#majorfieldtrip

TRAVEL REPORT

October 23 – 27, 2015s

 Seminar Overview

Well, we spent five days of a field trip in Manila including the back-and-forth day. It is nice to step on foreign land (foreign for my experience, because I didn’t experience to travel to Manila due to its media issues and lack of time) and experience what is new in that society. We had a chance to visit some IT companies like Ideaspace Foundation, Advance World Solution, UP techno hub and Nokia techno hub and government establishments that greatly uses technology to improve our life like DOST and MMDA (Traffic Engineering). We also joined the mini Y4IT Convention in UP Diliman, actually, it is not the typical Y4IT Convention. Our professor held it for us so that we may feel the essence of Y4IT and learn something from that event. We learn a lot from there, visiting a different establishment that really emphasises technology innovation for the greatness of our country. It serves as an eye opener to us as an Information Technology and Computer Science student that involves the back part of how technology works. Eye opener because, for me, some technology from Manila did not exist here in Davao which amaze us as they expose us from the real world of IT industry. Aside from visiting IT companies and government establishments that highlight the use of technology or attending seminars, we were also given a chance to tour Tagaytay City and experience the breathtaking extreme rides in the Enchanted Kingdom. Indeed, words and pictures are not enough to express how grateful I am to experience those things; fun, excitement and lessons I which I kept and valued forever in my mind.

 Day 1

 This is the exciting moment of my life because it is my first time to ride an aeroplane. First of all, I hitch a ride from my classmate to arrive at Davao international Airport. I waited at 7/11 Shrine Hills near at Matina Gallera, which is my fault why my hitching time delayed because of our decision, with my other classmate, is to wait at 7/11 GSIS Matina. I hope his parents won’t set me as a bad example. Moving on, before we arrive at the Davao International Airport, I’m always thinking about what will happen there in Manila, I hope traffic in Manila improve well and many more questions revolving in my mind. The only thing that impresses me well before we arrive at Davao International Airport is the atmosphere and the sunrise here in Davao City. Actually, I didn’t like to choose Tour A because it is expensive; worth 21,000 and my parents have a lot of projects ongoing, like house renovation and etc. Well, I need to accept it even though I didn’t like it. At the Davao International Airport, we are the second group to arrive early. Actually, I don’t know if I counted it right because, meanwhile, groups of my classmates are arriving with their respected baggage. We wait inside near Cebu Pacific booth and started to count off. We are set to go and line up to wait for our turns in Cebu Pacific booth. After 10 minutes of waiting, I feel the urge of excitement after I get my ticket. We group again before we proceed at the first floor of the airport. We paid 200 pesos for the terminal fee and follow the strict security procedure before we depart. Actually, it is a hassle procedure because you need to remove necessary things like shoes and belt but for the Davao security; we need to follow it holistically.

 Meanwhile, while waiting at the departure area, the is cold and well ventilated but due to overcrowded passenger it makes the room warm and annoying ‘cause chitchat cannot be avoided. I plug my earphones and play my favourite music to smooth my day. One of my classmates offers a book but I didn’t accept it because I’m tired and I want a nap. After ten minutes of waiting at the departure area, our airline was announced and we ready ourselves. Another long waiting line occurs because two sets of airline passengers are overlapping each other. While calmly walking towards the airline entrance, I notice the whole new atmosphere and as a newbie, I follow all the instructions which literally set my point of view about myself as a newbie. After nearly two hours of travelling, we arrive at the NAIA Terminal 3. My body is exhausted and very tired. We ate our lunch at our tour bus; by the way, I’m on tour bus 2 – a mini tour bus. While eating, we proceeded to DOST, Bicutan, Taguig to attend our seminar. The seminar is all about DOST and Project NOAH was the highlight of that seminar. There are projects created by the DOST as the subproject which helps Project NOAH to disseminate information to prevent casualties and death of the Filipino citizen. After an hour, we proceed to SM Mall, I forgot the name of the establishment but the experience is so unforgettable, upon entering the Mall establishment, the atmosphere is like SM Ecoland with Annex and Victoria Plaza combined. Actually, we are lost for a moment to find the CR which is one of my fears in travelling but with the help of my near-fluent Tagalog, we were able to find the restroom. After one hour of window shopping, we return to our designated busses and proceed to Kabayan Hotel, Pasay City which is great for a businessman to stay because of easy access to all Manila businesses.      

 What I learned?

In this day, I learn a lot not just educational but also a social lesson to improve my daily habit in life. First of all, DOST is taking a big step to improve our climate awareness especially they launch the first satellite called Diwata with the help of Japanese Space Agency. Diwata is a great help for our weather information to be accurate because our country needs to be aware and informative in every natural disaster that will occur. In every month, mostly, we are the first country that belongs in pacific ring of fire to experience harsh typhoons that costly great to our lives and farmlands. Because of this catastrophe, our countries progress is always delayed furthermore, avoidance of nature’s havoc is impossible, that is why DOST quoted, “We must be ready for the great ones coming…” I’m fascinated when I hear that word because, I know our country is not that rich and advance to match the international science technology levels, but still they are improving up for our country. DOST is not just ready for the stronger typhoons but also for the destructive earthquakes that will occur in the future. With the help of Information Technology and Computer Science, it will throttle our hunger of information for awareness and not just for the information but also for the improvement of our living with the use of computer technology. For the social lessons, it would be mine and I will keep it as an added rule for the betterment of my living.

 What I liked?

Aside from the information and lessons that I learned in DOST, I really like the weather before we proceed in Kabayan Hotel. We had our buffet dinner in Great Eastern Hotel and it satisfies my taste buds. The Kabayan services also satisfy my expectation from their website reviews.  

What I didn’t like?

What I didn’t like is the tiredness of my body. I’m so sleepy and I think I miss some percentage of the tour like ten percent of the tour because I sleep while travelling to the Kabayan Hotel.

Day 2

 This day is a hectic day because I can’t easily adopt a certain environment especially when I'm not used to sleeping in that room. Hectic because five hours of sleep is not enough and four o’clock in the morning is the call time. So, we need to wake up 4:00 to ready ourselves and do our personal necessities. We take our breakfast in Kabayan Hotel; serve with hot coffee or unlimited juice. The food is great and the rice is so satisfying but it is not a buffet. Moving on, after we ready ourselves, started the count-off and rode the designated busses, we proceed to Ideaspace Foundation. Almost, all of us are sleeping inside the bus and our tour guide finds it as annoying, for him, because he is used to speaking a lot and that is his one of the golden rule when touring. Ideaspace was located at the Makati, when we were there, I thought it was big enough to cater us all, 65 people. So, I belong to the second batch of Ideaspace seminar, the topic is just the same with the first batch. They share about their company and those successful Idea creators that started as startup and ended to be a successful company. Some successful Ideas were posted at colourful papers, for me, it looks like as a hall of fame of ideas. Someday, I want to be successful like those CEO of the successful companies that started from a simple idea that really caters the needs of the society.

 After Ideaspace Foundation, we proceed to a Kapampangan restaurant named “APag Marangle”. The ambience of this restaurant is great; I feel it in the entrance of the restaurant because their viands are shown upon entering the restaurant. After eating our lunch, we head to MMDA traffic engineering located at the EDSA, Makati. They introduce their traffic system which is great but not enough to answer all Manila traffic problems. They showed us their proud system and it is great to hear their great system serves as a step of the Philippines to resolve a common problem like traffic. Their system is dedicated so it is impossible to be jammed by the hackers as they said. After visiting those companies, we decided to have a shopping (I forgot what and where the name and place of the mall is). Then we have the dinner (I also forgot what and where the name and place of the restaurant is). Furthermore, we ended our day with a comfortable sleep in Kabayan Hotel.

 What I learned?

This day we visited Ideaspace and MMDA traffic engineering. It is great to see technology industry in the Philippines to stand and prove what improvement is. In Ideaspace, I learned that simple problem can be a huge success for you and for the people. One of the examples is the online ticketing of domestic bus transportation. I forgot the name of the CEO and name of the company. Actually, they are successful and still ongoing until today. Ideaspace helps their company to be successful. Speaking of helping, Ideaspace Company actually survived because of donations or donor from their clients that they help. The Philippines must embrace technology subjects like Robotics and Technopreneurship which helps our country to improve more especially in agriculture and industrial business.

 In MMDA traffic engineering, I learned that the government is taking the risk and responsible for aiding the serious problems here in the Philippines because sometimes government works are just words. Also, because sharing of how their system works gives us ideas or real scenario about how IT technologies works. Technology is a great aid for us especially we are a developing country.

 What I liked?

I really like Ideaspace, the concept of Ideaspace because it is not just for their sake but also for the people or Filipino citizen. I hope the Philippines would push more of this than corruption. I really like how MMDA improve their approach in traffic system because it drastically improves, as what they said, when they implement the surveillance system. I’m hoping that their system will improve more in the future to meet the standard and demands of approaching the problem.

 What I didn’t like?

I didn’t like the traffic. Traffic is a great problem in Manila; it is not the sign of improvement of our country but a sign that represent the needs of improvement. Among the problem, that is the very annoying one.

 Day 3

This is our third day trip in Manila wherein I slowly adjust myself to fit in this system. “Fit in this system…” because I’m not used to travelling places that I like or maybe area in that place that I didn’t like. Here in Kabayan Hotel, we are preparing ourselves and things needed before we go to UP Diliman. We are surely preparing because they said Sir Gamboa will be joining us in UP Diliman, where the special mini Y4IT will be held just for us. Because of that alarming information, we work as a team, asking if every is okay before leaving the hotel. “Asking if okay…”, because most of my roommates are not use to wake up on 4:00 am and prepare, so personal necessities are set to our previous body clock and we are bold on that topic because humans are humans. After eating breakfast, taking showers and doing its personal necessities, we cluster ourselves at the Kabayan Lobby to have a count off and ready to ride the designated busses.

 This day is so special because we wear the customised yet simple and nice black polo shirt that represents Institute of Computing from the University of Southeastern Philippines. Because we are tired of waiting to arrive in UP Diliman, we decided with our tour guide to sleep while travelling and he agreed on that decision because he also wants it. After an hour, we arrive at the UP Diliman. Our tour guide shares something about UP but, the thing that’s highlight on what he said, is that UP Diliman has its own security managed by the student. I’m surprised because of their student’s freedom. In USeP, we can’t even have the freedom to wear civilian in the regular school day, except Wednesday. Well, it depends on the school head on how they fortify their education system. Moving on, we are delayed on UP Diliman entrance because the security was not informed that USeP will enter their territory for the mini Y4IT seminar. After multiple bus turns, we arrive at UP IT department. We enter the establishment and the seminar starts. Multiple lessons are thought to us that are useful in real life scenario. After that, we take our lunch inside the assigned busses and while travelling, some of us are eating. Actually, I’m not comfortable with that because of little motion sickness. We are now travelling, to UP Technohub to visit Nokia. We arrive at Nokia with a smooth rainy and cloudy weather. We line up for the login purposes and after that; we are walking towards the Nokia Company building. Upon entering the building at the main door, I notice a vibration from my pocket and I know it is my phone. Enter the pin code, I notice a three miss calls from my parents and one message. I'm shocked when I read the message, my grandmother is dead. I want to cry as hard as I can but I’m in the wrong place. I try to cover my tears and join my colleagues in Nokia tour. I set aside that and continue it after the tour. I listen to Nokia speaker and it is all about the Nokia Company. After the tour, we have our group picture at the lobby to have a record for Nokia. I would like to say sorry to our Miss President for neglecting her joke because of my bad day and I remember my grandmother and the tears are trying coming out like a flow of river but, thanks to her for understanding my situation that time. After UP Technohub, we go back to UP Diliman for the extra tour of their Computer Science Laboratory and it is so awesome. I hope USeP would have an advance classroom that would encourage students to learn further. After that, we have our shopping and dinner. We also try to insert our time for Divisoria session because we want to experience Divisoria, the feeling and ambience of it. Due to my KJ-ness, I didn’t experience Divisoria even though I have money and I want to buy things but I save it for my personal purposes. Our night ended well at the Kabayan Hotel with a healthy sleep and personal preparation.  

 What I learned?

In UP Diliman, the mini Y4IT Convention, I learned the basic things on how hackers do their job. Actually, hearing the word hacker baffle my mind especially when they classify it into two; white hat and black hat hacker. Because of those speakers, I learn that white hat hackers are hackers use to measure your security system and those black hat hackers are the one who hacks the website or banks for their own sake. The speaker, who shares this information, was also a black hat hacker before and now he is a white hat hacker, who serves for UP Diliman Security. He also has a company; it is not famous but very helpful for improving the online security system of a business like Facebook. Actually, this speaker was one of the finest hackers that hack Facebook security in the first quarter. He finds a bug and reports it to Facebook then he receives an $8,000. Because of that, he encourages us to learn bug bounty and most of us were pretty encourage.

 I didn’t listen to the second speaker because I do my personal necessities and that speaker has a very small time to share his topic. Next one is the third speaker, who shares about Unity platform for creating games. I learn a lot especially on how to create games and what factors or things need to consider in coding it.

 In Nokia, I just learn their history especially their transition from leading in creating mobile phones into a globally successful equipment supplier of network companies like Globe, Smart and etc.

 What I liked?

I like the building of Nokia and their ambience of entertaining us. I know we are the annoyance to their company but still they manage it as a professional. I also like the mall that is part our day tour because I bought my personal supplies and full of stock than the previous malls that we visited.

 What I didn’t like?

Aside from exhaustion due to Divisoria, exhaustion in waiting, and listening to those seminars, I didn’t like that my grandmother died on this day, yeah, I know that death is unavoidable if that is your right time but, I haven’t seen her in past 3 years. I haven’t visited her and because of that, I’m passive.

 Day 4

We arrive late in day3 that is why our call time was adjusted to fit in our situation. We arrive nearly eleven o’clock and our sleeping time is reduced, so our teachers and the tour guides decided to adjust our call time. They also know that the fourth day we will visit only one last company which is Advance World Solution at Ayala Ave., Makati City. After the preparation, we are ready to ride the bus and start our wonderful day a smile. The tour guide keeps on talking and I keep on not listening because it is about the history and kinda “corny” joke. It is informative but I don’t have any reason to live in Manila, maybe if work demands then I will. Furthermore, we are going to Advance World Solution for the seminar and I know this seminar is about their company like a history of the company and what they offer in IT industry. Honestly saying, I really like day three tour schedule, not because of busy schedule but because of visiting Nokia Company that really meet our request; helping us to understand where the IT and CS belong in workplace, what they do and what is lacking in academe that the IT and CS needs to adopt for the real world. After an hour of listening to the karaoke and sightseeing, as if I see the beautiful places while riding the bus, the tour guide requested one of us to sing and one of my classmates demand my name. I didn’t notice it until my seatmate gets my attention. They are cheering and the pressure is rising. I’m not a good singer but I know how to sing, a talent that is forbidden for me because I have a sore throat that time. I choose Buko by Jireh Lim because their karaoke doesn’t have an updated song, despite having the Buko song, as part of the modern mix, what I want is new generation list of songs. As the karaoke starting to play the choice music, I sing it well like, okay first note is the first to note, feels like a pro but I don’t know how to sing the high note. As the music is ending, I quickly glance at the back and all I notice are sleepy heads, especially our tour guide sleeps and asks if the song is finish. Well, as for me, the song is the one who wants to sleep because of its slow rhythm and beats. As they congratulated, we arrive at the Advance World Solution Company. The tour guide requested us to quickly evacuate the bus because unloading passenger, not in a right place would cost fees and that is why they request us. To partially conclude, we arrive safe and sound but for me isn’t because I sing and I know my voice that time is not good. Unload quickly, I smell cigar smoke outside, near at the entrance, as I quickly glance at my back, all of the workers are smoking and I guess it is part of their life to relief stress.  Moving on, we enter the building and log in. We take the stairs until 3F, we are quite an exhausted but we quickly recover from that physical stress. We enter the room and everything that I notice is the doughnut box outside so, I stand and take the advantage of free doughnut with coffee. Do not call me as “patay gutom ” because most of my classmates take that advantage too. After 5 minutes, the event starts with a great presentation of the Advance World Solution employee, I forgot his name but he is one of the classmates of our professor in our college. He knows our professor but we don’t know if our professor knows him. He promoted the company by starting explaining the scarcity of the IT Industry and most of us are listening to it, cause’ we are IT’s and CS. After an hour, the meeting ended but before the meeting ended and we hear that he is good at speaking the Japanese language so, we force him to have a sample by reading the poster beside the projector screen. Actually, he is so good, he’s like a natural Japanese person and he sounds like an anime character, not because he speak Japanese but his accent and tone of speaking makes him like an anime character. Then suddenly he said that this company offers Nihongo classes which are required to them because most of their clients are Japanese people. After the meeting, we took pictures and I took the last free coffee. We waited at the elevator lobby to gather and ready to go to our next location. We take the stairs and again, we were exhausted. Furthermore, I learn a lot about their company and services they offer.

 Later on, we are travelling to Tagaytay City to experience the Palace in the Sky: People’s Park where the view of Taal Volcano can be clearly seen. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the Taal Volcano because of bad weather condition, covered with fog and slightly rainy, but that doesn’t hinder us to enjoy the place. After the bus unloads us, some of my classmates purchase a souvenir. I didn’t like to purchase any of it because I’m saving it for something. I join my friends to have photo sessions with them. Actually, I’m the photographer of their photo shoot because they said that I’m good at taking pictures, I actually take self-classes in photography by assessing my photos through online standards, analysing it and comparing and enjoy taking pictures. We take pictures from the first stop of our journey in Palace in the Sky, the first building before you see the old radio tower. It has a grotto and as a catholic, I make a sign of a cross and make the small prayer. I notice that there are lots of people there especially kids; I think they take educational tour also but that’s awesome because when I was a kid, I didn’t experience educational tour or field trip. Moving on, we savour the fresh air that is rare to find in a city area. After that, we decided to move further or go upper to see the skies underneath us. We take photos, selfies and groupies. We are like kids playing around the small park, taking pictures and sharing thoughts about our college life. We inspire and help each other by talking positive thoughts especially “Sabay ta mugraduate guys” and keeping personal promises. It is my first time to talk like that to show a small part of concern even though it is not required and we walk in the different path. Before we leave, we tried the wishing well and we cast our wishes. The only thing that’s bothering me is, “Why there is an old radio tower up there?” One of my professors said the brief history of that tower related to Marcos era. Well, they know it because it was reported in their old times. And because we talk so much, we forget that our time is the good budget by the Maynilad Tours. Our next stop is EK or the Enchanted Kingdom and expected late to come in that place. I check my time, it is 3:45 p.m. and we are buying pasalubong from the near and famous pasalubong shops and expected that we will arrive late. We return to our busses and started to be ready or sleepy, I guess sleepy and not ready is the right term in that right time because we are sleepy always.

 Taking the road to the Enchanted Kingdom. Actually, it is near if there is no traffic and traffic is inevitable like errors in real life. That time also is the peak season in Tagaytay People’s Park. Actually, Tagaytay is one of the best places that I visited because of stunning views and foods they offer to the tourist. Also, the souvenirs are cheap and affordable to remember always what happens in Tagaytay City. Meanwhile, while scanning the roads for views and new establishments that didn’t exist in Davao City, I lately realised that the buses in front of us are the buses of the kids who are having field trip also. It is nice that we are going in the same direction and same place. I don’t know what will happen there at the Enchanted Kingdom and it is my first time to ride rides. I don’t like to ride rides because I’m an anaemic person.

 At the Enchanted kingdom. At first, I'm amazed about this huge area especially the parking lot. It is full of tour buses that cater different students from different places and we are part of that population too. It is too many to count the total tour busses. After we get our ticket, we spread in different micro-groups to enjoy rides. Some of my group mates are trying the insane dropdown ride, which is really insane even though you’re watching them taking the rides. I can feel what they feel even though I’m not riding because I can see from their facial reaction or expression that is really scary and fun. The next ride that we decided is the Ship, I call it Ship because its physical structure is ship but it sways like a pendulum. At first, I notice that ride is customer friendly because of its structure and pendulum like action. So we line up, excited to take the first ride of it. My heart is pounding and I can feel the cold breeze chilling my hands. Stuttering at its finest but trying to recover as we get nearer to the surface. My classmates notice it that I’m nervous and afraid of this ride that I’m trying my best to show the courage that I’m strong enough to face this test. My mind is not easily giving up but my heart shows what I really feel before I take the ride. Now, I’m taking the first death ride of my life. When it started to move, at first, I feel like nothing but it is slowly rising. As the ride is rising, the adrenaline rush is starting to take over my body. When the ride is at peak, my blood is circulating in reverse and started to feel dizzy and empty. All I can hear are the screams of people and the rush of the ride. After the ride, I try my best to be calm and in shape but we can’t deny the fact that, that ride is insane. I realise that don’t be deceived by how it looks physically. Well, we inhale and exhale to recover from uncomfortable and fun feeling. Moving on, we walk around to find another customer friendly ride and we saw this Ferris wheel. The line is full but we try our best to ride that ride. Upon waiting, we didn’t expect that most of the people there understand Bisaya and we keep on talking things that we thought unknown to them. As we keep on talking, I heard the front row talking conio and I know it is a Bisaya language. Now, they are riding the Ferris wheel. We are next to them but, unfortunately, the ride is full. So, we wait again but, after a minute, we are able to ride it. It is true that it is a customer friendly ride. I didn’t realise the heights but I enjoy the sightseeing every time when it on a peak. After a minute, our time ended and we decided to take another ride. Unfortunately, Enchanted Kingdom is closing. So we exit and take q class picture at the parking lot of Enchanted Kingdom. After that, we rode our designated busses and share experiences. We enjoy more stories and micro events that happened to us. This day marks the great day or festive day in our manila tour. The day ended with a bang and we need to rest in Kabayan Hotel.

 What I learned?

Base form our company tour, I learned that IT industry here in the Philippines is competitive, competitive in a form of excelling globally through using its own available resources. We know that Philippines are one of the leading IT industries in terms of BPO and call centre. I know already that being an IT or CS here in the Philippines is hard because they always thought that we only landed to become a call centre agent, stereotype perception of our course. With that company, Advance World Solution, they gave us more information about our scope our course. We don’t know that this course is really in demand not just here in the Philippines but also outside in the Philippines because every time technology expands and e-market is growing fast which is really an opportunity for us. I learned also that this company is really a great company not because of being a successful IT company but because of expanding and leading in making the way of defining what is IT industry. Among from other companies, I rate this company as for next to Nokia.

 What did I like?

I really like this day because it is the core of the tour because everything that amazes us was showcased in this day. I learned a lot and enjoy a lot. Well, it is the last day of our trip and we need to savour the final taste of Manila City.

 What I didn’t like?

I really hate the ending of the happiness. Happiness that is rare to be found. Happiness that comes from your friends which help to be true on who you are. In my life, it is the rarest thing to happen, to have to bond outside the classroom, bonding that is about the life or your future steps or your career to take. I always remind myself “No man is an island…”

Day 5

This is the last day of our trip; this is the day of a great day because we are going back to Davao City and we savour what to savour in Manila either it’s educational or personal. This day, I woke up with a great sleep, 8hrs of sleep. So, I stress-free, attentive and in good mood to interact this day. I ate my breakfast at the Kabayan Hotel and we take selfies and groupies to energise our day. It is clear that they are super excited to go home and share their memories and stuff to their parents, friends or brothers and sisters. I don’t have stuff to share but memories that can’t be done sharing in one day. We take lots of photos and unfortunately, I activated my Google previous backup, which resets my phone and restores old photos. So, my photos are deleted but not all of them. The saved photos are Tagaytay photos, MOA photos and other photos. It is so sad because some of those photos capture the moments and ambience of the tour from different places. It doesn’t hinder to make my day bad, keep positive. I mind that, I might ask one of my classmates to share his photos. After we pack up and eat our breakfast, we gather at the lobby and started to check everything if there is missing or not. After the checking, exactly the buses arrive to fetch us. So everything is fine until we got to the airport. We get our bags at the bus 1 because it has a huge compartment that almost fit everyone’s bag. So we enter the airport and waited for everyone to finish entering the airport. After that, our president got mad because some violated a specific rule which would affect her standard of leadership to our Dean. She’s mad and makes us all move quickly as the snap as we can. Actually, I didn’t know that she’s in mad because I’m always thinking about what would happen when we landed in Davao. In that time, we are not able to choose our own sitting but, still, I manage to be positive because I started this day in positive vibes. We waited at the lobby 118 which is for the flight of Davao and it is not so crowded. After a minute before our plane arrives, our attention was called to transfer at lobby 116. Now it is a crowded one, two sets of plane passengers are entering the way. A long line is needed to arrange everything. Now we enter the plane and my position is near at the window seat, which is occupied by some unknown passenger. I think he is a businessman a simple yet rich businessman. At my left side, is a computer science student and I know he is one of the intelligent students in Institute of Computing.

            After an hour, we landed in Davao City without a stress or physical stress due to landing, not like in Manila. We landed safe but, still our president is mad. After that, we get our own baggage and make a small group for those who finish in getting their own baggage. Headcount is done and name checking is done, we are heading to the exit and go to our own situation. I decided to go to Abreeza mall with my friends and we eat pizza at Greenwich and take some tour inside the mall while carrying two heavy bags. We stop at Data Blitz shop to purchase steam wallet card. Exactly 4:00 p.m., we are leaving the mall and started to go home.  

 What I learned?

I learned that everything has an end, even happiness. It will end but will come back again at some point of our life. I realise also that we need to learn and accept things the way they are. We don’t need to force things and always be positive. Positive even though it has consequences because the more you accept things, the more you grow. This paragraph is not an academically speaking the lesson but I’m just sharing what I learned for this day that is important to being a growing person.

 What do I like?

I really like the tour and the end of a tour. I like how I learn from different state and manner that helps me to grow more and improve more. I really like how we unite and cooperate to the things while in the tour. Also, things and opportunities that help us, IT and CS students, to encourage dealing problems related to our course.

 What didn't I like?

I don’t have an answer to this question because I really enjoy the tour and the days we spend in Manila. The experiences and moments that shows our real personalities and attitudes in real life.

 APPENDIX

What can I recommend for the improvement of the advance seminar program of USEP?

           Base from my experience, our FTS is complicated, complicated in a form of organizing the group because of factors that really affects the subject like money and time. I recommend that USeP must support the program for the student purpose and knowledge. Supporting by money and time, USeP must endorse its students, who are taking seminar program, to the government. Also, USeP must handle the subject by arranging the files needed in the subject before the students take the subject because our president suffers from time delays which could sacrifice her personal time just to finish compiling the requirements of this subject. I hope USeP also must extend its function in this subject by finding corporation that really delivers information to the students, inside or outside Mindanao.

           I hope USeP must hand-in-hand with the students taking this subject because it is for the betterment of the students and for the universty.  

 My advised to those who will take their advance seminar program in the near future.

            Advice, maybe students must cooperate and unite in taking this program because it is important for their future. Also, students must not rely on their president and must act as leader. Make it successful and earlier as you can without madness from your family’s budget.