Pengalaman Belajar di Manila, Philippines

Selamat Malam, goodpeople.

Di postingan kali ini, setelah bertahun-tahun tidak pernah post apapun, tiba-tiba sejak tiga hari yang lalu hatiku tergerak untuk mulai blogging, saya akan mencoba memaparkan pengalaman yang saya dapat setelah 21 hari tinggal di Manila, Philippines.

So, goodpeople, untuk pemanasan, perkenankan saya memulai dengan my personal introduction. Saya  Sheily, asal dari Kota Padangsidempuan, Sumatera Utara. Saya kuliah di jurusan Hubungan Internasional, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. Batch 2015. Bulan Juli kemarin, saya berkesempatan untuk mengikuti Student Exchange Program dari kampus saya selama 1 semester ke DLSU (De La Salle University) Manila.

Baiklah, mungkin goodpeople udah pada ga sabaran ya mendengarkan pengalaman saya di DLSU, Manila. Bagi yang memang ada kepentingan untuk ke Manila atau lebih tepatnya lagi ke DLSU, postingan kali ini mungkin akan sedikit bermanfaat. Karena menurut pengalaman saya saat persiapan menuju DLSU Manila, tidak begitu banyak informasi yang saya dapatkan dari internet tentang pengalaman orang Indonesia yang belajar ataupun hidup di Manila. Di sini, saya akan coba memaparkan tentang DLSU sendiri, maupun Manila berdasarkan pengalaman dan pendapat saya sendiri.


DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY 

•   General Information about DLSU 
  
  De La Salle University is often considered as one of the 5 top university in the Philippines. It is a private university located in Manila as the main campus and are in Araneta, Laguna, Lipa Batangas and etc as another campuses. In this topic, i will just talk about DLSU in Manila.  Sejauh yang saya telusuri, DLSU has 5 front gates; South

Gate, North Gate, Velasco Gate, Gokongwei Gate and Andrew G Gate.  The picture above is the picture of La Sallian building as the main building of DLSU and known as the oldest building in the campus. It is also where many Filipino murdered by the Japanese back then in the history of Japanese colonization in Philippines.

•  English is spoken widely

  

  La Sallian Building in day time when there was a protest to the Martial Law by Duterte

 English is spoken widely in DLSU by the lecturers, students and staff. The lecturers teach the class materials in English, eventho sometimes they still use Tagalog, but it mostly for telling jokes. A Filipino friend of mine once told me "Because sometimes, some jokes are only meant to be in Tagalog, ", when i told him that some lecturers still like to use Tagalog when they tell jokes, and  i think he was right. There are some words in certain language that are only meant to be in the language.

• Students are well participated in class

The students are participated actively in the class. Responding to the lectures, giving comments, opinion, asking questions. Another new thing i notice here is that rising your left hand is considered polite. It is in contrast with Indonesian culture where people usually are supposed to rise their right hand to show politeness.

An Indonesian friend of mine in front of Henry SY SR Hall of DLSU

• Regulations

 Talking about regulations, DLSU is quite different with my home university or generally universities in Indonesia. Female students are allowed to wear short skirts or pants as long as it is an inch by your hands when you put them aside your thighs. For male students, i find many of them wear short. Like very short. HAHA. Like a sport short. Because many of Filipino guys like going to the gym or just doing sports such as basket ball. Sandals are allowed, as long as it has back strip. Some lecturers strictly forbid smartphone during the classes. And another new thing in my experience is that every 12.00 pm and 06.00 pm, all of the people who are around DLSU supposed to pause their activity and  to keep silence and to bow your head because you will be listening to the Angelo. I heard that it is kind of holy recitation for Christian especially Catholics.

• Workday and Period System

DLSU generally only works until Thursday. Yes, Friday to Sunday, the students are free. Even i myself have a class on Saturday because my lecturer rescheduled our first schedule. However, sounds very interesting right? My Filipino friends told me that she only need 3 years to pass the undergraduate degree in DLSU.
DLSU is-i'm not sure which one is correct-the the only one or one of the university that implements three terms in one year system. So if in Indonesia we have 2 semesters, they have 3 terms in a year. And a class usually holds a meeting for twice in a week. So you can imagine how the home work is given on Monday and it must be submitted by Wednesday because dont forget that they only have classes until Thursday.


MANILA

Manila Sunset from my condo view

• General Info and Manila&Jakarta

The population of this capital city of  Philippines was estimated  in 2015 about 1.700.000 people. Manila is just quite same with Jakarta. Firstly traffic, of course. Traffic has been a common issue in Manila. Secondly, waste. You will find many trashes are thrown in certain places. No wonder how the river near to my condo always smell bad every day i pass by. Next is beggars. I found many beggars in Manila. Adult, kids, female and male. They even may enter the restaurants such as McDonald's in my experience. Just like Jakarta, some beggars sleep in front of closed shops at night or day.

• Weather

And the weather, it is hot. It is around 32 C almost everyday. Even it is raining or night. When i had my first dinner here, i thought it would be cold outside since it is night and a bit raining so i wore my jeans jacket. But after walking around 5 minutes or more, i felt hot. And during the day time, my skin always get sticky after walking around the campus.

•  Tourism Places, Filipino Typical Face and Transportation 
  

  

  Cathedral in Intramuros, Manila with my Japanese Friends

  

  Enjoying Sunset at Manila Bay in a Cruise

Manila has some tourism places. Mostly are historical heritages. Beautiful well-known beaches are located in Cebu, Palawan and Bohol and etc.
Filipino is much look like Indonesian. I even several times mistakenly noticed by the Filipino as a Filipino becasue they spoke Tagalog with me.
There are some transportation in Manila. Jeepney is kind of a long car that has certain routes, in Indonesia, we call it as Angkot, Angkutan Umum. The uniqe thing about going by Jeepney is that you will pay your fee in a relay with the people near you until to the people who sit behind the driver.  And there is this Tricycles, which we know as Becak. There are many buses in certain area. And there is also LRT and MRT to some destinations.

Jeepney

• Cuisine 
  

  

  Warung Indo is an Indonesian Restaurant located in Makati. The chili sauce is shooo Liittt!

  
  

  

  Pancit Canton is Instant Noodle from Php. Try the red one, spicy one!

  
  

To me, food in Manila is often sweet. They dont serve hot sauce. This is very terrible for me. HAHA. They will offer you chili instead of hot sauce or chili sauce. Many restaurants i found only have tomato sauces or garlic sauce. They also eat with kind of oil they pour to their rice. I found it weird at the first time but now i m started to love it.
If you visit Manila, you will find a fast food restaurant called JollieBee. It is just like the McDonald's in Philippines version. Fyi, they have no hot sauce.

 But i will strongly recommend you to try the chicken from MANG INASAL. It is so yummy!!! The chicken is big, tasty to the bones, shooooo good. But again, they have no hot sauce. But you will get these oil and chili and garlic and soy bean. They are helpful tho. Dont forget to order Halo Halo when u r in Mang Inasal. There is also an egg pudding, but i cant remember the name. But you should try them!

MANG INASAL CHICKEN

• Party and Couples

Filipino loves party and drink. And and and and and and, i saw many couples in Manila. I dont know if it is just me or it is true. But like everywhere, i see couples. In the streets, in campus, in my condo, in mall. And 80% of them always do the holding-hands-thing! I mean, in Indonesia i dont find it very often. Couples are just walking and laughing or holding the guy's arm or elbow. But here it is literally holding hands. SWEET!! I KNOW! Hufh. Pardon my alayness, but it s true. Kissing in public is common. I found some. In my condo, there was a couple sitting in the lobby where there were some guards and guests. The lobby was not very big, it s only like 5*7 meters lobby. And this couple was just there and the guy laid down on the girl's nap like no body cares. Well no body did. But me. HAHA. Geliiiiiiii.

A Seafood Restaurant near to Mall of Asia when my friends' birthday party

• Typhoon and flood

Dont be surprise later if you find typhoon occurs in Manila! Typhoon occurs in Manila often.  well at least it does if we compare to Indonesia. It was my first time here. But dont worrry, the government will give warning caution to the society once typhoon is predicted occur. Even schools and offices are often suspended once the government declare the warning. Since typhoon occurs a lot, flood also occur often. I had one which is quite high to my knees in my 21 days in Manila.

Flood from my room view after 2 days non-stoop rain

So yeah. I think i am done. I hope it will help you to get information about DLSU and Manila daily life. See you in the next posts and stay tune!!