typhoons

Or bagyo, as they are known locally, have been cancelling school rather frequently of late. Yesterday was a half day and today was cancelled, although it's been completely calm since I woke up. But I hear the real deal is still heading this way. As long as it holds off until I make it back from the cafe... I didn't bring my umbrella.

Unfortunately the school that was cancelled was our intramurals, which is like three giant field days for the whole school. With 9000 students this is quite an event, complete with a parade and large audiences and nice colored t-shirts for all the teachers. They got V-neck for some reason though.

I forgot to mention that I bought a guitar last week. It's fun as ever but forced me to remember how not very good I am at playing it. I need some good lessons or books to practice from. As it is now it's too easy just to play the same old chords over and over.

On another unrelated note, I have lost 15-20 pounds since coming here. I think a lot of it is muscle but I wasn't all that in shape before I got here, so I'm not really sure. Anyway the food has been improving uncannily since I got here... I'm not sure if it's me, but it just gets better and better. I had this delicious coconut oil chicken curry from the little place near the high school for lunch yesterday.

ouch

A friend of a friend in DC hooked me up with a one-day tournament and a team to play with yesterday. It was pretty intense since I'm a bit rusty and am in terrible shape, but still more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Filipino ultimate is about 7 years old and has been growing, so they say, by a power of two each year. There are two big tournaments here and a league which runs every so often. Most of the action is in Manila.

The point of the post title is that every single muscle in my body is sore. I haven't been so tired in a long time. Riding back from the fields (en route to the amazing turkey dinner one of the players cooked afterward) I was seriously worried I would throw up on the side of the Manila freeway, not because I'd had any of the liquor that was passed around on the field but because my body was so unaquainted to the athletic abuse it had received. It may also have had something to do with the large amount of water I drank from unknown sources.

I caught the packed 10:30 bus back to my city, having to stand for the first half of the trip, and eventually got off and hobbled down the little path to my house. The great thing about exhaustingly fun days is how exciting it is to get to sleep afterward.

transience

I have arrived at my permanent site. The two years I am scheduled to stay here will make it my longest continuous residence since high school, six years ago. I have no idea what those two years will be like, or what I will be like after them. Hopefully I'll be better for wear.

If anyone has any good tips for dealing with a seven-year-old boy with a lot of energy and no kids his age to play with, please let me know.