I woke up today with a crazy amount of mosquito bites on my legs. I put bug spray and bug lotion on myself but I still got bitten. We got to orientation at around 6:30 but we still had to wait for the bus to arrive which was around 7am. Not al
l of us fit on the bus, but there were mini bus seats for the middle of the aisle, where people could sit. The first and last ride, I didn’t have to sit on it, but the second ride I did and it’s very uncomfortable because you can’t lean back otherwise you’d lean on the person behind you.
Right: Bus is completely filled. There’s no aisle way or anything because the middle seat is also taken.
We traveled to Intramuros and visited Fort Santiago where we visited the Jose Rizal museum. On the way there, I had to sit beside 2 other french students, whom I forgotten their names, and they talked about how they loved the filipino transportation. They fed us snacks on the way there like Mamon and gave us Absolute waterbottles. I told my friends that Ninang Evelyn advised I only drink Absolute water for now because it was the only distilled water brand which was hard to find at restaurants. They remember this and they took extra water bottles for me to drink. By the time I got home, I got an extra 5 water bottles that could last me the rest of the week.
Above, Left, and Below: Fort Santiago in Intramuros.
Above: Golden Footsteps of Jose Rizal. It is believed these were the steps he took towards his execution.
Below: Part of the spine of Jose Rizal that came out when he was shot.
Above: El Filibusterismo, one of Rizal’s famous works.
Above: Marco, Noel, Me, and Sebastian at one of the lakes near the Museum.
Above: Me, Noel, Sebastian, Batrisiya, Dina, and Datul.
Above: Kim, a guard officer, Radiance, and I at Fort Santiago’s exit.
Then we travelled to Luneta Park where we saw the Rizal Monument and took a group photo below.
Above: The largest Philippine flag in the Philippines.
Above: Marco, Me, and Kim at Luneta Park.
Group picture at Rizal Monument of Exchange Students and ASEC students.
We ate lunch at Max’s Restaurant where we ate fried chicken, chop suey, rice, lumpia, and beef soup. Then we visited the Ayala Museum in Makati which was very nice but we could only take pictures on the 2nd floor, which was just the historical representation part of the museum.
Below: Representation of the boats of the armada. The only things we were allowed to take pictures of.
Below: Arrangement of painted rocks outside museum donated and painted by famous Philippine artists.
Everyone was pretty tired so we just all sat on the benches outside the museum while waiting for the bus to arrive again. When we finally got back to Ateneo, Radiance was still hungry so we walked to Gino’s Restaurant which was a pizza and pasta place and the other Singaporean, named Noel, joined us. Kim and I shared a cheese pizza because both our stomach were still getting used to the food. Afterwards, we walked to the grocery store near by to get some groceries to last for tomorrow because it was our rest day in case
we didn’t feel like going out. Radiance and Sebastian walked back to the dorm quickly while Kim and I took our time back. Today was the hottest day so far, so I was so happy to take a cold shower.
Below: Finishing the pizza at Gino’s Restaurant.
Manda in Manila 