TravelBio

The first leg of my journey following a year teaching in Korea was the Philippines.  I knew I wanted to go to a warm country, and SE Asia had been the plan for some time.  I also figured that the Philippines would be a good country to travel before heading to Germany, because it is geographically separate from the mainland SE Asian countries I want to visit (Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam). The Philippines is a collection of over 7,000 islands and 100 million people.  It is no surprise then that I wouldn't be able to see all of the country; I would have to select a few places to key in on for my travels.  The central region of the Philippine islands, known as the Visayas, was where I planned to start.  The largest city in the Visayas is Cebu City, appropriately on the island of Cebu.  It probably has over a million people in the metro area, but pales in comparison to the Manila capital region, a collection of cities that total over 20 million people. Th

I realized that I haven't disclosed my plans yet, and felt like sharing since I have extra time here at Starbucks.  As you know from the last post I am leaving to go to the Philippines.  I fly Seoul to Cebu with a transfer in Manila.  On December 18th I have a flight from Manila to Frankfurt via two stopovers (Bangkok and Kuwait).  So beforehand I have two and a half weeks of free time in the Philippines.  I will try and stay with some locals via Couch Surfing (if you don't know about it check out their site - this will be my first time but my friends who've tried all highly recommend it). I could get used to this! I'm definitely looking forward to relaxing and getting some needed sun on the beach.  Right now if I had to pick a shade for my skin tone it might be neon white.  Not that I tan much, but the beach should do me well (I'll need lots of sunscreen!).  While in the Cebu area I'll try and hop around to a few of the nearby islands.  FYI the Philip

I was hoping to post this earlier, but haven't had Internet access at the places I've been staying.  Here is what I wrote almost two weeks ago: I am sitting at a Starbucks in Seoul with a bit of time on my hands before I head out to the Philippines, so it seems like a good time to write a blog.  Unfortunately I can't get Internet access so this might not be posted for awhile.  The last week has been hectic to say the least.  Last Wednesday my replacement arrived and I showed her the ropes for three days.  My coworker, Matt, is also leaving so there were two new teachers to train.  My schedule was broken up between the two, with one getting the bulk of my morning classes and the other most of the afternoon ones. Both the new teachers are women from England.  I don't know if I feel good or bad for James, the only remaining male!  All of the Korean teachers are female too, and the school will also have no Americans on staff (simply because of the size of the US i