Fore!

Yesterday was a holiday, so our landlord invited us to join him and two of his kids to go hit some golf balls at a driving range near our house. We enjoy doing this at home, so we were excited to join him. Uche has gone once before, but this was my first time going to the driving range here. I'm not sure I'll want to do it again in the States.
At home I have to haul my own bucket of balls to the area where I will hit. I also have to set up each ball I want to hit- not so here. See the girl in the picture below. She not only arranged to have bucket of balls delivered there, but she also set up each and every ball I hit. She would set up a ball on a tee, or if no tee was needed, she would set the ball on a little mound of packed dirt. Pretty much I just hit balls over and over. No bending over for me! I was a little scared at first that I would hit her, but she was unfazed. I guess she's gotten used to it since she does it all day, six days a week! Oh, she also cleaned the clubs when we were done and hauled them out to the car. Seriously, golf courses in the States have a long way to go....

I'm quite proud of this picture I took of Uche during his follow through. I used the sport setting and I like how it turned out!

I hope this picture was captured when I hit a ball, and not one of many swings and misses! You're not allowed to make fun of my form.

Can you see a spot of green past the 75 yard sign and a little to the right? This was one of my favorite things at the driving range. That's the guy who has the unfortunate job of collecting all the golf balls. He has a shield (the green thing) he holds while he does his job. I managed to hit him once when he was a little closer- it cracked me up. He probably didn't think it was as funny as I did. It was great to have something to aim for!

Fiesta!

This past weekend was fiesta time in our barangay (neighborhood). I'm not quite sure what the celebration is for, but it has something to do with the Spanish culture that was brought to the Philippines during their colozination of the islands. It is also related somehow to the Catholic church down the street. I should google it! Anyhow, fiesta is party time. The week leading up to the fiesta had many groups like the one below going up and down the streets. They're loud so you hear them long before you can see them. They dance some dance routines and bang on drums, making a big ole ruckus. They also hand out envelopes so people can make donations to their group. They tried to hand us one, but we put on our dumb foreigner face (sometimes we manage this look without trying) and they moved on.

On Sunday evening the parties were in full swing. The streets were closed to traffic and people were out in the streets eating and enjoying hanging out. There was a live band playing on the street behind our place. At one point we could hear the band playing and two different karaoke songs going on in two different places. It was worse than it sounds!

The owners of our building had a nice party up on our rooftop (we have a great covered rooftop garden on our building) so we went up to join the merriment. The karaoke was going strong and the lechon baboy (a whole pig roasted) was ready.

Up close and personal with the baboy.

Karaoke provides many hours of entertainment in the Philippines. Filipinos love to sing and perform, so a karaoke machine is a must have.

We had a good time eating good food and visiting with our neighbors and listening to people butcher songs.

I suppose that's an appropriate picture to finish off this post.

Time in CA

We're back in Manila and excited to be starting our last semester of school. We arrived late Monday night and started classes on Tuesday. We're still trying to adjust to the time, and are way too acquainted with 2:00 am! We had a great month long visit at home, and we enjoyed surprising people. Here's some highlights from our time in Nor Cal. Sorry, they're out of chronological order, but I can't be bothered with moving them around... I got to get ready for class!

Celebrating my birthday a few days early with a German chocolate cake with two cans of frosting- my favorite! It looks like it's on fire! :)

Slagle family get together. A little pre-Thanksgiving dinner. We'll enjoy another Thanksgiving here, but one can never eat too much turkey and stuffing.

Uche on the river trail. We enjoyed being outside in the cool air and exercising without sweating profusely. Of course, in Manila we sweat without exercising....

Trick or treating with my niece and nephews. They're too cute.

Uche and I got to work together washing windows. It was pretty fun and we enjoyed the time we got to do this, and we were so blessed to see God provide work for us. I have decided that manual labor is not for me, and look forward to many happy years working in an office! :)

Because I am my mother's daughter I enjoyed the fall colors. Sometimes fall doesn't happen in our area- summer just suddenly turns to winter, but our month there was perfect fall weather. We enjoyed every second of it!!