Greetings and Leave-Takings

We just got here a few months ago and it's already time to say goodbye. I had my last day of my practikum on tuesday-- I will definitely miss my co-teacher and the students I have been teaching for the last month. Both my classes put on goodbye programs for me, it was touching! Filipinos are... how shall we say... a bit less reserved than Americans --or Germans, for that matter. That's definitely a good thing, adjustment-wise.

Every time I use the (blank)-wise construction (that I just used at the end of that paragraph) I recall the MAD About the 60s book that my cousin gave me one christmas. I had never heard of MAD magazine before, and I didn't understand more than twenty-five percent of the satire, but it was a fun read. One of the compiled comic strips made fun of the "Ad Men" on Madison Avenue, and how they used "(blank)-wise" at the end of all their sentences.

We leave our dear little town on Sunday. I will miss everone, especially my host family, but I'm worried that the goodbye is going to be awkward. Most of the leavings and comings with them have been weird somehow-- it might just be because it doesn't fit my american cultural expectations of greeting and leave-taking. Anyhow wish me luck with the transition, my new school and city and host family, and of course much success, ultimate-wise.

one more week

I'm moving in another week. It seems pretty crazy to pack up and move on but I'm excited to get somewhere I can actually plan on settling. Training has been a weird situation where you kind of feel like you're imposing on them to help you out, but they are also genuinely welcoming and glad to have you there. I suppose I will feel like that for a while longer or maybe for my whole time here, to some extent. I'm taking some more pictures. Some of them are rather nice... I'll post them all eventually, or get them to you somehow. I promise.

Happy birthday to my mother, who is in Austria (!), and my sister! I love you both!

Rushed

I have to run get lunch before class so this will be quick.

I've started co-teaching and it's been pretty exciting so far. The kids are fun and it's pretty challenging. There is so much possibility for each lesson... and then it goes by so fast and you don't have time to do anything at all. I'm reading up on a bunch of english-teaching books and it's rather overwhelming.