Rainy Days

A typhoon above Taiwan pulled in a lot of rain over Luzon. We haven't had school for the past 3 days because the roads are so flooded. Here are some pictures I pulled off of various posts on Facebook. The rain is subsiding and the floods are going down and I'm going to assume there's school tomorrow. Apparently there's another storm heading our way (Central Luzon) in a few days.

"Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain?
Or can the heavens grant showers?
Is it not You, O Lord our God?
Therefore we hope in You,
For You are the one who has done all these things." Jeremiah 14:22

Haha -- I don't know how true this is. Joash posted it and I thought it was funny.

This is a hospital.

Eunice got stranded at our house because she couldn't get to hers.

The river is going down from what it was yesterday.

Same river from the above picture... this was taken yesterday.

Marikina River Overflow

I don't know if you can view that video but you can try!

Rainy Days in Taguig

                I’m at a very posh Starbucks right now. Everyone is busy doing work. Some are having business meetings. Some are studying law. Others are writing Excel files. Me? I’m just chilling with my hot coffee on a windy balcony overlooking Global City. This Starbucks is probably the nicest I’ve ever been to. It’s next to Army Navy Burger and Burrito which I’ve heard is very good. I walked into see how good it was. It was good. It was so good that the prices were too high. That’s how I knew it had good food. PS – I walked out. Now I want a hamburger and fries…

                I didn’t have school today. Big boy Gener blew in and caused my screen door to bang all night. It kept me awake until 2am. I also dreamed of cockroach attacks all night long. I woke up (and I’m pretty sure I yelled) because I dreamed that it went up my shirt sleeve. I’m telling you – Joash’s roach pictures on my Facebook wall are to blame. Anyway, Gener blew around so much rain that classes all over the city and beyond were suspended. Some schools are already cancelled for tomorrow. (Cancelled is British spelling?) So far no word on Taguig yet.

                I went to school to staple some papers together for the research project I’m starting with the kids. The kids are all worried, except for my nerdlet who likes all my grammar jokes and smiles at the words “research paper”. He’s already preparing his topics of interest at home. (He posted so on our class website.) Well done, young Padawan. I also went to Fully Booked and read the latest Penderwicks book (there are now THREE) and saw some of my students. They got sent to the bookstore on their day off. One of them didn’t look too thrilled to be there.

                So yes, I moved with Hapi. We have a nice little apartment with lots of leaks and cockroaches. Actually, the cockroach population is not that extreme because of my evening rituals of spraying all over the place when we get home. In order to get to the apartment, you have to go through a very crowded market. I love it. I love all the color and noise and crowdedness. It’s so… community-ish. In spite of all the crowds, our street is pretty quiet, except for when the wind bangs the screen door.

                Anyway, I’m bored at Starbucks, so I thought I’d look like I’m doing work by updating my blog. I can’t actually post this because I don’t really have internet. Typing in a Word document makes it look even more like I’m working hard.

                I suppose I’ll go on my peripatetic way and head home. Maybe I’ll make fried chicken and steam some broccoli. Or maybe I’ll just read the book I got at Booksale. (I buy books at Booksale and just read the books at Fully Booked – seriously, lower the prices, man!)

                Asta la byebye!

For Kaitlyn and anyone else who wants to know...

In the first quarter, I think we've had 3 (possibly 4) rain days and 2 half-rain-days. Last Tuesday was a half-day, followed by a full day off. This week we had all day Tuesday off and a half-day today. Supposedly there are 3 more storms headed our way before the month is out. Now if only we'd get a good couple rain days in the MIDDLE of 2nd quarter, or all rain days during parent observation week............

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!

Raaaaain

This is the reason we had a half day today and the reason why I don't have to get up at 4:50am tomorrow to go to school:

I guess this makes up for last winter when I wasn't in college and didn't get the benefit of the many snow days during the season and instead had to dig my car out to get to the bank to serve the 4 customers that had to get to their money in the middle of a blizzard. One reason to not switch to college education next year: CHED isn't as prone to canceling class as DepEd. :P

Also, when I was uploading the above picture, I came across this picture:

Wow, college seems like a century ago. I was the most un-peppy person in the pep band. Good grief. I shake my head just thinking about it.

And as a random last thing, I grew up with plastic balloons. I miss them. I wonder if you can still buy them.