Back in the USA! (for the summer)

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Well it’s been a while since I’ve written anything, so I’ll try and do a recap of the last couple months.



We left for Manila the day after graduation. We decided to go down to the airport the day before our flight, so that we wouldn’t have so much travel time in a row. We stayed at a decent hotel in a really nice part of Manila. I was really impressed. The hotel was ok, but there was a really nice “American” mall right across the street.



Our flight the next day was pretty uneventful. We went to San Francisco to see my aunt and uncle, Mark and Pam. That was a great week. We had a lot of great meals, which was awesome after living in the Philippines for 11 months. We did some sightseeing including Alcatraz, which I don’t think I’ve ever done. Or if I have, I was super little. We also went to a couple really neat shows. One was a magic show that we had found online. I was actually quite impressed. It was at a super small theater, and you couldn’t see how he did any of the tricks. Mark and Pam actually got called on stage, so that was really neat. The other show we went to was “Beach Blanket Babylon,” which has been running in SF for a long time (maybe 50ish years?). Obviously with different actors and different variations to the plot, but it was a really great show. Overall, a very successful week!



Our next stop was Luverne for about 12 hours. Brandon’s mom picked us up at the Sioux Falls airport and we spent the night at their house. Then, the next morning, we left for Minneapolis to go to Chicago with his parents. Chicago was a pretty good trip. It was my third time there, and we pretty much did the usual things… Willis Tower, Navy Pier, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, and the Field Museum. All pretty cool, but I’d been to all of them before, so nothing really new there. We did end up going to a Cirque du Shanghai performance, which was awesome. I’ve never seen so many cool acrobatics! That was on oudoor show on Nany Pier, so that was nice. Overall, a good trip!



Straight from Chicago, we went to Orlando to spend a few days seeing the touristy things there. Our first day we went to Animal Kingdom and Epcot. Very exhausting day. We were at the parks from about 9am-10pm, but we saw everything! The next day, we did the other two Disney parks, Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. Pretty neat, but I’m not sure if I feel the need to go back. The only other time I’ve been to Disney is when I was six, so I don’t remember much, so it was nice to go, but I don’t think it was worth the money. I’m dreading the day when we have kids that really want to go. I’d much rather go on different vacation. The next day in Orlando was pretty great though. We went to Universal Studios. The one with Harry Potter World! Definitely the best attraction in Orlando. That was totally worth it. I would definitely go back to Universal. The rides there were awesome. Especially the main Harry Potter ride that takes you through the Hogwarts castle with a mix of 2-D and real life effects. And it’s a pretty thrilling ride. The other ride that’s awesome is the dragon roller coaster. Probably one of the craziest roller coasters I’ve been on. We also go to have Butter Beer and Hog’s Head beer at Three Broomsticks and Hog’s Head bar (if you don’t read Harry Potter, probably doesn’t mean much! Haha). But it was awesome!



After Orlando, we went to Tampa where Brandon had an IB theater conference. His conference was at St. Pete’s beach, so we stayed in a pretty nice hotel right on the beach. Marissa is from the area, so she met up with us and we hung out when Brandon was at his conference. So Marissa and I spent two days just hanging out in St. Pete’s. Very nice after a hectic two weeks of traveling.



After a couple days in St. Pete’s, I went to Atlanta for a conference. I got hired by a company called Learn Zillion this summer to make online math tutorial videos, so I had a conference for that in Atlanta. I am still in the process of making the videos, but hopefully they will all be up on the website (learnzillion.com) at the end of the month! The conference was pretty good. I met a lot of cool teachers from all over the US. We spent some of the time learning how to make the videos and working on them and then some time going to seminars. We got to stay at the Marriott downtown, which was awesome. We were on the 43^rd floor and it was right in the middle of the city. I was there for a couple days by myself, and then when Brandon finished his training in St. Pete’s, he met me there. We stayed a few days after my conference and did some sightseeing in Atlanta. We had both been to Atlanta in 2003 for the ELCA National Youth gathering. We obviously didn’t know each other then though. Anyway, we went to the Coca-Cola museum, the CNN studio tour and the aquarium. The Coca-Cola thing was not worth it, the CNN thing was ok and the aquarium was awesome. The aquarium has the biggest aquarium tank the world. 6.3 million gallons. There was also a really great dolphin show there. Much better than the Shedd in Chicago.



After Atlanta, we were finally going back to MN. My parents picked us up at the airport and we went back to Brainerd. We had one day in Brainerd alone, but then one of our students, Claire, and her mom came to Brainerd. They’re from Korea, but they were in DC visiting family, so they decided to made a stop in MN on their way back to Korea. That was really fun showing them small town USA. We spent a few days in Brainerd first and then went to the cities. We went to the turtle races in Nisswa, which they got a kick out of. Then mini-golfing and of course time on the lake. They both went tubing, which Claire said was her favorite part of the week. Claire also went fishing and caught a bunch of little sunnies, including one that my parents put in their aquarium. I think one of the highlights, or just amazements from the time in Brainerd was going to Target. They couldn’t believe how big it was and how few people were there. It really is a contrast to Asia.



After being in Brainerd with them, we took them to the cities. The highlights were Mall of America and a Twins game. We also went and toured a private school in Woodbury. One of their friends’ kid is going to be going there this year, so they wanted to check it out. The school seemed pretty nice. It looked like a typical American school, but it was private, so it sounded like the kids were a lot better. But probably not a good as our kids here in Baguio!



After Claire and here mom left, we finally got to spend some time with my family in Brainerd. Over the 4^th, most of my high school friends were in town. So we spent a ton of time on the lake over the course of a few days. It was so great to see all of them together!



After the week of the 4^th, Brandon went down to Willmar to spend some time with his family. So I spent a few more days with my family in Brainerd. Later that week, I joined him down in Luverne. We spent some time with his family, including time going to “Hot Dog Days” in Luverne. There are free hotdogs all over town and they race weiner dogs. Small town MN. One of the nights that we were there, we went to a casino with Kent and Kelcie in Iowa (only about 20 miles from Luverne). That was really fun.



After our time in Luverne, we went to the cities for a couple days. We went to another Twins game with Kent and Kelcie. We just got tickets right before the game, so we were able to get tickets in the 4^th row, so that was really cool being so close. We went to Bill’s and saw him and the boys and also Suzy and Hugh. Then, Brandon had planned a trip with two of his friends to go to Orlando (yes, again!), so I brought him to the airport and then headed back up to Brainerd. I had a few days in Brainerd with my family while he was in Orlando. Then, when he came back from Orlando, we had about 4 days until we had to leave for Baguio.



Overall, a very great summer. Lots of traveling, but lots of fun! Although, I think next year we need to just spend more time hanging out on the lake. We hardly got to relax at all this summer. We were quite excited to get back to Baguio and start working so we could relax. Ironic, huh?



Our flights back to Manila went really well. We were fortunate to get a flight from the cities straight to Tokyo and then on to Manila. Both were on time, which was great. There was some bad weather, so the flights were really bumpy. Especially landing in Manila. It was kinda scary. We were in a double-decker 747 and it was rocking back and forth like crazy during our decent into Manila. As soon as we got to Manila, a Brent Manila driver picked us up (ok, side note… The reason why they did that was because we bought a bunch of textbooks in the states because they were cheaper, so we had two extra 60lb suitcases with us, in addition to our five personal ones. So they said that a Brent Manila driver would pick us up and take the books to Brent Manila and then drop us off at the bus station, so that was really nice). We arrived at the bus station about 5 minutes before a deluxe bus was heading to Baguio, so we jumped on that and were on our way! It was a night bus, so we made record time. 4.5 hours from Manila to Baguio. So our overall travel time was only about 24 hours, which is super great. Last year it was 45. We got to Baguio about 4am on Monday, so that day and Tuesday we just hung out and unpacked. Oh, and played with Camo! He was just fine, which was a relief. One of our students came over every day this summer to feed him and play with him, so he wasn’t too lonely or needy when we got back. On Wednesday we started faculty orientation. There are five new expat teachers. Three from Canada and two from the US. They all see pretty great, so hopefully we’ll have some more friends this year!



Now, we’re on a bus back down to Manila (yes, it sucks) because we have a get together will all Brent employees from all three campuses. The meetings should be good, however, it’s horrible weather right now, so it really sucks driving. I’m sure it’ll take about 10 hours to get there. We’re only going to be there for about 20 hours, including sleeping, so it’s definitely not worth it. But whatever.



It’s nice being back in Baguio, except the weather is horrible. I think the rain is worse than last year. It’s been like typhoon rains the whole time we’ve been here, but there’s no typhoon. So we haven’t really been able to do much in town except go to SM. I have gotten a manicure and pedicure, but no massage yet. Hopefully when we get back from Manila. It’s weird how everything here seems “normal” now. Even though it is so different from the US. I mean, grocery shopping with a basket cart that can barely fit down the aisle in a store about the size of a Walgreens with, probably, 300 other people. Yes, that’s normal life now.



Open house is on Monday and then classes start on Tuesday. I have most of the same kids as last year, so that will be nice. Not too many new names to learn! And I’m also teaching most of the same classes, which will be nice, because I already have my lesson plans made for them.



I’ll try and be a little better about posting stuff more often on here. Thanks for reading!

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