hipsters, beer, controversy

This week i woke up with a new outlook.
I sat myself up, looked into the mirror and realised something important. My oh my have I been a whiney little bitch of late. Here I am in a new country, the world is my oyster as they say, and I am going 'It's so hot, it's too hard'.
Well buckle up there soldier, you are exceptionally fortunate to be here - quit your bitching and do something with it!

So thus, my time here in the Philippines had a mental turning point.
I went to my classes (I still am loving my Shakespeare class SO much) and did my assignments (luckily not TOO many this week) and didn't have to contend with any more registration.

On Monday I had a lovely lunch with two exchange students from Germany, Mara and Hanna. They are both such lovely girls and we had a great time chatting and eating :) two of my favourite things to do!
We had planned to meet again on thursday night as it was going to be Mara's birthday and she invited us over for dinner :)

Thursday rocks around and we attended each of our classes (Shakespeare = amazing) and as per usual my comparative literature teacher doesn't turn up, so I have a few hours to kill before my final class for the day. I went with Tania to the music building as she was going to meet a lady there who she had been talking to for the last couple of days.
The lady as it turns out travels to UP every single day to take her daughter to class, and waits for her there. Her daughter who is (as Tania tells me) a remarkable singer, and is majoring her degree in music. Her daughter is also blind.
I met the two of them, and they seem to be such amazing people, and the daughter turns to me and says 'My mother tells me that you have cheeks like apples. Red like apples and roses' and gives this giant smile. It was really sweet to see her take in everything around her this way. It made me think how powerful it would be to have your imagination take your sight for you, i wonder how everything appears that way...
Either way, the point is they were both remarkable people, and i hope to bump into them again.

We journeyed to the Social Work building next to use the library and we bumped into Christine, another RMIT social worker here to do her placement. We sat with her for a while and she told us she was the university with delegates from all over the world here to hold an international conference on feminism and anti-violence against women movements. It sounded AMAZING!
Next thing, the delegates are all outside to perform a cleansing ritual used by the indigenous tribes in Canada, and we jumped in to partake. It involved the burning of sweet grass, and letting the smoke and incense cleanse us. We spoke to a few of the women afterwards, and it they were all pretty remarkable women and do some awe-inspiring work. I got a few contact details off a few of them, and then had to run off to class.

That night we went near Cubao to have dinner at the house of our new German friends, and they made hamburgers (with delicious grilled zucchini for me) and we spent the night chatting. Thomas, another exchange student from Austria was there, and it was just amazing to have a few drinks and hang out chatting. Later in the night two other Austrians came to join us, Natalie and Patrick (both doing internships here in Manila) Natalie is working for an NGO and Patrick is doing some work for the consulate. It was such a wicked time hanging out with them. A little later in the night I was supposed to meet Cathy and Erin out in Makati, so after some convincing, Patrick, Natalie and Thomas came with me.

We met Erin and Cathy at a bar in Makati called M-Cafe. Mostly it's full of westerners, and is quite expensive for Manila, but we were invited by some of the guys from the Spanish Embassy that Erin and Cathy met a few weeks earlier. It ended up being a great night, and I tried to get a European passport off one of the spanish guys as well as Patrick (hey they both work for their respective embassies...a girl has got to try) but alas it did not work.

We then headed off to a club, however weren't allowed in as a few people were wearing thongs. So instead decided that we would jump into the resort pool, but our attempts failed as the security guard overheard our sneaky plans and stood at the pool entrance. FOILED!!!

So our veins pumping with cocktails and beer, we decided to call it a night at 3:30am. Natalie and Patrick went their seperate way, and Thomas, Cathy, Erin and I (living together or near to each other) caught a taxi back to Katipunan Ave. Making ofcourse a stop at the local fast food restaurant 'Jollibee'. They have amazing cheese fries. Just saying.

Friday we had a lunch date with our RMIT contacts from Melbourne, and some Filipino students who had done an exchange in Melbourne. It was such a great lunch talking to them all, we have all decided to do some weekend trips together, and one of the boys works for a senator, so he invited us to come along to Parliament to hear a debate about the RH bill.

For those of you back home i will give you a run down on the RH bill. It stands for the 'Reproductive Health' bill, and it's a bill to make the pill available for women, as well as family planning, and education more readily available in the Philippines (plus more, however not abortion).
However here in the Philippines the majority of people are of a Christian belief system, and the church and state government are not seperate identities. SO - this is the first time in history that the government is going against the will of the church. The church is claiming a very monty python approach of 'every sperm is sacred' and deem it the murder of a possible child, and are also preaching that it will legalise abortion. HOWEVER the bill specifically states that abortion is not to be legalised, but there is propoganda to the uneducated of the Philippines telling them this to make them side eagainst the RH bill. However after talking to one of my class mates, she angrily said "It's also a means of poverty control. Families keep having kids because they don't have contraception available to them, and then children are being born into families who can't afford them, and then some are reduced to prostitution or worse, and for what? what kind of life is that? The RH bill needs to be passed, family planning needs to be available here in the Philippines"

...So you can see why it would be so FASCINATING to go to a parliamentry debate on this topic. It is the most controversial thing here in the Philippines. I am so excited to go to it.

Saturday, Cathy and I signed up for the local gym. Funnily enough it is a fitness first gym...but it's got some amazing classes. We tried our hand at hip hop classes, and were incredibly unco, and then sunday tried our hand at Body Jam. The teacher was incredibly flamboyant and playful, so we couldn't stop ourselves at giggling when he shouted 'POSE LIKE MADONNA' and pulled out this full on pout. We can see that he REALLY enjoys his job.

We decided to go out again last night, and went back into Makati, to a warehouse bar. It was reggae night and it was incredibly chilled and artsy. As Erin described it, it would be the Brunswick street style hangout for the hipsters of Manila, except instead of a street, it's a warehouse. It was a pretty amazing vibe, but we were pretty exhausted so will endeavour to go about another night when we have more energy.

And thus concludes this tale.

Stay tuned for another installment :)

Love B xoxox



New Austrian friends at M-Cafe

to scream or not to scream....

So this week has tested my patience. It has stolen my patience away from it's cozy home, smacked it around with a smelly fish, yelled playground taunts at it until it yelped and wailed angrily and was then stretched like the skin on a drum. it was tested and it has failed with flying metallic colours.

Positive thought right?
Let me fill you in on the week that was. Gather round closer. Not you extreme sports calendar!!

But first I will fill you in a day or two before my patience reached boiling point....

We went to a Filipino hip hop battle. yes that's right - you heard me correctly, no need to go de-wax your ears, or search for that hearing Aid. It was incredible how they can dance. All those flips, and baggy pants, and what not. SO GOOD!

Now for the rest of the week...
So we begin our little tale with the beginning of the week that was - First official full week of classes.

Tuesday - bucketing down with the kind of rain you can only find in tropical climates. unusual climate for this time of year in the Philippines, or so the locals informed me. I went to my first ever 'Introduction to Shakespeare' class. I sat quietly in the back of the room, hoping no one would notice me. But being a pasty white girl in a room full of tanned Filipino's makes you stand out whether you like it or not. The teacher came bounding into the room, and happily called the roll. I was relieved at how amazing her english was; although i suppose to be an english teacher, you have to have clear english speaking skills. She called my name and everybody turned to look at me, when i tried to pronounce my name (it incresingly occurs to me that when you are in a room of Filipino accents, the Australian accent sounds amazingly Bogan). She then continued to take the roll.
After this she announced that she would like everyone to pass up their homework from the previous class (the one i missed thanks to my foot swelling up like a balloon and taking a trip to the university medical center). So my heart races like a maniac as i realise...ummmm homework?? shit!
Thankfully i discovered the homework was just to write an essay on 'Why do you think this course is a core part of the english curiculum?' as well as 'when and where were you when you lost your shakespearean virginity?' People then talked about how they watched Shakespeare in Love, or saw Claire Danes and Leo DiCaprio getting it on in a pool.
My professor (That's Professor Ick to you!) sat cross legged on the table and in true theatrical style waved her arms around madly as she talked Shakespeare for the next hour and a half. its safe to say i really really loved this class. She is so very obscurely passionate and not at all timid to speak her mind.

My next class was Comparative literature from Europe during the Renaissance and Medieval times. For which my lecturer didn't even turn up. After waiting in the class room and talking to this lovely Filipino girl (I believe she called herself Check) i walked in the pouring rain to get a form from the international office. Like i said previously, everything here is done manually... I turned up at the office looking like i had just gone for a swim, and they all proceeded to tell me that i should buy an umbrella...yep, thanks for that one. I believe the best comment was one of the men who looked up from his newspaper to quietly ask 'was that from the rain?'. I am sure the humour would have been lost on him if i sarcastically replied with 'No no, I just felt like dumping an entire ocean on top of me'.

And then back to the next class we went. Hi-ho Hi-ho Hi-ho.
The next class was our first day of Community Work. Which we spent 3 hours in an entirely freezing cold air-conditioned room listening to the teacher speak in Tagalog mostly, and throwing in the occasional word in english. I would have to liken the experience to feeling like someone is speaking another language to you...purely because they were. To make it worse, we figured out that we were in a class of nutrition students, not social workers (after a long discussion with office staff who said we couldnt go into the class with social workers, because it was not our major, to which we said it was, but they wouldnt let us anyway). SO we spoke to the teacher who told us to transfer into the social work specific community work class.
Cue going back to the office. To which no one was there. Cue me wanting to stand at the top of the building and scream out my frustrations, but instead falling into fits of hysterical giggling. As it turns out i have discovered that I have bizarre emotional responses to stress. Go figure.

Wednesday - We had our 8:30am class for Project development for social welfare and community development. To which our professor has a background in economics and has decided to teach us from a purely economical standpoint. bleugh. Another reason to hurl myself off the top of a building. I believe his words are "Mathematics is so important, we will be focusing on that". I don't know about that.. I am pretty sure another reason i picked this type of profession was because of it had no association with my archnemesis, the dreadful Dr Mathematics. He then proceeded to tell us that we had 4 different assigments. One was a group presentation due at 8:30am on Friday morning (yes, less than two days away) and that there was no class next week due to doing another huge assignment. Now we found this out painfully, asking questions, to which he had no solid response. It's a theme here in the Philippines i find unusual. here let me give you an example.

Professor - "You have an essay to write"
Us - "What is the Essay on"
Professor - *mumbles something non committal* "just go write an essay, not sure how long or what the topic is specifically. also u have a day to do it"
Cue our very confused faces, and giving up on trying to figure it out being that we have been trying for the last half hour.

Thursday - Thursday was the same classes as Tuesday, and i enjoyed that very much. After class, i went to the international office to pick up some more forms, and then we spent the next 4 hours walking all over campus to get it signed and all this to change our class day and get an ID.... When we arrived at one of the offices, the man told Cathy, Tania and I that we actually needed to get the form signed by another office first, to which he recieved three very unhappy and exasperated glares from three very unhappy and sweaty australians. He then slowly exclaimed "...or maybe we could just sign it for you..." Yep, i think you should do that mr office worker. If you have the capacity to do that in the first place, why couldn't you just do that?!?! The system here drives me insane.
So the entire day continued on that way, and we went back to the international office to only recieve more forms to fill in and chase after. The office lady, Belle, told us that we would be having a christmas dinner for all exchange students, and every country would be putting on a song or dance or something cultural. After thinking she was joking, she laughed and said "It's because of you B, You always come in laughing and you have rubbed off on me". Now I can only think my coming in laughing has something to do with that inappropriate stress mechanism where i fall into fits of giggles because i actually want to scream or cry. But to be known as the happy-go-lucky joking one doesn't seem like such a bad thing to be thought of as.

Friday - We had our presentation. During which our professor was falling asleep, and then when the other students presented theirs, he walked out of the room to take a phone call. I am pretty sure that's disrespectful, and i am not filled with confidence that we are going to get that 75% minimum we need just to pass this subject. Breathe in, Breathe out. Breathe in, Breathe out. Perhaps i should use my stress mechanism and laugh maniacally again???

I also went to buy a small travel laptop that afternoon (because mine seems ancient and certainly not portable anymore) And i picked up this lovely one that i am typing on while having an ice coffee in starbucks (whoever invented iced beverages and air conditioning is my hero. seriously, where are these people, i owe them a big big hug). They all told me i could get a free dvd transferer thingamo (i dont speak technology) and off i went. Later to get a text message from a VERY flustered worker saying "Mam, we gave you the wrong dvd thing, please can you bring it back, please, so sorry". Mostly because she will get charged and what not. So that brings me to Saturday...almost. Friday night, my housemates and I spent the night, learning songs. Tania on her guitar, Cathy learning to play the Uke, and Erin and I harmonising to a beautiful song by Slow Club. Our hosue has become a fiesta of musicality. I love that. Music is so much fun and such a relaxant.

Saturday - I took it all the way back to the mall, and I think they lady was so excited to see me, it meant her no longer having a coronary. I was told that i had to go pick up the dvd thing from Makarte (another 40 or so minutes from here). Nothing here is done in the easiest possible way. So she told me she could get it on my behalf since there was the stuff up. Yes please, so now we play the waiting game.

We then as a group went to the movies to see twilight (now now, don't go judging), and then bummed at home for the rest of the night. We did do some grocery shopping which is interesting on its own accord. I just wanted to buy some soap, alas all the soap is skin whitening soap... I want a tan, not to become pastier. doh!

Today we are doing nothing, except i am reading 'One Day' which is toying with my emotions a lot. Dam it being so amazing!!

So here is my reflection process. This life here in Manila is vastly different from anything I have ever experienced. It is by no means a holiday, and it definitely will be an adjustment. And I will get there, I know this is where i need to be in my life right now, and I have been stripped bare of the lifestyle i am used to. It's only now that i can begin to build myself back up into a new person. And i will do it, not with ease, but with determination.

Now I shall get back to my inner turmoil with this book. must finish it before school madness begins once again tomorrow (after our delicious dinner tonight at a place called 'Van Gogh had Bi-Polar...interesting name....)

Much Love to you all,

Love B xox

no picnic.

The system here in the philippines for enrollment into classes is vastly different from that at home. for one, everything here is done manually. This means, taking a form to each department, getting the lecturers to sign off on you taking the class, doing to administration, getting it inputted into the computer and doing the same for each class from different departments.
Then ofcourse going back to the education abroad officer to hand it in. Then recieving a call from them to say it hadn't been inputted correctly and having to do it all over again. It wouldn't be so much of an issue if each building wasn't a mile away from each other (I am pretty sure that isn't an exaggeration, the campus is its own suburb). There is alot of walking back and forth in the sweltering heat only to have to do it all over again, for a signature.
It makes you wonder why they have not implemented a system where you go to one office, and they do it all online for you, since ultimately it gets inputted into the computer anyway.
Having done this for an entire day on our first day of classes as they decided to change the timetable for one of our classes i realised that I was one subject short for my requirements of exchange. So it was back to the drawing board. What is a subject that interests me, is offered in english and fits into my timetable. I came to the conclusion that i would take Comparative literature of Medieval and Renassaince writings from europe, in the english department of UP. The English department seemed like a great place to find a subject taught in English, and it fit in perfectly (and in the same classroom directly after) my Introduction to Shakespeare class. So here is hoping that it pans out. However after Cathy went to her third world literature class to find that she would need to read 5 novels, and about 13 short stories all for analyses over a span of about 12 weeks, taking up two literature subjects seems like death. We shall soon see next week what my work load will entail.

Now I am officially enrolled in Community Work, project Development in Social welfare and community development (which after two classes, two changes in teachers already seems like it is definitely not going to be a picnic, i may never leave the library), Introduction to Shakespeare and ofcourse now comparative literature of Medieval and Renassaince writings from europe. Then finally, just for fun and excercise Cathy and I have enrolled in Modern Jazz dance classes.
Here is hoping that I survive, and can make it from one class to another in one piece.

The walking around wouldn't have been so bad if in the last two days my right foot hadn't doubled in size thanks to enormous swelling. On Tania's birthday (her 21st birthday!! excitement) we went out to dinner for some delicious thai food, before heading to Kareoke, where we had a private box where we could terribley screech at the top of our lungs with no judgement. It was great fun, except for the fact that my foot had ballooned over dinner and i could barely walk. That put a damper on my ability to accompany my songs with my epic moves like jagger, and left me icing my foot for most of the evening. I have to say all in all it was an amazing night though, just to chill and have some silly fun.

So the next morning when my foot hadn't gone down one bit, instead of going to my first lot of literature classes, I made my way to the University Medical Center. Since the University appears to be it's own suburb it makes sense that the Medical Center turns out to be a small hospital with an emergency ward, consulting suites, and hospital rooms, pharmacies, etc.
The lovely Doctor there told me that after scraping my foot on coral i needed to keep my wounds dry to prevent infection, however being that the air here is so damp with humidity, it was not an easy task. So she bandaged me up, gave me some drugs, and sent me on my way. Now i can say that I am happily walking around (with only a small hobble) and in a few days i will be back to my old self. It's situations like these when i realise just how accident prone I am. I really know how to injure myself in the speediest possible way.One week into living here and I have already made a trip to the doctor for injury. It reminds me how in South America after 3 days I had to go to the hospital due to turning a beautiful blue shade....I sure am a special one ;)

I am missing everyone terribly, the next 6 months are by no means going to be a picnic, they will be exceptionally difficult (on the uni front, just to pass here you need to get atleast 75% which is just scraping by in Filipino standards, which in Australia would be equivilent to a Distinction) and adjusting to a whole new way of life will be hard. I do believe though that I am in the place that I need to be right now, but it's going to be a struggle. Possibly something that I very much need...


Now, I won't bore you all with the details of anything else, as for the most part, i would like to keep you all as friends. And it's not nice to bore your friends or they will never come visit again.

I will love you and leave you for now. Hope everyone is well.

B xox

first week impressions of my new home

Hello everyone out there in the bloggerverse!

So far my first week in the philippines has been an interesting one. Our first full day was comprimised of going to the mall and collecting goodies to make our house a home. We asked for a blue blender, got a red one. we asked for red speakers and got white ones. I asked for a blue fan, and got a pink one. With the pink coloured sheets that are on my bed and the light purple curtains and now my pink fan, my room is looking increasingly pink and girly. For those of you who know me well, you will know that under no circumstances am i a particulary pink kind of girl. It turns out that i am surrounded by it. The bright colours in my room (even if they are pink) make me feel that little bit more at home however. As do the photo's I have stuck up around my walls :)

To set the scene of our new home you need to understand that Quezon City (where i live) is very much a university area. There are 3 major universities right near us making the area unlike the real philippines. Instead we are surrounded by American influence, absolutely everywhere. Katipunan Ave (the big highway we live off) is lined with McDonalds, KFC, JolliBee (fried chicken), Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and a myriad of other such American takeaway. It's insane. Everywhere here also delivers to your house, including McDonalds and even Bubble Tea from our local 'Ninja Tea'. Talk about being too lazy to walk 100 meters down the street for tea. I will be interested to explore more outside of our area into the real philippines.

Living in the house has been interesting, with only cold water, showers (even in this heat) take a minute or two to become used to the temperature, and the unfortunate incident of waking up to a cockroach crawling on me in my sleep. Every morning we are woken up the people on the street sweeping their drive ways, or selling icecream and other such goodies, or honking their horn at the bright old time of 6am. It's a killer!! Why would someone want icecream that early...who knows!

We have also learnt that leaving ANYTHING out for long enough will become mouldy due to the constant moisture in the air, as well as the Filipino's are (to my delight) obsessed with aircon, however I have found myself to be freezing cold when entering a bus or shopping center after about 5 minutes.

My house mates, Cathy, Erin, Tania and I have spent a nice amount of time bonding over dvd's, shopping and having copious amounts of smoothies. To date the best flavour has been Peanutbutter-choc-banana. It's deliciousness all combined in one amazing drink!

We have made a few local friends (mostly thanks to Tania imposing her happy personality on locals) including Henessey, the lady who works at the bank. We have also been down to the university several times to meet the other international students, The education abroad office workers, and to get lost. The place is like it's own suburb, its HUGE, and mostly surrounded by what looks a bit like a jungle and old buildings.
The Philippines are relatively safe thanks to security guards being EVERYWHERE, and even on the trains there is a carriage with security that is only for eldery people and women. They definitely take safety seriously here, but again I have learnt that there is reason to.
Thanks to another Aussie student, i have learnt on campus to avoid what is commonly known as 'rape alley' and also to not be on campus late at night by myself if i would like to keep my kidneys, or else have them sold on the black market. Is anyone else reminded of Charlie the Unicorn right about now???
Definitely instills you with a sense of confidence. Ofcourse this is still quite rare, but safety must come first, and now that we are aware of this we will take extra precautions!! For a class that finishes at night, all three of us who are studying will wait in the library for each person to finish and then taxi it home together. I am quite fond of my kidneys, they come in handy from time to time. :)
But don't fret all, Belle and Joy at the education abroad are very protective and lovely and keep a good eye out for us!

As for classes, we have enrolled in those that are required by the university, and I have also enrolled in 'Introduction to Shakespeare'. I am exceptionally excited to learn about Shakespeare interpretations by another cultural perspective, that and i am a nerd really.

Cathy and I will also be taking part in dance classes at the university a few mornings a week, and are looking into Yoga classes that are local.

One Korean student that we have met has commented on how much we laugh, and quite possibly thinks we are crazy, and even asked if we ride around in kangaroo's!! I am wondering if they will understand the concept of drop bears, or whether the language barrier will be lost on her? hehe.

The work load of each university subject is said to be incredibly intense and other RMIT students who have come to study at the philippines have said they rarely had any time to travel the country while here, so our household decided to go away for a few days before the craziness started to Puerto Galera, off one of the islands. It was a beautiful beach, where we stayed to Jetski (so much fun, i forgot how good adrenaline felt) and snorkel. The snorkelling was AMAZING!! so many beautiful and brightly coloured fish, and interesting corals. I would love to go Scuba diving off the islands some more. I managed to scrape my foot pretty badly on some coral though, OUCH!!

On white beach we are harrassed by locals wanting to sell us massages, hair braiding, pearls and other pieces of jewellery. It was hard to turn them all down, because it is there income to sell their products. We made a few local friends (again to Tania's enthusiasm) and took some tricycle rides around. We had two of our own personal tricycle drivers who we would sms and they would come pick us up.
After our first day it began to bucket down like crazy and we waited in our room for the storm to pass. It was amazing to see the lightening across the bay.

That night we went to a local Pizza restaurant that was reccommended to us, called Luca's. The Pizza's were MASSIVE!!! insanely huge, but delicious all the same. After being told that the cheese here was to be avoided, we learnt that it was actually ok to eat cheese here, you just had to pick where u ordered it from, nowhere dingy.
We asked for our leftover pizza to be bundled up and gave it to our lovely tricycle driver Robert to share with his friends.

The local's here love to burst into song randomly, which i love. We started singing 'to the left, to the left' to which our driver burst out singing 'everything you own in a box to the left'. Life really is a musical here. love it!!

The next day we went out in the pouring rain to get a few beach trinkets and sarongs, and ended up back at the beach to get some massages as our muscles ached from the jetski's. For about $6AUD you get an hour full body massage lying on the beach. It was the most amazing massage. I was able to look out across the shore, to the rain falling on the water, and the sounds of locals chatting amongst the sound of the waves. What I loved even more was that my masseuse was wearing a tshirt advocating for child sex trading to be stopped. I wanted to ask her about it when our massage finished but our boat decided to rock up early, and we had to run to get it, so we could make it back to Manila. The boat docked at White Beach briefly where we went to get a smoothy, and this beautiful old woman with no teeth and a big smile that made her entire face crinkle came up to say hello. She spoke no english and we spoke no Tagalog, and we immediately wanted to buy anything she was selling, she was just so cute! Turns out she usually sells mangoes, but had sold out and just wanted to come say hi. I think she was quite intrigued by Tania and just wanted to hold her arm and smile at us for a while. We immediately wanted to shrink her and put her in our pockets!!

I almost forgot to mention one of the funniest things that i have seen for a long time! In our hotel room we had two trundle beds. Cathy was mentioning how she was worried that her bed would fold up and close on her like in the movies. about one minute later she moved on the bed and it engulfed her that same way!! a laughing fit ensued - So funny!!

We are now back home in Manila and are ready to start classes tomorrow aswell as celebrating Tania's 21st birthday, possibley with a bit of kareoke..hey why not do as the locals do!!!

The biggest and hardest part of the adventure begins tomorrow! Stay tuned!!


Much love xoxox

P.s. I have been trying to post more photos on here, but it appears it doesn't want to work for me currently. So here is a few :)

and so it begins...

Hey all,
Here it is. We have arrived safe and sound into Manila. We spent the night watching movies, and I am not sure whether it was Qantas guilt, but they kept coming around and feeding us constantly, which seemed ridiculous to us, as we would sit there thinking ‘I’m pretty sure you just fed us!’.

Flying into our landing reminded me of a quote by Francesca Lia Block “Strawberry sky dusted with white winter powder sugar sun. And nobody to munch on it with.” For me there was Cotton candy and marshmallow clouds floating in the skies, highlighted with pinks and oranges and even green hues melding in together. As the plane descends below into angry grey clouds who are thick with the promise of rain, lightning shoots down upon Manila, and I am overcome with the realisation that this is where I will call home for the next 6 months.
At the airport people look at us, at our differing complexions and are automatically intrigued and quizzical as to what has brought us to the Philippines. Even in the dark the humidity smacks us in the face, and we begin removing our Melbourne layers.
I watch Tania in the cab, and she is like a kid in a candy store, she exclaims loudly at everything we pass, and it reminds me of my first time overseas in a new city, the utter excitement and thoughts of adventure. When I look outside I see a city. Perhaps it is a sign of desensitizing to new surroundings, but all cities around the world begin to look similar to me. When I look at the people on the street, and the cars on the road, this is where something stands out for me. The jeepney’s (a strange hybrid of a jeep and a mini bus) are what catches my eye as something I have never seen. Each is individual with its street art like outer shell and the cramming of a few too many Filipino citizens inside.
When we arrive to our new home, we are greeted enthusiastically by our new housemates Erin and Cathy. They show us around and have spent the day furiously cleaning the house after our previous tenants (insert exclamations on how dirty boys are) and we sit up for a few hours talking before we are overcome by the travels of the day and go to sleep.

Today I have woken up to the noises of the neighborhood. It appears the neighbourhood rises early and has no qualms about making as much noise as possible. But it’s ok, it doesn’t hassle me in the slightest, it is what reminds me that I am away on a new adventure.
In a strange way it never occurred to me that this is the type of adventure I have never been on before. I have never lived in one place overseas for a prolonged amount of time, nor have I taken part in actual work overseas; it has always been a holiday. This time instead I will be enrolled in another university, taking their classes, and spending my time doing the copious amounts of assignments that they throw my way, and at the same time floundering in trying to keep my head above water immersed in a new culture. Seems silly that this would not have occurred to me until right now, and it seems silly that it has only just occurred to me how tough it is going to be.
I do however believe that this experience will open up so many doors for me personally, and it will make me stronger and more self aware, which in most cases is a positive thing to happen.
It will also test my new found vegetarianism. The last tenant of this house, who was a hardcore vegetarian for a long time, had to make the exception here in the Philippines, or else starve for a severe lack of dishes that didn’t contain meat. Yep, this is going to be interesting.
It is definitely going to be a hard 6 months in every way, but my house mates came up with an ingenious plan to go away for the weekend to a tropical beach to kick start our spirits before the work really begins. Something I will not turn my nose down at. Bring on bliss I say!
I can say that having only been here a night, while mixed in with my excitement, I am already missing you all back home. Today will be spent going to the mall, collecting all things for our house to make it a home, and to buy sim cards for our phones, internet credit amongst other necessary things. I can’t wait to get out and explore the area and meet the locals and begin this scary and amazing adventure. BRING IT ON!!


xoxoxoxo