Friday, August 20, 2010
Last Weekend in Asia!
Hey Folks!
Its my last weekend in Asia! after 8 Wonderful months!
My last 5 days will be spent in Manila, Philippines!
I am staying at a dorm in Friendly Guesthouse which is great. There are 10 people in the room from all over the world who are great to talk to. I am situated in Malate near the Mall of Asia.
My friend Eve is also in Manila before she heads to Bali, and crazy enough she is in a hostel right across the street from mine and we didnt plan that! :) haha so Ive gone for dinner with her for the last 2 days. Tomorrow her and I will wander around Intramuros and perhaps stop by the Greenhills Flea Market for some cheap knock offs :) woot! Fake Luxury here I come! :P
and on my very last day in Asia- What will I be doing?!?! Shopping at the Megamall at Forever 21 my favourite store in the whole wide world!!!! :D
I leave Manila on Tuesday at 6:30AM and fly:
Manila - Nagoya
Nagoya - Detroit
Detroit - Minneapolis
Minneapolis - Thunder Bay
I land at 9:30PM in Home sweet Home! :)
See you then everybody!
Thanks for Reading my Blog these past 8 months! Hope you enjoyed experiencing Asia through my pictures!
Cheers!
Chrystal
Its my last weekend in Asia! after 8 Wonderful months!
My last 5 days will be spent in Manila, Philippines!
I am staying at a dorm in Friendly Guesthouse which is great. There are 10 people in the room from all over the world who are great to talk to. I am situated in Malate near the Mall of Asia.
My friend Eve is also in Manila before she heads to Bali, and crazy enough she is in a hostel right across the street from mine and we didnt plan that! :) haha so Ive gone for dinner with her for the last 2 days. Tomorrow her and I will wander around Intramuros and perhaps stop by the Greenhills Flea Market for some cheap knock offs :) woot! Fake Luxury here I come! :P
and on my very last day in Asia- What will I be doing?!?! Shopping at the Megamall at Forever 21 my favourite store in the whole wide world!!!! :D
I leave Manila on Tuesday at 6:30AM and fly:
Manila - Nagoya
Nagoya - Detroit
Detroit - Minneapolis
Minneapolis - Thunder Bay
I land at 9:30PM in Home sweet Home! :)
See you then everybody!
Thanks for Reading my Blog these past 8 months! Hope you enjoyed experiencing Asia through my pictures!
Cheers!
Chrystal
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Jail Talent Show
Hey Friendfolk,
Some of the interns here in Davao work at the local woman's jail. Its not really a jail - it is where woman are held until they are convicted of tried for a crime - since this is the Philippines- some of these woman have been there for 6 years without being convicted of everything! What a terrible thing. But all these woman are very nice people filled with hope and determined to do good when they get out - they must spend a lot of each day praying. So it makes sense.
But! Since the interns are soon to be leaving - they decided to host a talent show with the woman in the prison. All of the AIESEC interns here in Davao, about 40 of us, all went to the jail, to watch the woman sing, dance, and act. It was a jolly time.
Afterwards we had options to get massages, manicures, pedicures, or hair cuts - since these were the professions of the woman prior to being put in the jail. I got a full body massage...and I am a happy person! :)
I went to the mall afterwords and bought lots and lots of dvds for 60P ($1.25) each - I spent $15 Canadian and bought - How I Met Your Mother Season 1-5, House Season 1-5, Rome Season 1, true Blood Season 1-2, and 4 movies; Inception, PS I Love You, The Notebook, and The Hangover! WOWZERS!! I love the affordability of Asia! :)
Happy Days
Some of the interns here in Davao work at the local woman's jail. Its not really a jail - it is where woman are held until they are convicted of tried for a crime - since this is the Philippines- some of these woman have been there for 6 years without being convicted of everything! What a terrible thing. But all these woman are very nice people filled with hope and determined to do good when they get out - they must spend a lot of each day praying. So it makes sense.
But! Since the interns are soon to be leaving - they decided to host a talent show with the woman in the prison. All of the AIESEC interns here in Davao, about 40 of us, all went to the jail, to watch the woman sing, dance, and act. It was a jolly time.
Afterwards we had options to get massages, manicures, pedicures, or hair cuts - since these were the professions of the woman prior to being put in the jail. I got a full body massage...and I am a happy person! :)
I went to the mall afterwords and bought lots and lots of dvds for 60P ($1.25) each - I spent $15 Canadian and bought - How I Met Your Mother Season 1-5, House Season 1-5, Rome Season 1, true Blood Season 1-2, and 4 movies; Inception, PS I Love You, The Notebook, and The Hangover! WOWZERS!! I love the affordability of Asia! :)
Happy Days
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Davao Conference
I am at a beach resort for a 3 day/2 night conference called Acamp. It is an introduction to AIESEC conference for new members where I will be giving a training session on how to market AIESEC. COnfidence, elevator spiel, and 8 facts you NEED to know about AIESEC and they are set! The New Davao LC marketers!
Cheerio!
Cheerio!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Island Hopping Tour
So, one of the interns - Lukas - set up an island hopping tour for all us interns here in Davao city - there are alot of us - about 40?? Yikes!! So last saturday we woke up early and made our way to wharf to catch our boat for our island hopping tour!!
The boat was nice enough - have side panels to sit off of and these wooden pieces to balance the boat but which also worked as climbing structures for some water fun. It was crazy how the boat workers could just walk all around across these wooden planks while the boat was moving while the rest of us struggled to wander onto them while the boat was just floating!!
We swam all day - some scuba dived, some snorkled, and the half which were chinese....stayed on the boat cause they dont want their skin to get darker!! While those of us who are exceptionally pale went out in the hot sun and got verrrrrrrrrrrrrry red. haha LOVELY! Then we finally landed on our overnight island! Got into a room with a nice bed shared with two other ladies. They cooked us bbq meats for dinner...mmmm tuna.....and then we drank (not much for me cause I'm battling a cold) and sang for the evening - with one of the Czech interns playing guitar for us. Earlier we saw some Filipino's playing volleyball and we joined in with them for a very fun game - although my legs were sore afterwards - i didnt think I was that lazy! apparently I am! :)
When I finally went to bed about midnight, I wrapped up in my blanket and was out like a light....until it started to rain....hard.....which normally i wouldnt wake up during.....BUT.....the roof above ONLY MY BED.....leaked....ALL OVER ME AND MY BED!! ugh! I woke up and saw that the other two girls beds were fine and not being leaked on but mine was getting soaked!! Talk about karma!! haha So Yeah I slept cold wet and shitty and woke up feeling 20x WORSE than I felt the day before....stupid sickness. But it was STILL raining in the morning so we all got up and boarded the first boat home to davao city! back in my nice warm DRY room :D Happy as one can be with a nasty cold and a bathing suit bottoms sunburn!! haha
Davao Davao - What is there to do?
Heya Friendfolk,
So I am now working in Davao City, Philippines. It is on Mindanao Island, the most southern part of the Philippines. Davao City is a very large city but it does not feel that way. There are no tall buildings and not a lot to do here. It is a quiet place to be living and working. I live in "My Studio", an apartment building with about 30 other interns working here. I have two Chinese room mates- One speaks great English and the other speaks very minimally.
So what am I doing here? Well I am doing a 2 month CEED for an organization called AIESEC. CEED stands for Cultural Envoy for Exchange Development. I am working with the local AIESEC here in Philippines. My intended job was to be a market consultant and contact companies and raise management/business related internships here in Davao. Since arriving my job as developed more into a marketing consultant for the local members since I will be taking time to train the members on HOW to market to companies since currently the AIESEC has only raised un-paid development internships. Am I ok with this change - yes - it is good practice for me - does this take more time to get started - yes - the locals plan everything which means it goes on Filipino time and not my time. Thats alright! Cultural adjustments! :)
My actual job is a very SLOW process. Since Filipino Time is equally as slow as Thai Time.....things take way longer than they should to get moving. Hopefully things will pick up soon cause I want to learn and I want to teach.
Since I had that little fiasco in the Jakarta Airport with the requirement of having a booked onward ticket OUT of the Philippines....I booked a ticket home for September 2nd. But I am now feeling I should go home earlier so that I can spend more time with friends and family and have more time to relax at home prior to returning to Ottawa for a busy semester of University. We'll see if I can make these changes.
So far, 2.5 weeks in, I have gone out for dinner ALOT....and Filipino food is very un-vegetarian friendly.....there are NO vegetables here. ANYWHERE. haha So there is basically ONLY bbq dinners....EVERYNIGHT! but hey....atleast its still cheap....about $2-$3 a meal. But all I crave is a greek salad! Because of this lack of vegetarian options I have now adopted Chicken into my diet - MAN CHICKEN IS DELICIOUS AFTER SO MANY YEARS NOT EATING IT!!
I've also been wakeboarding and on an island hopping tour. Both were great fun except on the overnight of the island hopping where the roof above ONLY my bed leaked and I got soaking wet and thus the slight cold I had turned into a full on sickness after spending the night sleeping on wet blankets. Ugh.
Now I am working to complete my National Support Team -Exchange role for AIESEC Canada which I hold from June 2010-May 2011 - for Thursday Night, while trying to figure out when my training schedule for the locals will be here for my CEED placement.
Cheers
So I am now working in Davao City, Philippines. It is on Mindanao Island, the most southern part of the Philippines. Davao City is a very large city but it does not feel that way. There are no tall buildings and not a lot to do here. It is a quiet place to be living and working. I live in "My Studio", an apartment building with about 30 other interns working here. I have two Chinese room mates- One speaks great English and the other speaks very minimally.
So what am I doing here? Well I am doing a 2 month CEED for an organization called AIESEC. CEED stands for Cultural Envoy for Exchange Development. I am working with the local AIESEC here in Philippines. My intended job was to be a market consultant and contact companies and raise management/business related internships here in Davao. Since arriving my job as developed more into a marketing consultant for the local members since I will be taking time to train the members on HOW to market to companies since currently the AIESEC has only raised un-paid development internships. Am I ok with this change - yes - it is good practice for me - does this take more time to get started - yes - the locals plan everything which means it goes on Filipino time and not my time. Thats alright! Cultural adjustments! :)
My actual job is a very SLOW process. Since Filipino Time is equally as slow as Thai Time.....things take way longer than they should to get moving. Hopefully things will pick up soon cause I want to learn and I want to teach.
Since I had that little fiasco in the Jakarta Airport with the requirement of having a booked onward ticket OUT of the Philippines....I booked a ticket home for September 2nd. But I am now feeling I should go home earlier so that I can spend more time with friends and family and have more time to relax at home prior to returning to Ottawa for a busy semester of University. We'll see if I can make these changes.
So far, 2.5 weeks in, I have gone out for dinner ALOT....and Filipino food is very un-vegetarian friendly.....there are NO vegetables here. ANYWHERE. haha So there is basically ONLY bbq dinners....EVERYNIGHT! but hey....atleast its still cheap....about $2-$3 a meal. But all I crave is a greek salad! Because of this lack of vegetarian options I have now adopted Chicken into my diet - MAN CHICKEN IS DELICIOUS AFTER SO MANY YEARS NOT EATING IT!!
I've also been wakeboarding and on an island hopping tour. Both were great fun except on the overnight of the island hopping where the roof above ONLY my bed leaked and I got soaking wet and thus the slight cold I had turned into a full on sickness after spending the night sleeping on wet blankets. Ugh.
Now I am working to complete my National Support Team -Exchange role for AIESEC Canada which I hold from June 2010-May 2011 - for Thursday Night, while trying to figure out when my training schedule for the locals will be here for my CEED placement.
Cheers
Friday, July 16, 2010
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