Saturday, June 3 – Monday, June 5
Waking up on June 3rd, bags all packed, I had one final morning coffee outside with my parents before getting ready to head to O’Hare International Airport. Before I knew it, we had arrived at Terminal 5, my bags were checked, I said my final goodbyes, and was on my way.
All 11 of us IWU interns leaving from Chicago quickly found each other prepared to board. The plane was packed full, everyone gearing up for the 13-hour flight to Abu Dhabi, UAE. 3 delicious meals, 2 Ocean’s movies, and a cup of coffee later, we were landing! The views from the plane were absolutely stunning and like nowhere I had ever seen before.
The moment we began to deboard I could feel the 102 degrees Middle Eastern heat beating down on me, heavy and dry, nothing like the humid Chicago temperatures I was used to. Luckily, the airport was nice and cool, but once we were through security and exchanged some currency, we faced the heat once more, trying to find transportation to our hotel. The drive was beautiful and all of the buildings had such captivating architecture; from the museums and aquariums to the amusement park, and even the mosque, everything was so unique and beautiful.
Our group met up at the hotel, checked in, and quickly decided to go exploring. We started at the hotel’s lounge which had a pool, the NBA finals, and yet another gorgeous view. We moved on to the streets of Abu Dhabi, however, that didn’t last long, as the 102 degrees and 12 UV index quickly forced us back inside. After a shower, a nap, and a quick call home, it was soon time to head back to the airport, but not before a latte and some pizza on the roof.
We managed to find a taxi and went in small groups to the airport. After checking in, we found our gate which turned out to not be our gate at all, leading to a cross-airport adventure and a shuttle bus to get us safely onboard our next flight. Another 9 hours and we were finally able to see land peaking out from the sea of blue: the Philippines!
Touching down safely in Manila, we made it through security and customs and the daunting luggage retrieval carriage before finally meeting Dr. Amoloza’s brother, Tito Mon, and his son who were waiting to pick us up holding up a sign with “IWU INTERNS” in big, bold letters. Although we had arrived, there were still 2 more students we needed to wait for before leaving for our destinations, which gave us some time to kill around the airport.
After an hour at the currency exchange booth with long deliberations on what size bills to request, there was finally financial freedom to make some purchases, the first and most important obviously being mango milk tea. With a cold drink in hand and some sugar in our blood, Semaj, Jessica, Crishana, Jessica, and I went on exploring what the airport had to offer. We finally settled in at Jollibee’s, a fast food chain everyone I knew who had been to the Philippines had recommended to me before going. Since being in the Philippines for a little while now, many people I have met like to say that where there is a McDonald’s, there’s Jollibee. I tried their combo meal of fried chicken and spaghetti and was pleasantly surprised. The spaghetti was very sweet and rich, and the meat of the chicken fell right off the bone! The five of us enjoyed our meals and talked about our experiences, as well as how we were feeling about our internships and being in the Philippines. We wandered some more, finally found drinking water, and before we knew it our other 2 companions had arrived.
The 13 of us all piled into our respective vans and began our journey out of Manila. The drive was supposedly long but flew by quickly thanks to the exciting new scenery outside my window. We soon arrived at the International Rice Research Institute, where we would be living and conducting our internships for the next 8 weeks. Greeted with IRRI bags filled with supplies and snacks, we were given our room keys and hauled our luggage up the 3 flights of stairs before finally settling into our new homes.