There's a first time for everything...

The first time I've...

Cried that hard in an airport

Been on a plane that big for that long

Seen  a floor toilet

Gotten through customs (in a lei, with 87 other trainees)
Thrown my used toilet paper in the trash
Taken a bucket shower
Ridden in a jeepney
Exchanged dollars for another currency
Seen a bug swarm so thick that I couldn't see the ground

Eaten lechon, a chicken head, balout, dorian

That bug swarm though! Last night after our trip to the mall (powdered milk, tape, laundry detergent, hangerhook thing for drying clothes, extra toilet paper, padlock, basically I could have brought almost nothing and I would have been fine) there was a huge mass of tiny, fingernail-size bugs riding each other in a huge orgy outside my room door. A couple of fat frogs and a gecko were sitting there eating slowly while some of the freaked out trainees ran through the swarm. This morning there are no bodies left on the bugs that got into our room because the ants ate them overnight. Their wings look like brown petals on the bathroom floor.

I'm really, really (really) enjoying myself so far. We spend long days in trainings and group activities (where I normally want to stab my brains out but haven't even been painful so far) in comfortable rooms with old fans and struggling AC's. But on breaks when I step outside it's shockingly, satisfyingly exotic. Surprise downpours, rubbery leaves, bright flowers on the sidewalks, weird big bugs and a temple on the grounds. There's a big swimming pool! That I can jump in after a jog! It's rained all afternoon today but the typhoons are hitting up North so we really shouldn't complain.  

I really like my fellow fresh meat. No one is too cool for school. My energetic roommate is cracking me up. And most of the rest of them seem smart, kind, and genuine about either their interest in trying something new in their life and/or making a difference in other people's. And they all speak English!

We start our language and sector training classes tomorrow. Eventually they'll let us out of here for more than a 3 hour trip to the mall. I'm in Cavite now at a big, clean, old compound. We'll travel to the province of Bataan after next week (where typhoons may become much more real). I'm so excited to be here and to get to do this. I miss my man very, very much. But I'm sure this was the right thing for me right now.

Rain and rain and rain

Chicken head!

Balout (there's a big part with the texture of an eraser that made me gag)

Map of compound outside my door (seriously, though, the bugs were at least an inch and a half thick on the ground) 

Beautiful compound