100 islands do not have anything to do with dressing

So as I found out, internet has been difficult to find around here. We've been using Molly's Blackberry phone to check messeges.

Molly, Miranda, Letrice and I are the four girls from the US on this exchange. We've been getting along great! The people from the UK who are joining us for the journey are really nice a well....Dawn, Corin, Clara, and Laura.

My first host family in Dagupan, which is just two hours from Manila, were very great. The mom's name was Cris, and her kids' names were Crystal, Patricia, Joel, and, Andre. Molly and I stayed with them in there cute, messy house. They were the party crowd as the rest of the Rotarians from the area called them. The first day with them we were on the go! We got a one hour massage at an Asian Spa, and that very night we went to the Mayor's house which has been seen on Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations"....one of my favs! The Mayor was really cool and gave us gifts and tons of food. Let me just add that the reason we got to do all these fun things was because Cris' best friend was a politician and weaseled things for us. How nice. That same night we had a Rotarian meeting where we performed our tunes....no comment on the quality of that. After that which was after midnight we ended up going out to this huge club with a live band....I thought I was going to die of sleep deprivataion but I made it through 'till 4am.

The next day we got to go to the Gulf of Lagoyan and swim in the ocean and nap in adorable huts! I wish I could figure out how to get pictures on this....although internet is too slow to do so anyway. Next to the beach is the capital of Pangasinan, the province we were staying in. We took a tour of the building...they were quite lax there considering they let us take a dog in there and eat snacks...hmm... In the evening our whole group got invited to go to the Rotarian president's house....very fun and met someone there from California who kind of helped us a bit...explaining more later...

That same evening we had to go to another bar to sing kareoke...the two girls Crystal and Patricia are amazing singers and they wanted to share it with us. I was just about pop songed out when we finally went home! I'm so tired at this point!

I loved this family but it was really hard to eat food ALL the time, party every night 'till 4am and then wake up at 7am with no exercising. Apparently a lot of people are like that...but not us Americans. My six hours a night is unheard of apparently!

The next day we were off to a new place and had to leave our host families...they were sad and they cried, but I was just happy to not have to stay up until the weee hours anymore. I'll mostly miss the kids! They were cool and very kid like....I miss my gymnasts!

Keep reading....continued with more.