Last Minute - to the Philippines

We are excited! We are going to the Philippines in two weeks. We have been trying to decide where to go for our week-long October vacation. First, we looked at going somewhere in China because we thought it would be cheap. Unfortunately, it's also a Chinese holiday and because the Chinese will be traveling, the prices are up. We had also heard that prices are low to lots of nearby places like Vietnam and Thailand, but we couldn't find any deals. Just when I had given up, I checked an airline one more time. It was like 1.50 Philippine pesos to Manila and $0 from Manila to Cebu. Can you believe that? Now, granted, they add on lots of tax, but we are all going for pretty cheap. No cost, only tax. Too bad America can't do that once in awhile. I don't know how these airlines do it. We'll stay on a little island and take it easy for a few days. I can't wait!

It's so much easier to travel from here. We definitely made the right choice, I think, leaving Kazakhstan and coming here. The school is more organized. There is more to do. Prices are much, much lower. Our students are very well-behaved. We teach less classes. On top of it all, we can travel to great tropical locations for much less. We recently signed up for a gym which is actually pretty decent. They are trying to get foreigners in to attract business, I think, so they cut us a deal. It's about $10 a month. We also bought a discount card for our now weekly foot/shoulder massages. It's a regular thing now. It's funny because we go after school and there's a whole room of teachers getting massages. One of the teachers from Canada said that they offer teachers monthly massages in Canada. Now, doesn't that just make sense!

Some interesting sights lately - chicken feet in every form. A street vendor was selling them pickled on the street today. Bikes everywhere and anything loaded on them. Yesterday, a bike loaded at least 3 feet tall with styrofoam. Men here roll up their shirts when they are hot. Such a strange thing to us. One negative - the smell. There are a lot of stinky smells. Our grocery store has a pretty stinky smell. Our bus stop is near a little street market. We don't know what that smell is (probably the stench of chicken crap and death), but it is not pleasant.

School has been rolling along quite nicely. We have one more period off this year than last year. You can really get work done at school. I even have a full lunch period three days a week without having to have duty. Today, I emailed the director to ask for a convection oven. He emailed me right back and said, no problem. There are no real ovens here, so even a little one will make me happy. Maybe I can make cookies.

One more day this week. We have our big international brunch this Saturday. I am mystified about what to make. Everything I know how to make is baked. Hmmm....