back in BJ

I must say it's been bitter sweet to be back home in Beijing. It's great sleeping in our own bed again and having the comforts here. But it's cold. Our skin quickly reacted and dried right up. we try to slather up with the lotion to prevent our tans from peeling away. I miss all the warm sunshine....and tomorrow we go back to teaching. Friday we had meetings in the morning then in the afternoon we got ready for Monday. it was strange being back after 3 weeks. I felt myself get stressed again. but remembering our trip to Boracay will help me right now :)

we flew from Manila to Kalibo on the 26th. from Kalibo we were taken on a 1.5hr bus ride with a terribly violent movie playing, and the road was winding through the hills, by steep cliffs...which made me feel a little car sick. once that terrible ride was over we took a 10 min. boat ride to Boracay island, where we were met by hotel staff. all this transportation was arranged for us. then we took a 10 min. ride by mini-jeep and arrived at the hotel. it was a modest place, kinda motel style, but looked like townhouses. it had all the basics and served us well. we spent most of the time on the beach anyways.

that first afternoon we just walked up and down the beach, browsed in the shops and enjoyed our first swim in the salty water. that was hard to get used to. but everything was just beautiful. white sand, clear water, gorgeous skies. picking a restaurant for lunch and dinner was always fun. there were so many good choices. and by 5pm, they can set up tables on the beach. so we ate our dinners reclining or sitting on the beach under the stars, with the sound of the ocean, and live music.

there are so many vendors on the island. everyone is trying to make a living there. but they all have to have a licence. so the guy selling the pearls is wearing an official "pearl vendor" shirt, as is the sunglasses guy, etc. they were relentless in trying to sell us stuff. it didn't matter that I was wearing sunglasses, they asked me if I wanted to buy a pair anyways. after awhile Scott's brilliant idea was to ask them if they wanted to buy our stuff. one day a watch vendor came by and Scott said "wanna buy this watch?" and he held up my Colombia sports watch to him. the guy kinda smirked and said he'd give us about $1 for it! ha! and I paid at least $50 for it. but I guess they don't sell sporty watches.

the hotel provided our breakfast each morning. on our first full day we went snorkelling. that was one of the highlights of the trip for me. it was my first time snorkelling. we were taken by boat (just the two of us) just off shore from the beach. Scott says it's not as colorful as other reefs he's been to, but it was still pretty cool to me. we had crackers, and lots of fish came to eat from us. he took us to one other location, though they were supposed to take us to another island too, but he said the water was too rough that day. we had a great morning though. it was quite exhausting though. we had a long nap in the afternoon because we were so pooped. Scott got a good sunburn from lying on top of the water like that for almost 3 hrs.

that night there was a huge thunderstorm. really loud thunder and huge downpours. in the morning it was still pouring. we made our way to a cafe where we got a coffee and read for awhile. we met a couple beside us who were German, but they lived and worked in Beijing! crazy! by noon things had cleared up. but a few of the stores and restaurants were flooded. we took a long walk that afternoon around the rocky coast to another beach. it was more secluded and had more private homes. the long "white beach" as the call it, was also starting to fill up with more people. it seemed more and more were arriving to celebrate New Years on the island.

on our third full day we ventured out and rented bikes. the bikes sucked, and the ride was rough because there's only one main road on the island with plenty of traffic and many steep hills. thankfully, the further we went from the beach, the less traffic there was. we biked by a golf course, and many poor homes. we made our way to Puka Shell beach, on the north shore of the island. there weren't many people there at all. understandable though, the sand was not very fine and the beach was rocky and dropped off quite quickly. riding out of there we met up with some guys who were offering tours to the bat caves! Scott was all for that. they even offered to let us drive their motorbike, and their friends would ride our bikes for us. so off we went. the road was pretty rough. then we had a short walk through the jungle and arrived at the caves. it was a steep climb down. very wet and muddy. but they took very good care of us, guiding step by step. once at the bottom we looked up to see thousands of bats! the cave has an opening to the ocean. they told us we could go swimming, but we didn't feel comfortable with that, especially since there were sea snakes nesting in the cave!! yikes! I was pretty scared when we saw those. we didn't stay much longer after that :)

they rode our bikes back to the main road for us, then we went back to our beach, but agreed to have them tour us around later. after lunch they met us at our hotel and we took off on their motorbikes again. we went to Mt. Luho, which is really just a hill, and the highest point on the island. it had a nice lookout though. they also took us to a butterfly farm where there were giant fruit bats! they were so big!! Scott got to hold one, though he was pretty scared :)

and that was it! we ended our time in Boracay by eating at the Mongolian Grill restaurant on the beach. we befriended some local kids who were selling stuff to tourists. so they came to talk to us whenever they saw us. actually it was Vince, the mascot alligator (from Beacon) that really won their hearts :) most of them are muslim. one of them has 11 siblings! we sat with him one day, got him a Coke, and we were looking at a map of the island. he told us he goes to school and is in grade 3, but he barely knows how to read. I think with a family his size, they might not afford school all the time. sometimes kids are in and out of school there.

the contrast between rich and poor in the Philippines is vast. we read in the newspaper that there are 90 million filipinos! and that's just the ones living there - not counting all the ones who are living and working away from home. the money isn't making it's way to the people who need it most. thankfully many people there know the Lord. and there are many people working to help the poor and forgotten.

we've been infected with the "travel to warm places" bug :) we're considering a trip to Vietnam with friends during our week off in february (chinese new year). according to the other teachers, this second semester seems to fly by even faster because of all the events. chinese new year, then easter, enrichment week, may holiday, spelling bee, brain bowl, spring concert, and who knows what else they have up their sleeves?! should be a breeze!