boracay

so the past few days we have been at hub site, which is where all of the volunteers from my group gather for 4 days and have classes in peace corp policy. it is pretty stupid and pointless, but we all love getting together to hang out. so the last day we were there, thursday we went to the island of boracay, which is the tourist destination of the philippines. it has white sand beaches, crystal blue water, beautiful palm trees, shopping and lots of sun. we did our water safety class there. we rode out about 200 meters in a big boat and had to jump out. in pairs of 2 we had to climb into a little bonka boat. a bonka is a 1 1/2 meter dug out canoe, with outriggers -- ALL boats here have outriggers. we climbed in, and had to flip it over, so we would know what to do if we were ever in the situation. then we had to flip it back over from the water and bail all of the water out -- it took so long, but so fun. the rest of the day we spent swimming and snorkeling. we got to eat pizza, which was so good that we all scarfed our faces -- i mean enough rice already!!!! each day is getting better and better, hopefully the rough patches will get farther and farther apart too. my ilonggo is getting better, i am making sentences -- which don't always make sense, but they love that i am trying, and also love to correct me. i am getting better at getting around, the jeepneys and trikes aren't quite so scarry when you can communicate with the drivers -- so i am venturing out more and more.