I'm back (Manila)

It's been forever. It's not that I don't want to write, it's that I'm so busy! At first I just had so much to do, then it was because I was so far behind that I didn't even think that I could catch up. But there are 56 days left until summer, so I might as well try to catch you all up. I am so happy here. It's been a transforming experience. So many things about me have changed and so many things here in Palau have changed. Yesterday a girl contacted me and asked about Palau, since she's coming here as an SM next year, and I realized how far I've come. I remember being her, not knowing what was waiting for me here in Palau. I remember getting on Facebook and trying to talk to the SM's here to figure out what was waiting for me. And now I'm that person. I'm the one that has the experience and can explain what it's like. It's hard to grasp even, what a long year this has been. Even though now it's flying by, it feels like I've lived here for years. This is my place. The people know me, the kids love me, I know where everything is, and I'm comfortable here. I wish that I had the words to explain the difference in me, but I can't. So here are something that I should catch you up on.
Before this, my last post was right before I went to Manila. That was one of the best trips I've ever been on! We got there at midnight and said goodbye to Kofi, a guy who traveled on the plane with Austin and I. Then we walk outside and are instantly surrounded by a million sounds, colors, and lights. Compared to Palau, it was like night and day. I nearly had a heart attack as we tried to fight through the crowd to get outside. It was intense reverse culture-shock. The daughter of the principal here was waiting to pick us up and take us to our hotel in downtown Manila. I'm not going to lie, even though the hotel was pretty nice, we were in a sketchy downtown sort of area, sorry mom! Even though by then it was 2 am, we had to figure out how to exchange money because we needed to pay to get into the hotel. We walked around and asked people, and we finally found a hotel that would do it for 44 pesos a dollar. When we finally got that all figured out around 4 am, we got to sleep! The reason it took so long is because they didn't have enough money in the hotel and had to call in an armed guard to open the vault. So anyway, the next morning we had to wake up early and take a taxi to the airport to catch our flight to Legaspi. When we finally got to Legaspi, we had to take a 2 hour taxi ride to Donsol, which is the little town that has the whale sharks. I was so tired after the plane ride and taxi ride that all I wanted to do was eat dinner and sit on the beach, so that is what we did. The next morning was Christmas! We slept in and then ate lunch at the resort. Then we decided to go into the town of Donsol and explore. We look into the little shops and walk around the food vendors, but then Austin finds this game. All of the locals are around this metal board. It is divided in little squares and they are colored red and white, every other one. The point of the game is to throw two ping pong balls into a funnel and then the balls land in these squares. People bet on red or white, and pay as much as they want. If they win, they get double their bet back. If they lose, they get nothing. Even though women aren't aloud to play, all the Filipino men said I could sit at the table and be good luck (haha). So they made me kiss the ping pong balls before they threw them (ew! I probably got some sort of disease). Anyway, it was SO FUN! Apparently I'm a lucky charm, because Austin won a ton of money, like 3000 pesos! It was cool to hang out with the people, and I even got to take a picture with a super old lady. When that was over we went to the visitors center and registered for whale sharking and something called a firefly tour. We got to talking to some people there and they brought us food. It was some good soup, until the guys told me that it was made of cow bone marrow...mmm...Then we took a trike back. A trike is like a teeny carriage that is pulled by a guy peddling a bike. It was sure a new experience, and a cool way to see Donsol. The next day we had to get up SUPER early to go whale sharking! They told us that we get to be out for four hours and if we don't see a whale shark then we still have to go back in. Apparently it was off season and they hadn't seen one in a while, so I didn't get my hopes up. So we drive around for two hours and just enjoy the breeze and the water. The boat is really small, but a super cool sail boat. Just as were thinking of heading back, the guide sees one in the water. Now, I thought we'd just stop to get into the water, but no. He screams at us to hurry and jump off the boat right now! We yank on our fins and hop off the speeding boat into the freezing water. I thought I would get hypothermia! I literally landed on top of the whale shark when I jump. They only surface for a few minutes at a time, so we had to be fast. It was AMAZING! The whale shark was about 8 meters long...so like 25 feet. I landed right by its eye which was as big as my fist! They swim super fast, so I could barely keep up. I got to see its giant fin and spots, and its tail even almost hit me! It was as big as a bus! We got back out and a few seconds later there was another one! So we got right back in the water. It was just phenomenal to be that close. Then we headed back to shore. We found out later on that day that we were the only people to see whale sharks all day! What a blessing. After that we walked back to our resort so we got to see the rice fields and other cool parts of Donsol. When it got dark, a tiny boat that looked like a canoe came and picked us up for the firefly tour. They took us down this canal that was lined by trees. Those trees were filled with fireflies. The sky was totally bright and lit up by the fireflies! They were beautiful to see, except a lady kept taking pictures which kind of ruined the beauty. It was still suck a cool experience. After that we went back and the hotel staff gave everyone staying there free food for Christmas! It was fun to meet the other people staying there. There was a couple from Germany, a guy from Italy working in Africa, and a couple from the Czech Republic. Apparently Austin speaks German, so it was fun getting to know them. The next day we took a van with the Czech people and Italian guy to the airport. We were heading back to Manila, the Italian guy was going to Cebu, and the Czech people were going to Thailand. So as we're getting ready to fly back to Manila, we find out our flight is cancelled! In fact, all flights are cancelled because of the weather. They don't give us our money back, but instead want to give us a new ticket. The next flight to Manila is two days later, and that is just way too long. So we decided to switch our flight to Manila out of Naga, a city that is about four hours away, to leave the next morning. The problem is that we had to get to Naga and figure out something to do until 7 am the next morning. So we decided to get a van and drive with those people to Naga. On the way we got to see a cool volcano, but the drive ended up taking about 8 hours, instead of 4. When we finally got there we had to look for a hotel, but then we got to go to the mall! It had been such a long time since I'd seen anything even close to a mall, so it was pretty intense. The next morning we had to get up early to catch our flight back to Manila, but when we got to the airport our flight was delayed. We FINALLY got on a plane and got back to Manila. We dropped our stuff off at our same hotel we stayed in before and went to a GIANT outdoor market. It was full of thousands of booths selling everything you could imagine. It was Sunday, so there was also a Catholic Church having mass. There were so many people crowding and pushing to touch a statue of Jesus. There were about 2000 or more people pushing into the cathedral. After shopping we took a taxi to Hard Rock Cafe. It was crazy, because I felt just like I was back in the States. It made me miss home a lot! The next day we went to the Mall of Asia, the biggest mall in Asia (if you couldn't tell). You had to take a tram to get from one building of the mall to the next. There was an Ice Skating rink, bowling alley, and even the biggest IMAX in the world there. The next day was new years eve, so we decided to go back to the outdoor market. I bought some cool stuff for my family and got fresh Lumpia! Then that night we went back to the Hard Rock Cafe, then after back to our hotel. The people there were eating food in the lobby so we got to hang out with them. All day people were setting off fireworks, and the closer it got to midnight, the more and more we heard. At 11:30 we went outside and walked around the streets with hundreds of other people. There were so many fireworks and people screaming. There was even a guy doing motorcycle tricks. Then everyone started counting down 5 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds, 10,9,8 and then 3,2,1! It was wild. After that there was a guy with us who cooked us some pansit and we talked to him. It was really a different experience! The next 3 or 4 days we just toured around Manila, looking at cool sights, going to the mall, and relaxing a lot. It was such a fun trip, and just the break I needed from school!