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Published: January 25th 2017
Well I am finally here in Manila! I feel like I have been talking about coming here for half a year but it never really felt real until now. Sometimes I still feel like I will be home in a few weeks. But Manila is home for the next six months!
I left Narragansett on Thursday, January 19th. The day before, Matt said that there was a lot of traffic in Boston so me, Mom, Hayley, Kiernan, Riley, Cam, & Parker headed out at 5 AM. My flight was at 11 AM so of course we got there super early. Traffic was not bad at all. Of course I over packed so I had to scramble losing things and shifting things into different bags. We need to get a new scale at home because ours said that both my bags were under 50 lbs. I'll never trust that scale again. Once I got my bags checked in I had to say goodbye to the family. That was really tough. Saying goodbye to everyone was hard. We all were crying, except for Cam and Parker. They both had no clue what was going on. Riley and Kiernan were both crying pretty hard, but I think it was more so to compete with each other on who was sadder.
The first leg of my trip was from Boston to Dubai. The flight was 12 hours and really long. I hardly slept on the first leg. A few 20 minute naps here and there. But I did watch five movies (Bridget Jones Baby, Finding Dory, Me Before You, Florence Foster Jenkins, and Nerve. For the flight meal, I asked for chicken. However, they had run out of the chicken so I ate salmon. I figured I need to start eating different food to prep me for the Philippines. And the second meal was scrambled eggs which I also ate. Two things that I would never have chosen to eat in the US.
The second left of my trip was from Dubai to Manila. Nothing really exciting happened in Dubai. I had just enough time to change terminals and that was about it. I was super thirsty and did not even have a chance to grab a water. The flight from Dubai was 8 hours. I finally slept on this flight. The whole flight was a mix of sleeping or watching Finding Dory. I still didn't enjoy the movie like everyone else did.
Once I arrived in Manila, I met Reinan, Michelle, and Jen. They picked me up with Melvin the driver and took me to my place. They asked if I wanted to go out for a drink, but all I wanted to do was shower after traveling for over 24 hours. The apartment is very nice. There is a small kitchen, bathroom, living room, and bedroom. Nothing too crazy, but it is the perfect size for me. I do share my apartment with some small coach roaches. They are harmless but I always make sure to wear shoes in the apartment, just in case.
Since I got in Friday night, the thee other guys that are exchangies were still working. But on Saturday night, Jarrad, Lee, and Josh took me out. We went to the Mercado for dinner. The Mercado is an outdoor square with food stations. I got a San Miguel beer and shawarma. After that we went bar hoping. We went to a speakeasy that was in a hidden door in a 7-Eleven.The speakeasy was very dark and classy. The waiters even came over holding a small flashlight so we could read the menu. We also went to another speakeasy that was tough to find. We had to test a few different doors in different buildings until we found a door that was unlocked. We went through that door and we were in what looked like a coffee shop. We went through a back door of the coffee shop and it took us to the bar. We went to a third bar and had a drink called airstrike. The give you a beer with two shots sitting on top of the beer. You take the shot of Jager, the shot of Vodka falls into the beer, and then you chug the beer. We ended the night by going to a rooftop bar that had a great view of Manila.
On Sunday, Lee showed me around the Mall of Asia (MOA). It is about a five minute walk from our apartments. We had lunch, grabbed my phone sim card, and saw Assissin's Creed. Since I played the video game before, I was super confused the whole movie.
On Monday morning, we woke up at met in the lobby at 3:45 AM. We went to a sports bar, Heckle & Jeckle, to watch the playoff football games. Once the games were over around noon, we went back to sleep so we could meet in the lobby at 8 PM for my first night of work!
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Britt E
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EW COCKROACHES!
Few things: 1. Cockroaches in your house - no thank you. 2. I love how your first meal was a barca meal ... I could go for some schwarma right now 3. I lol'd at your flight meals..specifically scrambled eggs 4. those speakeasies sound awesome!! 5. miss you! keep writing! :)