Middle School Tea Sets

This project took forever!!!

But it was definitely worth it.

After creating the East Asian Prezis, each student used what they had learned to make four teacups and a teapot with whatever design they wanted.  The cups are pinch pots and the pots are coil built.  We talked a lot about different glaze options and they really came up with some creative and beautiful pieces.  I was originally planning sumi-e wash paintings and an elaborate combined display, but the tea sets ended up taking way longer than I had anticipated so we quickly put them in the hall outside my room for the last week before exams and called it good.

Slab Containers

Do you feel like I never post anymore?

Yea, me too.

Part of that is being busy, part of that is forgetting to take pictures of things.  You see I kind of go in waves with my art classes.  Some weeks I will photograph the students and their projects every single day...and then I might forget to photograph anything at all for an entire month.  Whoops!

Now that it's the end of the year, I remembered that I hadn't taken any pictures in forever so you're about to get a whole bunch of updates.

My high school students started these slab pots back in January (seriously) and are just now finishing them up (we put off glazing while working on another project).  They were required to have a puzzle lid and include both additive and subtractive texture.  I haven't had a chance to take pictures of all of them, but here's a sampler:

Boracay

After Banaue we headed to the beach to get a little traditional beach time. We headed to Boracay one of the more famous beaches in the Philippines. After a horrendous ordeal of delayed flights extra buses an hour waiting for a 10 minute ferry and inability to find our hotel at 2am for 3 hours and having to book another hotel room we made it to our hotel. We were however extremely impressed with the hospitality of the locals. Our mototaxi driver who was helping us at a ridiculous hour even offered up his house since we couldn't find our hotel. While it took us about half a day to get over the transit snafu we began to enjoy the beach to its fullest by laying in the sun, reading books, drinking fruity drinks and eating. The rest of the trip was rather uneventful other than a canceled flight on the way back(Cebu pacific is a budget airline for a reason).

Caitlin in her sun hat. She has gotten very good at bargaining down prices.

Me with a Frutti di Mar pizza. The crust was made with Octopus ink.

Close up of the awesome pizza.

Our cabin. It reminded us a ton of Roatan.

Dinner at one of the beach restaurants. We chose a lobster and a snapper to be grilled up.

Obama is influencing cuisine in the Philippines.

Sunset.

Caitlin posing infront of a sand sign some kids made to make a few bucks.

Dragon boat practice getting started next to our beach layout area.

Green mango how I miss thee.

A bunch of sail boats.

There were  a few storms throughout the week.

Shrimp avocado salad.

Huge clam shell serving bowl.

Cock Fight in the Philippines

After checking into our hotel the first night and doing a little sight seeing which wasn't very successful the first day due to the low clouds we thought we would relax back at the hotel after getting into some dry clothes. As we got our things out of the car we noticed some yelling and cheering coming from a nearby tarp. We asked a couple of the Jeepney drivers what was going on and were informed that it was the Sunday Cock Fights.  We (Daniel and I) figured we might as well go take a look. I've never been to a cock fight and I thought why not try it out in the Philippines where it is legal.
We walked in were the only tourists, apparently this isn't on the tourist circuit. We watched for a little bit and Daniel explained to me that they put metal blades on the heels of the roosters to inflict more damage. He went on to explain that they trained them daily to jump high and to attack with more force. After a fight or two I wanted to take some pictures but was unsure if that was acceptable or not. I figured the best way to find out was to ask one of the guys taking bets on the fights. So I first asked what the minimum bet was and was told there was no minimum. So I first placed a bet of about 4 dollars and was laughed at. Apparently people were betting much hirer than that as I witnessed the guy next to me puling out about $100. I figured this might allow me to to take some pictures. So I then followed it up with a "Can I take pictures?" the guy taking bets said no problem and even said I could get into the ring. I decided to skip getting into the ring since I saw people scurry out of the way during the first fight, instead I opted to just stand on some of the stands and take some pictures. Wouldn't you know it, the cock I chose won the fight. So I continued to bet my $4 bets on another couple of cocks and won every bet I made. By the end the same guys taking my bets were still laughing but now because of the sheer dumb luck that was my betting.
While I walked away a little bit richer and can now say I have been to a cock fight I don't know if I'll go to another one. It wasn't overly exciting and it was fairly brutal. Even when a cock one there were a few that were disemboweled and were not likely to make it. It was interesting to see the care with which the handlers took with their animals, not one common with most farm animals.

Getting the cocks riled up.

Pre-fight

The two cocks going at it. I wasn't allowed to use a flash, made it hard to get good action shots.

Daniel watching.

The aftermath of one of the fights.

One of the contenders waiting.

Teacher Talent Show

The students hold a teacher Talent show every year as a UNICEF fundraiser for a school in Cambodia. I don't know how they convinced all the teachers to show their hidden talents, but they do. A group of teachers including Caitlin choreographed a dance routine for the show. Thankfully someone video taped it to show the awesomeness that is teachers. Watch and enjoy.

Banaue Rice Terraces

This spring break we headed to the Philippines to visit Ximena and Daniel as they are now living in Subic. The took off a couple of days to go site seeing with us and drive us all around Luzon. They took us to what turned out to be the coolest part of our trip which was Banaue. While Luzon might not be a gigantic island it is quite mountainous making getting from Subic to Banaue a much longer trip than it looked like it would be on the map. The ride there took longer as we swung through Bagio. We spent the night there and took in some sights from the hills. We didn't spend too much time there as we were getting nervous as to how long it would take us to get the rest of the way to Banaue as we were receiving conflicting predictions as to how long it took to drive. When we finally got to Banaue the weather was overcast but we tried to make the most of it by heading out to the viewpoints. Unfortunately we didn't get much of a view. We swung by the local museum which was tiny and got some background on the early residents of the area. It turns out that they were very short and were fairly militaristic, other than that we didn't get much info. The following day we hired a Jeepney to take us to see some of the terraces and to hike through them. A Jeepney is a jeep that has been constructed by a local mechanic. We were told we were going to need one as the roads weren't passable in a car. As we took off on the paved road I thought we had been had, it was at about this point that we started going off road and I quickly realized that there was no way we would have been able to drive it alone, especially as the road turned into mud and narrowed to a one lane road at times. The jeepney took us to our starting point and then our guide Alex(and no I am not referring to myself in the 3rd person) took us for a walk through the rice terraces. He pointed out different insects and explained to us how they used snails and fish as natural ways to prevent pests and weeds. He explained to us how the oldest son would usually get the largest and best terraces and that was why he as a younger son had to find an outside source of income. He also mentioned that it is highly frowned upon to sell terraces to outsiders. The tour was beautiful and one of the coolest things about these terraces is that some of them are 2000 years old and they are still in use. The notion that terraces from the time of the Roman era could survive so many years is amazing.

The first day at the lookout point. As you can tell it was a touch cloudy.

Daniel and Nicole walking along the edge of the terraces.

Ale ventured out to try to get a better look.

The lookout of the rice terraces from where the 1000 peso image is taken from. This was taken the day we were leaving, a little bit better view.

Another view from the lookout.

The lookout without the clouds.

The 1000 piso bill.

All of us in the back of the Jeepney. As you can tell by the blurry pictures it was rather bumpy and difficult to get a good picture.

The road we took to the rice terraces.

The jeepney we took to the rice terraces.

At a view point from the road.

I man harvesting a root that apparently helps indigestion.

Rice Terraces with an irrigation ditch running through.

Daniel and I during our hike.

Young rice ready to be planted.

Walking along the rice terraces.

Looking out on the rice fields.

Caitlin in front of the Terraces.

Whats a walk through the rice terraces without a dip in the hot springs.

Frog eggs.

Snail eggs.

Daniel and Alejandra.

Looking down on the rice terraces.

Looking out on the rice terraces.

More rice terraces.

Me in front of the rice terraces.

Another picture of the rice terraces.

You're probably getting tired of the rice terraces but they were so amazing it was hard to capture the beauty of being surrounded by them all.

As you can tell the clouds didn't let the sun get through much.

Another view of the terraces.

Another top down view. I loved how they weren't symmetrical.

A side view of the rice terraces.

The view from our hotel.

Another view from the hotel.