I think any 12 hour plane ride is going to be difficult, and this one was no exception. I'll spare you the details, but suffice is to say that its pretty difficult to get comfortable and get some sleep when flying coach across the Pacific. I did manage to nod off a few times, but over all managed very little sleep. When I arrived in Nagoya, there was a two hour layover and then we boarded the plan for Manilla. Once we landed in Manilla, I was happy to see that Jeanette was waiting for me just outside of the gate, and while we waited for my luggage, she managed to contact Randdie (our contact person for the exchange), and he and his friend Rodjhun drove us to our hotel.
By the time we checked in and settled into our rooms, it was around one in the morning, Manilla time. Jeanette and I met at the hotel restaurant and were able to get on the wireless network for the hotel and make calls to our families to let them know we arrived safely. To this end, Skype is a godsend, but I must say that not having easy access to the Internet for email, voice calls, etc. is a little unsettling. I found myself checking my iPhone every few minutes for messages, even though it was in airplane mode and not connected to any network. We are fortunate that we will have access in our host school in Bacolod, as well as in our respective hotels. But the daily access with which we have grown accustomed is not going to be par for the course during the visit. As such, I have some feeling about this that are both positive and negative. One thing is certain: We are spoiled in the states with the ease of access to online content and the like. And while we may complain about a dropped connection, limited access, etc., we are fortunate to the reliable uptime we have come to enjoy.
I only managed about an hour of sleep before the phone rang for my 5:30 a.m. wake up call. I stumbled out of bed, showered and shaved, and met Jeanette and Rod in the hotel lobby for our trip to the airport (Randdie actually left on an even earlier flight!). Rod was great--he managed to get us a ride to the Manilla airport, was very helpful in helping us navigate through the check in process, and we enjoyed chatting with him about The culture in the Philippines in general, and what our experiences were going to be like in our host school, in particular. I'll write more about this hospitality later, but wanted to comment about it quickly, here. Jeanette and I were very luck to have Randdie and Rod helping us get settled.
Once in Bacolod, we were scheduled for a meeting with various school administrators and teachers from La Consolacion College where we would be spending the next few weeks. The meeting was wonderful, and despite our exhaustion from the lack of sleep, Jeanette and I quickly got into the discussion of the agenda for our visit. We had a nice lunch and headed back to our hotels to check in and rest and relax for the remainder of the day.
Some highlights:
Upon our arrival at the school, Jeanette and I were stunned to see the billboard below. Yeesh!
Talk about feeling like a couple of stars!
This is a picture from he front of the school (That's Rodjhul in the background):
And finally, a picture of the newspaper story about our visit (this appeared in the local paper, today. Don't worry, mom, I have an extra copy for you. :-))
Thanks for reading, everyone. There is certainly more to come.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Bacolod, Philippines
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