whew, what a turkey day!!!!

hello everyone, hope everyone had their fill of turkey, mashed potato's and RICE. well i sure did!!! we took an overnight boat from iloilo to cebu city on tuesday night. if you've never stayed up singing videoke on an all night boat, then let me just tell you that you haven't lived. we rolled into cebu around 8am wednesday morning and headed straight for starbucks. sweet peppermint mocha's and bagels just make it feel like the holiday's. we camped out in starbucks for a good 3 hours, well, actually the most amazing 3 hours ive had in a while -- aircon, flush toilets and no rice or pork fat in sight. only one little snafoo, i accidentaly threw my wallet away and had to dig through the dumpster to get it back. if i wasn't stinky enough before, i definately was then. we took another boat to bohol, which only took 2 hours. 20 volunteers from all over the visayas came to cook, eat and hang out. we stayed in this awesome place called "nuts hutts", it is a nipa hutt tropical resort, set in the middle of the jungle. the land was virtually untouched with prestine vegetation, i have some amazing pictures that i will post on tuesday. there was a muddy river to swim in, which i was sure we would catch something from - nothing yet. it was like being in the amazon, definately one of the most memorable thanksgiving so far. we had turkey and mashed potato's and of course rice, it just wouldn't be thanksgiving with out rice. so in the true thanksgiving spirit we stuffed ourselves silly and laid around like bloated american's all day. i love thanksgiving.

happy almost thanksgiving

Happy almost thanksgiving everyone!!!!! i am kind of sad not being at home for thanksgiving, but with everyday comes a new adventure here. myself and 4 other volunteers are taking the overnight boat to bohol, an island in the east. we are meeting 20 other volunteers here in the visaya's at a resort called "nuts huts". its a nipa hutt cabin resort in the mountains of bohol. we have 3 turkey's and everyone is bringing a dish or something that is thanksgiving-like. so hopefully it will be a good time, filled with eating and hanging out with friends. this has been an extremely busy week. i have been trying to finish up my house -- it should be finished by the end of the week. cross your fingers for me. because i am going to be gone for a week, i had to leave money for the workers with sheila, my language teacher, buy the rest of the materials, and pack up my room. i should get off the boat at 7am monday morning here in iloilo, and go straight to my house and move!!!!!! yay. the graduation of my bartending class was last night. i couldn't have been more proud of my students. they were just bartending their little asses off. we had the final exam, where we set up a bar and had tables. we decorated it like a little bistro, for a while i really forgot where i was. all of the barangay officals attended, as well as some of my peace corp friends, and local townsfolk. i mean who wouldn't come for free drinks and service. it started at 7:00 and ended when all of the liquor was gone -- whew, what a stressful night. my students were so excited, they will get certificates of completion of the course -- which hopefully means they will have an advantage when applying for jobs in the city. wish them all luck -- they are really good kids. so now i am off to bohol -- i hope everyone has a great thanksgiving. i will have pictures of my nipa hutt next week and hopefully some fun ones of thanksgiving and the bartending final. love you all and happy turkey day!!!!!!!

nipa updates

i have a move in date -- nov 28, 2005!!!!!!!!!! i am taking vacation for thanksgiving -- going to meet some other voluneers on another island, bohol. i get back the 28th and can move into my house !!!!!!

check out my nipa --only 2 weeks til finished

So this is my house and i am standing in it. it should be done in 2-3 weeks and i can move in. to see more pic's go to www.photobucket.com/albums/b255/linzzbob the pic's are under LINDSEY'S NIPA

bartending pinoy style

so i had my first bartending class in hoskyn on saturday. wow, what an experience. so to start off, this is the first real work that i have done since i got here in march -- and it's now november. so things move really slowly here, to say the least. i went into the city on thursday to buy the supplies, they didn't have the money of course, so i fronted around 4,000 pesos myself. hopefully they will have them returned to me today or tomorrow. cross your fingers. so all day friday i spent making a really great powerpoint and notes, i must have spent 7 hours on it. i asked my filipino counterpart nino, if it would be ok to do the powerpoint and he said yes. remember, a filipino will never tell you no, that would just be rude. so at the end of my 7 hours of getting this awesome powerpoint ready, nino comes in and says that we can't use the powerpoint tomorrow, that we have no lcd screen ---WHAT!!! so i asked him how long he had known about this -- he said since yesterday. WHAT!!! i just spent 7 hours making this ppt, and he just spent 7 hours watching me, and he knew the whole time. he said, "we will just use it next week" NO, it will be useless next week. so i decided to go to bed and just wing it tomorrow. So finally it's saturday morning, 9am sharp, everything is set up and i am there waiting for my students -- everyone shows up at 9:30 and we begin. i used as much ilonggo as i knew, the rest was in english. everyone was so excited to learn -- and even more excited to taste the drinks. the class had 2 sessions of 3 hours each and we learned 20 drinks. so hopefully they all show up next week.