What's up ya'll,

 I've been traveling for a few days and haven't had internet, but at the moment I'm stranded and bored in Manila so I figured I would stop by the Peace Corps office and write a blog post. March has been a pretty eventful month, so I'll start from the top and get to my current situation later. During the first weekend of March a group of nearby volunteers came to visit us in Sorsogon for a chance to swim with whale sharks! So, we headed out super early on a Saturday morning to travel to the municipality of Donsol. We took boats out on the bay at about 7:30 a.m., and it turned out to be totally worth it. We jumped in the water and were able to see a whale shark four separate times. They were huge! The guide was saying that the biggest one we saw was around 8 meters long (about 26 ft). It was definitely surreal to look down and see one swimming beneath you. The site at Donsol was great in that they really put the well-being of the whale sharks before anything else. In fact, their policies were created with help from the current Coastal Resource Management sector manager for the Peace Corps.
 My first birthday in the Philippines turned out to be pretty great, too. I got to see a hometown friend! My buddy Jeff is currently living and working as a pastor up north in Quezon City. It was really great to see someone from home on my birthday. My coworkers also came to my host family's house and made chicken curry for dinner!

Jeff is a giant in the Philippines.

 So that was fun. Anyway, this past weekend I had the opportunity to make the trek back up to Bagac, Bataan to see my first host family from training. I made the trip with my PCV friend Joey and his fiance Anjulie. I was amazing to see everyone in Bagac again! Everyone in both of our host families are such beautiful people and our stay brought back a lot of memories. To say that traveling is an adventure in the Philippines, though, would be an understatement. On Tuesday I left Bataan around 7 a.m. to catch my flight in Manila at 12:45. I got to Manila around 9:30 but, due to the unreal traffic the city is known for, proceeded to miss my flight. So I'll be taking the overnight bus to Sorsogon later tonight. This weekend is a big one, as Sorsogon State College is putting together a camp with around 480 participants from Friday to Monday. I'll be helping with facilitation and other things, along with some help from a couple of my site mates (thanks guys, seriously). For now I'll just be hanging out here in Manila with some friends:

Peace!