Birthday fun at Art in Island

I remember when I was younger and my birthday was still in the middle of summer. It was hard to find enough friends in town to have what felt like a birthday party. The celebration was always a pool party with some crazy decorated cake that mom had concocted based on my request. Now, I find my birthday is at the start of the school year. This year, I'd already completed a week of in service as well as the first week with students. I have to admit that a Friday full of classes doesn't exactly feel like a celebration! On the plus side there are people around and I was able to gather a small group to go out for some lighthearted fun on Saturday.

It took about an hour for the five of us to get to Quezon City, about 5 miles away - have I mentioned that traffic is bad in Manila? As soon as we arrived at Art in Island, we knew it had been worth it. After all, who wouldn't enjoy giant works of art that are painted in such a way you can get into them and be a part of the story? And Art in Island had two floors of a warehouse full of this. 

I was relieved that I had talked several people into coming with me, as it was a lot more fun being able to stage pictures with more than one person - the problem with just having two people is that you always need to have someone to take the picture. And we were even luckier that Katie had come prepared with a bag of props - definitely something that I would expand upon if I go back again someday.

It was definitely a lighthearted 2 hours filled with lots of smiles, visiting a museum that is not what you would typically consider a museum being. To top it off, I got in free for my birthday! A real treat.

It is a new year

It's a new school year and I'm back in Manila for year 2. It was so nice to return back to my apartment that feels like home with hints of all the places I've lived before. There are so many things that are already better, not being the new teacher - just knowing how things work, and having a better idea of what I need to do and where I can go to get it done makes a huge difference. Not being sick this year, also gives me a bit of a new lease on this experience, and so I'm going to start over in so many ways. Start over trying to make this experience more what I want. Start over with trying to get myself into a routine, one which hopefully, this time around will include writing a bit more and sharing what my life here in the Philippines is like.

My wall of masks welcoming me back home.

In the meantime I'm glad that I have made it through my first week of school with students with no issues. My classes are a bit smaller this year, my largest at the moment is 19, although that may change a bit in the next few weeks. I'm already a few weeks ahead of where I was last year in terms of learning names. It is always helped when you have at least a few kids in each class that you already knew. I'm more relaxed and able to focus on teaching, instead of just trying to survive. As I've said many a time there is definitely a reason that contracts are for two years! The second year is almost always so much smoother. Stay tuned for more to come about what life here in the Philippines is like, both the exciting and the mundane.

A few students engaged in a first day activity