Hello people! Today is June 29th, and this means that I only have a little over two months left here in the Philippines. As a coworker from the office put it the other day, "its been two years already?!" Its kind of hard to believe. Most of our time recently has been devoted to organizing our Special Olympics event here in Sorsogon, and coaches have started officially practicing with participants. We are simultaneously excited and overwhelmed when we think about how the actual event is only three... weeks... away! Despite all of the stress, seeing the kids and coaches having fun together makes it worth it. We can't wait to see it all come together on July 25th.

 In the mean time, I am still trying to make the most of my last months here.  I recently attended my first Filipino wedding! A coworker of mine had a traditional wedding in the small municipality of Juban, Sorsogon. The wedding was held in a small Catholic church and was essentially a church service with a wedding squeezed in. Afterwards, we went to the house of the bride ate common Bicolano foods (menudo, atsara, lechon) and the bride and groom performed a Pantomina dance (traditional and heavily Spanish influenced).

  Moments like that make me really appreciate the friends I've been able to have here and the opportunity to see them grow and change as people over the two years. Speaking of which, we recently had our last Peace Corps training, our Close of Service Conference. This was the last time all of the volunteers in Batch 273 would be together! The venue was this crazy nice hotel in Tagaytay, overlooking the Taal Volcano.

   Our batch got together one last time to reflect on service and talk about readjustment to American life. The mood was super positive and everyone's love and appreciation for one another was obvious. It felt pretty special to make it the entire two years with such an amazing group of people. :)  We finished with a little over 50 volunteers, and for those who weren't there- much love to you as well.

  My time is Sorsogon is short, so of course I am trying to see all of the spots I might have missed before I leave. Our friend Forest recently moved to Davao for work, and before he left he showed us a really cool river cruise in Barangay Buhatan of Sorsogon City. The late afternoon cruise took us down the river and spilled out into the bay across from the Sorsogon City pier. We then ate at a floating restaurant and hung out until dark. After the boat took us back up the river so we could see the main attraction- fireflies! These fireflies behave a little differently than the ones I'm used to in the U.S. They are attracted to a certain type of tree, and when we would get close to the tree the boat guide would clap his hands. Suddenly, the entire tree would illuminate! It was totally unlike anything I have ever seen. No pictures were taken, unfortunately, because they would not come close to doing it justice. Nevertheless, I am constantly impressed with what my home province has to offer.

The view of Sorsogon City from the bay.

Dinner at the floating restaurant.

Next month: Special Olympics post! We've got three weeks to get it together. Wish us luck! Peace