Marivic (Teach) was going to be sleeping alone last night at her cousins house, so I invited her to come stay with me and have a sleep over. She didn't have any of her things though, and transportation can be a problem here. (Expensive, and sometimes unpredictable.) Argie recently sold her his motorcycle, but she's not comfortable driving it yet, so I told her I could drive and we'd go get her stuff together! It was so fun... such an adventure! People really look at me with curiosity when I go driving by them. It's a rare sight to see a white girl, let alone a white girl driving a motorcycle. But it was such a good time! Some boys from the church must have been a little hesitant about my abilities, because they showed up at her house a while later, to make sure we'd gotten there okay! I said that I didn't know whether to be pleased that they are so attentive, or offended that they didn't trust me! I proved myself more than capable, and I was very proud :) Sleepovers here are just the same as sleepovers at home. We watched Letters to Juliet, had dinner, chatted late into the night about love (haha) and boys (haha) and eventually fell asleep. Teach is quickly becoming a really special friend of mine. I think the building of relationships is a focus of mine during my stay here. I've already experienced lots of that, and I'm loving it :)
Instead of teaching yesterday, Pastor Ding and I headed downtown to the Immigration offices. It can take a long time to get there and then be processed, so we left at 8:30 am. We had to take the train, then a jeepney, then walk for a ways. It was a really cool time though, because I got a chance to really talk with him and learn more of the way he thinks. He shared with me some stories of his life as a business man, before he became a pastor. I highly value that time I got to spend with him. I was processed within an hour, so round trip we were only about 4 and a half hours. Pretty good time when you live in a city as crowded as Manila! So my visa is extended now until about half way through July... they get so much money from you through these visa extensions.. When you first come into the country you have 21 days. Then, if you extend, you get like, 18 days on top of that. When those 39 days are up you have to renew AGAIN. And it cost me 75 bucks yesterday! When I'm not making any money, that's a heck of a lot to spend all at once.
I'm in between my two classes right now. I have about an hour and a half long break which is nice. I will go eat now so I'm energetic for my grade 2 reading class :)
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