success?

Hi all....another post....two weeks now without one....just gonna start the ranting again and see how it goes...keep with me....
so the past two weeks i have been working at home on things for my classroom. Its been really hard to concentrate - staying in that dark house all day long and not talking to anyone but the family, sitting at a desk hunched over not moving all day, or staring at a blaring computer screen for hours - all mind numbing! i tried a couple of times to get out of the house and find news places to study. One day i went to the nearby college where i have my language lessons and used the computer. One day i ventured over to the SIL "village" - its an organization of linguists that work on translating the bible in native dialects. they live in an isolated community about 15 minutes from my house. they have their own library, tennis courts, swimming pool, internet, everything. i went there to study for a day in the library. I am going to work on making friends there and maybe ill be able to check out some books or use the internet, even go there and play tennis or swim! I also found a new language tutor there. She is going to make lessons for me which is very exciting. I think i might make some progress with her. My current tutor doesn't prepare anything for me. mostly we just talk and i ask her some questions. its not working. i get lazy and dont study the new words i learn. My new tutor is actually going to prepare quizzes and tests for me. im hoping this will motivate me to work harder. I figure i still have a long time here so i should try to make it my priority.
oh one more thing about SIL - i saw american children! what a strange thing that was - its been 7 months since i saw any american children - just joking around playing like regular american kids! right here down the street from my house!
what else? today i went to the school to show liza my work and our meeting went really well. she was really receptive to my ideas and we worked out some things that we would like to do with the class. Im really excited. i tend to take things really personal with her so any time she brushes me off or isnt friendly with me i think i did something wrong or she doesnt like me. today she was so warm and welcoming and we joked around too. it wasnt all serious. i am going to start going to class again tomorrow. We have a week long semester break next week and then after that the two of us are going to work on making IEPs for each student (individualized education plans). im really pumped about this because it is not common for SPED teachers to do this here. They are too busy, understaffed, and overworked to be able to accomplish this. But we are going to make it work for this class.
also, a filipino friend of mine has asked me to come to her university class and talk about special education in the US. She just started studying for her masters in Baguio. I havent prepared anything yet but am also excited about this. It will be the first time here for me to present something alone. Alot of other volunteers here have conducted workshops or trainings alone but I have yet to do so. It will be good public speaking practice.
Things with my family? still going very well. Im having a blast. Ive been cooking still. Last week i made tacos with homemade tortillas. they were delicious!!!! and the family liked them! success! by far the best thing i have cooked. I also made some pan bread but it was tough - funny to see mama sonia take a bite and not get her teeth through it!! my attempts at homemade pancakes went a lot better.
as for me personally.......hanging in there. of course there are good days and bad days. my bad days are never really bad - more like "blah" days. especially last week when I wasn't getting out of the house. I would get really restless. A couple of times I left and went on a long walk. Its hard to do that here. They think its a bit strange for a young woman to walk around alone. They also tell me it isnt safe. I cant stay in the house forever tho - for my own sanity i need to get out and walk around sometimes.
today i had an incident on the jeep. I was waiting on the jeep to come to my language lesson. As i was walking up to the jeep, a man asked me to come there. i hesitated, not sure what to do - he acted like he had something to say. i ended up ignoring his request and got on the jeep. We sat there for about 20 minutes. during that time he came around to my side and stood there inches from my face staring at me. I didnt look at him. he told me how he wanted to marry me and how he has always wanted two american wives. you should have seen this man. he was absolutely disgusting and probably drunk. he was chewing moma - filipino version of chew which turns your entire mouth bright red. I was hoping he was staying there, but as the jeep started leaving he jumped on. luckily he stayed in the back. I got off at the university and carried on with my business. then, when i was in the computer lab, about an hour ago, waiting for a computer to free up, he showed up here and started talking to people about me! then a security guard came in and had to escort him out of here. everyone was looking at me. thats the worse it has been here with harassment or attention. i am constantly being stared at by everyone. people yell at me on the streets or talk to each other a bout me - usually i can understand them. its very frustrating and easy for me to become extremely self concious. After what happened today i can see my family's point about it not being safe everywhere. i should watch out when i am walking aroun.
but dont worry....i feel very safe here and my family and their friends looks after me!

not much else to say - pretty uneventful around here. I went one weekend to visit jill and last weekend to visit adam in banaue. at jills we tried some of my new recipes - also very successful! and we watched a battle of the bands where high school kids sang avril lavigne and evanescence. it was followed by a mini beauty pageant. last weekend in banaue i went to the banaue hotel. supposedly it was where parts of 'the shining' were filmed. it doesnt look familiar but id like to see the movie again. the hotel is massive and has amazing views of the rice terraces. it also has a great restaurant. adams host mom treated us to lunch. we had fresh rolls and real butter and a carrot bread - like banana bread. delicious! there is a large outdoor pool too. It will be great in the summer time.

h mmmmm...i found dads and mug rootbeer! only 15 pesos! thats like - 25 cents? and dark chocolate...bit more expensive but worth it every once in awhile.
ok not really feeling the flow here so i will write more again. love you all and miss you tons
eva