future happenings

being away from internet for two weeks means there are tons of updates below – i decided it's easier to write separate entries by actual event than to write one huge massive one that inevitably will just drag on. this is just a general update ....

three more volunteers arrived this week. they were supposed to come on the 23, but because of the bad weather these past two weeks (near-continuous rain and typhoon warnings), they were stuck in manila until the 27. kelly, american, is a doctor, here for just a month, so until the 15 of december; colette, canadian, is here to help with school building for six weeks; scott, australian, is an environmental volunteer here for six months, living in san agustin (so 14 kms from my house – at least we can meet halfway at the sanctuary). there are three more environmental volunteers arriving on the 4 december, all staying for just a month. apparently one of them is a girl my age who will be staying at my house and the other two are an older couple. with five (!!) environmental volunteers, eden hopes we can do some rebuilding at the sanctuary, so that will be awesome.

i am leaving romblon on the 13 december to meet bradley in cebu. he is coming here for christmas and the new year and we will be travelling all around during that time – bohol, island hopping in cebu/negros/panay, palawan for christmas, vigan, batanue – until the 9 january when he leaves. i'm really excited to get to see some other areas of the philippines and to travel for a while. i think i'll feel ... very refreshed when i come back. then i'll do my last seven-ish weeks of volunteering and leave. i won't try to write about my excitement that brad is coming. suffice it to say that i last saw him on the 13 june, when he left tucson. i am heartbroken to not be spending christmas with my family at the cabin, and it was a ridiculously difficult decision to make, but having brad here will make it seem a bit like home, even if christmas will be spent diving in coron on palawan. when i get back to the states, my family has promised that we'll go to the cabin for a weekend.

speaking of returning to the states ... brad is flying from here to uruguay to do a sea turtle study there until the end of march. i really want to visit him, and also need to take a spanish intensive course, so i am planning on leaving here at the end of february and flying to montevideo to see him, take the course, and then return to the states by the end of march. then ... who knows. i am aching to go to boston to see friends and to wander those familiar streets; i miss people scattered throughout the country and really need to sit down and have coffee with friends and catch up on our lives (e-mail and blogs are no exchange for face-to-face conversation); i need to go to california to see my great-grandma and to visit monterey; i need a job and to make money after being outcome only for six months; i need a plan and someplace to live ...

next weekend the other volunteers and i are going to sibuyan island, to the east (tablas island (where i live), then romblon island, then sibuyan island), which is called by the lonely planet (what jeremy, ben, and i have started referring to as "the bible") the "galapagos of the philippines" so i'm really excited about that. and then! the next weekend i get to see brad!