Apartment Living

After five & half months living with two gracious host families, it’s now time for me to step out on my own.  My apartment is new and when I stepped into my apartment, it smelled like paint because it was just painted by the landlord’s son, Manny.  It was also dirty, I had to get on my hands & knees & scrub the floor because there was so much dirt.  I’ll have to do that now & then because my sandals & my bike scoop up dirt from the streets better than a vacuum cleaner.  I got a broom to sweep the dirt away, but these tile floors need more than sweep.  Currently, the bottoms of my feet are black, but don’t worry I keep them clean.  Below are pics of my place.

Cooking

So far, I’ve just made easy meals like rice, pasta, Pancit canton (ready-made noodles-just add hot water & cook 5 min) and oatmeal (I add different fruits to my oatmeal).  I addition to oatmeal, my other saving grace for breakfast has been & will be pandasal (dinner rolls), but better and fresh out of the oven from a bakery shop less than a five minutes from my front door that makes them on the spot; they’re delicious and just 10 pesos (less than a quarter).  However, I want to learn to cook pancakes and even try cooking local Filipino cuisine like talon (eggplant).  Hopefully, I’ll tell you more cooking stories of those & other recipes I’ve received in future blogs. 

Before I get to eggplant, I have to master the basics first.  This is a plate of my pasta that I cooked a few days ago.  This was delicious, this picture doesn't give it enough justice.  No laughing.  Joklong (just kidding).  It did taste good though, but you're right I could use more sauce.  Thanks to everyone who provided recipes.

Teaching

Teaching is something I haven't been doing this past week.  In fact, these past few weeks have been busy as our school is getting ready to announce who is Mr & Mrs Kalalake, which will take place today.  There is a dance number that all the students have been practicing, but looking from their performance, it looks like they were just forced out there, but some of them are actually good dancers.  All the other students who aren’t in the dance just skip class & watch, which makes my job harder because I’m trying to get the students’ attention while they’re watching the dance practice.  I told them they had an opportunity to join, but they just want to fool around. 

Yesterday, two of my four classes got cancelled because of dance practice, which I believe should be done after school or on the weekends.  This reminds me too much of sports fest last year where everyone says they want to practice, but they really just want to get out of class.  The solution to this is difficult, but I would like to start a Physical education program or something after school or even before school, similar to zero hour, which I had at my high school, but never signed up for.  The physical education program is just a concept in my head. 

Shaving
The other day I heated my water not for coffee, but to shave.  I was reading my friend's blog and his host family told him that you should always shave with warm water.  Well I missed the boat on this piece of news too when I was younger.  Anyway I tried and that feels good to the face.  It reminds of being at the barber shop.  Now every time I shave, I will heat my water & dip my razor in it for a better shave.  I recommend trying it out if you don't already do so. Ingat na.