I have been to India several times so I am used to traveling for a long period of time, but traveling to the Philippines was a different experience. From leaving my house in Bloomington to arriving at my dorm in IRRI, it took nearly 50 hours! There are 3 locations in the Philippines that 13 IWU students will be completing their internship at: the International Rice Research Institute, St. Francis Cabrini Medical Center, and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute. We flew together on June 3rd through Etihad Airways from O’Hare to Abu Dhabi and then to NAIA.
The first flight was 13.5 hours, and then we had a 16 hour layover. Thankfully, we were booked a hotel at Aloft Abu Dhabi. Once we arrived, we got to relax and unwind for a bit. Unfortunately, the high was 104ºF with a UV index of 12 so we couldn’t explore outside for a long time, but we were able to refreshen ourselves with some Starbucks. Our hotel was very elegant with friendly staff, and there were a lot of great food options inside, despite being on the pricer side.
Instead of taking a nap like I should have (because I got less than 3 hours of sleep on the plane), some of us decided to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which is the largest mosque in the UAE. It was easy to find a taxi to get there, because they are always driving outside the hotel 24/7. Before we entered the mosque, there were a lot of gift shops and clothing stores. To walk around the mosque, we had to be fully covered. The architecture was extremely detailed and beautiful to see at nighttime.
Our next flight was at 3 a.m., and it took 9 hours to fly to Manila. Once we arrived at the airport on June 5th, we exchanged our money to Philippine pesos and explored inside while waiting for 2 students who flew from different airlines. The first purchase I made in the Philippines was strawberry milk tea with boba (obviously). Food was one of the things I was the most excited for, and their boba did not disappoint! After that, we ate dinner at Jollibee, which is the Filipino equivalent of McDonalds, popularity-wise. They serve lots of chicken, burgers, spaghetti, fries, and more!
Dr. Amoloza, who is in charge of the Freeman Asia Program at IWU, had her brother, Tito Mon, pick us up from the airport. In the Philippines, we address those who are considered to be uncles and aunts as Tito (male) or Tita (female). Anyone else who is older than us like an older sibling or someone who has a higher authority than us is called Kuya (male) or Ate (female). After all the IWU interns arrived, we drove to Los Baños, which is 2 hours southeast of Manila. Both cities are located in Luzon Island, which is the most populous island. The Philippines is split up into different administrative divisions: regions, provinces, cities/municipalities, and barangays (neighborhood/village). IRRI is located in the Calabarzon region in Maahas (barangay), Los Baños (city), Laguna (province). The IRRI interns arrived at our dorm late at night while the other IWU interns stayed at a hotel since their locations are in different cities in Luzon Island.