While on one hand, I wish I had set aside the time to blog more on the tail end of my trip, it was very luxurious to spend the week and a half or so after my internship relaxing and slimming down the priorities to just my online tech writing class (which I finished with a B+ which isn’t bad for taking it halfway around the world and needing it for both Baccalaureate Core and my major). On the other hand, I have been back in Oregon for a week now which was when I intended on doing a follow up about my adventures, so you win some, you lose some.
Since I last wrote, all the way back on August 2nd: my dad and step-mom joined me in Cebu and I wrapped up my internship and turned in my keys to my little apartment, the lovely 1105. I completed 300 hours in about six weeks at my internship, which will eventually count as college credit, said goodbye to the cockroaches and left the island of Cebu. I will miss my work family a lot (I miss them a lot now) but in class Miranda tradition, I hop from one thing to the next.
From Cebu we took a ferry to Bohol, where my step-mom is from and spent a lovely week there, with an intermission to see Panglao and hang at one of the beach resorts for two nights. I got to see some of the famous Philippines sand and the beautiful blue water. All in all, I visited five of the some 1,107 islands that make up the archipelago. I was treated to amazing home cooked meals while staying with my step-mom’s family, like sweet potato flour fried chicken and lots of rice. I was fortunate enough to see the tarsier, which were at the top of my list of things to do while in the Philippines. There was lots of local ice cream, made with coconut instead of dairy and beats the pants of Ben and Jerry’s. It is called cab-cab and comes in a cone made of cassava (tapioca) instead of a waffle or sugar cone and WAS AMAZING; I may have just eaten it every day we were in Bohol. Our week in Bohol was to relax, and I did a lot of that, I even got a little bit of a tan. The whole point was to do nothing but be with family and I did just that.
From Bohol we took a flight to Manila, which is the capital of the Philippines. We were there for three full days staying in the walled city of Intramuros- part of the old Fort Santiago which had been used continually up until World War II by the British, although throughout its history, it has been used by no fewer than the Spanish, the British, the Americans, and the Filipinos. We church hopped- I saw the breath taking gates of Saint Augustine Church, the Manila Cathedral, and the Qiapo (Key-opp-oh) which houses the Black Nazarene. We went to local markets and haggled on goodies. I saw drastically contrasting wealth and poverty – the poorest of the poor and the glitz and glamour. My dad tried explaining exactly what Metropolitan Manila is. The city has just sort of expanded uncontrollably and is different districts. I concluded that the twelve ‘districts’ or so that make up the unofficial population of over 25 million people can be described as a bigger and burlier New York. NYC has five burrows- Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Manhattan. Manila has a half dozen or so I can’t pronounce and the rest I can take a confident whack at.
I’ve been back in Oregon for a week now and missed it so much. I’ve hung out and caught up with all my college friends, making three trips to the old CVO in six days and holy smokes it’s gorgeous in Oregon. Very flammable, but gorgeous. The sky has been clear most nights and I can find all my favorite stars. I’ve been sleeping off weird hours of jet lag and reintroducing myself to coffee (such a miracle). The weather has been weird for the last few days and I’m coming to terms with the very real possibility that I may be affected by pressure related headaches and I hope they don’t turn into full blown migraines. I’ve been off for the better part of the last 36 hours and have been cycling through migraine meds, caffeine, eating well, lots of water, ibuprofen, and ice cream “for the pain”.
Unfortunately the headache I was dealing with lasted until through the better part of Friday the 21st and I’ve slowly been recovering. Taking in the beauty of Oregon sure does help the healing process. I have a weekend left before I’m Corvallis bound for training and could not be more ready to get on to the next thing on the list.
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