The last few days I've been in Dumaguete City. I'm staying in a dorm with 5 guys, all from different parts of Europe. We are all disbanding today and at breakfast I brought up how amazing it is to travel solo. Yes, it can be difficult and lonely, at times dangerous. But, it really allows a person to live in the now. Speaking of living, my home is Apo Island now. I was chatting with some people, explaining what I was doing here, yada, yada...and they pointed out how I now live in the Philippines. Funny how powerful a statement like that can be. I didn't think of my situation in that sense, but it is true, this is home. I'm teaching science, math and english on Apo and helping coordinate a triathlon they'll host in ... read more

I'm sitting here thinking about this past week and how to sum it up. The thought that keeps popping into my head over and over again is that monks are tough! At the beginning of the week Lindsey and I did whats called a temple stay. We took a bus out to the woods, hiked to a Buddhist temple and stayed with the monks there. I now know why you see pictures of sleek looking monks that seem calm and content in their lives. I had envisioned a lot of meditation and yoga to center and calm our souls. What I got was a serious workout. The Golgul Temple we stayed at specializes in Sunmudo, a form of Zen martial arts that was secretely handed down through the centuries through Buddhist families. Every morning they get ... read more

Woohoo I'm here! After 4 airports, 2.5 hrs of searching for my bag and 2 hrs of sleep over a period of over 40 hours I made it! The turbulance on the plane was so bad that my well laid plans of sleeping were quickly, and violently, destroyed. Oh well, sometimes I just need a reminder that I really don't control everything :) I know that I had to plan a lot in order to make this trip happen, but I learned a valuable lesson. I do better with just going. I enjoy the researching and learning about a place...but as most of you know I get very excited. When that happens I don't sleep. Somehow my body just clicks into a bizarre "go" mode and no amount of Rescue Remedy calms it down. Then I ... read more