Two Weeks!

Tomorrow will mark our "two week anniversary" in Manila. Hans of course has been here a bit longer, but it will be two weeks for the full family presence. Just wanted to let everyone know that a few things on my worry list that I posted a while ago have resolved themselves.

Let's start with housing. Though we looked at a number of apartments and condominiums, after several conversations with Andy and Chiqui, they convinced us to stay here in Makati with them. Their generousity in providing us a home base for four months is unbelievable. We are very well cared for here and avoid the expense of a condo during the weeks we are traveling. We are lucky to have this family connection to help us out. And, hey, we are getting them out and around the dining room table every now and again for some conversation and laughs so there's a little perk in it for them too!

As you may have read earlier, Hans work situation is largely resolved. He'll be joining Dr. Ong at UP for a field project in Negros. There are some details to resolve in terms of how often and on what days he'll go to UP and whether other field opportunities will emerge, but at least he has a starting point.

Jordan's schedule has started to fill up too. He now has a tutor that works with him for two hours 2-3 days each week (depending on our travel schedule). His tutor, Tata, is fabulous. She's helping support his math, reading, and writing, as well as giving him some Tagalog lessons. Jordan is really enjoying the one-on-one approach and really likes Tata. This week, he will also begin art classes on Friday afternoons in La Vista with his friends Glad and Pepy. He may have music classes there as well. There's talk of basketball or soccer too, but we haven't decided on that - we don't want to get overscheduled or restrict our abililty to travel.

As for me, I'm beginning to find a work routine too. With Jordan engaged with school and art activities, that creates nice blocks of time for me to do my work. I've still been a bit tired - and I have a cold now too - so I haven't been able to be as productive as I'd like, but things are coming together. My other responsibility is scoping out places for us to go and see. I spend a lot of time looking at maps and tourbooks...trying to figure out how to get us to all the sights we hope to see.

Though so far most of our time has been spent in Manila, with our routines nearly established we can begin getting out to see other parts of Luzon as well as other islands. It is still the "rainy season" - which is just a nice way of saying typhoon season. One missed us last week and headed north (Pat Preisinger enjoyed the 15 inches of rain it brought in two days!). Another one missed us this week and headed instead for Hong Kong. "Tropical Storm 19" is out to the east now and projected to hit Luzon early next week...so we'll see if we luck out again. Anyway, with these weather conditions, staying in Manila isn't a bad idea. We are enjoying some urban sites - Intermuros and the Ayala Museum to name a couple. We'll venture further out soon.