My First Week in the Philippines

I’ve spelled Philippines so much I almost always spell it right now! So, the flight was long and uncomfortable and I forgot my book, but I succeeded in filling my head with Lana Del Rey for a week. I also made friends with a guy from India who was sitting next to me. He said I looked like I was 16 which I thought was funny. Abu Dhabi was dry and hot but our hotel was really nice and I got a banana shake out on the pool. I then fell asleep for a few hours and I combed through the international channels. There were so many depicting prayer at a place called Mecca which I never heard of which is sacred to the Muslim faith. It was about 9pm and we still had 5 hours until our flight so me and Lukas ate pizza and got coffee up at the rooftop bar where Julia and Faith joined us. We sat out and enjoyed the comfy night air until it was time to leave. I forgot my extra pizza in the taxi 🙁 At the Airport Kennady bought me a cute pen with a little Abu Dhabi guy on top of it because it had just turned my birthday. I’m now 22 and I’m a little bummed we weren’t able to all go out on my birthday to travel 🙁 The flight from Abu Dhabi to Manila was much more comfortable with more leg space, but they didn’t serve food until more than 6 hours into the flight so I was FAMISHED. A bright side of that flight was I got to watch American Sniper which was amazing and I made friends with the little girl next to me. She was 4 and we played games where we tried to make each other laugh with funny faces and she asked me to call like a rooster while she pretended to get woken up. That made my birthday. When we got into Manila we had to wait in the airport forever for some other people and I was so groggy. We got dinner at Denny’s where I had some big pancakes and the Gatorade flavors were different. It was my first massage at a place. Everything is so cheap compared to the states! My pancakes were only like 5 buck. Kennady and Faith got a massage and I was jealous so I went and got a short 15 minute one which was great. We then drove to Los Banos with Tito Mon who is great. The driving is all over the place here and there are a lot of dogs and cats all around. They look pretty skinny. I feel bad for them I wish they could get all there shots and have food but still be free. I was going to say like us, but a lot of people here live a lower quality of life compared to the US. I want the same for them, healthy and happy lives. I fell asleep as soon as we got to Los Banos. We stayed at the University of the Philippines Los Banos for 2 days. I stayed in a room with Lukas and Sam who I both like a lot! The next day had a meeting where learned some Tagalog and then went out to eat and got a bunch of traditional Filipino dishes. Hannah told me about all these different kinds of bananas and I’m excited to try them. We also sung a random guy happy birthday. He was pretty happy about it but they didn’t offer us any cake? Lame-o. The next day we went to FNRI and our apartments. I got a queen bed to myself which is sick! (but I later learned my air conditioner and shower didn’t work, along with my room flooding when the shower is turned on 🙂 ) FNRI was cool. I learned that I’ll be writing research articles and doing social media which I look forward too! They brought us some good fried chicken and I was so thirsty I drank a pepsi. Lukas, Abi, Kennady sat around playing games which was fun! After work they walked us back to our apartment the way we will walk everyday. It was hot and I was drenched by the time we got back. That night we also went to the SM, which is the mall and picked up some stuff and had dinner. I’m not used to working with people with food restrictions so it was hard to find a place. I think they should just eat it. The next few days passed and I went to work and got my first media assignment of food insecurity. It’s not too charming but the research FNRI is doing to prevent this problem is great I really love their mission and am happy to be a part of it! I’ve been hanging out with Lukas, Abi and Kennady and we all went down and jumped in the pool spur of the moment. Little did we know it was closed and the guard told us to get out :(. On further attempts to enter the pool we were also rebuffed given that we aren’t staying here for more than 6 months. I thought this was pretty ridiculous and went and talked to the nice girl at the office who told me the same thing, but when she pulled up my file it said I was all good to swim, so yay! Our shower only has cold water :/ On Friday my department at work had a training and teambuilding day which was really fun. I got to really meet all my coworkers and experience a Filipino workspace! It’s so personable and fun! They all tell jokes and I tell jokes and we laugh and talk the whole time. They asked me if I’m single or not… I get asked that a lot here… We did teambuilding competitions, so I joined a random team with people about my age and we made a fight song and played games like telephone and trying to get the oreo from your forehead to you mouth. I was one of only 3 people who did it! The game was then tied and each team chose a champion. I got chosen and had to compete in a sing and dance off against a girl. She had all these Tik Tok dances memorized which I think is kinda cheating but I brought out some great improv to “Let it Go.” Somehow we tied again, probably not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings but I then won rock paper scissors. I mind gamed her and knew what she’d throw. i had to win. For my team. and for myself. We won and I got some mints and a piece of paper! (woo :/ ) Overall great day at work and I love their work environment here! Friday night Lucas, Abi, Kennady and I went to this nice rooftop restaurant that had great food and drinks! It was Great Gatsby themed which I love because I love the book. We then tried to go to a similar place but when we sat down in a mostly empty place an army of people came over and was asking us about a list. They told us it was a private party and we all laughed because they hadn’t stopped us from coming in and ordering drinks! We left and tried to go to a club but Kennady had Choco’s on and the guards weren’t having it O.O . We went to a bar down the street where they put us in this big glass room in the middle of the bar by ourselves??? I guess it’s because we are white. We couldn’t really hear the music and we all felt like specimens in a cage! I feel that way a bit here but I’m getting used to it. We went out and danced and immediately realized it was a gay bar from the lack of women lol. They played great music though and we danced the night away! We went home from there and all slept in the backseat. I’m glad Lukas was able to navigate us, he’s great at planning! We all just went to sleep when we got back. The next day we all went out and got food. I had mushroom chicken and a banana shake which was great! I love talking and hanging out with these people. We then went a got a massage which was good but not as good as the on in the airport. I was a bit apprehensive about taking all my clothes off but they only had us take our shirts and socks off. They greased Lukas up and he was shiny and his hair looked funny when we left. I wonder if it was something with his skin or just his lady? They did this thing where they pulled on our hair which I liked but Lukas and Kennady said they didn’t. I then got Ramen with Lucas and I talked about my gaming stuff and showed him some funny videos of myself. We then went home and I was locked out and all greasy from the massage. It’s really hard to get in touch with my roommates given that I can’t text them at all. The next day we 4 went to Intramuros (The walled city), the oldest China town and Fort Santiago. The food in China town was great with this delicious pineapple bread that I could eat everyday for a week. The walled city was kinda cool but just had a bunch of museums we didn’t want to go in. We found Fort Santiago which was an old Spanish Fort and paid to get in. It was cool architecture but the tower house was destroyed at some point :/ . There were a bunch of bonsai trees which I loved. On the way back we walked down a side street and some locals asked us to play basketball so me and Lukas played 3v3 with them. We think we won but Abi said we didn’t 😛 .We did. She and Kennady were preoccupied playing with the kids which looked fun because they have these clacky ball toys I want to try. After basketball I was soaked again but then it started to rain and it felt great. We sat under a bridge for awhile and finally took shelter at Mcdonalds. We then went home and went to sleep because early the next morning on our holiday we would be taking a hike! We took an hour long Grab ride (Uber) Northish to some little town nestled in the mountains. Everybody pointed us towards this office where they had guides for hikes and we got matched up with a dude for only a buck each. The hike was the hardest I have ever done. First it was muddy and I was sliding all over the place. Next there were tons of big rocks and hard foot and hand holds. It was amazing and I felt that conquering nature feeling! I led the pack and we made it to the top in about 2 hours. The view was beautiful! We took some great pictures! On the way down it was half climbing half sliding. We also saw monkeys and some plants that close their leaves when you touch them. When we got to the bottom I had a chocolate boba tea which tasted like the best thing in the world after that long hike! I was so hot and sweaty that I was actually steaming in cool places on the mountain like NFL players in the Winter! That was my first week I had a great time and I look forward to everything else to come!

– Hunter