Update 4

yesterday:

Lunch yesterday was pretty interesting. We had 4 different kinds of greens. One sabaw (soup), and then 3 others that were blanched and then sauteed with different things like garlic, tomatoes, etc. And oh, there were breaded flowers (yep, flowers).  They looked like kalachuchi. And then we had fish (which for me, isnt really fake meat, but it’s not “alpha-meat” either). And then there were fishballs (which, like the ones back home, are just mainly flour). They must have sensed that I’ve been eating too much meat already. And I ate the fish with chopsticks. The first time for me to do such.  I think I’m more adept with them now, what with practice 3x a day. I’ve never seen a fork since I got off the plane. Three more weeks to go and I’d be an expert at this

We went frogging last night. Before that, we had a lecture on frog breeding ecology, the one lecture in this entire course that I’ve been dreading about since I read it on the preliminary schedule. Because I don’t really like frogs** (see related story below). But it was ok! Im still alive, I survived it, and it was actually…I never thought I’d say this…fun! We went out in groups to 3 different places (rubber plantation, bamboo garden, then the rainforest). On each site we had to turn off our lights and listen to frog calls for 5 minutes and try to determine how many species there were. And then we did a 10-minute search of the area and looked for as many frogs as we can find. It was not an easy thing to do becayse most of them area really small, and they’re brown, or green, which is pretty much the same colors as everything else. 

I liked listening more than searching because I never found anything. I saw some things, but other people found them first. Listening is also much more exciting because it was so dark, but the night was very much alive! Im used to the typical “kokak” frog call, but when you take the time to listen really closely, some chirp like a bird, and some others grunt (we called them the unhappy, uncomfortable ones).  

**sidebar: I kinda mentioned to Loren over lunch that I’m not exactly a big fan of frogs. That was my way of sugar coating it. I could’ve said I absolutely abhor them but that would not be a good thing to say in front of this company. :-D and he asked why, and i said I just dont like how they look. and he said “so that’s it? you just take offense at their appearance?” and i kinda hesistated and said….”yeah?” but when we went out that night, they were ok. im ok with how they look. and i realized then that i never really have any reason for not liking them. i just dont.