This week I’ve been reflecting a lot on my experience in the Philippines as a whole, trying to decide how to write this final blog post. There is so much I could write about. So many details, big and small, that made my time here so transformative. If I wrote everything I love about this…
Manila
Last weekend, we had the awesome opportunity of being shown around Manila by someone who knows it well: Lauren’s Tita Marcee. She picked us up from the bus station and immediately started treating us like family. She welcomed me with a hug before she even knew my name, and had even made signs for the…
That Palawan Post
Palawan: the world’s most beautiful island After a 3 day weekend on the island, I could not agree more with this slogan. We all took Friday off of work to make time for the trip to Palawan, as this required a 1-2 hour drive to Manila, a 1 hour flight, and a 2 hour drive…
Cheese Ice Cream
In my time here so far, I’ve noticed a number of things, both big and small, that are different in the Philippines. I thought I’d write about a few to give a glimpse of life here. Knives Picture this: you’re walking down the cafeteria line, a piece of meat on your tray full of bones…
Life in the Lab
Now that I’ve talked a bit about our travels, I wanted to make a post about the work I’m doing for my internship. I am interning in the Genetic Transformation Lab under the Genetics and Biotechnology section of the Strategic Innovations platform of IRRI. Basically, we are looking for new ways to improve the quality…
A Taal Order
On Saturday, we met up with some other IWU interns and took a day trip to Tagaytay, home of the famous Taal Volcano. Taal is an active volcano, and sits in the middle of a lake. We took a boat to the island, fueled up on some miscellaneous snacks (highly recommend Milky Flakes), and started…
An Unexpected Journey
On Saturday, we decided to get to know Los Baños a little better by visiting the Makiling Botanic Gardens. From our past experiences with botanic gardens, we were expecting a leisurely stroll through an exotic but manicured collection of plants. Instead, we got a 3 mile hike up a mountain through a dense forest. Despite…
The First Few Days
This is going to be a long one… We left Chicago at 11:55 pm on Saturday, June 9th, and finally arrived in Manila on Monday, June 11th at around noon. Exhausted, we all packed ourselves and our luggage into a couple vans, and took off through Manila on our way to Los Baños. The first…
Emily's Adventures in the Philippines 