In Which We Attempt Visayan and Public Transportation

This week we hit language school hard core!

Our brains are just a little exhausted, and perhaps a little overwhelmed!
Very excited that its the weekend! Very excited to be done with this school in seven weeks! And very excited to be fluent!
We are learning Visayan, which is the dialect spoken in this province.
We're having a lot of fun practicing with Filipinos. We often end up laughing at ourselves with them, but they love it!

To get to the school we take public transportation in the form of jeepneys. These are like mini-buses. They are about 12-15 feet long and have a bench along each side.
We ride these for an hour and a half each way. We are now experts at the routes to the other side of the city :)
These jeepneys are bouncy, crammed (especially because we ride during rush hour), dirty, hot, and the smell of all the fumes here is really strong! (I don't think anyone here has heard of a catalytic convertor, let alone used one.)

These are my fellow newcomers, on the jeepney!

                       
                        Mary Ellen and I!

This morning we were a bit early, so we took a walk down the road, as a few of the girls were looking for Buko juice (coconut juice). We did not find that (although we did find a lady who promised to get us some on Monday :)) but we did find a shoe repair fellow. Elizabeth happened to have a pair of Birkenstocks that were coming apart, and he fixed them while we waited! It cost her 20 pesos, which is 50 cents! :)

This is a view from a bridge over Bankerohan River, which we go over every day. It's really incredible to see it in real life with the mountain in the background - pictures don't do justice!

I cannot take photo creds for any of the following pictures, but thanks to the other girls for them!

This one is a bit blurry, but again, the inside of a jeepney.

 The path we walk down off the main road to get to the school.

We sometimes come here to eat lunch, or just to walk. This is a bay of the pacific ocean, surrounded by mountains - how awesome is that!!

Selfie! Emily and I on the jeepney.

(Ahem, no, I did not take this picture, and yes, I got it off google)
This is a typical jeepney. They come in various arrays of decoration. Some are simpler than this, but a lot are quite 'fancy'! :)

That is all for now!!
Have a good weekend!!!!!!!

Love, Becca