Saturday, 6/20/2015
Manila, Philippines
Jenny Xia
On my third day in Manila, I consulted the internet for blog entries about Western perspectives of visiting the Philippines. Nothing came up in my very brief search. So, here is the first impression of Manila and the Philippines by an American college student about to serve as crew for an archaeological field school.
I landed in Manila on Wednesday. On Friday, I wanted to sleep by 5:30 pm, thanks to the 15-hour time change. That day, the crew had hit up SM North, the local mega-mall. We went for last-minute field school supplies, namely sunscreen, bug spray, bandanas, and snacks. For lunch, we went to the food court. The Filipino food there included white rice, broth soups, and various chunks of beef and pork marinating in sauces. Pork seems to be a staple food in Filipino cuisine. One of the well-known dishes it is in is called lumpia. Lumpia is a small wrapper rolled around a chunk of pork and fried, consumed with a sweet sauce. Afterward, the crew went back to shopping. The supermarket cashiers were all young women in identical dress uniforms, full faces of makeup, and brightly-colored lipstick. Compared to the San Francisco Bay Area (where I had recently flown in from,) lipstick is a fashionable trend among women young and old. Some supermarket workers wore sashes saying "customer service," which is a great strategy to avoid faux pas. The mall is the place to be, with fast-moving families and young people flowing like water in all directions. As someone used to USD currency, every price tag seems steep until I remember that I am in fact looking at a reasonable price, not 1000 USD, for a mass-produced, fast-fashion shirt.
The crew rode back to our present lodging in a jeepney, an SUV-sized vehicle with long benches and door-less access to the outside. Including the driver, we managed to cram the 22 of us into this vehicle. The streets of Manila are quite something. On some streets, the lane markers seem to be guidelines - one three-lane street we drove down somehow fit five rows of cars less than a foot apart each. Pedestrians maneuvered across the widest streets during standstill traffic, and motorcycles sometimes lane-split perpendicular to this traffic. Some intersections do not seem to have traffic signs, resulting in vehicles pushing forward into the intersection, squeezing past each other. It's currently June, during the rainy season. Sometime during the afternoon, the sky suddenly lets loose and drops the largest raindrops I have ever encountered onto the earth. Manila must have areas with inadequate street drains, because the streets flood a good half-foot. Other than the strong diesel smell of the jeepney end terminal, I am enjoying the road experiences.
So concludes my brief first impression, among the many, many other interesting novelties in cultural difference between the Philippines and the United States. As I sit here slowly pushing my eardrums to the limit with the hotel dining room pop music, amped-up volume of the birthday party host over on the hotel patio, and my animatedly socializing crewmates at the table behind me, I look forward to the next few weeks of other-worldly experiences in the Philippines.
Manila, Philippines
Jenny Xia
On my third day in Manila, I consulted the internet for blog entries about Western perspectives of visiting the Philippines. Nothing came up in my very brief search. So, here is the first impression of Manila and the Philippines by an American college student about to serve as crew for an archaeological field school.
I landed in Manila on Wednesday. On Friday, I wanted to sleep by 5:30 pm, thanks to the 15-hour time change. That day, the crew had hit up SM North, the local mega-mall. We went for last-minute field school supplies, namely sunscreen, bug spray, bandanas, and snacks. For lunch, we went to the food court. The Filipino food there included white rice, broth soups, and various chunks of beef and pork marinating in sauces. Pork seems to be a staple food in Filipino cuisine. One of the well-known dishes it is in is called lumpia. Lumpia is a small wrapper rolled around a chunk of pork and fried, consumed with a sweet sauce. Afterward, the crew went back to shopping. The supermarket cashiers were all young women in identical dress uniforms, full faces of makeup, and brightly-colored lipstick. Compared to the San Francisco Bay Area (where I had recently flown in from,) lipstick is a fashionable trend among women young and old. Some supermarket workers wore sashes saying "customer service," which is a great strategy to avoid faux pas. The mall is the place to be, with fast-moving families and young people flowing like water in all directions. As someone used to USD currency, every price tag seems steep until I remember that I am in fact looking at a reasonable price, not 1000 USD, for a mass-produced, fast-fashion shirt.
The crew rode back to our present lodging in a jeepney, an SUV-sized vehicle with long benches and door-less access to the outside. Including the driver, we managed to cram the 22 of us into this vehicle. The streets of Manila are quite something. On some streets, the lane markers seem to be guidelines - one three-lane street we drove down somehow fit five rows of cars less than a foot apart each. Pedestrians maneuvered across the widest streets during standstill traffic, and motorcycles sometimes lane-split perpendicular to this traffic. Some intersections do not seem to have traffic signs, resulting in vehicles pushing forward into the intersection, squeezing past each other. It's currently June, during the rainy season. Sometime during the afternoon, the sky suddenly lets loose and drops the largest raindrops I have ever encountered onto the earth. Manila must have areas with inadequate street drains, because the streets flood a good half-foot. Other than the strong diesel smell of the jeepney end terminal, I am enjoying the road experiences.
So concludes my brief first impression, among the many, many other interesting novelties in cultural difference between the Philippines and the United States. As I sit here slowly pushing my eardrums to the limit with the hotel dining room pop music, amped-up volume of the birthday party host over on the hotel patio, and my animatedly socializing crewmates at the table behind me, I look forward to the next few weeks of other-worldly experiences in the Philippines.