a week trip

I may or can not be online for a week since I would be travelling with my students. Cebu trip was cancelled since it is so impractical to go there just for one day, plane trips, food and hotel for 5- 6 people…

This is actually a great risk, I have a looooot of bills and utang to pay, I would lose more that 10k pesos of income for this week of liwaliw with my students. However, I want them to feel the Filipino’s hospitality and of course take a break of my daily boring routine of calling online students at home.

I will be in Manila around 7 pm perhaps. My PAL flight from Davao is 3:45 pm but PAL davao has been known for its delayed flights hehehe.

I wanted Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines, the usual airlines I use when I travel because they are cheaper and I am contented about it. This is actually my first time to travel in PAL since my mother insisted a thousand bucks more won’t hurt since she feels safer with PAL.

Hay naku kung mamamatay na talaga kahit ano sasakyan or naglalakad lang dedu ka na talaga kung time na!

Anyway, hope everything turns out right since I have been stressed for more than 2 weeks with this trip since me and my Korean students and their family could not decide on their budget.

Goodluck, at first their budget was only around US$700 for the trips in Manila, Cebu, and Davao, food for 6 days/ 6people/ hotel accomodation, etc… Napa tangina ako… Their reason was they could travel all around South Korea in less than a thousand US dollars.

I had to explain to them that Philippines consist of a thousands of islands and that Manila is a different island than cebu and so on. So now, they thought Manila is an island. Dang! It was so hard to explain to them since the parents speak English like a telegram. I have only been talking to my 14 year old student and he translates everything to his parents. He does not speak English well too. SO it took us more than 2 weeks and still a lot of things were unsettled.

I persistently ask them that I need to know how much is their budget because I need to plan the itinerary of their trip, also to look for a hotel, restaurants and places right for their budget.

Until now, magulo pa rin at naku bahala na ulet si batman!

I hope they would not complain with the expenses since they came from northern province part of South Korea. Those who came from Seoul and other major cities are the richer ones and do not care how much theyw ould spend for their vacation.

I paid for my trip to Manila right now and I do not have enough funds, so magpapalamon ako sa bahay ng bestfriend ko muna ng ilang araw hahahaha!

Anyway, tulog lang naman ang free ko sa kanila hehehehe

So in short, I may or can not check my blog for a couple of days this week and I hope everything will be great!

I also wish to see my former officemates and friends in Makati.

God bless us all!

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My online students…

I have been teaching online for about 4 years now. I started teaching online in one of the offices in RCBC Plaza in Ayala. Since then I have fallen in love with the job and I plan to stay on this job until I get veeeerrrryyyy old hehehe or until there will still be online students.

As of now, I am home-based earning as much as what I earn in Makati but with lesser expenses. I am somehow a free-lance teacher looking for more students at the same time employed by a Korean who owns a private school in one of the provinces in Korea. She has online English tutorials in her curriculum now. The first private school in their city/ province Chinhae/Jinhae, southern part of South Korea, where it never snows during winter time.

Here are some of my students, the pets and the pests! hehehehe…

 Leah

Alice

Vivienne

Sarah…

Tom

Sean

Phil

Kyle

I did not post all of the pictures of my students…

and my most favorite Yein! She greets me every night with a shrieking voice, “Hello Honey!”. I even made her greeting as my message alert tone. I love her so much because she takes away my stress whenever I talk to her online. She only repeats everything that I say at the moment but her bubbly nature refreshes me every night. The only English phrase or sentence she is so much familiar with is , ” Wait for a moment puleez” whenever she has to ask her brother to do something for her in the computer like recieving files from me. She and her brother are my private online students since August 2007. Their aunt used to be my online student in my previous employer. Now, Grace (their aunt) is in San Francisco University studying. She introduced me to her sister’s family.

I do not have a picture of Jeong Won because he does not show his face in front of the webcam. He is around 13-14 yo.

(Korean ages can be very confusing since they add 1 year to their “international” age. So if you meet a Korean who states his age, ask him if it’s his Korean or international age. Like I am turning 31 this year but if I were a Korean, I would already be turing 32 this year. Good thing I’m not hahaha)

She and her brother Jeong Won and their parents will be coming to the Philippines this weekend. They are the reason why I will be going back to Manila for a few days.

The trip to Cebu is cancelled but they are coming here to Davao to visit my province too.

I am the reason why they will also go to the Philippines. I am the only foreigner they know.

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