back in the states

Today I ended up back on U.S. soil in the form of the U.S. Embassy in Manila. We had a great tour guided by Olga Bashbush. (I support her last name) We learned more about the history of Manila and got to see the details of what goes on as far as getting visas to visit and live in the United States. It was also interesting to learn that Manila is second only to one of the embassy's in Mexico for number of applicants. Sadly for Filipinos almost everyone is turned down and we audibly heard a number of rejections on our visit. The crazy thing is that people will save for months just to have a chance, knowing that they will likely be rejected. Their fee for every time they even apply is almost $200 U.S. I also found out that the U.S. Ambassador at the embassy gets a rolling caravan as a VIP and that the Ambassador represents the U.S./President and their wishes and decisions abroad including militarily.

After the Embassy we went to the ridiculous mall here in the Malate district of Manila and some of us purchased our plane tickets for Thailand. After the study abroad session is over a few of us decided since we are in the area there is no good reason not to take advantage of cheap flights for what would be very expensive flights from the U.S. Thus I will be flying direct to Bangkok on the 3rd and am very excited for the opportunity. In the somewhat chaotic fashion that we have become accustomed to, getting our tickets took almost as long as our flight will take.

Prior to this experience I ate a squid for dinner, it was probably about 9 inches long and I got to eat the tentacles and everything. It was grilled, very tasty, and the tentacles still had the little suckers on it. The challenge of getting over the mental barrier of what the thing visually looked like was something both exciting and challenging. The pay-off was finding a new food that is very delicious, and here in the Philippines very cheap. I have some pictures that I will try to post within the upcoming days.

Tonight we visited a call center, where calls from the United States are routed via fiber-optic cables underneath the ocean. Anytime you call major name brands in the U.S. you may be talking to a Filipino/Filipina. Companies such as Dell, Sprint, and even Dominoes use this feature. The newest growing trend apparently is pizza delivery calls being outsourced, and also fast food orders. This seems absurd, but fast food orders are placed at the window, and then a person across the world sends the order electronically to a computer at the restaurant. This seems completely crazy, but next time you find yourself in the drive-through you should check it out.

We will be traveling south tomorrow night via ALL NIGHT BUS. My excitement is through the roof to spend all night sitting on a bus, but I am confident that I will still be able to get some rest. We will be hiking a storied volcano crater that I will inform you about later, and then we will be stopping in Manila again on our way to the Northern part of Luzon to visit the rice terraces. I may not have internet for a few days but I will try to update as frequently as I can.

It is almost Tuesday for me, but is noon on Monday for everyone back in the States.