Site Announcement

Hey All! My site was announced today. I will be in BayBay (byebye) on the island of Leyte for the next two years. YAY! It's the best diving in the Philippines so I'll get certified ASAP. And I'm teaching at a large high school--3,800 students. It'll be an amazing change from my comfort zone. And I won't be alone! Syd will be teaching at the University which is near my school. Her home is just 12 km away from mine; or a P10 ride. Cassie, Connie, Nancy, Jasmine, Shreyll and Sean will also be on Leyte ranging anywhere from 30 minutes away to 3 hours. Megan and  Dan are also near, although they are on another island. Weekends will be fun! Syd and I will do everything together, I'm sure. I'm so lucky she's the gal in my town. Syd is awesome and a plethora of information regarding teaching.

Okay, well I didn't get a chance to finish my blog before I  went to site. I just returned to Bocolod last night and we leave  for Dumaguette today. My site is incredible! BayBay is beautiful. We're  nestled in between the mountains and the ocean. I'm close to everything... the church, market, bank, school, post office,  college... I really love it here! I can't wait to post photos  for you all to see. My students  are so sweet. They prepared a welcome  dance for me and then I spent  an hour on stage answering  questions and talking to all 3800 kids and 82 faculty. I interviewed with the  student newspaper and they had so many  questions! I talked to them for 1.5 hours before losing my voice and calling it quits. I'm so lucky that I get to live in BayBay for the next 2 years. Another volunteer from the group before, Matt, lives in BayBay. He showed Syd and  I around and will be a great friend. I'm happy he's there. The community is excited we're there, the schools... Everything is wonderful. My host family are really down to earth and great cooks--I  had shrimp, clams and calamari while there. I return to BayBay after swearing in, November 8. That means another plane to Cebu, than a 2 hour boat to Ormac, and a one hour  bus ride to BayBay. Ahh... the life  of a Volunteer. No job can beat it!