Rock on, Bon Jovi.

So this post will be a little disjointed, as much time has passed since the last. I settled in nicely to Moalboal, only to have to return to Cebu 10 days later to extend my tourist visa before it expired. This Wednesday, I will have been in the Philippines for one month. It has been a big adjustment. Bridget and I have had many conversations about race- a topic neither of us have really thought about at length before coming here. I guess since race factors so little in my daily thought process at home it's such a shock to have it be such an issue here. Although, people here are very uh, pro white? But it's still very weird. Especially since people stare at me where ever I go. Which sometimes I think I can get used to, but then things like me tripping and falling happen when 20ish people were already staring at me before I went down. Niiice.

But, back to Moalboal. Had a great 10 days, got some work done. Made friends. Met this really great American couple, but they were only on vacation for a week. Too bad. Trista and I got along very well, and I think I will miss her for the rest of the trip. On our last night in Moalboal together, Rick cooked us a GIANT crab and we at dinner together, Filipino-style. Then Trista, Patrick and I caught the bus to Cebu. I went to the office and they caught a plane.



Cebu was more enjoyable this time around. The office has more people, as a bunch of the staff has come in from the field. So, there is a younger crowd and a bit more energy. I made a friend while getting my nails done ($2 manicure, and I needed it. My nails grow so quickly here they were too long! I've never had that problem before...) and we went out. The place we went to had two live bands that were really good. They sang American covers of all kinds of different songs, and had the voices down perfectly for them all! It was really incredible. The second band did a set of Bon Jovi. Which is the second time in Asia I have seen a Bon Jovi cover band. An odd coincidence- especially since I don't think I'd ever go to a Bon Jovi concert. But, just like last time, it was really fun. And the crowd gets so pumped up. SE Asia is so weird sometimes! Here's a picture from that night. Bridget, in red, is my friend from school and Nalla (pronounced Nalia) is our new friend from Cebu. I am very excited- as it's hard to meet girls here, they don't go out much. It's a cultural thing, I guess. Who's the guy in the picture? Good question. He just kinda jumped in at the last minute. It happens here more than you would expect.



Last few thoughts for today: Went snorkeling. It was AWESOME. Best snorkeling I've ever done, which is saying a lot. Until I got stung by a jellyfish. It was the MOST gorgeously sunny day today, the only downside being that the internet told me it felt like 105F in Moalboal and I believed it. Got one interview done earlier this week and it went pretty well. Spent a good chunk of time transcribing it so I am feeling pretty productive. Have a lot of work ahead of me for the next week. Hope everything is great for everyone back home. Love, Jenn

Moalboal: This is More Like it!

Hello. Thursday night, I moved to Moalboal. My thesis adviser, Patrick, and Bridget came down with me for a night to go diving. Moalboal (pronounced Mo-Al-Bo-Al) reminds me much more of my previous adventures in Southeast Asia. It's nice to be out of the city and the scenery is very pretty. The three of us stayed at a very pretty resort over in White Beach, the more upscale tourist part of Moalboal. It was so gorgeous! We went for an evening dive as soon as we got in. There was a humongous school of sardines. They moved as a group, and the late afternoon light reflected off their sides like disco lights. It was very cool.



The next day, I moved over to Panagsama (harder to say: Pa-Nag-Sama) I got the hook-up price-wise in terms of my accommodations. Moalboal is pricy in terms of Philippines accommodations, and my lodgings are really cheap. Plus, I have a private bath and aircon. The biggest problem with my room is there is about a two inch gap between the door and the floor. Currently, I am sharing my room with a cockroach that is just too big to smush. So I am trying to ignore him. But, my place has free wifi for guests, which is very handy for working. Wish coverage extended to my room, but I guess you can't have everything. Panagsama is not as postcard-perfect as White Beach, but it has its moments. I have made a couple friends, and Saturday night we went to the disco. It only happens once a week, and is the biggest weekly social event of three neighboring villages! It was very fun, lots of dancing.

Pictures From Cebu City

Bridget at our guest house, Myra's Pensionne. Possibly my favorite part of living in Cebu!



The Ayala Mall. Our other home. :)

Hello, Ma'am. I love you!

Hello, all. I have been in the Philippines, and specifically Cebu City, for just over a week now. Bridget and I spent just 24 hours in Manila before heading to Cebu City on the island of Cebu. A wise decision, I think, since all the words that come to mind to describe Manila have a bit of a negative connotation. The one I choose to leave you with is ‘gritty’. But, now we are in Cebu City. The Lonely Planet describes Cebu City as, “Preferable to Manila, but nowhere we would want to spend our holiday.”


Cebu City is a weird mix of poverty and megamalls. It is hot and dirty, with thick, sweet-smelling smoky tropical air sporadically punctuated with episodes of torrential downpour. We are staying uptown, in the nicer part of the city near the Ayala Mall. I have spent an ungodly amount of time at malls during the past week. The megamall is an integral part of the culture here. Almost all of the decent restaurants are located in a mall, and coffee shops with free wifi are located there, too. Our mall is three to four times the length of a typical mall in Seattle or St. Louis, and six stories high. They hold concerts here and mass on Sundays (most of the population in the Philippines is catholic).

Our hotel, Myra’s Pension, is lovely. The staff is great, and our room has a private bath, air-conditioning and cable TV. The people both in the hotel and outside of it are unfailingly polite, even when shouting at us from cars as they flash passed us. Hello's are always accompanied by a ma'am, and Bridget and I torn between " Hello, Ma'am. I love you. " and "Water for date you?" as the best pick-up lines. The front desk staff has been teaching us Cebuano, the local language. People are amused with our attempts and pleased by our efforts, I think, as learning the language isn’t really necessary with the prevalence of English speakers in the Philippines. Bridget and I are very amused by the unilateral insistence of the locals that ‘evening’ doesn’t start until six. We will occasionally call out “My-young Ga-bee-ee” (Good evening!) and hear, “NO! Hapon (afternoon). Not Ga-bee-ee yet!” We asked a man one day what time ‘ga-bee-ee’ started, and he stated very definitively without hesitation, “6:00PM.” One of my favorite moments so far was calling out politely in Cebuano to the jeepney driver that we had reached our stop and seeing all ten or so of the other passengers snap their heads in my direction, surprised that I had mastered that command.


The jeepney is public transportation that looks like an elongated hummer-jeep hybrid with reinforced metal panels and bright spray paint. You sort of need to know where you are going to ride one successfully. We have figured out how to catch a jeepney to and from work (CCE Foundation) and all the major malls. My favorite is named Jenny IV and is delightfully spattered in neon rainbow hues. We will be the jeepney to CCE daily this week, meeting with the staff and trying iron out the details of our research, so hopefully I will have a better idea of exactly what I am doing later this week to share with you.

Sending my love until then, Jenn.

Kimchi and Ice Cream

Bridget (another student at the School of Marine Affairs) and I made it to Manila safely last night and found our guesthouse pretty easily. The plane rides were long and the food was.. interesting. For our snack, they served kimchi and ice cream, which I've never had served together. I'm trying to remain optimistic about the food in the Philippines but I am a little nervous. Oh well, we'll see. There's not much to say about Manila so far. It has a distinctly latin flavor to it, and reminds me more of Panama City than it reminds me of Bangkok. I've been told that the farther north you get in the country, the more you notice the Spanish influence. So, I'm curious to see how Cebu compares (farther south). We fly there tonight and from there will meet up with the CCE: the Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation, the organization that will be helping us with the logistics of our thesis research.

At the request of my mom, I will describe the work that I will be doing this summer. I am still in the planning stages, and will meet with my thesis adviser in a few days and iron out a few of the details. In the Philippines, ecotourism programs are a part of natural resource management, as many of the fish populations are overfished and ecotourism provides non-consumptive alternative sources of income to local fishermen. Or that's the idea. In some places, this works better than others. So I will be conducting interviews of communities where different ecotourism programs are located to find out why some work and why some don't. The goal is to ultimately discover factors that influence the long-term success of these programs.

Paradise

After falling in love with Cambodia, Mikaela and I decided to alter our travel plans and head to Sihanoukville instead of Koh Chang in Thailand. What awaited was a perfect white sand beach, crystal clear turquise waters that seemed like the world's most perfect and salty swimming pool, amazing new friends, and life-changing memories. We met most of our new friends on the bus from Siem Reap: two funny english guys from Darby and a german couple from Stuttegard. Nothing like a 10 hour bus ride to ensure group bonding. We got to Sihanvoukville and found a guest house and immediately wandered down the beach for some food. We had seafood barbeque almost every night we were there, and I already miss it. The idea of going to Sihanoukville was to celebrate my birthday on the beach, which we did with style. I couldn't imagine a better birthday. Our german friends introduced us to the custom of starting the party at midnight of your birthday, and continuing it for 24+ hours. One of our darling english friends requested a birthday song to be played at midnight, and the DJ obliged. With 25 cent drafts, it was a very happy birthday for everyone. The actual day of my birthday, we went to Otres beach. Don't tell anyone. I feel like I have stumbled upon a magical travel secret. Otres is a long streach of perfect white powder sand and amazing, amazing water. It's so clear you can see the beige crabs scuttling on the bottom several yards out. It's also almost deserted, there are a few beach bars with lounge chairs happy to cater to your every whim. We made a habit of frequenting the "I don't know" bar, where the staff spoiled us silly. After we discovered Otres, we went there every day. We fell into a comfortable routine of waking up and heading to the beach, comming back and grabbing seafood barbeque, then heading out for happy hour drafts. Sleep and repeat. It was so hard to pack, knowing that not only did I have to leave paradise, but that I was headed to Bangkok where I would fly back to Seattle. It was even harder to get on the bus that took me away from Sihanoukville and across the boarder. Now I sit in Bangkok, and every part of me wants to grab a bus back to Sihanoukville. I can't believe I fly home in 2 days. This will be my last post until I am home, then I will sum up Bangkok and post all the picture albulms.

Amazing Angkor

Well, this post is a bit over-due. Cambodia is captivating, it's hard to force yourself in to an internet cafe. Our next stop after Phnom Pehn was Siem Reap, famous for its proximity to the temples of Angkor. And they are every bit as impressive as we were told they would be. Our first day (we got a three day pass) we attempted the grand circuit by bicycle, and did over 30km on old creaky bikes over bumpy roads. We ran into trouble at sunset, as the lights didn't work! So, we took a tuk-tuk for the remaining two days. Biking was fun, but we were so sore after the first day I couldn't fathom getting on one again. We went to several temples, but two stood out as my favorite. Running around Ta Prahm and Bayon was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done. Ta Prahm is where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed, it is a massive temple over run with trees growing everywhere. Just incredible. As soon as I get home, I will post the pictures. Bayon is famous for its big stone faces. And famous for good reason. The only reason we didn't visit for a second time is that it is immensly popular, and we were shoulder to shoulder for much of our time there. I took so many pictures of temples! Feel lucky that I will only post the best ones to the website, and not make you sit through them all....