Yvanovich.com Family Portal

God Bless America. I can't say it enough times. Seriously. I would never have considered myself a particularly patriotic person before we left (I loved America as much as the next person but....) but now you should see me now!

We are closing in on being gone for 200 days. Sometimes I have felt every second on those 200 days and at other moments it seems like the time has flown by. Almost everyone I have talked has said it takes at least 6 months, if not a year, to feel at home at your site. For us, something seemed to have finally clicked at the six month point.

Anthony and I have big news! We have just added the newest addition to our family. Her name is Zoe and she is an adorable 3 month old puppy!

When you visit the Philippines (hint, hint!), one of the first things you will see are children playing basketball. Basketball surrounds us in a maze of flying balls, skidding shoes (for those lucky enough to be able to play in shoes), and TV's blaring the current NBA basketball score. Filippino's love basketball almost as much as they love eating. I, of course, am a soccer girl to the core but Anthony has had some experience playing basketball and that has turned out to be pretty handy.

I knew the time would come when I would have no stories, no interesting tid bit of information to share, and nothing new to report. I guess you can say that our lives here have finally settled down into a "normal" (how normal does it really get here?) routine. Don't get me wrong, I am far from complaining about this! In fact, I think we are both starting to enjoy our the routine that we have.

Now that we are done with the move, I wanted to post our new address. This can only be viewed if you are logged in. For your information, we have found that FedEx delivers to Catanduanes really fast. We were able to send a package home in five days! I am not sure how much it costs though. Anyway feel free to write, we love any little bit of news from home.

This is going to be a very short post. Anthony and I have been really busy these past few weeks but I promise to get in soon and post for real. We are moving this weekend (yeah!) into our new house. We are moving to a bigger city which means easier access to internet and the market! Our new place is equiped with air-con and it is located right on the beach. We are so excited. Also, new pictures have been posted to the photo gallery (here and here). Be sure to check them out!

Only a Peace Corps Volunteer, living in the Philippines could connect these three thing together in a logical way. This past weekend, Anthony and I escaped our little island for the big city on the mainland. What a crazy weekend it turned out to be!

Well, its avacado season. I used to think that there were no better avacado's than the ones found right in California. California avacado's right? It's up there with the cheese! But, unless you have seen a five pound avacado, you don't know what you are missing! The avacado's here are huge and delicious. So creamy and smooth. It has me craving a flour tortilla stuffed with spices, beans, and guac. This taste from home was just what we needed to boost our spirits.

My Alma Mater would be proud! What Presentation graduate wouldn't be thrilled to take part in a Girls Leading Our World (aka GLOW) Camp? This past weekend Anthony and I travel to the other side of the island to work at a camp for girls. San Andreas, where the camp was held, is a great town complete with a market! There were a number of PCV from all around the Bicol region in attendance of this very special camp.