The only reason I have Twitter...

Well as you can obviously see, Tuesday brought another rain day! It was raining a lot in the night and I kept checking my phone to see if I got a text about a cancellation. The thunder and anticipation of possible rain day did not allow for a good night's rest, but by 5am, there was no news of cancellation. Providentially, my mom had to go somewhere today, so she was going to bring me to school. When I commute to school, I leave at 5:45. Today I was supposed to leave at 6:20. At 5:55, I got a text that said DepEd had canceled school in Metro Manila. If I had already left, I would have already been on the last jeep. Not only that, but I don't check my phone while traveling. I was very happy that I hadn't gone to school for nothing. 

Since I was already dressed, I went along to Makati with my mom and hung out in a coffee shop while she went somewhere. I got my 68 quizzes graded! I found out that I focus a lot better in a public place like a coffee shop. Maybe it's the quiet buzz of people around me, but not people I know. I hope my kids don't have red pen anxiety because I used a lot of it. Should have taken a picture of  my new red pen BEFORE I graded all those quizzes... I didn't have my camera with me, but my cellphone takes decent pictures and then you just cheat and edit them. Hahahaha.

Days off are not good for me because I eat random junk. When I'm at school, I barely eat. Good diet, eh? I was waiting for my mom so of course I had to get my favorite Dunkin Donuts donut... the kind that they DON'T have in the States (still upset about that). McDonald's seems to keep their "I'm lovin' it" slogan internationally, but obviously DD can't take their "America Runs on Dunkin'" overseas. We don't run Dunkin'. I think the Philippines runs on fishballs, but that could just be a my own interpretation after passing a fishball stand every few feet. (Exaggeration) The point is, I don't know if DD has a slogan here.

 

Anyway, that's all folks!

Ok, so I did bake...

I usually make a double batch of whole wheat bagels every two weeks. I use them to make an egg sandwich every morning so that I survive teaching 4 classes before lunch. In honor of it being the last week before first quarter exams, I decided to change it up.

Yep, those are caramel cinnamon rolls. They are honest-to-goodness healthy because I used whole wheat flour (andsugarandcornsyrupandmoresugarandchocolatechips). I never actually made cinnamon rolls before, but these were good. Next time I'll use a different yeast dough recipe because this one was a bit heavy. 

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!

Randomness is the spice of life

Wednesday: Go to PRC
Thursday: Go to Manila Zoo
Friday: Go to CHED

Inasal ni Joe is not nearly good as Mang Inasal

So where did I go today? The mall. How exciting! I didn't plan on going anywhere today and I took my time getting up this morning... making breakfast... doing laundry... finishing part of my dad's slideshow for his international church visits... Then a girl from CRBC needed to borrow my flute so I decided to meet her part-way. It also happened that Joash was meeting Kemi and Gian to discuss their pre-nuptial photoshoot and so I tagged along. Grace tagged along with Joash so while they met, we explored National Bookstore. Haha! It was so random but it was fun. This makes the 4th time I've seen Grace in one week. If I don't see her by next Tuesday I'll be in withdrawal. :)

Joash met his buddy Darth Vader

A little puny compared to The Hulk, eh?

No idea...

Manila Zoo, part 2 and other ramblings

Maramara Family

I am convinced that this country has entirely too much good food. I noticed someone's status on Facebook about all the food stops she made in one day. Not only is it good, it's also very accessible and can be very affordable (if you're not gourmet). This morning I went to the Commission on Higher Education Department (or something like that... CHED for short) and I left later than usual, so I stopped by the corner bakeshop on the way out and bought a 3 peso "cheese bread" which is a whole lot of air and sugar and calories. It was still good! I made it to CHED in two and a half hours. There wasn't any traffic... it was just far away and a lot of transfers to get there. I didn't actually know how to get to CHED, but I knew it was located in the Univresity of the Philippines campus. Oh, www.ph-commute.com is my new best friend. It told me how to get to UP and then I wandered around and asked people what jeeps to take and asked the drivers to tell me when to get off. They're very obliging and helpful, so it wasn't a problem. I got to CHED, dropped off all my papers for evaluation and left. It was ten minutes max. All that for 10 minutes! Oh well -- it was necessary. (I even dressed like a professional teacher just in case I met the evaluator!) I took a different route home and made a pitstop at Mang Inasal. Mang Inasal has really good food and unlimited rice. I just had halo-halo because I was hot and hungry but not hungry enough to eat a real meal. I eventually did make it home in spite of wandering around trying to find where to cross the street. :P This afternoon I had to go pick up a skirt at the tailor's and because I'm so terribly lazy when it comes to feeding myself, I walked to a corner store where they have sold ihaw (pork barbecue) for as long as I can remember and got some for dinner. Good news... the only thing that has changed is the price. It's still delicious! It was too early to eat dinner, so I washed the dog and cleaned the guinea pig cage and now I'm doing this to get my mind off eating. :P Seriously... there is too much good food here than what's good for me. People wonder why I eat so little in the States... come here and you'll learn what real eating is! :)

Sarap! (Delicious!)

I had an interview at a school today. I'm not sure how it went because they kept coming back to the fact that I'm "so young" and that this would be my first real teaching position. So... yeah. Supposed to hear this week. Afterwards my mom and I went to a Filipino restaurant and got dessert. :P The bottom picture is mine. It's Halo-halo (mix-mix) which consists of... a lot of stuff. It's good. :) Google it if you want to know more. (Lazy much!?)

For Laura

Since you like colors, this post is for you. :) And hopefully THIS time the pictures stay visible!

For Laura, since you like colors... hopefully the pictures work this time! :)