Finally telling the end

I've waited so long to post about my last week on Boracay because
1) while I was there, I was just wanting to spend time with people as much as possible and
2) it's hard to write about!

My last week meant saying good-bye to the Kagban kids.  They were my first good-byes.  Before the feeding on Thursday I got a text saying there would be no food because the budget is low, but Anderson, Lauren, and I went and did everything we normally do minus the food.  Lauren went to the last two feedings with us and is maybe going to take my place.  As a tiny good-bye gift to the kids, I took a bag of little chocolates to hand out, so at least they got something small to eat, ha.  Of course, the greatest nourishment was God's word!

Along with the feeding, Thursday was also my last Bible study with the missionary crew.  They were so great and spent some time praying specifically for me.  It was an awesome time praying out on the beach, and it was dark enough so people couldn't see my occasional fallen tear!

Friday at chapel, I received a certificate for working at the school and sweet words from Jhing.  I was doing okay while Shannon and Teresa were talking, but Jhing started crying while she was talking, and as soon as I see someone else cry I start crying!  She'd also been successful in making me tear up at my last staff meeting on Wednesday when she said a prayer for me.  She didn't cry then, but the prayer was just so stinkin sweet!

During chapel, my kids all came up and gave me cards.  Sadly, it was a rainy day which meant almost half my class wasn't at school.  I told them all that I would stop by on Monday to say a quick good-bye before I headed to the airport.  That was the only thing that got me through Friday!

After giving me cards during chapel.

But then he got better.

Mathew is so sweet.  He was sad to say good-bye!

My classroom, where I've learned as much as I taught!

I love them.

I gave my kids some small Christmas gifts.  I guess they wanted to show off the bags!

God gave me some treats my last weekend and made every sunset beautiful.  Sunsets are always pretty on Boracay, but sometimes they're just extraordinary.  This sunset was on Friday.

Also on Friday, Hya and Praise, teachers at Agape, told me they wanted to take me out for dinner.  I love those ladies and it was special to be able to spend that time with them.

At the beginning of the week, Shannon and Olivia had both asked me if there was anything specific I wanted to do my last week.  I told them no, that I really honestly couldn't think of anything.  I told them that the only thing I was kind of bummed I never did was snorkeling, but it wasn't a big deal and that maybe I would get to go back next year and do it then.  I knew we wouldn't all go snorkeling because it takes some planning and is pretty expensive.  Well, what do you know, but a family from Australia got to Boracay my last weekend to work at the school and feeding sites, and on Saturday they went snorkeling!  Wow!  I went out with them and got to see some of God's beautiful underwater creations...and didn't even have to pay for the trip!  I don't have an underwater camera, but I took some pictures of the resorts on Boracay.

Manny Pacquiao is part owner of this resort.

We got back from snorkeling at about 1:00 and I headed down the beach to meet up with all the other missionaries who had been swimming and playing sports on the beach.  Soon after, we headed off to segway!  Everyone made my weekend super fun, and this was the beginning of our adventures.  At the segway place, there's pool, darts, foosball, a little area for basketball, food you can order, and places to just lounge around.  We hung out for a while and then segwayed!  It's a small course that you go around several times, and it was fun!

 

I also got pictures with the Johnston and Kropp families.  I realized later that Ethan was missing from the Kropp family picture!

Kropps

Johnstons

That night, Carla, Lauren, Olivia, Russ, Anderson, and I played games at Russ' house.  Fun day!

Sunday, my last full day on Boracay, we went to church and we younguns had our traditional Sunday morning meal at Surfside.  Usually it's a little hit and miss as far as who all comes, but they were kind enough to all come for my last Sunday!

Lauren, Olivia, Carla, me, Anderson, Russ

I was also recognized in church for my work at the school and the feeding site.  Everyone sure made me feel loved all weekend long.

I was able to get a picture with the whole Russell clan after church, which is quite an accomplishment!

After church, I got my second massage that I've had since I was in Boracay.  They're so cheap (under $10) but still something I didn't ever really splurge on.  It was great!  After that, I went back and forth between hanging out at Carla and Olivia's house (and Elizabeth's, but she had headed to the U.S. for the Christmas break already) and relaxing in my room.  Everyone was working on preparing a feast for the night, and I took a part in the preparations as well.  We made chicken lumpia, banana lumpia, and shrimp lumpia, and also had rice, veggies, chicken, and rolls.  Lumpia is a Filipino food similar to egg rolls.  It was all delicious!

We then watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  Such a funny movie!  Everyone continued to have a Christmas movie marathon the week after I left and watched a Christmas movie every night.  Since it was my last night, they offered to me for us to play Mafia or Resistance instead, which we loved to do at least once a week, but I was happy with a movie!  I don't think my mind would have been able to focus on any games.

Only part of the crew is in this picture.  We all crowded into the living room for the movie, which we projected onto the wall!

After the movie, the Kropps and Johnstons left and the rest of us hung out at the house for a while.  It was a school night for everyone else and I still needed to pack, so we eventually called it a night and I told them I would come say good-bye at school the next day.

Monday morning I got up, got ready and headed to school.  I was determined not to cry, but also knew I would, if that makes sense.  Well, sure enough, I did!  I did okay for the most part until I went into Carla's class and told her good-bye, and also when Aleche (sp?), one of the neighborhood kids in grade 3, cried.  Oh, and also when Shannon gave me a long hug and prayed for me.  And there may have been another time too, but I don't remember.  I could have very easily cried telling my kids bye except I tried to just make it super easy-going and like nothing was really happening.  I got choked up, but held it back.  I was sad to see that for whatever reason, several of my students weren't at school again.  I never got to say bye to some of my kids.  Oh well.  It was probably harder on me than it was on them.

I stopped by every classroom.  I didn't really say bye to the kinders because I never had them for PE and none of them really knew me, but I stopped in their rooms to give hugs to the teachers, Olivia, Russ, Sander, and Praise.

Grade three

My sweet grade 1

Kinders

Grades 5 and 6

Grade 2

Grade 4

Some of grade 1/2

Another grade 2

After the difficult good-byes, I had a couple of errands to run before I left the island.  And boy, did I leave in true Boracay fashion!  I was drenched in sweat and had kicked up sand and mud all on the back of my legs.  I could only laugh, because that was really the perfect way to head out.  Carla and Lauren were so sweet to get permission from Shannon to leave school for a few minutes to see me to the boat, so I got some better good-byes there.  It was special to leave with cards from all my students, a card from the Agape staff who had all written messages, and then additional notes written to me from Shannon, Lauren, Olivia, and Carla.  I am so blessed to have met everyone I did.

Adventure didn't end there.  Dan went with me to Caticlan and helped me lug my huge suitcase.  I felt so bad for him!  He went to a lot of work to figure out if there was a cheaper way to get it to Manila, because the small planes that leave from Caticlan do not like a lot of luggage!  We finally decided the safer and easier bet would be to just pay the extra money and put it on my flight, so I paid about $65 to do that.  Yuck.  But, at least it got there with me safe and sound.

I spent the night at Dan and Tori's house in Manila, and Tori was there in their home to be my great hostess!  However, it was an adventure getting there as well!

Dan had told me to take a public taxi, NOT an airport taxi, to get to their condo.  In Manila, there is so much traffic and pollution, there is one day a week when people with cars are not allowed to drive.  For the Beavers, Monday is that day, so that's why I had to take a taxi.  After having an airport taxi driver try to convince me that an airport taxi was the better option and not being very happy with me when I turned him down, I lugged my suitcase all the way to the main road.  Before I got all the way there, a man asked me if I needed a taxi.  I said yes, and he took my luggage from me.  Before I got in his car, he gave me a price.  Dan had also said I should try to do meter only, so I turned him down and said exactly that: "meter only."  He didn't like that, but went from a 450 peso offer to 400 pesos.  I really had no idea what a good deal was so I only felt comfortable doing a meter, and turned him down with that as well.  By then, another taxi driver pulled up and when I opened the door, I told him where I wanted to go and asked, "Meter only?"  He nodded his head so I heaved my suitcase into the backseat and got in.

The driver was hilarious!  I guess he knew the conversion, and he told me that the airport taxi would have cost about $85.  WOW.  He said, "That is for the rich.  This is for the poor!"  We talked about why I was in the Philippines.  All along he also continued to talk about how old his car is.  Of course, that made me feel great!  At one point, he asked me if I knew how to drive.  At first I just said yes, but then I realized he may have been curious if I knew how to drive a stickshift, which is what his car was, but just didn't know how to ask.  So, I told him I only knew how to drive an automatic.  Again, he said, "That is for the rich.  This is for the poor!"  He was just being funny, although maybe there was some truth in it.  I loved his personality!

Then, there we were on an interstate, and he was trying to shift gears and nothing was happening.  I heard an "uh oh," and after he tried a couple more times he pulled over on the busy road.  He wasn't kidding about it being an old car!  He looked under the hood, got back in saying such-and-such was wrong, and said he'd take me to a place where I could get another taxi.  I love adventure :)  But, of course, I also felt bad for the guy.

He took me to a road and said, "It's safe here," (uh...thanks?) and I paid him for as far as he took me, wished him well, and got out.  I felt so silly amidst the poor-looking stores, as I stood there, white and lugging a huge suitcase.  I wanted to cross the street because I would need to be going the other direction when I got in the taxi and figured I could save a few pesos if I got to the other side, but there were a ton of cars going both ways.  So, I felt even more silly as I wondered if it was culturally acceptable and/or safe for me to just start crossing and make cars stop for me.  After all, that's kind of the way people drive.  Some guys on the other side saw me and literally stopped traffic for me.  They asked me if I needed a taxi and I said yes, so they loaded my bag into a taxi van and then started asking me if I had any change.  Oh, so that's why they were so helpful!  Of course, they would assume I'm rich.  I was so flustered that I said no (how rude of me...), and after I was in the van and I told the driver where I needed to go, he told me some outrageous price (again, I'm white) and I said meter only.  Turns out he didn't even have a meter.  I got out.  All the guys that had helped me before unloaded my bag as they realized why I was getting out, and then lugged it to the next taxi, which did have a meter.  This time, I gave a few pesos to the guys.

The drive started off well enough.  Of course, the driver wanted to know why I was in the Philippines and was confused about why I said I was going to miss it, and confused in general about why I was there.  As is typical, I had to repeat myself several times.  It seemed like he just kept asking the same questions over and over and we were just going in circles, but I've kind of gotten used to that.  Also, it's such an awkward question: "Do you like America or the Philippines better?"  Well, I don't really want to say the Philippines because the U.S. is home. But I don't want to say America because that just feeds the idea that America is dreamland.  So many countries, including the Philippines, are influenced greatly by western society, and often in a negative way, which I don't like!  I am respectful to my country and am proud of my country, but don't want to encourage the negative influences such as the music, immodest clothing, and assumed wealthiness (by that I mean everyone assumes everyone in America is rich).  Besides, there are plenty of things I do like better about the Philippines!

I had a very, very slight cough.  So small I didn't even notice when I coughed.  I coughed the tiniest bit and the driver went on and on about how I needed to take medicine.  He even offered to pull over so I could go buy some.  I'd never been more aware of my cough as I was the rest of that trip, as I was constantly holding it in the whole time so we wouldn't have to start the conversation all over.

At some point, the conversation got a little creepy.  He offered to give me his number in case I needed a ride to go to the airport the next day, but I told him I would have a ride with my friends.  Eventually he asked for my number.  I flat out said no, and he said, "no?  Just like that?"  I backed it up and told him he wouldn't need it because I was only going to be there for one night anyway.  I was relieved when we finally pulled up to the Beavers' home!  I'd actually started to wonder if he was just driving around taking extra time.  I paid him, and he decided to assume he could keep the change.  I almost let him just so I could get away and because it wasn't much, but I decided I didn't want him to think I liked his creepiness, so I asked for it.

The adventure ends there.  I spent the evening relaxing in the Beavers' home, rearranging my bags, and had some yummy meals with Tori.  The next day, I headed home.

It's so interesting.  I've been home for two weeks now and keep thinking about how great it is to have so many things here, yet still miss Boracay terribly.  Really, if I were to list the number of things I missed from home while I was there, it would probably be longer than the number of things on my list that I miss about Boracay now.  But, what I miss about Boracay somehow weighs more heavily.  I miss the people.  Of course, I missed my friends and family while I was there, but I knew that they weren't going anywhere and that I would eventually come back.  However, I may not ever see my Boracay family again.  It's weird and sad that it seems like it was already a long time ago.  I really, really don't like how I feel like I'm losing it so quickly.  It was SUCH an amazing experience.

Instead of thinking about how I just wish I could go back, I'm trying to choose the more positive route and just be thankful for my time there.  I believe I am where God wants me, and that's what matters most.  Who knows what my future might hold?  I feel 100% confident that if I leave it in God's hands, my life will be right...whatever that may mean.

Christmas party

Last night was our Agape staff Christmas party, but before we the party started the ladies took some fun pictures on the beach.  I love every one of them!

Of course we started the party with food!  It was AMAZING.  Dan and Tori brought turkey, chicken, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, apple pie, the works!  Oh, and of course there was rice!  It would have been even more amazing if I could have tasted it (I haven't been able to taste my food often the past few days since I've been sick), but the texture was delightful!

After we ate, Praise, Sander, and Andrew sang some fun Christmas songs.  This is when I started tearing up because it was a happy time and I'm going to miss it when I leave in one week.  The last song was "Joyful Joyful" and we were supposed to be going around telling people merry Christmas, but I ran upstairs to try to look normal again before running back downstairs and being recognized for serving here the last four months.  I held it together okay, but I don't think I was totally tearless...

Shannon and Teresa said some sweet words and Dan presented me with a gift, which was a Starbucks Boracay coffee mug and a gift certificate for the Starbucks here which I will be happy to use this week!  We then watched a great slide show that Praise put together for me.

We ended the party with a gift exchange, which we did the same way my mom's side of the family does every year at Christmas eve where a gift can be stolen two times.  The gifts had a 100 peso limit ($2.50) and I went fifth.  I opened up a stuffed Patrick (a Spongebob character) and of course was stuck with it the whole time :)  I gave it to the little daughter of two other teachers.

This is Jhing, my co-teacher, picking out a gift.

It was a fun party!

Today at church some of the kids from the Kagban feeding site that I go to did a dance performance.  I will post a video on facebook as soon as I get the chance.  They did a great job and it was fun to be able to sit with them during worship.  I love that I've been able to build a connection with those kids even though I usually only see them once a week.  It's easy to build connections when the kids just latch on so easily!

I can't believe I'm leaving in a week.  Shannon asked me if I've made a checklist of things I want to do before I leave.  Nope!  I want this week to be like every other week, because that's what I have loved!

The sweetest "I love you"

I really have nothing new to blog about!  But, I thought I'd share a small prayer request.  I've been battling a cough/runny nose for a while now and I REALLY hope I'm better by the time I go home.  I need to be able to hold sweet Hudson, but his immune system is really low with the medicine he's on so I NEED TO GET BETTER!

I also thought I'd briefly write about a little conversation I had with one of my students this past week.  I already had a facebook status about it so you may have seen it.  I'm sure I'll come back and read my blogs someday, so I want to have a record of it!

There was one day when my bag was sitting kind of open at school and Lynnie noticed I have two phones, so she asked me why.  I told her one was so I could text people at home and one was so I could text people here.  I can't remember what exactly was said after that, but it got around to me telling her that I'd be going home soon, which I think Jhing has already told the class.

In her phrasing, she said, "But you will come here first so I will make you a card?"  That's what they did for Luke Russell before he and his family moved to Panay.  I said yes (I'll be at school a few times before I leave :)) and then I told her I would miss them all so much when I leave.  Curious what she would say, I asked, "Do you think you'll miss me too?"

She said yes, paused a moment, and said, "...because I love you."

Lynnie isn't the brightest or most well-behaved student in my class, but from the day I got here she has been the most affectionate towards me.  Her father volunteers at the school sometimes with odds and ends and also has a son in kindergarten.  I've learned that he treats his son like he walks on the moon, and I don't think Lynnie receives quite as much attention.  I'm thankful I've been able to share my love with Lynnie and I really hope especially that she has learned of God's love.

Here are some pictures of all of my precious students!

Mathew

Divine, front left, is Jhing's daughter and was just visiting.  Next is Chloe, Jamal, Eden, and Justine.

Theresa

Mark

BJ (back), Kianne, and Lynnie

Lance and Aivic.  Love this picture!

Aina Rose

Von Sandrix

Gobble gobble

A couple of side notes before I get on topic:

This past week it was my class's turn to give a little presentation in chapel.  They'd been practicing choreography to a song called, "Jesus is my Superhero."  Thursday, Lance came up to me and said, "Jesus is a Superhero!" and posed like Superman with one fist out, the other on his hip, and leaning forward with a leg kicked back.  As if that's not cute enough, you should here his naturally raspy voice and see his fat cheeks and floppy hair!

BJ, the "big kid" in my class (the one with the smelly gas) said to me, "I ate so much for lunch, my neck is getting so big!"  I said, "You mean your tummy?" and he said, "Yes!"  English as a second language can be pretty comical sometimes.

As you all know, Thursday was Thanksgiving at home!  Of course, that's not celebrated here, and I kept forgetting all week that it was coming up and then forgetting on Thursday that it was even Thanksgiving.  Maybe part of the reason I would forget was because I didn't REALLY think of it as Thanksgiving until later that night when it was Thursday morning at home and I could text my family a happy Thanksgiving.  Anyway, it was pretty cool to be able to look at my Thursday and see how blessed I am even with my every day experiences.  How many Americans get to say they teach at a Christian elementary school in the Philippines?  How many people got to sing worship songs, share a Bible story, and help feed a meal to a group of under-privileged children?  And then, the day ended with a terrific Bible study, and it was also great to be able to look around and appreciate the many, many new friends I have made.  Oh, and after Bible study Lauren, Anderson and I still hadn't eaten, so the choice was obvious.  The closest thing to home here: McDonald's!

Saturday was great as well.  All of the Agape staff was invited to the Carla Village to watch the Ati school's first ever program.  They are a sister school to Agape and will be trying to provide the same opportunities as Agape even though there is maybe a total of 20 kids in the school at this point.  The kids gave a fun, cute U.N. Day celebration program and it was great how the kids were able to feel so special and important and didn't have to worry about criticism (which the Ati people receive plenty of).

 

After the program, the Russells had us all over for a Thanksgiving feast!  All of us "foreigners" went, as well as Praise, Randy, and Lilia (Filipino Agape staff) who had also gone to the performance.  We had turkey, which they had put on a stick and prepared over a fire, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes (which is more like normal potato with a really sweet sauce on it), and PIE.  We didn't know how they would find turkey here but apparently they know someone who keeps turkeys that they were just able to buy from.  They brought the live turkey home and did the whole, well, preparation themselves.  We also didn't know how they would bake pie without an oven, but there is another American missionary family that lives near the Russells and I think they actually have an oven they used.  That's the first oven I've heard of here!  Also, we were promised pumpkin pie, and it was a mystery to us as to where they would find pumpkin.  Turns out it was actually kalabasa pie which tastes the exact same as pumpkin!  There was also apple pie and a custard pie.

Lilia's five year old daughter was there with her and said, "What's a turkey?"

Lilia watched as we put gravy on our mashed potatoes and thought that it was such an interesting concept.  She tried it and liked it!

We also had cool whip for the pies, which she'd never had.

It's so easy to go to a different culture and think of some of their customs as strange, but others think the same thing about us!

Pre-dinner prayer

I loved the food, fun, and fellowship.  God is good!

Volleyball tournament

Over the weekend, I played in a four-on-four volleyball tournament with three of my Filipino friends I've been playing with for a while.  We got third out of six, so we didn't do great but we didn't do bad.

Friday night was a free dinner buffet for all the players!  The four-on-four didn't start until Saturday, but I was still able to eat at the buffet.  I was afraid it would be awkward not being able to communicate very easily with the Filipino guys, but it was fine.  The buffet was just for the players so they had some games planned with give-aways and it ended up being pretty funny :)  The only bummer about the buffet was that I really wanted seconds (and thirds), but none of the Filipinos went for seconds so I didn't either.  I didn't want to look like the "typical American."  Guess I could have swallowed my pride...  I guess I picked the healthier option, but I mostly just didn't want to embarrass myself.

Anyway, another "perk" of being in the tournament was a players' party every night with free drinks.  I knew going in that this would also probably be awkward for me.  Friday night, the party was right next door to where we ate, so I went and it wasn't bad.  My Filipino friends gave me a hard time (in a funny way, not a rude way) about not drinking, but the last thing I would want is to risk one of my students walking by and seeing me drink, or just risking the reputation of the ministry.  I stayed for just a little while and left.

Friday night, there was no buffet but there was a party at 9:00.  I really didn't care to go, but part of me thought it would look unappreciative in this culture for me not to.  When I got there, I wasn't really seeing any of the players around right away so I decided to sit by the beach (my preference).  There were some kids playing and they kept looking at me and smiling while they were playing.  I finally asked them their names, and then we started playing in the sand.  That was my favorite part of the night, as more kids started appearing and playing.  One girl asked me if I was a teacher at Agape and told me she has a friend that goes there.  She said, "The Agape teachers are so nice."  Another little toddler came barreling through our tunnels and roads we had built in the sand and while one of the kids was yelling at her to stop, it was just so funny to me.  It was fun, and definitely worth getting sandy even after I had already showered.

After a while, I did leave and go into the party.  I went for about 30 minutes, and there was loud music and it was just a bit difficult because I don't really have smooth conversation with the Filipinos as it is, much less with music blaring.  There were a couple of people dancing, and I actually have fun dancing sometimes when I'm just goofing off which is what they were doing (they may have been drunk already), but I was way too shy to dance without having a good friend with me!  I did have an excuse to leave because the Johnstons were having us all over for games, so even though I could have gone to bed right then after being tired from playing that day, I went on my way to the Johnstons (I can't pass up games with friends!).  My teammates probably had more fun after I left anyway because they could speak in Tagalog with each other and not feel like they had to have conversation with me.  In their minds, they were probably wondering why I even went if I wasn't going to drink, which is pretty logical in hindsight.

Sunday night was the big party.  Games were over, so everyone was excited to be able to drink as much as they wanted.  I knew it would be crazy and I went back and forth in my mind as to whether or not I should make an appearance.  Again, I definitely don't want to put the ministry's reputation on the line.  I was exhausted, the party didn't start until 10:00pm, and I was going to have to wake up at 6:00am the next morning.  Finally, I decided to take a nap from 8:00-9:00pm and then decide how I felt after the nap.  Well, I honestly don't even remember if my alarm went off.  Maybe it didn't go off.  I may have slept through it.  I may have turned it off and accidentally fallen back asleep.  I may have even intentionally decided to fall back asleep.  I was so out of it I don't remember!  I woke up at 11:00pm, and by then there was no way I was going to the party, so I put on my pajamas, brushed my teeth and crawled back into bed.  Ten hours of sleep with some crammed lesson planning Monday morning was great.  Maybe it was God's way of telling me I shouldn't go.

The tournament itself was fun!  All games were just one game to 21 unless you made it to the final, which kind of stinks because one game to 21 flies by.  Still, any time I get to play volleyball is a good time!  We lost in the semi-finals to a team we had beaten the day before.  They were killing us and we were playing horrible, but we finally got our groove and had about a 5-point run but by then it was too late.  Maybe we could have beaten them if it was best 2 out of 3, but oh well.  They're actually our friends and ended up winning the championship, so I'm happy for them!

Side note: Before one of our games one of my teammates was smoothing out the sand in front of him.  Then he looked at me and said, "You have to clear your runway!"  SO hilarious!  I have no idea how he came up with that.

Here are a couple pictures from the tournament.

My missionary friends were so supportive throughout the weekend!  True to the Filipino way, I never ever knew when we would be playing.  It would get pretty frustrating and I had to keep asking for the sake of my friends who were wanting to watch.  Even when I was told when we'd play, it would get changed and/or they would tell me wrong and/or I would misunderstand.  Sunday morning, I got there at 8:30 and the tournament was supposed to start at 9:00am (of course, they ended up starting games at 10:00).  First thing I asked was when my team would be playing because I was hoping I could go to church and come back if there was time.  I understood that we would be the second game, but, alas, we ended up not playing until noon after several games had been played.  Oh well.

I felt so loved that I had people there to watch every game except my morning Saturday game and my noon-time Sunday game!  I had people at 4 out of 6 games!  My missionary friends weren't my only fans.  My favorite voices to hear cheering me on were the kids that Carla brought!

AJ, Kathleen, Angel, and Shane.  It was sunny!

Sunday afternoon my team received our consolation prizes from a couple of the sponsors: a Rubbermaid cleaning caddy and some snacks.

Here are some of my other Filipino friends (except the guy crouching next to me or the girl.  I don't know them.), some of whom beat us in the semi-finals...

Top: Alex, Hans, Gerald, Raf, the girl I don't know, and a friend whose name I've never learned (oops).

All in all a fun weekend!  And a great lesson in being flexible and dealing with language barriers!