English School in Cebu
Trip Start
Apr 19, 2008
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Trip End
Apr 20, 2008
Mactan Island,
Visayas,
Philippines
Sunday, April 6, 2008
On the next day, I got on a Phiippine airlines flight to Cebu at 2:30 in the afternoon and arrived in Mactan Cebu International Airport at 3:10, which was much earlier than ETA. The airport was international, but very small. Anyway, at the airport, I was supposed to see a Japanese manager from my English school. Somehow, he was not there and I had to wait more than half an hour until a Korean manager showing a drawing paper saying "Philinter" appeared. Then we headed for the school dormitory behind Days Hotel, but he told me that school was off on the next day. So ridiculous. Because nobody was in my dormitory room, I went shopping in Savemore supermarket and looked for a moneyexchanger nearby. At that time, I didn't know my school was on the second floor of the same building, Marina Mall.
Filinter Friends
On my way back to the dormitory, I found a fried chicken stall and tried a few, which was very tasty. By the way, there were a few interesting snacks sold in the stalls along the way to the dormitory, such as Puso and Balut. Balut is an egg with a chicken half-grown in it. Actually, I tried it once, but the grotesque appearance of the chicken prevented me from eating it. When I reached the dormitory room, two Korean roommates, Sue and Born, was there. They were very nice guys and we talked more than one hour in our room. Then we had Korean dinner together in the dining room. It was not so bad, compared with spicey Korean cuisines I ate in Seoul. We were able to use the free Internet on the second floor of the dormitory, where a unpopular cafeteria was also open. There were guards at the dormitory front and at the gate all day long and it relieved me, although I made it a habit not to leave anything valuable in my room. I had five "batch mates", who entered the school on the same day, including three Koreans and two Japanese: Jacky, Sophie, Jenny, Tomoe and Emi. All of them were supposed to study there more than three months, although I stayed only one month. The Japanese manager, Etty, was staying in the dormitory and he was very kind and friendly. There were some Japanese students as well. However, according to the principal's talk, they didn't stay and study long enough to improve their English, although all the Koreans study more than three months. Interestingly, some Koreans were in their late thirties or early forties and there was also a Korean English teacher staying with his wife and kid.
Anton's Restaurant
More than half of young Koreans were thinking about going to Ausralia or Canada after studing English in the Philippines. Actually, I had got information about the English schools of the Philippines from Koreans during my stay in Australia. By the way, the new school building was supposed to be open soon, but I wonder if it was already built.On the first day in the school, I took a placement test, but I had nothing to do after that. So the Japanese manager asked the Korean general manager to give me a class. From the next day on, I had eight 50 minute classes. Five out of them were private and one was an optional. I took an IELTS preparation class as an optional one and actually, it was the best English class of all I had ever taken in Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. The teacher had an interesting teaching style and it surely worked out to improve my speaking ability. Anyway, almost all the teachers were eager to teach English, while a few of them gave me enjoyable lessons. In addition, the general manager apply to my requests to change classes and thanks to him, I had a good schedule. Everthing was fine with the classes. The school jeepneys was useful to commute to school, especially on a rainy day, although the dormitory was 10 min walk from the school.
When I got into a jeepney for the first time in town, the vehicle was very interesting. A ride costs extremely cheap, about 10 pesos. The fare depends on the distance. A conductor who stands on the step at the back of the vehicle collects the fare on the way, neither when to get on or get off.
Manna Sutukil Restaurant
He packs his jeepney with passengers until all the seats are taken. Then he pulls out a few wooden small benches stowed under the passenger's seats and places them on the isle to let more passengers ride. That was the most packed vehicle I had ever taken.Sometimes, I went out for Cebu attractions on the weekend. During the one month stay in Cebu, I visited Magellane's Cross, Fort San Pedro, Santo Nino Basilica, SM City, Mandaue cock fighting arena, Bohol Beach Club, Fisherman's Wharf, Lapu-lapu Shrine & Lapu-lapu statue, Pinoy Grill, and Shangri-La's Mactan Island Resort. To tell you the truth, I broke the 10 P.M. curfew a couple of times, although it was very important to protect ourselves. I think Cebu is safer than Manila, but I heard from a teacher about an robbery she had experienced and it is true that some Filipinoes have a gun. Anyway, when I went to Pinoy Grill restaurant with my roommates, it was the first time to break the curfew. There was roommate's favorite girl, Chicks, working as a singer on the stage. So he often went to the restaurant, but I didn't go there again. The second time was when I was invited to a festival in Lapu-lapu Shrine by Japanese friends. Actually, the dormitory gate was already closed when we left for the shrine. We took a jeepney from just beside of Marina Mall, but when we returned, we had to take a taxi. In the shrine, we were not interested in the music stage and so we just strolled around, took a few pictures, and had fruit juice. The decorated statue of Lapu-lapu looked strange.
Messages from Friends
In the evening we got a brownout, we went to Anton's restaurant near MEPSA with Korean and Japanese friends. We took our homework there, but we just enjoyed talking. On Friday of the third week, we took the Progress Test composed of 5 modules: reading & vocabulary, writing, listening, speaking, and grammer. All the students were handed out sheets for the vocabulary test and speaking test. The topic of the speaking test was English Villages in South Korea and I was surprised at Koreans eagerness to study English. At the same time, I realized the big differnce between Japanese and Koreans English industries. Anyway, I didn't expect good scores in the tests, but fortuantely, I took the second place of all the students. In the afternoon of the same day, we took a jeepney to SM Hall for a special event called English Day. In the beginning, we sang each national anthem: Japanese, Korean, and Filipino. Then I played a important role in a sit-com and performed a dance, which were practiced since two days before in the dormitory with the teachers. During the event some students made an English speech as a speech contest by the selected students in elimination round the day before, which were all good. So I regretted not participating in the contest. In total, however, I had a wonderful time in the event.
One day, before I left Cebu, my "batch mates" held a farewell party for me. The venue was Casa Verde and it was a little bit far from our dormitory, so we took a taxi. Because the restaurant was very popular, we had to wait for a while to take a table, but the food was so good and inexpensive.
Manna Sutukil Restaurant
Besides, we happened to see our school friend as well. We had a picture taken by a waiter and it was put on their farewell card for me, which is my treasure now.The 1st of May was a holiday in the Philippines and the last day off for me. So I invited some friends and teachers to an island hopping. The travel agency picked us up at our dormitory and left for the harbor on the east side of Mactan Island, where we got on a boat. The first island, Panglao island, was small and not so famous, but the sea was very beautiful. We had a good lunch and enjoyed bathing, thanks to teacher Riza. Then we headed for Hiltugan Island. To put it exactly, we didn't land on the island, but we enjoyed snorkeling around the boat. It was a good memory, but it was a pity that I had to go back to Japan next day.
On the last day in Cebu, I took all the eight classes. Some teachers didn't know that I would leave on the day, but others gave me a souvenir or invited me to a dinner in a restaurant in Marina Mall. My "batch mates" gave me a collection of the messages. A teacher took the trouble of paying a visit to the dormitory so as to give me a gift. So I was very glad and impressed. When I got back to the dormitory, a lot of friends were waiting to say good-bye to me. I was so sad and I couldn't help crying even in front of friends. Some friends tried to see me off at the airport, but I declined their offer. I said good-bye to them in front of the dormitory and headed for the airport by taxi. I couldn't stop crying all the way to the airport. I had a wonderful experience in Cebu and learned not only English, but also the importance of friendship.
When I arrived in Manila at 9 in the evening, I had to stay one night there in the airport. The domestic airport looked clean and safe to stay. It closed a little bit after midnight. Some guards approached me and asked a few friendly questions, and eventually, they let me stay there. Anyway, I was surprised to see a lot of Koreans in the domestic airport and one of them talked to me in Korean. Actually, it happens anywhere overseas I have traveled, because I looks like a Korean. In the next morning, a friendly took me to the international airport. He was very kind and gave me his business card. Against my anticipation, he didn't ask for any tip. In the lobby of the airport, I was talked by a Filipino in Tagalog. That may be because I had a lot of suntan during my stay in Cebu. Anyway, I got into the Nothwest airplane and took a seat. Then there was announce telling us something wrong with the airplane and asking us to get off once. Eventually, I had to stay in the airport another three hours, although they gave all the passengers a meal coupon and a discount ticket for Nothwest airlines.
Comments
I hope you go back here
Im margaret from Cebu.It's really nice to read your travel blog. I hope you will go back here, so we can be friends. And invite you to our annual Sinulog Festival. It is so much fun during that time. people are gonna on the streets from moring till dawn. there gonna be streetdancing
I hope to go back there
Thank you for your comment on my blog. I really had a wonderful time there, maybe the best one month in my life. I am not sure when I can come back to Cebu, but definitely I will. And I hope to see you then.