September was a whirlwind! I'm currently sitting at Pension Natividad, having just completed our Close of Service Conference. Ryan and I have left our site for good. It's unreal. I want to apologize in advance if this blog is all over the place, but that's how I feel right now.
I can't believe this time has come. It was SUPER hard to leave site. Intensely harder than I could ever had imagined. First, the entire month of September was crazy. We were so busy. Trying to pack, hang out with everyone for the last time, going to despsdidas (going-away parties), giving our things away, working on grad school applications, and on top of all of it we were asked to help with so many things so that people could get in their last American presentation. But despite all the craziness I absolutely loved it. I loved spending quality time with people from my community. I loved helping out one last time in any way I could. I loved seeing all the happy faces when we gave them "rememberances." I loved that several of the neighborhood kids wouldn't leave our house because they knew we were leaving. I loved that people came by our house to say their final goodbyes. I loved all the love that we received. It really is the hardest job you'll ever love.
So now I'm at pension in Manila trying to keep it together. We're leaving tomorrow to head up north to Sagada again for one week. We will then come back down to Manila to finalize all our paperwork and finish being volunteers. INSANE!!!! Then it's traveling time :) I'm super excited to travel and to finally get home to see family and friends, but right now I can't get past leaving my Filipino home and all my family and friends here. I'm going to forever cherish all the happiness and struggles from the Philippines and hopefully return one day :)

Apo Island has a special place in my heart. It is an island located off the coast of Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. We have been able to visit this special island three times.

Ariel view of Apo Island

On our way to Apo Island

Can you see the corals?

Hanging out with great company :)

Oh so beautiful!

Hello everyone! So a while back Ryan and I were surfing the web and we found another promo! (A huge discount of flights through Cebu Pacific Air). We decided to grab the opportunity and we booked our flight to Bangkok, Thailand! So a few weeks back in July we made our journey to Thailand. We arrived in Bangkok around 9AM, so we decided to have a day of sightseeing in Bangkok and then take a train to Ayutthaya for the night. When we first arrived in the airport we were super impressed. The airport was very nice, well organized, and had awesome public transportation options. We took the train from the airport into town and then took the subway to the train station.

One the train into Bangkok

Holding my token to get onto the subway

Once we arrived at the subway we found out we didn't need to buy our train tickets right away, so we checked our bags at the luggage counter and headed off to see Bangkok. While in route to see Wat Pho we ran into Mr. Cha. We had an amazing lunch and a great time with him exploring the temple of Wat Pho. Unfortunately Ryan and I started to feel a little under the weather so we parted ways and headed to the train station to catch a train to Ayutthaya. 

Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

The isle of the 3rd class train

One of the many temples at Ayutthaya

Our neighbors :)

We arrived in Chiang Mai early morning and decided to walk the 2K to the hotel. Once we arrived we thought we were in heaven. Our room was nice with an excellent a/c. We had hot water and a very relaxing atmosphere. The two of us had not been feeling so well so we decided to take it easy and rest for a while. We had several days in Chiang Mai and we enjoyed it throughly. We went sightseeing, walking around the town, talked with several monks, practiced meditation, got several messages, and of course ate some AMAZING food. Now we didn't eat Thai the whole time, although we could have. We decided one day to try this place called Heavenly burritos. Man that was the right choice. At that moment Ryan and I realized how much we missed Texas and good mexican food. 

Yummy!!!

So it's summer time in America, but for me in the Philippines summer is ending and school is starting again! School is back in full swing, which means I'm back to work. Since school started I was trying to decide what my project would be for the few months I have left at site. (Our official COS, close of service, date is Oct. 17th, 2012!) I really enjoyed my reading club last year, so I decided that I would continue working with those students. I decided to take a different approach though. Instead of working on their reading skills, I wanted to work on their listening and comprehension skills. To do this I went to the big city on our island, Tacloban, and bought a few small chapter books to read to the students. I found two of "The Littles" books, do you remember those? I loved them when I was younger and thought they would be fun to read with my 2nd year (13 yr. old) students. So far we have read a few chapters in the book and the students love it! I'm having them work on their imagination and comprehension skills by writing in a journal. I have had around 30-50 students each class, which is more than last year, so I'm thinking they really enjoy our "story time" (as they call it) :)

In June I also attended my last VAC meeting. It was strange knowing this would be my last time at this kind of meeting. This time we had our meeting at the US Embassy, which was a nice change and experience because I had never been inside the embassy. It was a really nice building and had a lot of history behind it. We were able to work out some issues and say our goodbye's as 269 VAC members. I was also able to buy a new camera while I was in Manila (Thanks mom and dad!), so I now I can take more pictures :)


At the end of June I was invited to join the department heads of my school in their trip to the Tacloban festival, Kasadayaan. Some of our students were preforming in the festival and they wanted me to experience this kind of festival. It was a great time. I got to bond with some of the teachers that I didn't know too well and also see our students preform. I thought the students did very well and wished that they would have placed higher, unfortunately they did not, but it was still a pleasant experience.



Ryan and I started up our puppet shows again. Man they are fun! It's so much fun seeing all the day care students reactions and how different each child reacts to the show. At one day care we had three eager little boys that couldn't get enough of the puppets. They couldn't contain themselves and kept running up to the front to touch the puppet and to try and figure out how all of this worked. We have also had a few students who start crying. These students have never experienced a puppet show before, so for some it's a scary thing. But other just can't stop laughing. They love when Kuya Philly laughs and when we teach them how to brush their teeth. They are even more excited when we let them try out the sea-life puppets. They enjoy being able to experience the puppets for themselves and trying to mimic our voices. Although it's exhausting, implementing these puppet shows have been one of my favorite things we have done at site!






July 4th- back home it's Independence Day, but in the Philippines it's Filipino-American Friendship Day, whew what a mouth full! So to celebrate I took some materials that my friend Tamra sent me to my classes. A while back Tamra sent me those plastic strings that you can make bracelets/keychains out of. Well I took those to my reading club and one of my classes and showed them how to make keychains. They loved it! They enjoyed learning the sometimes hard process and enjoyed showing off their finished products. They were also thrilled to celebrate this meaningful day together. Thanks Tamra!





As some of you know Ryan and I just got back from Thailand. We had an awesome time, but you will have to wait until the next blog to find out more... Take care, we love you all and miss you tons! Won't be too much longer now!!!

So in case you didn't know Ryan and I, along with our friend Evelyn, went to Cambodia a few weeks back. We had an amazing time, but man was it HOT! It was hotter there, temperature wise, than in the Philippines, but it was more of a Texas hot. Don't know what Texas hot is? Well it is a dry hot that feels like it's sucking your breath away, not the sticky, humid, drenching in sweat, hot of the Philippines. Despite the heat we had a blast! Haha. We flew into Siem Reap from Manila and were immediately impressed with the airport, so we had a feeling we were really going to like this place.

Posing by a statue in the airport

The next few days we headed out to the Angkor Wat Temple Complex and had an incredible time. Angkor Wat was impressive, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't my favorite temple. Although I did really enjoy looking at the Bas-Reliefs along this temple.

One of the many Bas-Reliefs at Angkor Wat

I think my favorite temples would have to be within the complex of Angkor Thom. Here are a few of my favorites:

At the top of Baksei Chamkrong

Bayon Temple

Ryan and I at Ta Prohm

While we were temple hopping, we had fun trying to learn some Cambodian words with our Tuk-tuk driver. Cambodians don't speak English as well as Filipinos, so sometimes we had some very interesting conversations :) One in particular was when our tuk-tuk driver was trying to teach us to say yes. First we didn't know what he was trying to teach us and men and women say different words for yes. So this is what our conversation would have sounded like in English: "Yes" (driver pointing to Ryan), "Yes" (Trisha), "No" (driver), "Huh?" (Trisha), "Yes" (driver pointing to Trisha), "Yes" (Trisha), "Yes" (Ryan), "No" (Driver laughing and shaking his head), "What?" (Ryan and Trisha), "Yes" (driver), "Yes" (Ryan), "Yes" (Trisha) Haha! We did learn how to say yes (jaa for women and baat for men), thank you (aw kohn), and It's hot! (kat daw na -not sure if that's spelled right?)

We also ate some fabulous food, and tried a few new things. At one restaurant Evelyn ordered Kangaroo, which we all tried and it was delicious. We got to cook it ourselves on a little stir-fry thing with some spices and vegetables and it turned out great!

Evelyn cooking Kangaroo

We also had a few amazing ice cream shakes and tried several different Cambodian foods, which we all liked. We also got a few messages (Hey we were tired from all the temple hopping) and even tried the Dr. Fish message. I was super excited about this, but when it came time to do it I was a little hesitant. It tickled like crazy and felt really weird at the same time, but eventually I did do it and was glad I did :)

I finally stuck my feet in and couldn't stop laughing!

After Siem Reap we headed down to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We also had a great time here. We decided to have an emotionally hard day, where we visited the S-21 Prison museum and the Killing Fields. Even though it was a tough day we really enjoyed getting to learn about the Cambodian culture and things they have been through not too long ago. We also paid a visit to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. These temples were impressive, but because of the time constraints it was a little crowded for us. Haha. We also stopped by the Peace Corps Office, got to meet a few of their PCVs and staff. It was a great visit!

Ryan and I at the Royal Palace

While in P.P. Ryan started feeling a little sick, so one morning Evelyn and I went out shopping and we were going to meet up with Ryan for lunch. I left him the address and told him we would meet him there. Well, guess what, the restaurant was closed, as in no longer there! So Evelyn and I were pacing up and down this street trying to run into Ryan when he came by. We were walking back to one of the corners to see if he was there, when all of a sudden we spotted him a couple hundred yards in front of us in a tuk-tuk. We started yelling his name and running towards the tuk-tuk. To no avail his tuk-tuk started taking off. We were thinking, we have to stop him. So while laughing we started running faster. When out of nowhere this tuk-tuk driver comes by and says "Get in we can catch him!" My friend then quickly says "how much" (because you know we don't want to get ripped off), we agree on a price and race off in this tuk-tuk after Ryan. We finally catch up to him and can't stop laughing. We all agreed that we could easily win Amazing Race! Afterwards we stopped by this Indian restaurant that had the BEST indian food I have ever had! It was so scrumptious! I had a popular dish from Afghanistan, and let me tell you if it wasn't sooooo dangerous I would want to visit there just for the food!!

Eating at the Flavors of India!

Sadly, our trip had to come to an end. But we had a delightful time and really enjoyed our vacation to the lovely country of Cambodia!

So what do you think of when you hear the words Summer? Most people, especially if your in school, think it's time for a break, the heat, swimming, vacations, etc. My experience in the Peace Corps, thus far, has proven the summers to be the busiest time of the year. So if you have the time I will tell you a little bit of what my summer has been.


In April, Ryan and I finished out our puppet shows for this school year by hiking with some of his co-workers to Brgy. San Antonio. This is the farthest brgy. in our municipality. We had to take a multicab for two hours and then we had to hike for almost two hours to reach this brgy! But it was so fun and worth the hike :) While we were there we got to do our last puppet show for this school year, and it was probably one of the best. We had the whole brgy. (around 200 people) watching the show. Usually during performances, lectures, etc. there is lots of talking, but during ours you could hear a pin drop. It was so much fun and I think the audience really enjoyed it! (We will continue our puppet shows again once school starts up)

The hike sometimes proved to be quite difficult :)

Ryan and "Ma'am Flower" talking about Washing Hands

After our hike to Brgy. San Antonio, we had a nice and relaxing Easter break back in one of our favorite places, Padre Burgos. Since Ryan is now dive certified he went out for a couple dives while I went snorkeling. It was great to get away, relax, eat good food, and soak in some sun. This is a picture where Ryan went diving and I went snorkeling; it's at an island called Limasawa Island. 

Teachers sharing a computer to learn Excel

"Teacher Trisha" instructing teachers how to use the tutorial

Our group of facilitators for the training

But now I am finally home and have been able to relax for a while. Although I didn't completely escape Excel, haha. This week and next week I am holding another Excel training for Ryan's co-workers. Which is also turning out to be a lot of fun! I really enjoy teaching something that I am knowledgeable about and able to share that knowledge with others. 

At the beginning of March I headed to Manila to help facilitate a training for the new batch of PCVs. This training was called Project Design Management. Overall the training was great and I think all the facilitators did an amazing job. It was nice to get to meet the new batch and see how they are doing in regards to the Peace Corps life. It was weird hearing their issues and remembering that was what I was thinking a year ago! It's crazy how fast time does fly.

So once I got back to site I felt like I had one million and one things to do. I got home on Tuesday night and on Wed. I had to conduct our last "Reading Club" for the year. That was fun. The students I worked with were so great and I really hope that I get to work with them again next year.

Then that weekend Ryan and I finally got to hold the Healthy Mind and Body Youth Camp that we, mainly Ryan, had been planning since last December. There were a few road bumps at the start, but overall it was an amazing training. We had around 45 out of school youth show up, which was great. We talked about HIV/AIDS, STI's, Nutrition, Gender Awareness, the Reproductive System, and we played a few different sports. It was an overnight camp, so we were able to share the tradition of Smore's with everyone, which they loved! It was a great experience and I'm glad it finally happened :)

Right before the camp Ryan and I had not been feeling so hot, we both had colds, so for the next few days we stayed in bed and got some rest. We though we were sick it was nice to rest for a while.

Then that next weekend we set out again and continued work on our HIV/AIDS grant, by planting close to 300 trees to represent the youth living with HIV in the Philippines. We had about 20 youth show up to help us plat the trees, and we got to meet a few new people. It was a great time getting to know them and spend some time with them, but man it was HOT! We tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, but even so it was a scorcher.

Ryan also decided to get Scuba certified. This has been something he has been thinking about for a while and I'm glad he finally got to do it. He went to a town North of us where they held the training, and on the last day they were going out to this island called Digyo. I was able to join them and see this beautiful island. Ryan had a great time diving (He went down 60ft!!!) and I had fun watching. Then when we arrived back at shore Ryan found out he is pretty famous. Ask him about this, and hopefully he will put this in his blog too. Haha.

Then to wrap March up we had Graduation and the annual Senior trip. Graduation was great. I was so proud of the students. Most of them had worked hard to finish the year and really tried, at least in our class, to learn something new. I was able to help pass out the diplomas this year, which was so fun. It was rewarding for me to be able to tell the students I had worked with Congratulations. I hope it meant something to them too.

Lastly was the Senior trip. So apparently every year the graduating students go to a town South of us to hike this mountain called Hanginon. This year I was invited to join them. We met up at 2 AM, and headed off on our journey. It was so fun hanging out with the students, and all their energy, and seeing Leyte/Southern Leyte from such a beautiful view. The hike was hard, a lot of inclines, but it was fun and I'm so glad I got to join.





Now it's on to April. Until next time. Take care. We love y'all and miss you tons! <3