evidenced by the picture to the right. Yup, that's right, folks. No more purple ink in the pen. It is all on the students' papers. There is more grading in my future. I am still working on 2nd quarter projects, reading response journals, and starting to mark 83 exams. All of this must be done by Friday. Please pray that I am able to focus and give good feedback to my students. 
had a nice tackle on his competition but it didn't work out so nicely for his collarbone. Thankfully it was not a full break and it was close enough to his breastbone that it shouldn't take too long to heal. That meant that last Saturday was a fun day of bringing him to get an x-ray. He's not really in pain. In fact, he actually played for a good 20 minutes with a broken collarbone. A rolled ankle finally pushed him out of the game.
freshmen girls each week after chapel. That particular week, we did not have chapel and instead headed to the mall for lunch at a quickie Mongolian Barbeque place followed by sundaes at McDonald's. It was a nice time to get off campus and to enjoy each other's company.
The bright blue pipe comes into my bathroom through the hole that has been cut in the screen.
h my new phone. Here was my beautiful view as I looked up. I also enjoyed a lovely walk with the dog here in the neighborhood this afternoon. Who knew that in a 35-minute walk, you could encounter more than 200 dogs? Fortunately, most were behind fences and were just yapping and annoying. The not-so-fun part: trying to keep our dog from killing the dogs who were actually outside. I think he was a bit overwhelmed by the whole process, as was I. I will probably carry a stick or a pocket full of rocks on future walks. I need something to fend off the dogs who are trying to stake their claim to their own territory. No worries, pups, we just want to walk through in an effort to get some sense of exercise.
scle power (Tim) in the car, we stopped on our way home at McDonald's. Kim stayed in the borrowed truck while Tim and I went into the mall to get some food. We're not positive that the rather light ref (Filipino version of fridge) would be there when we returned if we did not have a minder. I did find out something else new while we were there. You can have a free gravy refill if you order fried chicken. Yes, McDonald's serves fried chicken and gravy to go with it. However, don't get any ideas about returning with your take-out meal. The offer only applies to dine-in customers. Thankfully, we did not have to worry about the free refill. We each went with super standard burgers. 8000 miles away from the USA and we go to McDonald's and order burgers. Seems a little less missionary-ish doesn't it?
This is definitely excessive blogging. But I wanted you all to know that we decided on a house today! Yippee! It is in our same subdivision, just a bit closer to the front gate. Three bedrooms, four bathrooms, plus maid's quarters. Sounds so rich, eh? We are definitely excited and glad that the house-hunting process is over before we leave on break. Now it is time for the appliance-hunting to begin. It is totally unfurnished so that means that there's no stove/oven, no washing machine (dryers don't usually exist in this country), and no ref (fridge). Please switch gears in your prayers that we now can find affordable appliances. If you would like to see more photos, please e-mail me and I'll send you the link.
any people standing around, waiting for public transportation, going about their daily business. However, these goats did not care. I'm not sure what they were looking for but I hope the REALLY WIDE one found a place to give birth!
What a special time to be involved in my brother's life! I left for boarding school when he was three years old. It sure is fun now to get to know him now as a teenager. I think that he's pretty excited that I'm here (at least based on his small beggings for money and load for his cellphone). :) Today I had the privilege to watch him play soccer. It was their first game of the season. They did great and won the game. I think the final score was 5-1. I consider it an honor to be able to be here during this time of his life.
the sports competitions. His team won the soccer tournament. Then he played a couple games of rugby as well. I'm not sure how his team made out in that though. He's on the bottom of this pile somewhere during one of the rugby games.
This year, there are 17 separate countries represented within the student and faculty body. My housemate's elementary students carried the flags onto the stage and did a great job. There were prayers for the beginning of the school year offered by a faculty member who has served for 50 years, the president of the senior class, and the president of Student Council.
1. I think airports are some of the most interesting places in the world. They're good places for people-watching. And in Manila, there were thousands of people to watch at the pick-up area. It is a loud and noisy and hot place.
6. I had my passport photo taken at a Filipino-style photo booth, ie. there was absolutely no notice that there was even a photo booth in the building. In fact, the guard at the door, in the same lobby, did not know that the ONLY other guy in the lobby was manning a photo booth. We had to wait for 5 minutes for the camera batteries to charge, then were led to the stairwell for the white background, picture taken, waited another few minutes for the picture to be processed on the printer. So fantastically random that it just made my day!
sure that I was in fifth and completely lost everything. So there we sat on the side of the road for 2 hours while we waited for Grampa and Gramma to get home, unload the trailer into a storage unit, and get my uncle to come back down to get us. We were pretty slap-happy at first but that faded as we just felt more exhausted, more sweaty, and more hungry. At 11:30 pm, my uncle and my grampa made it, hooked up the car to the SUV, and towed us home. I have never been towed with a tow-line before but I think I did fairly well at keeping the line taut so we didn't get jerked around.
