Island Hopping!

Just another typical Sunday. Philippine style.  Boarding a boat at 8:30 in the morning and exploring four different spots at two separate islands.  This was easily my favorite day in the Philippines so far.

The boat ride lasted for only 40 minutes and then we were among tropical beaches and ocean.  My whole life, paradise has been at least 1000 miles away; the luxury of ocean beaches isn't available in Kansas.  It is a different story in Davao.  For P600 ($12.50), we were taken away to the land of coral reefs and coconut milk.  Our first stop was at a large reef off the island of Talikud. 

Selfie with the reef in the background.

The reef was incredible.  The water was so clear and warm: perfect for snorkeling.  We swam around and saw plenty of starfish, sea urchins, and small fish.  We were also lucky enough to see a turquoise sea anemone with several clown fish living inside of it.  I had never wanted a waterproof camera so bad before in my life!

Our next stop was a beach where we tied up the boat and had some lunch.  We were spending the day with some locals and they prepared an amazing lunch.  It was Filipino cuisine and it was delicious.  There were vegetables, fresh fish and sushi, marinated grilled pork, mussels, and plenty of rice.  I heaped up a good "American" sized portion to fuel the rest of my day.  Afterwards, we went and got some fresh coconut milk (called "buko juice" in the Philippines) at a small shop on the island.

We explored the rest of the small island after that.  It was absolutely beautiful!

I took over 200 pictures on the island, but these were the best.  We spent a good amount of time at the island and I have the sunburn to prove it!  After the beach, we went snorkeling at another location that was next to a cliff on the island.  I snorkeled a little more, but I spent a lot of time socializing with with my coworkers.  It is fun spending time with them on our single day off each week, and they are so incredibly interesting and have so much to share.

Justin, on the left, is the other intern that I am staying with

and Yosua is the cost engineer on the project from Indonesia.

Our final stop was supposed to be at a large ocean clam farm, but, sadly, it wasn't open.  Instead, we headed to another reef to snorkel some more.  It was very similar to the other two reefs, except on the island of Samal, which is a large tourist destination in Davao.  We passed by a resort with individual housing units and a private beach and reef for the residents.

I know where I am staying when I return to the Philippines!

All good things must come to an end.  As the boat captain blew his horn to signal "time to leave", we all left the water to board the boat and return to port.  I had no idea that this Sunday would be so much fun.  I was sad it came to an end, but the Philippine sky left us with one last piece of beauty as we returned to the port.

"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore" - Christopher Columbus

Davao City in CCN Travel

A little over a week ago, CCN Travel posted an article titled "Philippines travel: 11 coolest towns in the Philippines" and coming in at number 6 was Davao City!  I just stumbled on the article today.  It doesn't go too in-depth, but I thought I would share it with you all so you can have a better glimpse of where I am staying this summer.

In the brief couple of paragraphs, the article gives basic panorama of the attractions of Davao.  The article mentions Mt. Apo and Toril, which is the district that we are working on the power plant in.  The articles claims Davao to be the "durian capital of the Philippines".  I had never heard of durian before this trip, but the locals speak very highly of it and there are little shops and stores all over town that sell durian exclusively.  It is supposed to be a delicious, but I have yet to try it because of its interesting odor.  I just need to build my courage.

After reading the article, I definitely want to visit the Davao City's Philippine Eagle Center to see these magestic creatures before I leave.

Tomorrow we are going "island hopping".  A group of 20 of us are going to head out to the island of Samal that sits in Davao bay and spend our day off on the beaches and resorts.  I am sure that I will have plenty of pictures to post from our excursion!

Until next time!

Better Weather

Since the Philippines lies on the equator, it doesn't have seasons like I am used to back home.  It is between 80 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit all year round.  However, in mid June, the rainy season starts and lasts until October.  Wednesday night, after we got back home from the job site, it began to sprinkle.  Within minutes it was a torrential downpour.  It rained.  Rained.  Rained some more.  There was flooding all throughout the city and roads were closed because they were impassable.  Luckily Justin and I had no reason to leave the apartment or we may have ended up stranded!  It turned out that this storm wasn't a common intensity, but our coworkers compared it to the monsoons that can hit the island.  We might need to invest in some rain boots or life jackets if we are to survive this summer.

The next morning I was able to take the picture below.  The rain yield some beautiful scenery and greenery in the area around our apartment.

That is the Davao City city hall.  I didn't even realize it until I went for a walk, but it is only half a block from the apartment.  We are situated in what I would consider the governmental district of Davao.  There are many governmental buildings and some government housing in the area.  There is also a large church called San Pedro Cathedral around the corner.  It is a very nice area that offers a lot to see in our free time.

Not much else has occurred this week.  We are getting settled in and have some projects to keep us busy.

I will leave you all with a driving fact that one of my coworkers shared with me about the Philippines:

In the Philippines, if you kill someone while driving, the penalty is that you have to pay for that person's funeral.

You don't just look twice, but three or four times before you cross the street here!

Arrival!

This is my first blog post composed outside of the US!  And I would have posted it earlier, but our wifi wasn't functional in our apartment.  However, it is up and running today!  Justin and I were going through some noticeable internet withdrawal, but now we are getting caught up and testing the bandwidth of our router.

So much has happened since the last post.  I have completed my series of flights to finally arrive in Davao.  We were in the air for a total of 22 hours!  It was nice to be on the ground and finally immerse ourselves in the Philippines.

My last post was dedicated to some fast facts about the Philippines.  The theme of this post is going to be facts that I learned fast in the Philippines:

1. It is possible to get 10 lanes of traffic onto 6 lanes of road.  All traffic signage and infrastructure must simply be suggestions in the Philippines, because driving is very chaotic.  As long as you drive on the right side of the road and don't hit anyone, you can do whatever you want.  Having said that, there seems to be a method to the madness.  I have yet to see any accidents.  Not even a minor one.  I almost feel safer on the roads here than I sometimes do in the States.  ALMOST.

2. YOU MUST SHOWER BEFORE SWIMMING.  Justin and I spent our first day in Davao unpacking and moving into our apartment.  When we finished, we decided to go take a dip in the pool.  Once we set down our towels and shirts, we tried to enter the pool.  But a security officer stopped us immediately!  She pointed to the outdoor shower and told us to wash up.  Everyone else looked at us like we had committed a mortal sin.  It wasn't too much to do, though.  I think we are going to get a lot of use out of this pool this summer ... showering beforehand, of course.

The view from our room of the apartment complex.

3. Everything is very inexpensive here.  Cab fares usually range from P40-120 ($1-3) to anywhere we need to go.  When we went shopping, we were grabbing at all of the cheap things.  We found family-size bags of chips for less than P40 ($1).  Bread, bananas, ramen, etc. was all much cheaper here than back home.  The catch = only the local Filipino brands are inexpensive; the American brands are marked up.  So we will be exploring the wide world of Filipino groceries and the interesting flavors that come with them (Ramen comes with soy sauce and vinegar packets).  Our personal favorite find are the Fudgee Barrs.  They are a lot like twinkies, but with uniques flavors.  This one is milk and coffee.  We are currently trying out macapuno flavor.  I might try to see how many packages I can smuggle back in the the US.

4. Philippine people are so helpful.  They love to help you with anything!  This goes beyond the young man at the airport looking for a quick tip.  In the office, I am asked every morning if I would like some coffee and they help me make it.  If they are eating something, they will offer to share, and they will be offended if you don't accept!  They are always looking to help or share.  I will have to learn to return the favor during my time here this summer.

Welp, this post is getting a little too lengthy.  I will cut it short, and promise to keep a running list of things I learn this summer.  Each week will bring new things for me to learn.  I will leave you will some pictures that I have been taking:

Our plane from Japan to Manila.

Business Class.  **Not where we sat.

"I <3 Davao" sign in the SM City Mall.

Our offices.

The view from the welcome lunch on our first day.

Philippines Fun Facts

Since I depart in less than 24 hours and I should be finishing up my packing, I am going to write a post!

This post is dedicated to the interesting, unknown, and all around fun facts about the Philippines!  I am one of those people that love random facts, and for some reason, I can remember them better than my schoolwork. (This was inspired by a note from a friend):

1. The beautiful flag of the Philippines is displayed differently during times of peace and war.  During peace = the blue side is up.  During war = the red side is up.  The blue side is currently on top and there shouldn't be a change anytime soon, from what I understand.  Unless something more serious develops from the dispute with Taiwan.

2. The Philippines are the texting capital of the world!  Just when I thought that suburban middle schools in the US had this title on lock, it turns out that nearly 400,000,000 texts are sent daily from 35,000,000 cell phones in the Philippines.

3. Karaoke was invented in the Philippines (not Japan).  Good thing I love to sing!

4. The area of the Philippines is 1/30 of the US, but has twice as much coast line.  Some beautiful coastline at that:

5. The yo-yo is an ancient Philippine toy that was originally developed as a weapon.

6. The Philippine University of San Carlos in Cebu City was founded in 1595 by the Spanish.  It is the oldest university in Asia and is even older than Harvard.

7. The deepest trenches in the world's oceans are located near the Philippines.  The Mindanao Trench (sharing the name with the island I will be staying on) is 6.5 miles deep and located directly east of the Philippines.

Now it is time to pack!  See below for some links to the sites where I collected this information.  As well, you definitely need to check out some other blogs about international travel!  Carolyn is a good friend of mine from K-State and she is leaving for South Africa tomorrow.  Her flight is six hours before mine at MCI and I promised her I would be there to see her off (fingers crossed).  Also, my girlfriend, Morgan, is currently student teaching in Ecuador and will be there for the next couple of weeks.  Both of these girls are terrific writers and will share perspectives of being abroad from other regions of the globe this summer!

34 Interesting Facts about the Philippines

Ten Interesting Facts about the Philippines

The Location of my Destination

I just found out where the Therma South project that I will be working on this summer is located!  If you type 6 57.71583' N, 125 28.83 ' E into Google Maps, you will be able to see exactly where I will be stationed.  Of course the satellite view is out-of-date and the picture does not reflect the current construction, but I will fill you all in with pictures when I get to the job site!

This site is 45 minutes from our condo in Davao City, so we will have to make the trek daily to get to work.

This is a prime location for any construction project.  You can see from the picture that we are very close to the coast of the Davao Gulf.  Another unique experience for me: living/working so close to an ocean!  Back home, roughly 1000 miles separate me and the ocean and that is a trip that I usually save for family trips or spring breaks.  I am definitely looking forward to this change in scenery and the smell of the brackish brine that will hopefully accompany each work day.

If the view to the east wasn't enough, Mt Apo will be standing guard over the project from the west.  This mountain is very interesting and majestic:

Mt Apo is the largest mountain in the Philippines and stands at 2,954 m (I am going to have to get used to metric, but that's about 9,692 ft).  It is a hiking destination for many people and yields many beautiful pictures when you search it on Google images (that's where I found this picture).  However, the beauty of this beast hides some surprising features.

Firstly, ITS IS CONSIDERED A "POTENTIALLY-ACTIVE" VOLCANO.  I am not quite sure what "potentially-active" means or where it falls between dormant or active, but Mt Apo is one of 452 volcanos on the Ring of Fire.  Why anyone would hike it is beyond me, but a volcano eruption is not an experience that I am looking to cross off my bucket list anytime soon.  However, I am sure the region is safe and I have nothing to worry about (fingers crossed).

We are less than one week away until we depart the United States!  We just finished our second day of orientation through the Construction & Procurement department and are getting all of our final, pre-trip questions answered.  We have two more days of meetings and activities, but I am most looking forward to our trip to Kaufman stadium on Thursday to cheer on the Kansas City Royals as an intern class.  I will have to root on my hometown heros from the other side of the globe for the rest of the summer!

  

The Beginning

As finals come to a close and graduation parties wrap up, we realize that SUMMER 2013 IS HERE!  The time for backyard barbecues and some serious R&R has arrived.  And for a lucky few of us it also brings internship opportunities.

However, I get to prepare for a very unique internship that I am truly blessed to have.  This summer, through Black & Veatch, I will be traveling to the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines.  THE PHILIPPINES!  I have lived in Overland Park my entire life, and I have grown up in the shadow of Black & Veatch since as long as I can remember.  Last summer I was lucky enough to land my first internship experience with B&V at the headquarters in Overland Park (a mere 15 min drive from my house).  But this summer I will be assisting with a construction project that is halfway around the world.

I am excited and anxious.  I have recently realized that this will be the first time that I will spend more than two weeks outside of the US ... and more specifically, Kansas!  There has been countless hours of preparation and research for the trip.  We have been in touch with American B&V personell currently stationed in Southeast Asia.  I have also been doing some research on my own through the various resources that the internet offers.

Here is some background on where I will be and what I will be doing:

• I will be in Davao City, which is the third largest city in the Philippines with about 1.3 million people.  It is a tourist hub for people from Manila (the capital of the Philippines), Japan, Korea, and China.  By land area, it is one of the largest cities in the world (Yahoo Travel).
• The project that I will be directly working with is a 2 x 150 MW coal-fired power plant that will be located just outside of Davao City.  The project is being undertaken by Therma South, but I will not know my role until we arrive on site.
• From the various sources that I have found, Davao City is a growing city with strong ties in business and investment.  If I had to guess, I would expect that this power plant is a being built to prepare for increased power demand that comes with this expansion.

I cannot wait to start this summer adventure!  I leave on the 28th of May and fly through Japan to the Philippines (due to the time difference and the international date line, May 29th is going to be one of the shortest days I have ever lived).  Tomorrow morning I report to Black & Veatch's headquarters in Overland Park to begin my week-long training with a majority of the other summer interns.  It will be very similar to the orientation I took last summer, but with a much difference outcome.

Stay tuned and I will keep posting more about my adventures!