Spring Awakening

Sand castles that locals sculpt everyday

Hello everyone! My apologies for the delayed blog post, but to be honest, I haven't been up to too much except relaxing and enjoying the remainder of my vacation before school started back up just today. This post is titled "Spring Awakening" with good reason - I've been out of school for four months, and I was in for a shaky first week to start the spring semester.

En route to Boracay

Before we get into that, however, I want to share with you all some pictures and stories from my vacation in the Philippines! Five Fulbright friends and I decided to take the last ten days of our winter break to head somewhere warm. We were ready to enjoy the hot weather, get sun-tanned, relax on the beach, and enjoy the nightlife. We packed our bags and said a brief goodbye to the freezing Seoul temperature and were on our way to paradise February 20th. Unfortunately, we were in for a long haul. Our first flight from Seoul to Manila went smoothly (a four hour flight), although a bit crammed. No more luxury Korean Air seating, as we booked budget airlines to save money. Once we arrived in Manila, it was like heaven on earth. Warm weather, friendly English-speaking people, but most of all, we spotted a WENDY'S RESTAURANT!!!!! None of us hesitated and immediately agreed to enjoy an early dinner during our layover from Manila and Kalibo. It was so delicious. I miss Wendy's square burgers so much.

Ilig Iligan Beach

Anyway, our second flight was a short, one hour flight from Manila to Kalibo, but ended up being delayed almost five hours. Our original flight time was 5:45, but was pushed back until 10:30 p.m. This wouldn't have been a problem if Kalibo was our final destination -- but it wasn't. Once we were to arrive at Kalibo, we still had a two-hour van ride and a short ferry ride to the island we were staying at for the trip (named Boracay). During our layover, we decided to exchange our currency, and a few of us bought data packages to keep in contact throughout the trip. We eventually landed at midnight, booked a van to get to the ferry port, and finally made it to our resort around 3:00 a.m. Phew! We passed out, but didn't sleep too long as we wanted to get an early start the next morning.

Sunset over White Beach

On our first official day in Boracay, we settled in, bought some necessities, and met up with another Fulbrighter who was already in Boracay. She showed us around a bit, and we decided to go to a more secluded beach that was supposed to be extremely beautiful. The beach is called Ilig Iligan Beach, and it was some of the most blue water I have laid eyes on! The beach itself was actually a bit dirty compared to the other beaches on the island, but a lot less populated. While there, our group met a middle-aged Italian guy named Paulo who had been staying on the island for three months already. He took us back towards the main beach and we made it just in time for a beautiful sunset over White Beach (it's called White Beach because of the white sand). We ate Filipino food for dinner, which I fell in love with over the course of the trip. SO GOOD. After dinner, we headed back to the resort, showered up, and spent our first night out enjoying drinks and dancing!

Delicious Filipino food

Day two: woke up hungover. A couple of us decided to grab brunch and it was a good decision because it was delicious. After brunch, we headed straight for White Beach to relax all day. Got tan and burnt in a few areas, called it an early night.

Day three: went to a different beach, which was my favorite of the trip! It's called Puka Beach, and I liked it because it didn't have as much algae as White Beach. During the months of December-February, some of the beaches are known to get algae because of the waste being dumped into the water #sadness. Anyway, I got quite burnt this day and felt like a lobster. Luckily my burns only lasted throughout the night and turned into a nice tan by morning. That night we decided we were ready to enjoy the nightlife again, so we explored a couple new clubs and danced the night away. I ended up meeting some other Americans who have extended family living in the Philippines, so I talked with them awhile and we ate McDonald's together. McDonald's Philippines has this awesome thing called "BFF Packs" where you can purchase multiple menu items for 3-4 friends at a super cheap price. Unfortunately I never got to try this, but I feel like it is something that would be a big hit in America.

Sunset over White Beach

Day four: woke up super late, hungover, and walked around the island. The group split up and did our own thing, and we met up at night for dinner. We decided to chill in our resort for the night and played Cards Against Humanity for a long time before passing out.

Day five: Woke up, went souvenir shopping, laid on the beach awhile. For dinner we went to an awesome seafood buffet and we all went HAM on that baby. It was so good. We found an awesome bar that played rap and hip-hop music, so we hung out there for awhile. A couple of our friends decided to go home, so my friend Teri and I wandered around and met some native Filipinos and ended up talking to them for a long time before crashing.

Sunset over White Beach

Day six: AKA the day that brutally destroyed me. Our group booked a tour to an island called Ariel's Point. At this island, we can go cliff diving, snorkeling, kayaking, and -- all you can drink! On our way there, we met a Filipina woman who was around our age and she hung out with us for the day. She actually got super drunk and started vomiting on the boat. Oops. I decided not to drink too much since I wanted to participate in a lot of the activities, so I took it easy. Once at the island, we found out there was a 5 meter (16 feet), 8 meter (26 feet), and 15 meter (50 feet) cliff dive. Our whole group decided we would all at least conquer the 5 meter jump, but the other two were up to guts and facing fears. The five meter jump was like jumping off of a diving board - pretty straight forward, not too scary unless you've never jumped off a diving board before. However, the eight meter and fifteen meter jumps created a pit in my stomach that I wasn't sure I would overcome. The eight meter was pretty easy to do, I just ran straight off of the cliff and landed in the water, even though I felt like I was floating in mid-air for much longer than I should have been. Upon impact with the water, my thighs and butt stung, but I would realize that the sting of the eight meter had no comparison to what would come from the fifteen meter jump. My friends and I stalled on the fifteen meter jump until right before it was time to board the boat and get back to the mainland. Two friends jumped with ease, but I stood frozen at the top. I kept thinking about whether or not I really wanted to do it. And I thought about the stinging of my butt and thighs from the eight meter jump. How could I land straight into the fifteen meter jump, twice as long as the previous jump?

Enjoying the sun

Eventually, I mustered up my courage and was the last person to jump off of the fifteen meter jump. I told myself, "Tomorrow is my birthday. This is a birthday present. Face this fear and just do it." So without further ado, I walked right off of the cliff, floated in gravity for what felt like forever, flailing my body and trying to make it pencil-shaped, and went KABOOM into the water. I landed right on my ass, and there are various bruises to prove it (I won't post pictures here, as this is a public space). It is almost one week later, and I'm still having difficulty sitting on chairs, standing up/sitting down normally, etc. But I did it. I survived. And I'll never do it again. Lol!

After our day of cliff diving, snorkeling, and kayaking, we headed back to our resort to get cleaned up. We headed to dinner with some other people that were on the trip with us, and we had a mini celebration of my birthday! I ended up inviting our tour guide to tag along, and at midnight we all took birthday shots. Afterwards, we hit up the dance club and danced the night away.

Another sunset over White Beach

Day seven: my birthday! Unfortunately, we woke up to a typhoon outside our windows. A couple friends and I decided to meet up with our tour guide anyway because we wanted to go island hopping and see some prettier sights for snorkeling. We headed out, bought fresh produce and snacks for a picnic at the island we were going to, and were on our way. The island our guide took us to was beautiful! The weather was clearing up by this point, so we were able to explore and enjoy the seemingly deserted island to ourselves. We barbecued and enjoyed a light picnic, relaxed some more, and then headed back out to the open water. This next part was one of my favorite parts of the trip! We stopped our boat in the middle of the sea, grabbed our snorkeling gear, and dove in. I have never been much of a water sports type of person, but snorkeling may have turned me. There were some of the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen! Now I am wondering what else is out there in the remaining 70% of water that inhabits our Earth. We stayed out there for quite some time, and eventually made our way back to the mainland. I showered up, got ready, and did some last minute souvenir shopping because the next day we would be leaving beautiful Boracay :(

Banana Crepe!

For my birthday dinner, my friends and I decided to go to a Spanish Tapas restaurant, which made me reminisce on my time in Spain. The food was amazing, so rich, and gave me a stomach ache, but it was well worth it. After dinner, we headed back to the resort and decided to pack up, as we had to leave early the next morning to get back to Manila.

Our awesome tour guide, Alfred

Day eight: Everything packed. Good to go. On our way to Manila where we would spend the day and leave early the next day to get back to Korea! We said farewell to our awesome tour guide, and promised to meet again one day in the future (I will be back, Boracay!). Once we got to Manila, we decided to go to the Mall of Asia, have dinner, and walk around. To get there, we took a method of transportation called a jeepney. They are elongated jeeps that the public people hop on and off of to get from one place to another. It's interesting because it seems to work on an honors system. People hop on, pass money back and forth amongst one another and eventually get it to the driver. I have no idea how they know how much everything costs, but I guess locals would know better than me. Ayway, the mall was HUGE. We didn't walk around much as we got distracted by food and an insanely large American-esque supermarket, but I felt like I could have spent my entire life savings there if I had the chance. And if I could afford it. LOL. Anyway, we had our final meal in the Philippines, went back to our hostel and called it an early night.

B-day wishes from Debbie (love ya)

Day nine: Woke up at 3:00 a.m. to get to the airport for a 7:00 a.m. flight. Much of this day was spent traveling and not super interesting. I made it back to Gwangyang at 9:30 p.m., and I was thoroughly exhausted. I showered and passed out right away. Overall, it was an awesome trip, and I was so happy to spend it with friends and enjoy warm weather before getting back to the grind at school.

The spring semester started two days ago, and I am happy to be back. My co-workers and students also seem genuinely happy to see me and have been asking about my health, so it feels good to be back with a warm welcome. Although I've come down with a bit of a cold (maybe due to the weather change, exhaustion, what be it...), I am prepared to tackle this semester and have fun along the way!

Our last night in Boracay (and my bday)