Day 2: We made it to Boracay!!

Neither of us slept a wink on those cold airport tiles!  At 5:00am, we were up and ordering breakfast at Le Bisto before catching our morning flight! 

We had originally booked a 7:30am flight to Caticlan, but it got re-routed to Kalibo, which meant we would be taking a 2 hour shuttle from the airport in Kalibo to Caticlan to catch the boat to Boracay. We were a little annoyed about our re-routing at first, but then ended up really enjoying the drive!

I swear we walk up and down the stairs of airplanes outside 75% more than we walk straight onto and off the plane from the airport!  Here we are with the front of our plane!

Driving from Kalibo to Caticlan... in the front seat! :)

 

We made it to Caticlan and paid a couple dollars for the ferry across to Boracay Island... then paid about $3.00 to ride a tuk tuk to the other side of the island to our resort/ guest house!

 

YAY, yay yay!!  We finally made it to Spider House!

 

This is an actual home that was converted into a guesthouse a couple years ago!   There are bamboo shaped spiderwebs all over!  I'm hoping not to have any run ins with spiders! :)

We each checked into our room!  Mine is up these pink steps and to the left!  It's RIGHT above the restaurant and bar, so I hear lots of music and conv all day, which I love!

 

Oh, and did I mention that my room's balcony looks out to the water!  As you can see, Aaron's a fan and was already making himself comfy out there!

And THIS IS MY VIEW!!!  (No photoshop needed!)  I know, right?!

We were both exhausted, so we ordered some lunch, hung out in the restaurant for a little bit, and then both went to sleep around 4:30pm!   I woke back up around 7pm or so, flipped on the lights and stood out on my balcony for a bit, enjoying the ocean breeze, starry sky and ocean water below!  I'm telling you... this place is about as magical as it gets! 

 

With that said, I'll have 11 more nights to enjoy it's magic in full... but for today, this girl is calling it a night now, at 8:00pm!  haha...

 

Goodnight from Paradise!

Lov, Jill

Day 1: Up, up and away!

As per our airport tradition, I leave you with the infamous "ticket photo!"

We flew on Asiana, our favorite airline, from Busan straight to Manila!  We were given hot towels, earplugs, headphones, sleeping masks, dinner (at 9:30pm!), drinks, and overall excellent service!  It was a great start to our trip!

.... and then we arrived in Manila and had 7 hours to waste before our flight to Caticlan!  We decided not to mess with leaving the airport and finding an overpriced hotel to sleep in for 5 hours and opted to sleep here, in this little cubby hole area of the check-in-ticket-counter area!  Not our best decision!  We were dressed for the warm Philippine sunshine, but were sleeping on freezing cold tiles in an air conditioned airport!   Good thing we "borrowed" the airline blankets.... Lesson learned! 



Tomorrow we'll be in Boracay, and will have 12 days to catch up on our sleep! :)

Bye-Bye Monica and Minjung!

Today we said goodbye to Monica (who's retiring) and Min-Jung (who's moving 2 hours away to be closer to her family.) Ok and I planned a little party to bid them farewell and make sure they felt loved and missed by us! I love, love, love this group of ladies, and will miss them tremendously next year!

 Ok was in charge of the cake, which was a HUGE success!  Yum, yum, yum!

** Monica and Minjung **

and while it was no one's birthday, they still blew out a candle! lol :)

MinJung was so sweet and actually bought all of us a little gift and our own little cards!  I thought mine was really cute! :)

Ok had the idea of making Monica a farewell video, so since I'm the techy one between the two of us, I was in charge!  We played it during the party and Monica immediately teared up and cried the entire way through it!  Good to know my Univ Degree in digital media production is being used for something!  :)

The party was a big success and Monica and Minjung both felt very loved and missed already! Yay!

Tonight, Aaron and I are flying far far away to the island of Boracay in the Philippines! Next time I blog I'll be sitting on my deck overlooking the ocean! Eeekk!

Farewell...

Another year has come and gone and another class of 6th graders have graduated!  I can't believe my original 6th graders at Gamjung will be starting high school next month!

Today's Graduation Ceremony went off without a hitch (is that the phrase?)!  The students were more giddy, smily and energetic than I'd ever seen them!  Here they are, waiting in the hallway, before the ceremony!

They marched into the ceremony holding cards with handmade paper flowers and handwritten messages to give to their moms and dads.

In return, the proud parents came with bouquets of flowers and candy for their graduates!

One of the girls handed me this note as she was walking in. :)

The ceremony began with a 4 minute picture slideshow, which happened to have about 75 pictures that I had taken throughout the year!  Fun to know they were being used for something other than just my blog! :)

Then it was onto the diploma (?) part where they shook hands with the principal and were given a special folder.  Not sure what was inside, but it looked official!  Then they quickly bowed to the audience and sat back down.  The shy ones actually ran off stage with their folder in front of their face!  haha

When the official graduation ceremony was complete, the students and their parents walked back up to their classrooms for their teacher's final farewell!

Then they were FREE!  We all lined up in the same way cheerleaders do at a football game and cheered for all the graduates as they walked through the middle of us! Then people hung around for about an hour, snapping pictures and saying their final farewell to their friends!  (Unfortunately, these kids will be split amongst 4 different middle schools.)

I love times like these because I get to meet the parents and find out which kids are siblings!  I was SHOCKED that these two were brother and sister! 

... but even more shocked when I found out these two were brothers!  The younger one loves English and is really outgoing and nice!  The older one walks around holding a book, at all times, reading to himself and frowning during class.  Who knew?!

It was about this time when the tears began to fall... These two are best friends and will be split up next year in middle school. 

After the students had left, the President of the school's Alumni Club invited the teachers to lunch, on him!  Ummm, OKAY!  When lunch was finished,  we headed back to school for some cake in the teachers lounge!  So much for my pre-Philippines diet!  

As we were eating cake, Min-Jung (6th grade teacher) presented me with a 6th grade yearbook that her and the other two 6th grade teachers had bought for me to thank me for all the photos I'd taken throughout the year of their students!  I had no idea they were going to be used for a yearbook!  I just thought they would be held on the school server!  I was honored, and couldn't believe there were ENTIRE pages like this one that were filled with snapshots I'd taken at different school events!   I'm thrilled to have something like this to be able to bring back to the US with me one day, as a memory of my time here!

Not only was today bittersweet because the kids were leaving, but it also marked the last day of us 3 co-teaching together. (Yep, those are our yearbook pics by the way!)  I have had the best experience working with Ok and Monica and will really miss having Monica around next year!  Ok and I always joke that we'll be at school, slaving away, while she's sitting in her PJ's at home, drinking coffee and watching TV!

 Congratulations graduates and on your retirement Monica!  I'll miss you!

"Bring it on 4th year!  Let's do this!"

Happy Valentine's Day 2012!

Aaron and I had a great Valentine's date night last night, full of delicious Italian food, talking, shopping, coffee, and lots of smiles!