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Hello everyone again and welcome to my tenth and final post of my Freeman Asia Internship Blog. This has been an adventure for certain, and I can say that it has not all been perfect. I had some rough spots, especially towards the beginning, but I also had some incredible experiences and made some memories that are going to stick with me for a long, long time.

It’s hard to really outline everything I am feeling. Believe me, I wrote 4000 words in my personal diary trying to figure out exactly how I was feeling, and I think that at the end, the one word I would choose to describe this trip is:

Satisfied.

It was adventurous, it was sleepy, it was exciting, it was boring, it was challenging, but it was not easy. I overcame a lot of personal obstacles. I see a lot more I could overcome.

Let me explain. I’m not really the adventurous sort. I go out to eat maybe once every other month. I spend most of my time with my siblings or with friends I cycle online. I do not usually go out and ‘do things.’ This whole trip shook that up and turned it upside down.

I made friends. I went out. I talked to people. I could have gone out more, but I did not. I could have been more adventurous, and perhaps by average standards I did not really do all that much. But by my standards, the amount I did do was incredible. I have travelled before yes, but never with my own itinerary. I tend to like being dragged places more than planning myself. That’s something I need to work on.

But I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about other culture as well, though I admit that is a lot harder to define, simply because I do not think about it as much. I just adapt and live with it. In the end, people are people no matter where they are.

And yeah. I think I am satisfied with this trip. I have learned a lot and I have a lot more to learn. I will be going to the plane to go home really soon. I am looking forward to taking these experiences with me for the rest of my life: and letting them inform my future just as the past formed this present.

I posted about many of the meals I had throughout June and early July. With the end of July and the internship coming up, I have had many more meals that were just as delicious that I thought I might share.

To tell the truth, at the very, very beginning of the internship, I struggled a bit with the food. There was actually a lot of different factors that came into this. At first, it was the quarantine and limited access to food. Then there were bugs that got into the food I had. Then it turns out, simply getting used to food can be challenging in a new culture, and I was no exception.

But now, in the second month, I have the opposite issue. Food is cheap enough to order every day, its delicious, I haven’t had bug problems, I am fully used to the differences and people invite me out to food and I am eating all the time.

So this post is more about food! Because in the end, I love food so much~ My only concern is that I am terrible at remembering food names. So I’ll try my best.

My colleagues go out to eat weekly, so here is the Pork Tonkatsu I ordered with them. There is the fried egg on the side as well, absolutely delicious. Next to it is a sandwich I made and cut using Lettuce that Miss Joy gave me from a farmer’s market. It was really sweet of her. The lettuce itself was fresh (obviously) and really crisp too. I’ve never made such a picturesque sandwich, so I had to include it.

Here are two more meals I shared with the other four interns. On the left is the Vietnamese pho, and on the right is the Japanese ramen. Both so, so delicious, even if I managed to be full before even entering the store both times. So much good food to eat!

Now though those foods were all good, and it’s really cool that I can afford to eat out here, you must be asking: You’re in the Philippines, where is the Filipino food? Well, ask no more! One of my new colleagues got back from a trip, and when she learned I was visiting, she had to take me out to an amazing place called Lotus Pod to get some authentic Filipino food. And oh, it was so good.

The pork dish is Bagnet Kare-Kare, which is cripsy pork belly with peanut sauce, shrimp paste, and vegatables. The wrapped dish is actually chunks of chicken wrapped and cooked in screw pine leaves. The beef dish is Beef Rendang, which is in a coconut sauce. The soup is Seafood Binakol soup, which is shrimp, squid, and clams in a coconut broth. And lastly, the dessert is Buko Pandan with Ice cream, which had jelly cubes, young cocnut and sweetened cream with Pandan (which is a kind of leaf that tastes kind of like vanilla but not quite) and vanilla ice cream on top. There were also nachos as an appetizer, but those are not nearly as Philippine, haha.

Honorable mentions go to this Italian meal I had with the same coworker and lumpia from the cafeteria. Both delicious. I could not leave them out.

And because life isn’t perfect, I had to include this egg as well. I’m so sorry. All I wanted was a boiled egg. I have not a clue how this happened.

Hello my friends! It has been a wild ride, but we are not done yet! Only one more week to go, but I have things planned for it and this weekend. In the meantime, it has been long enough; it’s high time I gave a little more background on my internship itself.

I am an English Major. You’re probably already aware of that, but I just wanted to put it out there because most people who go to IRRI are science majors of some sort. Usually Biology, but there are others. And it makes sense, IRRI—International Rice Research Institute—is a research institute. People come here to do research on growing rice and everything that goes with it.

So, as an internship at a research institution that does not research, what do I do?

I work in the office! Originally, I was going to be working on encoding and updating the database for the many projects that are undertaken by IRRI and Partners. I did do some of that, and it pretty much involved switching tabs, clicking buttons, and making sure things were updated and correct. Important, maybe, but not really exciting.

Once my writing skills came up, however, things became far more interesting. I would look at legal documents, remove all the case-specific language, and format them into templates such that the process of beginning new projects could be just a little faster. I did this with at least ten different documents, and it was actually really cool.

Except for the time I had to rework the numbered lists. That was a pain and a half and took far, far too long.

I’ve also edited the grammar and wording of a few documents as well as come up with a way to visualize the data in the database such that it is easier for the viewers to understand what it is they are looking at. And lastly, I am writing a paper with the help of a colleague on making a solution in the early stages of project finance.

Although I haven’t really been trained for any of this, honestly, I feel as though the classes and what I have learned up to this point have helped me to be well-rounded enough to understand whatever it is I need to do. Before last week, I knew nothing about finance. But I knew how to read, research, and learn, so I taught myself and now I can properly write the paper.

It also helps that I just enjoy reading and writing. I tell my peers what I’m doing, and they wince, but I’m enjoying it. I would not mind having a job like this after the internship.

At long last, I have received the photos from one of my most exciting experiences here at IRRI! All of the interns were invited to an event that allowed us to experience planting rice and to better understand how the process of planting and cultivation works. As a reminder, IRRI is the International Rice Research Institute, and it their goal to share as much research as possible in order to make rice more accessible to the impoverished.

Even though the other interns focus on research and I focus on paperwork in our actual internship work, it is important to have an understanding of what it is we are working for in the first place. And I think that can be incredibly helpful with perspective. When I go through page after page of legal documents, it’s hard to remember that this is to deal with rice, and that we are doing this to improve the world.

The fact that IRRI is nonprofit and is actually doing this to improve the world is also humbling. I’m going through pages of legal documents, but these legal documents are there to make things better.

With that out of the way, let’s get into it!

The rice fields are like little mud pools. First, the ground is plowed (with a very deep plower, stepping in a paddy will go just below my knees), either with a carabao or a motorized tool. I preferred the tool, personally, because the carabao was kind of just walking and I did not feel as though I had much control. I was fortunate to get pictures of both:

As for planting, you could either do it the hand way or the machine. By hand, you would get this grid maker, and make the mud into grids such that you could properly plant all the seedlings (all mine fell over, and I couldn’t see the grid. I wouldn’t make it as a farmer). Or, you could skip the grid step and use a machine that could plant the seedlings for you. I have no idea how that thing managed to plant them without hurting them, whoever invented that thing is a genius. The picture shows me with the grids.

Lastly, there was a device (not a machine, it was like plastic containers that had holes and a wheel system) that let seeds fall out. Seeds had to be planted in one of two ways, either on a bed made in a spare portion of field, and then harvested in 24 days ish? And by harvest I mean taking the seedlings and planting them separately (with the before mentioned methods. The second method was to grow them at home, but they could only take 12 days, because at home they would not have nearly as nutritious dirt (the ones we saw were grown from paper towels). If too late, they would wilt. If too early in the field, they wouldn’t be strong enough to survive being pulled out of the dirt. This is a group photo with everyone there as well as seedlings that had been grown from home or a lab.

As for the experience itself, it was pretty fun. We were in the sun for four hours, though it was just short enough that I wasn’t burned. I could feel the toasting beginning, but it did not come to fruition. I was covered in mud, and I ended up holding the hand of the girl in my group the whole time such that we didn’t slip. It was pretty cool, made us feel like close friends despite having met minutes before. I ended up with no fewer than nine bug bites, but overall, I think the experience was more than worth it.

I was so worried about making friends. If you have been here since my first post, you already know that—It was my greatest fear. I wasn’t sure how I would convince myself to get out of my room and get out into the world.

Now, I’m a month in, and I’ve had a lot of meals. Most of them were by myself. But a lot of them were with other people.

I still don’t know about life-long friendships. Honestly, I could never see anyone I have met here ever again. Maybe that’s an ADHD, we have issues with object permanence. That includes people. But just because it’s not life long doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. I have been able to make connections. I have shared meals with over fifty different people now.

For me, that’s a huge number.

Of course, there are some of them that I already know I will never meet again. There are others that I know I will meet a few times over this internship, and not again. There are more that I am pretty sure I won’t see after this internship, but honestly, who knows? I would be down for a chat and a meal if I there is the chance for our paths to cross once more.

Maybe I was a little too focused on friendship. Maybe the friendship isn’t there. But I think that the connection is. I have been surrounded by people, and for me, that alone is new. I’m not talking about things opening up after quarantine; I never went out to meet people before that either. Or went out at all.

So I think I’ll take my victories where I have them. I love the time I spend in my room, talking to people I meet online. I love the time I spend outside my room, talking to people I meet in person. I think I will have to get a little bit richer in order to travel and ‘get out there’ nearly as much, but in the end; I feel a little less scared.

And that’s a good first step.

So let’s jump into it! First, we have the people who I have spent the most time with, my fellow interns. I am a little wary about holding faces in images, so despite the fact that this is literally about the people and not the food, you won’t get to see them. Sorry, but I don’t feel comfortable exposing faces. But don’t worry, I will still talk about everyone!

This picture was taken in the Spice Jar. I was with Aidan, Garrett, Katy, and Siqi. We were told it was a good restaurant, so we went to check it out. I forgot to take a picture of my food, so here was the beer instead. Only two of us got one, but it was cute since none of us really drink, so I wanted to record the experience.

This is a take-out meal from Eat-sumo, a Japanese resteraunt. It’s a really cute name, and I ate this in the office with my colleagues. This was eaten with Xyrus, Peter, Joy, and Ange. This week, there are more people, but I don’t remember their names yet. We all eat together, though, and it is fun.

This was taken at Siqi’s supervisor’s house. He invited all of the interns to his house to have a big party and a meal. It was the first time most of them had been around so many people since quarantine. There were a total of 25 people there. I didn’t individually interact with most of them, but I definitely interacted with over half of them.

Also, I drank my first beer there. Apparently, I’m a lightweight, because that was enough for my head to feel weird. But anyways, this was absolutely delicious.

This was taken when I went on a trip with my fellow interns to the beach. We met a group of Filippinos there, a basketball team, and ended up spending some time together. They invited us to join in the meal, and sadly I forgot to take a picture after the actual meat was added, but this is the set up. I’m not sure of the numbers, but I think there were 20-25 people present there as well.

So yeah, lots of meals. Lots of people. It was incredible. I am going to try and remember this kind of stuff for as long as I can.

Though this happened early on in the trip, it was still memorable, and I didn’t have a chance to talk about it in any of my other blog posts! It happened, I didn’t miss it, and I am excited to share it with you! Our on-site supervisor, for all the IRRI interns that is (neither our individual supervisors nor for all the IWU interns that came to the Philippines) took us on a tour of the city of Los Baños, where we are staying.

I had already gone to the market at that point, so it wasn’t completely new, but honestly, I felt as though that worked out a lot better than if I had not been anywhere at all. That’s something about learning new things: it has to be repeated. And the same is with maps, as I can get a bit confused with locations!

(Weirdly enough, I think I’m about as good at navigating Los Baños now as I am my home town. Granted, that’s more of a testament to how much of a couch potato I am at home as well as let other people drive me around than how much I have navigated Los Baños. Though the comfort levels are obviously different, I’m talking about straight up ability to navigate and know where I am! Though a part of it comes with our trip to the mountain. That will wait for next post, though!)

In any case, Los Baños has the largest lake in the Philippines, and we got to see it. It was all lake, no ocean, which was kind of strange for me since we are on islands known for their tropical beaches. That said, any kind of geographical water is peaceful to me: lakes, beaches, rivers, you name it. Here are some simple photos I took while we were there:

(image)

There were some other people there as well, and apparently it was popular for families with babies to go there to picnic. It wasn’t a beach, it was like a large slab of concrete that was kind of dusty, but it was open and fresh. Besides, if you wanted a view you could look out over the water, so it wasn’t that bad.

We also got to try a unique kind of milk and Boko Pie.

This is Boko pie! In Tagalog, that is, Filipino, Boko means coconut. This is a pie made from young coconut flesh. I’m not huge on pie, but it was pretty good. Also, I’ve discovered that it is sold everywhere. Like, not in stalls, but with people literally walking up with boxes of boko pie on their shoulders asking people if they want to buy any. It’s really interesting.

Sadly, I didn’t really like the milk. This one in particular was kind of bitter; but unfortunately I can’t remember the name. I haven’t really liked any of the milk here. Apparently, milk in the Philippines is processed differently than the milk back home, and it doesn’t taste quite the same. It makes me kind of sad, because I love milk back home, but here I haven’t liked any. Well, I can still put it in my cereal, but otherwise it’s a no for me. Maybe that’s a little bit of homesickness inching in, but that’s okay. I think acknowledging it is better than pretending I like things that I don’t.

Lastly, I have been able to try Jollibee’s! It is the most popular fast food chain in the Philippines and, unlike some of the chains I have experienced in the United States, Jollibee’s is actually both fast and cheap. It’s been faster than anywhere else I have gone, so far. All the food here is allot cheaper, but it worked out for me. Though that’s not the reason it’s popular here. The real reason is the rice.

Here’s an image of me eating rice like a burger. I don’t think that’s how I’m supposed to eat it, but I thought it was pretty funny. Here in the Philippines, you will both see it for yourself and be ready to be told the same thing time and time again: every meal is eaten with rice. There is rice everywhere. (I mean, there are a few exceptions, such as if you order from an Italian restaurant, but for the most part rice is with everything).

On that note, I have heard many times about eating with your hands, but no one told me that when utensils are used (which is almost always, eating with your hands is more of a special occasion kind of things) both the fork and spoon are used. The fork is used to scoop food into the spoon, such that the different dishes can be eaten at once. Namely, the rice can be eaten with the main dish. I think that is helpful to know, and that if you ever visit the Philippines, watch how they eat their food. It’s really cool.

Though this happened early on in the trip, it was still memorable, and I didn’t have a chance to talk about it in any of my other blog posts! It happened, I didn’t miss it, and I am excited to share it with you! Our on-site supervisor, for all the IRRI interns that is (neither our individual supervisors nor for all the IWU interns that came to the Philippines) took us on a tour of the city of Los Baños, where we are staying.

I had already gone to the market at that point, so it wasn’t completely new, but honestly, I felt as though that worked out a lot better than if I had not been anywhere at all. That’s something about learning new things: it has to be repeated. And the same is with maps, as I can get a bit confused with locations!

(Weirdly enough, I think I’m about as good at navigating Los Baños now as I am my home town. Granted, that’s more of a testament to how much of a couch potato I am at home as well as let other people drive me around than how much I have navigated Los Baños. Though the comfort levels are obviously different, I’m talking about straight up ability to navigate and know where I am! Though a part of it comes with our trip to the mountain. That will wait for next post, though!)

In any case, Los Baños has the largest lake in the Philippines, and we got to see it. It was all lake, no ocean, which was kind of strange for me since we are on islands known for their tropical beaches. That said, any kind of geographical water is peaceful to me: lakes, beaches, rivers, you name it. Here is a simple photo I took while we were there:

There were some other people there as well, and apparently it was popular for families with babies to go there to picnic. It wasn’t a beach, it was like a large slab of concrete that was kind of dusty, but it was open and fresh. Besides, if you wanted a view you could look out over the water, so it wasn’t that bad.

We also got to try a unique kind of milk and Boko Pie.

This is Boko pie! In Tagalog, that is, Filipino, Boko means coconut. This is a pie made from young coconut flesh. I’m not huge on pie, but it was pretty good. Also, I’ve discovered that it is sold everywhere. Like, not in stalls, but with people literally walking up with boxes of boko pie on their shoulders asking people if they want to buy any. It’s really interesting.

Sadly, I didn’t really like the milk. This one in particular was kind of bitter; but unfortunately I can’t remember the name. I haven’t really liked any of the milk here. Apparently, milk in the Philippines is processed differently than the milk back home, and it doesn’t taste quite the same. It makes me kind of sad, because I love milk back home, but here I haven’t liked any. Well, I can still put it in my cereal, but otherwise it’s a no for me. Maybe that’s a little bit of homesickness inching in, but that’s okay. I think acknowledging it is better than pretending I like things that I don’t.

Lastly, I have been able to try Jollibee’s! It is the most popular fast food chain in the Philippines and, unlike some of the chains I have experienced in the United States, Jollibee’s is actually both fast and cheap. It’s been faster than anywhere else I have gone, so far. All the food here is allot cheaper, but it worked out for me. Though that’s not the reason it’s popular here. The real reason is the rice.

Here’s an image of me eating rice like a burger. I don’t think that’s how I’m supposed to eat it, but I thought it was pretty funny. Here in the Philippines, you will both see it for yourself and be ready to be told the same thing time and time again: every meal is eaten with rice. There is rice everywhere. (I mean, there are a few exceptions, such as if you order from an Italian restaurant, but for the most part rice is with everything).

On that note, I have heard many times about eating with your hands, but no one told me that when utensils are used (which is almost always, eating with your hands is more of a special occasion kind of things) both the fork and spoon are used. The fork is used to scoop food into the spoon, such that the different dishes can be eaten at once. Namely, the rice can be eaten with the main dish. I think that is helpful to know, and that if you ever visit the Philippines, watch how they eat their food. It’s really cool.

Hello again and welcome to my blog! Today I will be discussing more of the every day living I have here in the Philippines. Don’t worry, I still went places and had tons of interesting times (that you will be able to read later), but in the end this trip is two months long. Not every day is travelling, sometimes I go to work, go to the store, go to the cafeteria—all basic day to day things. But just because they are mundane doesn’t mean they aren’t new, interesting, and different from the way I was living back home.

For example, this is what the view outside my dorm looks like (on a bright and sunny day, of course).

It’s beautiful, and I can just look outside and boom. Back at Illinois Wesleyan, my dorm window showed me another dorm. Course, I could walk outside, but even Wesleyan didn’t have mountains and palm trees to offer.

Then let me talk about going to the store. Here’s a cute shirt I got (they are cheap and cute here! I love the style) and some tasty gyoza (no, I didn’t get the spicy one) which were pretty cool. The store is about a 15 minute walk away from IRRI, so not too far. And I can get anything I need.

But the walk to the market. Oh, that is different. There is a road that is blocked off, and it is used as a walk way instead. Here are the pictures I took on the twenty minute walk to the market:

I love rivers, I love foliage, and I love the view from the walks. I mean, it is a little hot and sweaty, but honestly? This trip has only solidified one thing for me: I am the kind of person who prefers to be sweating buckets than freezing cold. Sure, you can put on a blanket for the cold, but that hardly works with me. I need another, or maybe its not really acceptable to put on a blanket in a cold office room. But by the same logic, you could say, ‘just get a fan’ if it’s hot.

But I dunno, sweating all the time isn’t too bad for me. I don’t think I would mind living in this kind of heat. That said, I do not think I can handle the bugs very well. I would have to figure that out before figuring that I live anywhere.

Hello, and welcome to my second blog post! These next couple of posts are going to be rapid fire, as I ended up missing out on June. Only three weeks are left, and I do have a little bit of catching up to do. A lot of things have been going wrong, unfortunately, so I hadn’t actually started working until the June 21^st, on Tuesday, so it felt kind of odd doing this before then. And then, well, I hadn’t done it yet so why do it then? That said, this blog is not focusing nearly as much on work, but it’s the idea of getting yourself up to do it, I guess. But it’s posted now, so that’s a good first step!

The Philippines is very beautiful and very warm, a very lovely place for humans and bugs alike to live. Yeah, I don’t really like the bugs, especially when I found them in my cereal. A tip to any other travelers, check your cleanliness habits with food and dishes, it could save you a week’s worth of indigestion. Otherwise, the food here is both rather cheap and rather tasty. On the first day we were here, the interns were brought to an amazing restaurant, look—

There are Koi fish, and all the rooms are on floating houses. It is so cute. There were even house lizards everywhere, though I didn’t know they were house lizards then. I’ve been finding them around my dorm, too, apparently they just hang out in houses and eat bugs. I could use some bug eaters, for sure. And they are so cute! Sadly, my pictures of them are kind of blurry, so I didn’t include them.

I have already been to the rice planting event which was super fun and interesting, but I do not yet have access to the photos so you will be able to read about that before I get back! Who knows, it depends on when I get the photos. Don’t worry, I already recorded my experience, so I will not have forgotten all of it. That said, I have a terrible memory, so there will still be some things left out. It should be fine.

So, I didn’t work for two weeks. What was I doing? Well, unfortunately, the answer is: quarantine. Not much happening. I ended up reading over a million words worth of fiction, maybe two million at this point (this is not an exaggeration. I read that much). Maybe I could be out exploring, but I also get nervous because, for the first week, it was quarantine, and for the second, I wanted to be working. In the meantime, I was able to visit the supermarket and order food, so it wasn’t all bad.

I look forward to recording more of my experience in the time to come! Thanks for coming to read my blog~

Hello everyone! My name is Elizabeth Shaver, and today is May 26, which means I have barely a week before I will find myself on a plan to the Philippines and begin a new chapter in my life. I will be working with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in project management. I intend to let this chapter be informed by my past, not dictated by it. Let me explain. 

I’ve been abroad twice before, once with my high school German language class, and then later in the Summer to visit a friend in the Czech Republic. These experiences are enough to tell me that spending some time outside your own country can be incredible, awe inspiring, and terrifying all at once. In Germany, I loved the scenery, the mountains, the long road trips through forests, the incredible meals and architecture. I had a few conversations with locals as well, and it was so exhilarating to see that my studying had yielded results. But what I did not have while I was there was connections. I had a few conversations, yes, but my classmates were on a completely different page than I was. I wanted to connect with them but didn’t know how and felt alienated by their confidence and their wealth. I ended up spending a lot of my time texting friends about what I was doing instead of experiencing it myself because I had no one with whom to spend. My trip to the Czech Republic was much different. I was with my friend, and I was able to experience everything with him. However, unlike with Germany, I had not taken the time to study specific culture-based things and stuck with him the entire time. I want to take a page from both of these books this time. I want to experience the culture as well as make connections. I don’t know anyone in the Philippines. I currently don’t know any of my classmates going to the Philippines either. However, this time I want to make friends and have people with me to experience life itself there. 

I think it’s fair to say that as I sit here in front of the computer tower that I am leaving behind that I am scared. If you’re a traveler or will be, maybe my fears will be different from what you expect or maybe they will be a little bit like yours. I am wary of the typical dangers and precautions to take, such as making sure to never travel alone, keep your belongings close, be aware of crime and all that, but I am confident that I will take the steps necessary in order to keep myself safe. What I am afraid of is making my hope come true– to find that human connection in an unfamiliar place. To me, the thought of failing to make any connections is terrifying. But I believe that it will happen.

I admit it, I have done a little tripping up in the pre-travel requirements, my own fears and struggles holding me back. But I am excited to become the best intern that I can be. I have always wanted to study abroad, and I am so thrilled that it is finally happening.