lessons learned from interchange

long before i became a teacher, i knew that you should never stop learning. after having gone through 3 weeks of interchange, i did get to take home valuable lessons.

1. know your religion and defend it with faith. religion teacher or not, i literally had a lot of explaining to do to my thai visitor. "what's Christmas all about? why hear mass every Sunday? who is the Virgin Mary? what's with all the stars?..." knowing the answers to all the questions i credit not only to a good catholic education, but to my conviction to my faith. honestly, without faith, if you take one step back and hear the questions yourself, you may ask yourself, "why DO i do all this stuff?!" blind obedience? more than knowing the textbook answers, as cheezy as it sounds, you have to be able to answer from the heart.
2. love the local language... and speak it! knowing filipino -- be it as a first or second language -- is always a plus, whether it be to talk in front of the foreigners, ask for directions, get a discount, and even to negotiate to get into the baguio country club to get raisin bread. yes, speaking the local language can literally get you places. it is not uncool to be able to speak in filipino and i salute the thais (and my kids) just for trying! i've also learned never to speak above the person you're speaking with... in any language.
3. plan your interchange and stick to the plan. eat your heart out, jiro! hahaha! enough said.
4. my brother's not so bad after all. for someone who said that having a guest stay for 3 weeks would be a "bother," he sure didn't show it! he volunteered to show my guest PGH and medical city -- for what reasons, i don't know. duh. he planned our trip to my dad's hometown, drove us there, and even treated us to dinner. he went all out taking us to see kitchie nadal and drink to our livers' content -- of course, it DID help that he was one of the owners of the bar. he had filipino dishes especially cooked for sunisa and even tagged along on our trip to greenbelt on her last free night, even footing the bill for tavern and bizu.
5. i love my kids! i loved them then in thailand; i love them now. can't imagine going through the program with a different set. will miss sleeping with them -- hahaha! i love their parents, too! hahaha!