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Published: November 15th 2011
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Nothing really too new at school the last couple weeks. Brandon and I are involved in the Christmas program, singing in the choir. So we've been practicing for that a lot in the past few weeks. It’s alright. We’re just both used to singing in really good choirs, so it’s a little different going to this community one. And Brandon is one of the four tenors. The program is in a couple weeks, so hopefully it will all get pulled together by then ☺
Last weekend, Marissa and I decided to go to the beach. Brandon didn’t really want to go sit in the sun for the weekend, so he stayed home. It actually turned out very well and everything worked according to plan. We decided just go down there on Saturday morning instead of leaving after school on Friday. It’s only about 30 miles to San Fernando, but, because of the mountains, it takes almost 2 hours to get there. We got to the bus station in Baguio around 8:30am and there was a bus leaving at 8:45am. Perfect. There are many bus companies that go down to the “lowlands,” but there’s one that’s air-conditioned and a lot better
than the other ones. So that’s the one we took. It cost 95P (about $2) for each of us. And that’s the “expensive” company. The bus ride went just find. It’s similar to a coach bus in the US. We arrived in San Fernando, and there aren’t exactly “stops” at a station, so you just kinda get out wherever. We saw a sign that said that we were in San Fernando, so we just decided to get off. We then took a trike to our hotel. Our hotel was right on the beach and absolutely gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of the resorts in Mexico. It was about 11am and we headed down to the beach. The swimming in the ocean wasn’t the best because there’s a lot of sharp coral, but that didn’t start for about 10 feet or so, so there was enough sandy area right away that we could sit and cool off in. So we pretty much just sat on the beach and read and had some beer for the day. I ordered a margarita as well and I was assuming that they would give it to me in a plastic cup because I was
at the beach. Nope. It came in like a super nice martini glass. Next time I’ll bring a coffee tumbler or something because that wasn’t the most convenient. We pretty much just sat around and talked and read on the beach for the day. Sorry mom, all I read was “fluff” ☺
The restaurant at this hotel was really nice too. So we just decided to eat all the meals there instead of getting a trike to go back into town. For dinner, we decided to splurge (well, I mean spend about $10 each on a meal) and got filet mignon. It was delicious. I really don’t know how it’s possible for it to only cost $10, but it was amazing. The resort is on the west side of the Philippines, so it gets awesome sunsets. So we sat on the beach for a little while at sunset that night too. The next morning, we sat around the pool for a while (the ocean was really low tide, so we couldn’t really get in the water at all) and then ate lunch and packed up. We took a trike into town and attempted to find the bus station to
take us back to Baguio. It was perfect timing. There was a bus that was just about to leave for Baguio. So we got on… But, it was full. The next one didn’t leave (or I guess come into town… The busses have a route from Baguio to Laoag and then leave the end-points on a schedule, but the middle stops, like San Fernando, are just whenever they get there) for about an hour. The bus driver said that if we wanted to sit on the steps in the front, we could get on the bus. We thought that beat waiting in the 90 degree heat for another hour, so we just sat on the steps. It actually was kinda nice because we got a front row seat for the drive in the mountains. So we made it back to Baguio mid-afternoon. Plenty of time to get lesson plans done.
Overall, a very successful weekend trip. I think we’re going to have to do that fairly often. It’s pretty cheap (the hotel is about $50 a night) and pretty easy to do. And definitely nice to just relax on the beach for the day.
Other than that, everything
is pretty much the same here. We only have like 4.5 weeks of school left until Christmas break, so that’s exciting. I know we’re going to Japan for New Years and meet up with Pete and my parents. But besides that one week, I’m not sure what we’re doing. I guess I’ll have to get planning soon ☺
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