Before reading this journal go back and re-read the last line of day 14. Really admire my optimism for a moment.

I believe that God hath on this morning revealed my purpose upon his earth. To sabotage every church organ I can get my hands on with a flamethrower and a sledgehammer! Ok I relent, I have in mind just one particular church organ, I mean come on… what kind of church schedules in a full choir and organ practice at 4:40am?!? only the church next to our dorm, (not a church affiliated with the college.)

Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be the first time  have set a church organ on fire; even my Pastor helped last time. You have to love Australian church camps sometimes.

Right, I’ll be positive from here on I promise. Today is Thursday which means my morning is free and my classes start at 1pm. So I started my morning with a brisk walk to replenish the bread that ran out (maybe or maybe not due to my sole efforts). I then headed to college to get some wifi, write some journals and practice some piano. And in that last note it seems I’m getting trapped everywhere now. Though the only barrier between me and escape was beautiful music. Due to the bizarre set up of the rooms one has to walk through one practice room to get to the next. So in between my piano room and the exit is another piano room. Still following? Good.

So there am I getting in some good progress on Keegans waltz when a sound floats through the non-sound proof wall. It’s a Christmas song, the one that also uses the tune of ode to joy in its refrain. And for the life of me I could not touch my piano and interrupt the sound. Plus I had finished my practice and was about to leave… But dare not interrupt the pianist next door. I waited for 10 minutes (in enraptured silence) before I could stand it no longer and entered in as the last note was played. Quite an entrance I think. Turns out the piano teacher had been practicing for a recital. That explains it. It also restores some of my confidence in thinking I should continue with my musical hobby.

In certain classes here at the bible college we have to memorise one verse each week. Unfortunately I rarely hear about this until it’s due in 2 minutes. Thankfully I know about memory palaces (converting words into pictures and placing them in a familiar location), but we lose a mark every time we fail to memorise it. I’m actually only doing “audit” classes but I think I’ll still be doing the tests next week. Surprisingly, I’m not as stressed about these exams as the last ones I did (less than a month ago). This is all good training for university life I guess.

In music class we played some competitive musical games. Mostly calculating the notes of obscure scales. For some reason I get given all the hard questions but my team still came out victorious. So at the end we took a photo of us all, simply because we’re in the Philippines. Who doesn’t want another photograph?

In ear training (musical ear training, not learning to move them up and down or some-such) we were recorded singing angels we have heard on high. Mainly because some Americans wanted to hear what Filipino singing sound like. With the bonus of an Englishman and Chinaman too. While I was supposed to be focusing on leaning the notes of the bass part I was trying to pry my thoughts away from photography but just look at this:

Picture of window here

It’s like two different skies in each window…. blue at the top pink underneath.

Before the evening meal commenced a midnight pilgrimage seemed attractive. So I took to the streets in the hope of taking a photo of the nearby catholic church, but their lights weren’t on when I arrived there, I listened in to their communion service and surmised it was basically a cousin of Anglican practices with much more emphasis on the virgin Mary.

Pre dinner dorm conversation taught me that “Ding dong” is a real Filipino meal. If I do get round to eating ding dong I’ll let you know but I don’t think ding dong is high on my list of things I want to try. I’ve got no idea what it is but the name alone makes me suspicious. It’s also the name of a famous Filipino actor. Poor fellow is all I can say.

I then nearly perished on raw chicken… (always watch what fellow dorm members cook). But then to counteract his mistake he made a fabulous sauce out of peanut butter and tomatoes.

I’m still not used to having dinner at 10:30 at night. It’s nearly going to replace my breakfast…