Leaving Manila...

The last few days in the Philippines were so delightful. Ren and I visited the province of Bataan with the vice mayor who had attended the WYAAP DDD.  He was a great tour guide and we visited a turtle hatchery, sadly the baby turtles weren't hatching at the time.  We also visited a monument to remember the soldiers who fought the Japanese and also died along a "death march" after finally surrendering.  Pretty horrible reminder of the faith placed in the US, and how the Philippines was abandoned for a few years until the US needed a battleground on which to fight the Japanese.

Saturday I slept in, had breakfast with Erika then went shopping in Greenhills, the pearl market and local crafts market to spend every last penny of my life savings - literally.  Ren and I had one final meeting with a professor from the Ateneo university.  He's one of those ADHD geniuses involved in everything.  Our meeting was successful as he really loved what WYA does. Then we went for dinner with Erika and Michelle, we were so loud and it was so good to catch up with Michelle especially as I hadn't seen her yet.

Sunday I went for my last day of Ultimate and my jersey was there! I played a game with the girls, took team photos and had to leave.  The guy whose cleats I'd been borrowing had a game at the same time as my team and I couldn't find anyone else to lend me cleat so played barefoot.  The ground was super muddy and squishy and I was sliding everywhere.  We also took a picture together and the whole team was teasing him about our love and that he should come to the USA with me...

Lunch with Er's family, packing, dinner with Michelle and then it was time to leave.  Erika drove me to the airport and a whole new adventure began.