3D New Intern Introduction – Tanya

Hello everyone ~~~I’m Tanya, a newbie in my new home “3D UNIVERSAL”

I believe that for those who just arrive at Cebu for the language courses, you must be feeling pretty nervous as I do. Over here I’m going to share my experience in Cebu as a student in the Q&A style.

Q1: Philippines? Is it safe to travel there alone? As a girl???? A: Of course it is! You are not alone here folks~~~

Q2: How strict is the immigration? Are they going to ask a lot of questions? What do I need to prepare? A: It’s a smooth sail. Just bring along yourself and the passport, with the admission letter from the school!!!

Q3: How does the Cebu Mactan Airport looks like? What if I’m lost? What if….. Many things can happen??

A: Walk out from the airplane -> Immigration Check -> Take your luggage -> Follow the one and only route to the exit as everyone else.. Voila! Bienvenue a Cebu! You will be fine!!!

Q4: How to find the pick-up manager from the school??? A: Take your luggage, walk towards the exit, you will see many school managers carrying their school signboards. Just look for the one carrying the Signboard with “3D Academy”, there you go… (There are really many schools in Cebu, gotta spend sometime looking for the school signboard)

Q5: Ahem.. I heard that Philippines is not very safe.. Will I get into any trouble even before stepping into the school?! A: Stop being paranoid.. Most of the Filipinos I’ve encountered are super friendly! It’s a peaceful place here in Cebu.

I took Cebu Pacific Airline. The arrival time was Sunday morning 1:55am (Depart from Taipei) -> 4:35am (Arrive in Cebu-Mactan). What an exhausting journey.. For those of you who want to avoid the tiring midnight flight, you can choose Eva Airline, 7:10am (Depart from Taipei) -> 10:05am (Arrive in Cebu-Mactan). The timing is more normal, haha!

Time to go to 3D Academy~~~The journey is quite short – 20~30 minutes (I didn’t encounter the traffic jam, lucky me.. Heard it could take longer if there’s a traffic jam). On my way to school, I could see that many people were jogging on the street, many jeepneys (The local transport here), and many people doing different things (All at 5am!! People here start their days early.. hmm.. That’s different from my imagination)~~~

Finally, I arrive at 3D Academy~~~

Honestly I’m quite surprised to see that 3D is located in such a central area, with a lot of markets and activities going on around the school (I was imagining an isolating school in the middle of nowhere…) Haha.. Don’t fret folks, you are not going to a place where you would be forgotten by the world..

But now, I just want to sleeeeeep…. Yet, I can’t sleep well…huhu! Sigh… There are many reasons. I guess mainly because it’s a foreign environment after-all. And it’s hot summer here all the time (Better prepare for some portable fans). That and also my own feeling, excitement, nervous, etc.. Anyway, I believe I will get used to it soon!

Here’s an overview of the 3D buildings and environment.

3D Main Building:

There’s a supermarket right at the basement of the school! What a convenient place@@ You do not need to travel all the way to buy groceries, carrying all the heavy stuff back or anything! As for safety, it’s really awesome because the school is located on the second floor and above. There’s a security guard at the first floor for the small entrance. You need to wear your student ID all the time, otherwise the security guard would not allow you to enter into the school!!!

1F Security Guard Office

2F Front Desk Office, Classrooms, Clinic

3F Student Restaurant, Self-Study Rooms, Classrooms, Dormitory

4F Classrooms, Dormitory

The new building was just refurbished and open for use since 2016! Everything looks and smells new! I love new things (Like everyone haha..)

1F Security Guard Office, Classrooms

2F Dormitory

3F Dormitory

4F Student Restaurant, student lounge, Self-study rooms

5F Basketball Court, Balcony

The student restaurant in the new building is super new, bright, clean, and smell so good. That makes the meals taste much better~~~

I love it when you can enjoy the sunset views while enjoying your meal..It just couldn’t get any better!

Right beside the school there’s a JY Square. It’s a shopping mall equipped with shops, restaurants, massage shops, Watson, McDonald’s, Money changers etc. The exchange rate given in the money changer here is always good, you don’t have to go all the way to the bank or other major shopping malls like SM or Ayala for exchange.. Isn’t that great for the students of 3D~~~

There’s a local fast food chain – Jollibee at the other side of the school. TBH I feel that the taste of the food here is quite salty. This is something we as Taiwanese gotta get used to, as most Filipino food are either too salty or too sweet. But once you get used to it, you would start to love it~~~

There’s a pharmacy right across the street from school. You can buy the medicine there after visiting the clinic at school (Touch wood that you need to.. ) Anyway, I personally feel the medicine here is quite expensive. I would suggest you to bring along some emergency kit equipped with some common medicine you need, such as pain killers, flu medicine, vitamins, or anything you use commonly in your country.

Ahem.. There’s a bread shop right next to the pharmacy, in case you need food along with your medicine.. haha

So what can everyone do after the class at 5pm?

1.Watch Movie for FREE

There’s a movie screening at the main building restaurant every Monday and Wednesday, 7.00pm~~~

For those who want to learn English while watching movies, join me please!!!

I love movies. Hence I join the movie screening every session!!!

Regretfully I rely a lot on the subtitles… Even for Chinese movies I rely on the subtitles, let alone the English movies.. Sigh!!!

But watching movies is indeed a great way to improve your listening, reading and comprehension skills in English

Although it’s difficult to understand what they said at the beginning, but it’s really helpful in the long run~~~

2.Dance Dance Dance

I love these dance classes. But those moves.. Everytime I felt I almost got the moves and the rhythms, they change the songs… Am I really that slow??? …Damn!

For students who love working out, please join us. You will love it~~~

There are different physical activities almost every day of the week:

Monday  5:00pm – Yoga – It’s not a bad idea to start your week with body stretching I guess..

Tuesday 5:00pm – Hip Hop – Even for a person who has awkward body movement chose to join, what are you waiting for? Don’t be surprised if you see me dancing up and down in the graduation ceremony hehe.

Wednesday 5:00pm – ZUMBA & Belly Dancing – I wish I have sexy body like the teachers.

3.Gym

Here’s another benefit of being 3D students. You get to go to the Gym in JY Square for free! All you need is your student ID and a signature, you get to use all the facilities and seek advice from the professional trainers! Most importantly the gym is fully AC! I’m so touched. Don’t snatch the place from me. I want to use it everyday!!!

4.Weekend School trips

What do they say? Work hard and play harder! Haha ~~~

There’s a school trip every month~~~

You get the chance to join the students and teachers for a fun filling trips. But I heard there’s always space limit in the trip, gotta sign up early if you want to join!!!

What are you waiting for? Come and join me to explore Cebu while improving your English!

See you in 3D!