Back in Action

Okay - so I've spent the year growing older and wiser at school and now I'm off on another adventure- this one is a little less exciting than the last, but perhaps more exotic.  This time I'm spending the summer studying with my cousins at De La Salle University in Manila.  This summer will probably be less a laundry list of places I've been and more musings on how I find university in the developing world.

I haven't taken any pictures yet, so everything in this post is a representative found with google images.

I left my humble abode at 4am on Sunday, May 20.  I arrived too many hours to count later in Manila at 9:50pm local time.  Upon arrival in Manila I waited in a lot of lines.  I also waited for my bag for quite some time. It never showed up.  After accomplishing the necessary paperwork to have it sent to the house I went outside to find my family.  Given the crush of people this was not an easy feat.  I wandered around for quite a while before I was able to locate my tita (aunt) Ruby and Erle(a cousin).  My tito(uncle) Bobbit, who had been circling picked us up.  

Tuesday morning we were up about 10am to head in to school.  I woke up at about 6am.  In fact I have still been waking up early, but I think that’s mostly still the jet lag – it should get better.  

Getting to school is where the real adventure begins – it takes four legs, three modes of transportation, and two hours to get to school – depending on traffic of course.  First we take a trike (a motorbike with a side car) from the house to the local market.  From the market we catch a jeepny (old refurbed army jeeps) to the bus terminal, or the onroad to the highway.  From there we jump on a bus which takes us from the suburb-like city of Muntinlupa to Manila itself.  The bus lets us hop off at another main junction where we catch another jeep to a further jumping off point.  A short one block walk takes us to the gates of school.  Trikes are 9pesos, Jeeps 7/8 pesos, and the bus 20-24 depending on whether or not they are air-conditioned.  In all modes of transportation one generally finds oneself in a mass of humanity.  For reference one USD is just shy of 44 pesos. 

I spent most of Tuesday waiting in lines and getting forms.  I didn’t really receive any information from DLSU prior to coming to school – so I mostly just showed up.  That evening Erle and I went to a birthday party.  Her friend Izzy was turning 20 I think.  

The party was really fun.  We played a lot of taboo. Like four hours of taboo.  Its always interesting to play American games in foreign countries.  They didn’t know quite a few of the people listed, and some of the more difficult words like marquee.  In general I had a smashing time though.

Wednesday we went back to DLSU to accomplish more paperwork and more forms.  For lunch we went with several of Erle’s friends to Papa John’s.  I’m definitely living the “authentic” Filipino experience.   All of Erle’s friends were sufficiently friendly – and very excited to meet a strange American.  I got a lot of questions about my pale to pink complexion.  Erle being completely Filipino has caused some confusion given that she simply introduced me as her cousin – and failed to mention to most of her friends that I’m only a ¼. 

Thursday was really exciting.  FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!  My first class was Industrial Organization – which promises to be an interesting subject.  Erle is not in that class with me, but quite a few of her friends are.  It wasn’t at all awkward, we had such lovely discussion before class started.

I spent the intermediary hours at lunch – we went to a Korean restaurant at UM – and wandering around DLSU, generally lost trying to change my class schedule and get my visa.  After that ordeal – during which I did manage to make some new friends, I met Erle and we went to our International Economics class.  This class promises to be quite entertaining.  The professor is rather young and banters back and forth with his class quite a bit. I seem to have become the class scapegoat for some things.

After finishing our last class we hung out in the central amphitheater for a while with Kyle before Carl picked us up from school – very exciting – we didn’t have to take the bus!  Carl picked us up because we all went out to dinner with tita Ruby’s brother and wife who were visiting the states from Seattle, Washington.  Anywho – we went to an American steak restaurant, which was amusing to say the least.  Ceasar salad doesn’t have cheese, it does have bacon bits, and the dressing is more like thousand island.  Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen.  Again with the “authentic” experience. 

This morning I didn’t have class – how lovely.  No classes on Friday, ever.  I spent most of the day on the internet as such.