making it hard to guess which things change after 10pm or 12am change, which places allow for U-turns. There are places where signalling is not really a big deal but speeding is, and then the next town over it may be the opposite. And then there's Manila where everything goes. So in Clark at 1am I guessed my traffic law wrong and turned left where I shouldn't have. And at every interaction in Clark there are apparently police posted there. So they signalled for me to pull over by stepping onto the road and whistling at me. Which rule number one of driving in a 3rd world country never pull over for the cops. So I dodged them for the next 3 intersections, which was easy because they were on foot.

Welcome to the Philippines!

Bohol Day 1

On the 29th we left Subic and headed to Manila, spent the evening shopping and doing a little touring before turning in for the night for our early morning flight to Cebu. Once in Cebu we took a taxi to the ferry terminal were we left for Bohol. 

The Island of Bohol is located in the central region of the Philippines referred to as Visayas. Bohol is composed of the main island of Bohol and then several surrounding islands. The largest of these being Panglo, which is where many of the resorts and hotels are located and where we stayed. 

The ferry was 2 hours and started off with a prayer followed by a viewing of Iron Man 2. We got to the capital of Bohol, Tagbilaran just before the climax of the movie. Note to Super Cats ferries choose shorter movies. 

From there we were picked up by our hotel and headed out to the resort. By the time we got there it was close to 2 o'clock, so we just spent the rest of the day by the pool and taking in the view. 

Off To Manila I Go!

This week has been stressful, between the students, IB review process, yearbook class photos, and travel planning I needed a vacation.

So on Thursday when a parent offered to take me to Manila this weekend for a design show I jumped on the opportunity.

I booked my hotel room last night. The website made it look like a steal, just under 2000 pesos (a little less than $50 canadian) I would get a room with a nice bed with fancy pillows, a kitchenette, in a great location with a rooftop pool. Last night after booking it I was pretty impressed with myself at finding this.

After we arrived in Manila around noon I went to the spa and spent 3 and half hours enjoying jacuzzi tubs and steam rooms, getting scrubbed and massaged. All the while getting served ginger tea and listening to tranquil spa music, which once you get over how annoying the birds are, it really does make you feel quite zen.

Had some good food. Came back to the hotel to check in finally, shower and then later meet some people for drinks. Before the room was not ready so I just dropped off my bag, stored my laptop in the hotel safe and headed out. I was eager to see what my great hotel deal turned out to be.

Now the room does have free wifi, and the bed is ok, the mattress is a little big for the bed frame making it hang over the edge. There is a kitchenette, no fancy pillows and a couch with a questionable stain. The location is great and there is a rooftop pool that has excellent views of the city.

The downside is the shower. It is the shower from hell. Horrific is the word I would use to describe it. The water come strait out and highly pressurized great if your looking to power wash your skin. Turns out I didn't need to get that body scrub at the spa today after all. It's painful. And the temperature ranges from frigid to slightly below room temperature. And I know what you're think, Dana, you live in the Philippines, room temperatures like 90 degrees there. Except this is Canadian room temperature... in winter. So yeah its a little frosty.

Tomorrow I meet my friend for breakfast and then all day at the design expo, where we'll look at fabric, jewellery and cool home stuff and I'll really hard not to buy anything. We'll see....

The worst shower ever! And note the lovely hunter green title... the design expo would not approve. 

Earthquake

There was a giant earthquake in Bohol on Tuesday morning. Its an island south of here and we were in no way effected.

However this was the destination for my October break holiday. Which has me now wondering if things will be operational or still around to go visit. I'll keep you posted on what happens.

CANADIAN THANKSGIVING!

The bird going into the oven. My friend Lauren graciously let my use her's because it has consistent heat and doesn't die half way through. 

This whole weekend we've been threatened with the possibility of a typhoon that was supposed to be headed straight for us. School was cancelled on Friday in preparation for it. It never really came, it rained a little here and there, but they typhoon seems to have had other plans. So we planned on having our Thanksgiving dinner outside on the patio at sunset! If the trees don't have colours, at least the sky will. 

Then 10 minutes to show time and the bird is still not done. It takes another hour for it to finish. In the mean time people arrive we set up the tables, begin to snack on the food. Finally the bird id the right temperature and all fear of possibly giving everyone food poisoning is gone. 

So as I leave the patio to go get the turkey the sky quickly changes from blue to black and it begins to pour. I look up and theres a mad rush of people grabbing tales and food heading into Lauren's small apartment. In the end everything was great, awesome food, good conversation and plenty of left overs!

What I've Been Up To

So on the rain days my classroom roof leaked. Of course only in the areas were there was student work was piled. There were a lot of crumpled wrinkly stained/ruined drawing.  It was a mess.  My grade 6s cried.  Which of course violated my rule of "There's no crying in the art room".  I had no idea what to do, this is why I should only teach high school.

Then there was report card writing, which ate up all my spare time.  And those 2 rain days we had where I was going to write reports I couldn't because the school server wasn't working. So that got crammed into a couple of days of hell. 

Then post report cards several of us left for Manila were we attended a birthday party for a friends 2 year old son. After which was a whirl wind of all things Manila. We shopped, ate, danced, more food, more shopping, spa, art class, and then home. 

Then the school had spirt week, where the kids were all hyped up on sugar and free dress. But I participated, even becoming a PE teacher for career day. 

This past weekend I proctored the SATs on Saturday, from 7-2. Brutal, its boring, all you do is watch them and hope someone cheats so you at least have something to do and deal with. But all 30 students behaved and I'm pretty sure I was the happiest person in the room when I called "time's up put your pencils down." After which I went to the beach. Read my book enjoyed one of the few days of sunshine. 

Monday was parent teacher conference I had 6 parents sign up for interviews. 5 more show up and try and lie about them having sign up. I have no problem with them dropping by, but I think we can identify where their children's issues with following procedure/organization/lying may come from. 

Last night I hosted book club for the book 419 by Will Ferguson. It was by addition to this years reading list, a Canadian author. People enjoyed the book, the food was great. The roast I made turned out despite the fact that my oven kept turning off. There was a lot of panic and yelling, and eventually the pilot light decided to stay on. I miss quality appliances. Luckily I'm stealing a friend's kitchen this weekend for Canadian Thanksgiving. This way I may have an oven that will work the entire time.