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Throwback Thursdays!!

April 11, 2013

This has quickly become one of my fave Thursday link-ups! 

I am almost positive this was in 2010, I joined a bunch of my girlfriends for a long weekend trip to Jamaica came home to Chicago for a few days and then left to Toronto for another long weekend. It was a great time but I do remember it taking me quite a while to recover! Crazy things were happening on both of those trips but they were definitely worth the money and recovery 🙂

Toronto….
Forgive the ring…It was 3 years ago!! 

Jamaica! 
And just because this song randomly popped into my head! 
love Offspring! 
Link up so I can check out your Throwback Thursday post 🙂 

Filed in: Other, Social • by Monica •

That time I went to the Philippines….

April 9, 2013

Ooh hi! Remember me? I meant to post while I was on my little trip but then I got there and the beach stole me away. It was gorgeous weather and beautiful beaches for 4 whole days. I couldn’t have been a happier girl. I can’t wait until I get another chance to go back there and explore more of the Philippines but what little bit I saw I loved. 

We went to a smaller and less busy island Bohol. We were worried there wouldn’t be any tourists but there were plenty just not the rowdy partying kind you usually come across on islands. Our hotel was much further from the beach than we thought…but thats ok. The free motorbike the hotel gave us useless since neither of us could drive it without fearing for our lives…but thats ok. GCgirl got horrendous sunburn our first day…but thats ok. The hotel we stayed at in Cebu for the last night had barking and fighting dogs outside and only one bed & tiny blanket for us to share….and that was eghhh almost ok. We waited an hour in line to check in for our flight leaving Cebu back to HK….yea that wasn’t so much ok. Haha it happens though! We kind of expected that since everything else had worked out so well we would run into problems when we were
headed home.

Our first day we went to Alona beach which was the closest to our hotel and it was great, we didn’t do enough exploring and ended up just picking a spot we thought had enough shade. Unfortunately GCgirl got a really bad sunburn that day. 

She was a sport though and still wanted to join me on the beach the next day just with an umbrella and more clothes so we found another beach to try Dumaluan Beach. We hired a car to take us there and paid a fee to visit a resort so we had access to an Umbrella chairs and a free Boka Boka juice 🙂 

If only every day could be this way! 

 The last day we decided to head back to Alona and find an umbrella. We found a resort a little further down on the beach and got chairs, an umbrella and a food/drink package. It was a great way to spend our last morning/afternoon.

I was terrified…as I might have mentioned before I am scared to death of ocean creatures! 

Heading back to Cebu is when we ran into some poopers…Waiting to check into the ferry took almost an hour in a very hot room. Then the ferry left almost 45 mins late. We got to Cebu and still had to find a Starbucks so I could get my mom’s cups and get some food as well as check into our hotel. We found a mall that had one and enjoyed some western food at TGIFridays! When we got to our hotel they didn’t have a room for us set up so we had to wait..it was already 11pm and they put us in a room with 1 bed that we didn’t request, and no internet access that we were supposed to have as well as a very tiny sheet to share between the two of us. Then the barking started….and went on ALL NIGHT LONG. There were dogs barking and fighting right outside the hotel and it did not stop until the roosters started at 5am.

Cups for mom!!

On the flight back to Hong Kong…I was so sad to be heading back to China after such a short trip!

It was a great time and I am so glad that I didn’t talk myself out of booking the trip! 

Have you been to the Philippines? 

Filed in: Living Abroad, Teaching Abroad, Travel • by Monica •

My Weekend!

April 2, 2013

Guess what!?! I will be heading to the airport tonight for a late night flight to the Philippines! Wooo hooo for me! But thats not what this post is about…though you should be jealous. Its about how I actually left my apartment for more than food and work this weekend! Yay!!!

Friday night I just worked and relaxed!
Saturday I relaxed most of the day, did one of my part time jobs and then met up with two of my girl coworkers and saw Oz.

If you haven’t seen it, you should! It’s really cute. It made me want to see Wicked all over again, which is funny since I’ve seen it 3 times already. 
Also…just a note here but they completely ruined Mila Kunis for me. Girl crush gone…..
then we headed to join our English department director out at a new wine bar in Shunde for drinks. It was a great time, we sat around with a bunch of older Chinese businessmen who didn’t speak any English and smoked cigars but sang along to Adele songs. 
English Department director 

our half of the table 

My coworkers! Saffer & GCgirl! 
Sunday I spent cleaning my apartment and watching Modern Family. I am now in love with that show and in the 2nd season so don’t tell me anything that happens! Then I joined up with some coworkers and other English teachers in town for a duck dinner. Soooooooooo delicious!!! 
Its not much but seeing that I have been very strict with myself watching everything I eat and avoiding alcohol for the last 6 weeks it was nice to enjoy both without stressing too much 🙂 
I ended my Sunday night skyping with my family and then Sniferella. 
I told my family about how I am considering resigning for another semester and I was shocked to find my sister crying. She just burst into tears!!! I didn’t have a clue what to do, just kept reassuring them that I wasn’t positive I was signing anything yet. Yikes!!! 
on another positive note…I had a good hair weekend…it just happened to work for me so I had to take a selfie!! 

How was your weekend???

Filed in: Other, Social • by Monica •

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