The Dora the Explorers and their FAT Adventure

If you know anything about me, you know I like love books. Because of my love for books, I decided that it would be very fitting to share my epic adventures of the day through book titles.

Hapi and I have named ourselves The FAT Club which is short for The Forever Aloners Together Club. If you don't understand what that means, you're probably not up with the vernacular. Anyway, ever since Hapi started working at the same school where I've been teaching since last year, we have had our FAT adventures, usually on weekends. This weekend will go down in the annals of FAT adventures.

It's kind of a funny story, really.

In fact, it was a rather death defying adventure!

Hapi and I are moving to an apartment. We decided to be like Martha Stewart and go clean  first.

My main purpose was to EXTERMINATE the roaches!

Smurfette, the blue pick-up truck, has been in the shop for repairs all week. I  was able to bring her to school this morning, though. The streets near the apartment are extremely small, but since I had a vacuum cleaner, I thought it would smarter to drive to the apartment. It was actually a last-minute decision (I was just going to park at a nearby mall), but as you shall soon find out, it was extremely providential! 

I was busy cleaning the kitchen. Hapi had decided to heroically conquer the bathroom. Suddenly I heard her gasp and say, "Oh no!"

I thought perhaps she was a little flipped. She was only cleaning the bathroom! 

I looked in, and there she was, gazing at the hole in her life. The faucet had fallen off and water was spraying everywhere.

We are not plumbers and we did not have anyone with man skills.

However, we thought we had enough training to be handywomen. Hapi  decided to leave the hole, now resembling a scale version of Niagara Falls, and look for the main faucet outside. We didn't find one right away, so she went back into the house to try to stop the flood. Meanwhile, I had found the water meter. 

The only problem was that we didn't have tools to turn the valve off. I decided to go back inside to check on Hapi.

When I went in, I found Hapi stuck to the wall like a girl in a cage. There was water all over the place.

Were we going to end up like castaways???

Would we have to make the decision whether to sink or swim?

Or would we just end up drowning???

So there we were, stuck with a gushing wall and no tools. Story of my life. Actually, I wasn't stuck. Hapi was. 

Well, I'm not a girl genius unfortunately. I didn't know what to do.

We put together our strategic IQ. That's when I remembered Smurfette! There had to be tools somewhere! I tore outside but I couldn't find any tools.

Why aren't there tools around when you need them???

Hapi was still glued to the wall, so she told me to call her dad. Her dad laughed at us and then told me to go find a hardware store and buy pliers.

Unfortunately, there were no thunderbirds available to rescue us, so I had to go look for that hardware store.

Hapi was still going strong. She had not reached her limit yet!

I told her, "You can do it, man! Dare to dream!" (Ok, I didn't really...)

Poor Hapi thought she'd be there until the breaking dawn.

I then said goodbye to Hapi...

...and she braced herself for what probably felt like a two week wait.

I knew this was going to be a race through time!

I tore out of the house, all guns blazing! Go, go, go Power Rangers!

I ran one direction and then another. Then I saw the hardware store! Alas, it was all closed up. I asked a bystander about nearby hardware stores but he said they were all closed. Seriously?!

I just knew there HAD to be a real simple solution. 

I got back to the house and told Hapi the bad news. She didn't go nuts.

I think she had accepted it and was calmly waiting for normal.

Unfortunately there was a dead roach and several worms floating around in the water. She couldn't squish them because she was too busy holding back the tidal wave.

All of a sudden, I had the genius idea to check the truck again. There was no way my dad had left the truck completely tool-less! I checked the glove compartment this time and voila! Tools!!!

I think shut off the water with the strength of a tiny titan.

Hapi danced with glee when it was all over.

Too bad she forgot her soap. She could have taken a bath! 

They say that every city tells a story. This time we were part of it.

If we wrote a book about it, it might even end up being a best seller!

So yun. That's my story. Congratulations to Hapi for holding back the tidal wave while I ran around doing totally unnecessary things in an attempt to shut off the water. 

Epilogue:

We were able to finish cleaning after all.

Hapi was so wet that she had to go buy a whole new outfit at Market Market. Thankfully clothes are cheap here! She picked out the same shirt I have which means now we have a FAT uniform! Rock on, dudette!

What a day! Pizza and milk tea were a necessity.

We ended our epic adventures by going to Fully Booked to take pictures of titles so that I could share our adventure with you. Our last hurrah was when I nearly fell in the parking lot on the way to the truck. Go me!

Colors

**For best results, read this while procrastinating or when bored**

This post has nothing to do with school. (Shocking, I know.) I have a major case of Fourth Quarter-itis and this is proof of my ADD-ness and inability to focus on my PowerPoint.

Lately, I have been thinking about the colorful world in which I live. This thought started when I was touring Catherine around Manila (which is another whole story that I have already blogged about in my mind and don't have time to publish here... maybe in 3 weeks). My latest hobby seems to be touring American visitors around my city (the the times that I get lost in Manila < the times I got lost in the States makes it my city) on public transportation and on foot. As we've traversed the roads, I am delighted with the colors of my world. Too bad I don't have any lovely pictures to support my case, except for this one:

See? Colors. Bright, orange and hairy. I have absolutely no idea what this hideous representation is, but I am now convinced that my 3rd Graders' news reports of an alien invasion in Fort Bonifacio were actually factual accounts... But I digress.

Let me tell you about my colorful world. I was unsafely walking down the street today, staring at the bright blue sky and pondering the colors of my world and no doubt being a pedestrian accident waiting to happen. The bakery by my house is brown and beige. I think those colors are supposed to make people think it's more upperclass than your average corner bakery. (McDonald's decided to go that route too with their brown McCafes.) Across from it are three (yes, three) stores that sell roasted chicken. They're all right across from each other, but each sign is different. One is bright yellow, another is green and red, and the third is white and blue. The bridge over the river that runs through town is painted like a very dirty red and white candycane. (Come to think of it, the river has been colored in the past when a factory decided to dump their old paint into it...) Right after the bridge is a wall that is painted pea green. Down the next street is a house that is bright pink. The subdivision gate is striped with yellow, black and red. Directly facing the gate at the T is an orange bakery, which is not as upperclass as the brown bakery simply because it's... orange. You see? Colors. Colors everywhere. I don't remember so many colors in the States except when the leaves change color in the Fall. I am thankful God gave me eyes to see colors because I just love colors, particularly the bright and garish colors that scream "LOOK AT ME!!!". (True story.)

I would tell you about my love of public transportation and all the funny things that people do, but I have wasted enough time already and I must now buckle down and be a responsible teacher by being prepared for class on Monday. Adios, amigos!

PS Speaking of color, the house behind ours is painted bright yellow with orangey-red trim. Love it.

The Sipon Factory

I am sick and I blame it entirely on Prince Edward. I have him in my cell group and his prayer request was that his "sipon factory" (snot factory) would stop working and then he proceeded to blow his nose loudly and dramatically and spread his germs with the force of a miniature typhoon. He definitely suffers from a man cold, not to mention an arm injury that caused him to moan and groan in class and write with the air of a martyr.

"Oh it burns!!!!! Will you grade handwriting??? You should be thankful I'm even trying to write! Ooooooh!!!" 


His mother called me to ask me why he got a low score on an ungraded worksheet because he didn't really understand it (it was a more complex topic that we're not going to cover in depth anyway so I'm not concerned about it) and essentially told me that if it's graded, I'd better explain it to him properly or I'd be hearing from her again. And I wonder where the Prince gets his drama...

Free Wifi! Webcam picture for Facebook during dinner...
How cool are we?!?

I discovered the secret to teacher heaven... bribe the little rascals! They'll do anything for a peso lollipop. I now have a supply of different candies to keep it interesting. They're more motivated by candy than merits. Teaching writing is so miserable, so I've started doing it in smaller groups with the incentive of group points based on how they help each other and how they participate. It works wonders. Hahahaha. They're in the process of writing fables and they want that candy. Plus, they learn both how to write AND how to take responsibility as a group. One class got mad because their classmate lost their class brownie point for the day by doing something foolish last minute before class ended. Peer pressure does wonders. :P

Teacher role models:
"Study hard, kids, so you can grow up, get a job, buy coffee and donuts!"

Last night I hung out with Joash, Cecile, and Sarah (from England). Sarah is going back to the UK next week, so we got together. I didn't want to go because I was sick, but Joash bullied me into going and said "You're not sick! Just believe..." even though I told him I'd get him sick. Well guess what, Smarty Pants, he's sick today. We ate in the food court and then walked High Street and stopped in to get donuts at Krispy Kreme. My mom told me I should hang out in the adult world... I think it was rather ironic that Joash was part of the supposed "adult" world. He was checking out the action figures while I checked out the book store.

Joash treated us to free water.

Crazy-good donut

 

The man with the cup.

Cheerful servant's hearts

Entertaining the church's baby...

Anyway, in other news, Happy Birthday to MCBC. We're almost the same age! That means I'm really almost 24?!?? And, as I saw on someone's Facebook status, "I'm 24 and still not married or dating! That must be a PBU record!" Annnnnnnd that's about it. Peace out!