Hey RJB!

Hello RJ Baskett students!

It's great to hear from a bunch of you guys! (For those who are not in the know--- before coming to the Philippines I student taught with Mr. Felger at RJ Baskett Middle School in Gas City, IN. Pretty much I was teaching some of the coolest middle school students that I know...also I can defintely tell that some of my old 5th period students have been commenting here...) I miss spending my school days with you guys! Just remember that you guys are pretty fortunate to have a master teacher (Mr. Felger) as your teacher! Also, I sure do miss playing with all the neat-o electronics.

and.... Hello everybody else, too!

First thing: Making a cat chase a laser pointer is can be good fun (be careful if you are playing with a laser pointer).

Second, it has been really strange staying in house all by myself for the last few days (well, except for the cat and dog). A little over a month ago I was living with a large group of my college buddies, then I came here and started living with a family (Father/mother/son), and now I have been spending these last few days solo. I've found stuff to do, but I think I've come to the realization that it is a lot more boring to spend time by yourself during most evenings. It's good to have somebody there to even possibly talk to. It isn't that I'm particularly lonely (the cat doesn't stop bothering me long enough to be lonely), but it really isn't good for man to be alone.

Thirdly, tomorrow marks my half way mark for being in Davao! I will have been here for three and half weeks, and from here I will have three and a half weeks until I fly back to Manila to spend a few days there. The current plan is to fly out of Davao on December 12th and stay at Faith Academy Manila (the other, larger campus of Faith Academy). After spending three days there, I then fly back home to Rhode Island for the holidays.

Since this post is pretty much dedicated to my old RJ Baskett students, I might as well bring back a Philippines fun fact of the week (I know its not Friday).

Fun Fact: Christmas is celebrated in all of the "ber" months. Yes, that includes September, October, November, and December. I was at a beach resort place about 2 weeks ago and the only songs they were playing were Christmas songs and Lady Gaga. That is something I will find strange until the last day I'm here.

Another teacher, some students and I playing spoons (with pens). I did absolutely awful and it took me about four rounds to understand the rules.  We were playing at an all-nighter the high school was having. That same night we played a type of manhunt game where about four us (fast and fit) teacher spent the night hunting down students. I think we had more fun than them.

The resort I went to weeks ago that was playing the Lady Gaga and Christmas mix. It was so surreal...