As far as I am aware, there is not a national thanksgiving holiday here in the Philippines. That means that we have been in Christmas/Navidad/Noel/Weinachts/Pasko mode here for a few weeks already. Of course I'm thinking about pecan pie and turkey and mashed potatoes and my grandmother's stuffing. I'm very disappointed that I wont be able to be with the family for Thanksgiving, it has always been one of my favorite holidays as far as things go. But it seems to be a good holiday to just spend time with your family. There isn't a lot of things that have to be done, you just get together and eat and give thanks. My "Ulrich's" always end up playing Euchre, which I'm going to miss tremendously.
The second semester here is well under way. We've been in class a few weeks now and I'm trying some different things to keep students interested and involved. The student body is preparing for the massive production that is the school Christmas program. One of the school traditions here is to produce a cantata that tours around to various churches that support the school. This is used as a promotional tool for the school and as a way to display the talents of the students as well. Since I sit in with the choir I'm very familiar with the musical aspects of this years program. (As a corollary, I find myself wondering why people who arrange choral music hate basses.) The music program here at ABS is top-notch considering the resources available and the music instructors are excellent. I'm looking forward to seeing the program in it's entirety.
I've had several Ilocano lessons lately, I've been trying to expand my vocabulary. My sentence construction is still somewhere between non-existent and horrible, but I like making people laugh with my mistakes. If your interested, some of the new words I learned recently: Apay (what?), agung (nose), mata (eye), lapayag (ear), saba (banana). I'm always trying to learn new words, and it is usually hilarious. The funniest situation is when I ask my colleagues in the office what the Ilocano equivalent of an English word or idea would be. Sometimes I get answers, sometimes we get an argument, and sometimes we get discussions about whether or not such a word exists. When it doesn't exist the answer to the question "what is the Ilocano word for "charm"? is . . . charm; "just use English." The joys of learning a language from native speakers.
The other side of the language divide is students being increasingly bold in their English usage around me. The results are hilarious and educational. Being wished a good morning at 6 PM is a rare privilege. One of my recent favorites was said in response to one of the students describing some problems that she was having. Another student responded (in an effort to convince her not to worry about it) "Don't problem your problem." Another of my favorite conversations took place last week when some students who are new for the 2nd semester were asking me why I didn't shave off all my facial hair. (Because I don't want to). One mentioned that I looked like a goat, the other said I looked like a drug pusher. The capstone was the statement was "Sir, you are already handsome but you would be more handsome if you shaved your beard." (Very laughter).
I hope everyone is well, to my American readers: Happy Thanksgiving!
Nick
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