Farmer's tans and milkshakes

I woke up today and spent some time reading in my room after breakfast, savoring the air conditioning.  After a while, I decided to get out a bit and wandered down to the beach, which then led me to start walking along the beach, and then I got stubborn and decided to walk the whole length of the beach to the right of the Jungle Barn, which is most of the length of Boracay.  I started walking before 11:00am, and finally got back at 12:30pm, and that was with a little bit of jogging here and there on the way back!  I got back and ate lunch...then I discovered my farmer's tan.  I wore a tshirt and shorts, and definitely have tan lines all over my body now!  I was soaked in sweat, so it was a great workout.  Even just WALKING in sand will really wear you out.

I guess I should name all of the teachers here so I can start using their names!  Olivia is the girl who met me at Caticlan to help me get to Boracay.  Her, Elizabeth, and Carla live together in a house right behind the Barn.  Elizabeth is probably in her thirties and is super friendly, and Carla is about my age and is awesome as well (everyone is!).  I think this is her second school year to be here on Boracay.  Lauren is staying here in the Jungle Barn and got here the day before me and will be here the rest of the year, but was also here last fall for three months.  Anderson is also in the Barn and got here about four weeks ago and is planning on staying for two years.  Lauren is about my age and I think Anderson is as well.  The married couples are the Russells, and they have I think five kids.  Then there are the Kropps, who have ten kids I believe, with nine of them here on the island.  I'm not sure how many, but several of them are adopted.

After lunch, I went to Olivia, Carla, and Elizabeth's house and watched the Olympics for just a few minutes before some kids showed up at their door with a huge puffer fish in a bowl half filled with water!  I was so sad for the fish but it was also so funny!  The kids were just playing with its fins and everything, poor thing.  Not to mention that it was only half covered in water and just kind of rolling around.  I tried to get a picture, but the humidity fogged up my camera which made for stinky pictures!  It was pretty cool to see the fish, though, and we finally told the kids to put it back in the ocean.  Hopefully it wasn't too traumatized.

When I went to get my camera from the Barn, Anderson said he was heading to the grocery store, so after my failed attempt at taking pictures of the fish, I learned my way to the store...although I'm so directionally challenged I think I won't be going by myself anytime soon.  The good thing is that if I can just memorize the name of the stores, the trike drivers will know where to drop me off.  Anyway, I bought some groceries for next week, which is kind of hard because I can't cook here and don't have a refrigerator or microwave or anything.  This week I've been able to eat for free with the team that's here.  When there's a team here, the staff cooks meals.  Once they're gone, I'll be on my own!  I'm planning right now on eating dry cereal for breakfast and a sandwich and chips for lunch, and I guess eat out for dinner.  Maybe I'll get more creative as time goes.

After buying groceries, Anderson showed me where to do my laundry.  Oddly enough, the "laundromat" is in the same place as a chicken fast food type restaurant deal.  Not really a restaurant I guess, but a place where they sell chicken.  I guess I can get a meal when I drop of my clothes!

We headed back and I cooled off in my room for a while.  Then I went outside and read by the beach and just sat on the edge of the water, not caring about my shorts getting wet (which I'm still wearing).  I'm quickly learning not to care too much about cleanliness :)

At 6:00, I met with Carla, Elizabeth, Olivia, Lauren, and Anderson and we all went to get a shake at a place called Jonah's.  Delicious!  We played Phase 10 there for a while and then headed back.  Time for a shower and a good night's sleep before church tomorrow!

I need to learn how to keep my blogs shorter...