Well folks, it finally happened. Matt and I finally have our
jobs! Thank goodness, because all of this free time was getting a little tiresome. Ha…just kidding. But, yesterday morning Matt and I met with the Rector-President of San Beda College, and then the Vice Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences here at San Beda. It was truly one of the moments that Matt and I were pioneers for BVC-Manila. For those of you still outside of the 'know', this is the first time that the Benedictine Volunteer Corps has sent volunteers to Manila, let alone all of Asia. Matt and I are the pioneers of Asia! Anywho, the Vice Dean's name is Brian, he graduated from San Beda College with a degree in...social sciences (I think?)...but then got his Master's in Public Administration and is in the process of completing his Doctorate in Philosophy. He seemed like a pretty smart guy, anyway. The meetings with both the Rector-President and Vice Dean were exactly as you would expect them to go. There were formalities exchanged, introductions, and then discussing what Matt and my purpose is here in Manila and what our backgrounds are. Well...it was a lot of talking about our degrees (Matt is Communications and Philosophy, I'm Poli Sci with strength in History). We'd talk for a bit, then the Rector-President would leave for 5 minutes. He'd come back in with more questions and then leave. Finally he turned us over to the Vice Dean, who has, what seems to be, the entire catalog of courses memorized. So, when we told him what our strengths were, he instantly suggested a course to Matt and another to me.
So! What we determined was, with Matt and my monastic schedule still needing to remain intact (which I'll cover in a minute), we'll be teaching primarily here at San Beda College, which is contrary to what we'd been told over the weekend. You see, this past weekend we were told that we may be teaching at a High School in northern Manila, which would have required a 20 minute train ride, then a 40 minute bus ride. As the Abbot was telling us about this endeavor we'd take every day to tutor the athletes at the high school, he said, "But don't worry, we'll send a monk with for the first week to make sure you don't get kidnapped! Ha!"
HAHA. NOT FUNNY.
So, after praying and fretting a little bit about it, everything turned out fine in the end. So, again, due to our monastic schedule and the University schedule, we'll be Special Guest Lecture Professors. What this means is that we'll both be assigned to a class, Matt to an Art Appreciation/Philosophy Class and I to the Filipino Constitution/History class. Each week we'll get a topic to research over the weekend, and then sometime during the next week we'll present our topic/lecture in one of the classes (which run from 9-1030, 1030-12, 130-3, and 3-430). As you can imagine, 4 classes a day for 5 days a week of us lecturing would be a bit much, so we'll be giving our lectures to different classes on different days. Translation: We'll be floating around a bit, but it'll all work out just fine in the end, with quite a bit of time to experience other fascinations of our locale.
Today we began our research by sitting in on a class this morning (a management class) and this afternoon (Matt's Art Appreciation class), so we could see what Filipino College classes were like. Answer: pretty darn similar to the U.S. Tomorrow we'll have a half day consisting of observations in the morning, because in the afternoon we're goin' off to the San Beda Red Lions Basketball game! They're 12-0, #1 in the country, and facing our cross-town rivals. It stands to be quite a feat of athleticism, or so I hear.
So, as for that illusive monastic schedule, here goes.
Wake up is at 5:30am, which is signaled by an iron bell that is rung just outside of Matt and my rooms (not just for us, it's for the entire monastery). The bell is then rung 5 minutes before every prayer time for the remainder of the day.
Morning prayer is at 5:50 in the church, with Mass following immediately after. Breakfast follows mass.
We then would have from 7:30-9 to prepare for class. This is also ideal time for Skype dates for those of you back home (wink wink(because it's a 13-hour time difference(which means it'd be 630pm-8pm(what else would you have to do?))). Then it'd be class from 9-1130. We have midday prayer at 1150, then lunch immediately after that.
The great thing about the Philippines being a former Spanish colony is that many of the colonial traits still exist in today's culture. One such trait is the siesta. Yes, that's right, scheduled naptime. I couldn't ask for more! So, from 1230-130 we have Siesta. Then, the afternoon is class from 130-430. We have break from 430-545, and then at 545 we pray the rosary. Evening prayer immediately follows the rosary, with dinner following that. After dinner we have about a half hour off, and then we have night prayer at 750. Then, the night is ours...but being as we'd woken up at 530 and will have to do it again in the morning, bedtime is usually 9 or 930 (if I'm feeling especially rambunctious). It's the first time in the history of me that I've woken up this early this consistently (7 times) and gone to bed this early this consistently. It's truly been a different existence here.
But, as with all things here in Manila, there is a GREAT catch. The only time the schedule is deviated from is over national holidays and...weekends. Wake-up time on
So! What we determined was, with Matt and my monastic schedule still needing to remain intact (which I'll cover in a minute), we'll be teaching primarily here at San Beda College, which is contrary to what we'd been told over the weekend. You see, this past weekend we were told that we may be teaching at a High School in northern Manila, which would have required a 20 minute train ride, then a 40 minute bus ride. As the Abbot was telling us about this endeavor we'd take every day to tutor the athletes at the high school, he said, "But don't worry, we'll send a monk with for the first week to make sure you don't get kidnapped! Ha!"
HAHA. NOT FUNNY.
So, after praying and fretting a little bit about it, everything turned out fine in the end. So, again, due to our monastic schedule and the University schedule, we'll be Special Guest Lecture Professors. What this means is that we'll both be assigned to a class, Matt to an Art Appreciation/Philosophy Class and I to the Filipino Constitution/History class. Each week we'll get a topic to research over the weekend, and then sometime during the next week we'll present our topic/lecture in one of the classes (which run from 9-1030, 1030-12, 130-3, and 3-430). As you can imagine, 4 classes a day for 5 days a week of us lecturing would be a bit much, so we'll be giving our lectures to different classes on different days. Translation: We'll be floating around a bit, but it'll all work out just fine in the end, with quite a bit of time to experience other fascinations of our locale.
Today we began our research by sitting in on a class this morning (a management class) and this afternoon (Matt's Art Appreciation class), so we could see what Filipino College classes were like. Answer: pretty darn similar to the U.S. Tomorrow we'll have a half day consisting of observations in the morning, because in the afternoon we're goin' off to the San Beda Red Lions Basketball game! They're 12-0, #1 in the country, and facing our cross-town rivals. It stands to be quite a feat of athleticism, or so I hear.
So, as for that illusive monastic schedule, here goes.
Wake up is at 5:30am, which is signaled by an iron bell that is rung just outside of Matt and my rooms (not just for us, it's for the entire monastery). The bell is then rung 5 minutes before every prayer time for the remainder of the day.
Morning prayer is at 5:50 in the church, with Mass following immediately after. Breakfast follows mass.
We then would have from 7:30-9 to prepare for class. This is also ideal time for Skype dates for those of you back home (wink wink(because it's a 13-hour time difference(which means it'd be 630pm-8pm(what else would you have to do?))). Then it'd be class from 9-1130. We have midday prayer at 1150, then lunch immediately after that.
The great thing about the Philippines being a former Spanish colony is that many of the colonial traits still exist in today's culture. One such trait is the siesta. Yes, that's right, scheduled naptime. I couldn't ask for more! So, from 1230-130 we have Siesta. Then, the afternoon is class from 130-430. We have break from 430-545, and then at 545 we pray the rosary. Evening prayer immediately follows the rosary, with dinner following that. After dinner we have about a half hour off, and then we have night prayer at 750. Then, the night is ours...but being as we'd woken up at 530 and will have to do it again in the morning, bedtime is usually 9 or 930 (if I'm feeling especially rambunctious). It's the first time in the history of me that I've woken up this early this consistently (7 times) and gone to bed this early this consistently. It's truly been a different existence here.
But, as with all things here in Manila, there is a GREAT catch. The only time the schedule is deviated from is over national holidays and...weekends. Wake-up time on
weekends is 610 and morning prayer is 630. What a treat!
Wow - what a schedule! Super interesting, Cor!
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