A Weekend in Los Banos

I had a great weekend away from Manila. You wouldn't think that I would need a weekend out of the city after being back for just a week but it was just what I needed. I've been meaning to visit Dwayne and Gladys for ages but it just has never worked out. My weekends are generally full of busy-ness and craziness. Last semester we said that it must absolutely happen in the 3rd quarter. So what better weekend than the first weekend?

Dwayne and Gladys came all the way out to Faith to pick me up on Friday afternoon. What a blessing! Taking a bus or some other method of public transportation just wouldn't have been as fun. Despite the fact that we hit rush hour traffic, we had nice conversations in the car. And who can beat a stop at Yellow Cab? They do pizza right.

Saturday was a very full day! Gladys showed me a bit of the town and a few things they are involved in. And we ate banana-que. Oh so delicious! We went back to the house where I laid down for my first nap. Ridiculous to nap before lunch but I think I was a bit tired after trying to get back into the school thing. Lunch at the house. A little more reading. I finished two of my young adult books - Freak the Mighty and Among the Hidden.

In the afternoon, Gladys and I went up to a squatter village where Gladys does a Bible lesson with heaps of kids each Saturday. They were so cute! I mostly just took pictures and tried to listen carefully to figure out what Gladys was saying in Tagalog. I think I got a fair bit of it.

Handing out nametags.

Everyone wanted to answer the question.

Coloring is a big deal.

Oh so cute!

Everyone gathers to say goodbye.

After the Bible lesson, Gladys and I were off to check out the "baths." Los Banos - taken from Spanish "los banyos" - the baths. The whole community is surrounded by hot springs! Even the water at the house is definitely warmer than what we usually have in Manila. When you drive down the main road, there are hundreds of resorts lining the road and then even more with attendents out on the road waving to you, hoping that you'll go down the little side street that will lead to their "resort." We found a fairly clean one. There was one main pool and a kiddie pool. The water felt like lukewarm bath water until you went down to the covered end where a big fountain was spurting HOT water into the pool. It was painful to the touch and you couldn't stand under it for very long. Fun, nonetheless. It would've been a shame to go to Los Banos and never visit one of the baths.

After a good swim and a beautiful view of a full moon through the palm trees, we headed back to the house to pick up Dwayne and the girls to go to Arla for dinner. Arla is this amazingly cute restaurant that is owned and run by a former Faith classmate of mine. PJ does such an amazing job there! Such delicious food and a great time of catching up a little bit. I got to meet her husband and her two boys. Missed out on her little girl because she was asleep though.

I was her first classmate to come to her restaurant! A great privilege for me.

Today (Sunday) felt even more full. We went to church. What an amazing feeling to worship with other believers even when you can't always understand what's going on. I had the benefit of knowing all of the English praise and worship songs but not so lucky with the sermon. It was all in Tagalog. Wow, I really need to work on my Tagalog.

Dwayne and I went out for coffee while Gladys and the girls had Sunday school. I feel so blessed to have shared the coffee and conversations.

When Sunday school was finished, we started our trek back to Manila. Halfway back we took a detour up to Tagaytay. Tagaytay overlooks Taal. I can't believe I've lived so close and have never been there. Taal is an active volcano but what makes it even more strange is that the volcano is surrounded by a crater lake and then there's another crater lake inside of the volcano. It's so crazy.

We ate lunch at a BEAUTIFUL hotel that overlooks the whole expanse. It was a bit cloudy today but I think you might be able to imagine how divine it must look with the sun shining down on it. Lunch was delicious too. I had a roast beef sandwich and a bowl of minestrone soup. The soup was absolutely necessary because it was so freezing cold up there! Oh my goodness. Even my sweater did not help much.

Taal

So now here I am back at home. I've been working on school stuff for the past two hours and I have a bit more to do before I'll be prepared for class tomorrow. I just felt that I had to share about my weekend though.