Today I traveled about 2 hours south of Manila to my host city, Batangas City. It is located in the southern part of the northern region of Luzon. On this map, it is #25.
I spent the day unpacking, shopping, and doing a little walking around the city with my host teacher and partner teacher. Both are amazing teachers that I can learn a lot from! Here is a picture of us at dinner this evening:
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| Ms. Estes (from California), Ms. Ebora (my Filipino host), and me! |
So far it seems like Batangas is very different from Manila, although it is still a city. Tomorrow we are taking a tour, so I will write more about the differences then!
What did you eat? Did you find some of the egg stuff too?
ReplyDeleteFor that meal we had ribs with rice and corn. So pretty American-like compared to the other foods I've been eating! The "egg stuff" is called balut, and I don't think I'll be eating it!
DeleteHow did you travel there?
ReplyDeleteWe were driven here from Manila in a van. It took about 2 hours to get here because there was luckily no traffic! Traffic is a big problem in Manila. When we asked people at the U.S. embassy how long it would take to get to Batangas, their answer was "from 2-10 hours."
DeletePeople here strongly value education. They make many sacrifices for their children to have the necessary supplies for school. The parents are very involved in the school community as well. It is simply that the education system had always had only 10 grades here, so they're changing it to make Filipino students more competitive in the global workforce and more eligible to attend universities abroad.
ReplyDeleteMost people speak Filipino. While they learn English in school, many people do not seem confident using English, especially the students. Luckily, teachers seem to have strong English skills!
I just looked up the weather for right now (about 7:15 p.m.) and it is currently 83F, with a feels like temp of 91F, and a humidity of 75%.
Miss you all!