Philippines

  Day 00: We finally headed out to embark on our much anticipated 14 hour and 19 minute flight to Seoul followed by a 4 hour flight to Manila.  Sounds like torture- but you can't go wrong with complimentary wine and a superb movie collection.  By the time we got to our hotel in Manila we were exhausted but apparently not too tired to notice the "unique" bathroom design.  The bathroom walls were glass, if you were showering or even on the toilet you could see completely through them (we were not so ready to embrace that part of the culture so we found eventually found blinds to cover up the glass).  In other news, Eric purchased a selfie stick.  Day 01: Driving from Manila to Taal by bus was compared by many of us to driving in a grand theft auto video game. There is no set speed limit, 13 year olds are driving around on motorcycle scooters, and no one stays on their own side of the road.  Jess commented "maybe I will have less road rage when I get back to Winchester."  As we drove through Taal (or rather dodged cars through Taal) we noticed the vast variety of the houses and buildings.  Some of us felt that in certain areas it was easy to forget we were in a third world country because everything seemed so westernized whereas in other areas, this was not the case.  Today's planned activity was volcano trekking, we gathered in little boats that resembled mini Viking ships and sailed to our destination.  While Jess, Dani, and Adriana had the chance to drive their boat Eric and Liam were completely drenched once we finally reached the shore.  We had the opportunity to ride horses to the top of the volcano.  Though we had a person directing the horse, for some of us this was a pretty scary experience, the trails were narrow and these horses had a mind if their own.  On the way down a few of us decided to walk instead of ride.  This was the first of many controversial subjects we faced today.  We struggled between not wanting to offend their culture and feeling unsafe/worried about the health of the horses.  Our favorite food for the day was Tawilis (mini fried fish, eyeballs included) with vinegar and chiles, while most of us dug right in a few were hesitant but delighted to find that they tasted like french fries.  After seeing the beautiful view on the top of the volcano we headed deeper into the city of Taal where children greeted us with items for us to buy.  They were full of life and persistent.  Later we learned that families are given a quota and their children are expected to sell a certain amount of merchandise to tourists, children were not allowed to go to school if they did not meet the quota. We all felt extremely mixed feelings over what we were witnessing.  Comments include:
"The children made a big impression on me, I could see so much potential in their eyes."
"I wonder if the children actually enjoy what they do or if they feel forced to do it."
"A plus side to this way of life is that the kids become very skilled with social interaction and learn how to perform sales pitches."
"Angel and Antica were so pure, I was happy to help support their families, it changed my life and how I do things."
"I wasn't expecting the children to be so persistent, if they were declined they would instantly respond with 'it's ok, you can buy something next time'."
Needless to say our first few days were extremely impactful.  We are eager to continue practicing the art DAE thinking and to see what the rest of our journey has in store for us.

Words of the day:
Salamot -thank you
Mabuhay-welcome