School has kicked off and it is going incredibly well. I have fantastic students who are incredibly respectful and ready to learn. My classes are very diverse in sizes. Periods 1 and 3 have 6 students and periods 2 and 4 have 18 and 20 students respectively. So, basically I am teaching the same lesson to 6 students and then to 20ish students for both team sports and individual sports. This has made me stretch my brain a bit on how to accomplish that. It will remain a challenge throughout the year. My weight lifting class has 9 guys in it and they are also great students. We are learning all about the main lifts, how to lift safely, how to vary workouts, and how to work opposing muscle groups. One thing that I love about the weights class is that you can make it has hard or easy as you like and the guys are always pushing it and working really hard. I told them to do Russian twists at one point and they could add weight if they wanted to. I look up at one point and see one student using a big olympic plate to do it. I laughed at it because I was not expecting him to use such a big plate. The picture captures just how hard the guys are willing to work in that class.
I am also the Freshman class adviser and while it has had a rocky start because I don't know what I'm doing, we have had fun. We kicked off the year with the first ever Freshman orientation and we had the students do an English barn dance. They were incredibly shy at first but seemed to really seem to enjoy it in the end. We just finished up our student council elections and have our reps for that. We vote in the class officers next week.
We started off the first official day of school with a flag raising ceremony and they have the 5th grade class parade the flags of all the countries represented. It is quite a sight to see the whole school together too. It was definitely an exciting way to begin the school year.
I have joined a women's staff Bible study on Monday nights and am loving going through 2 Samuel with them. The women are pretty great and wonderful friends of mine.
Another fun thing has been spending time with the staff members that are single. We do a lot of things together and often go shopping together. This last weekend we went to an open air market and sampled foods from all over the world. My mouth was very confused as I tried fish, breads, fruits, veggies, desserts, meats, drinks, etc. My favorite was Japanese pancakes. Basically it's like a pancake with a topping of some sort in the middle and you eat it like a muffin. I had one with chocolate chips in the middle (I have to counteract all those workouts somehow!) and it was fantastic! It was definitely one of my favorite foods I've tried here.
Another fun thing has been spending time with the staff members that are single. We do a lot of things together and often go shopping together. This last weekend we went to an open air market and sampled foods from all over the world. My mouth was very confused as I tried fish, breads, fruits, veggies, desserts, meats, drinks, etc. My favorite was Japanese pancakes. Basically it's like a pancake with a topping of some sort in the middle and you eat it like a muffin. I had one with chocolate chips in the middle (I have to counteract all those workouts somehow!) and it was fantastic! It was definitely one of my favorite foods I've tried here.
I just wanted to say thank you so much for those of you that have prayed for the beginning of school and that things would go smoothly. I am loving it and have been working hard but enjoying all of it. An intern in my department asked me how I was liking it and I said, "You know, I work hard and it's sometimes a lot, but since I love it, it doesn't really feel like work."
I will leave you with a few pictures of the fun sights and sounds of Manila and some of the hilarious advertising you see.
I will leave you with a few pictures of the fun sights and sounds of Manila and some of the hilarious advertising you see.