Day 9

15 December 2008

We survived our first trip on public transit today! Leah and I both expressed an interest in seeing Metro Manila and to see some sights that have importance to our family history. So today, mom took us to the University of Santo Tomas (St. Thomas), her alma mater.

Although getting there was easier than I thought, I think I probably lost a couples of years from my lifespan by riding in Jeepneys. The traffic is so bad sometimes that you're sitting in stand-still traffic for 10 minutes and inhaling engine exhaust. We took a Jeepney to Cubao and then hopped on the LRT (Light Rail Transit) to go to Manila. The LRT itself was very comfortable and quite pleasant, much like the train system in Bangkok. If I thought traffic in Manila was already really bad, I can't imagine what it must have been like before the LRT! From Recto station, we got on another Jeepney to Santo Tomas. Door to door, the trip took about 1.5 hours. Good thing we didn't have to stick to a schedule!

We walked around campus and noticed that everyone was in uniform. Mom explained that each college has its own uniform and dress code, so you could easily identify which student was studying what. UST is also one of the oldest universities in the world, at 400 years old. And, while we didn't get to tour their museum (it's closed on Mondays), we did buy some quadricentennial commemorative items.