Everyone’s been talking about the Batangas field trip that we had the whole weekend. It’s a first time to gather all UP Manila Biology Juniors in one trip. There were three buses with more than 80 biologists and 5 professors in it.

Friday. It’s been a long time since I had a sleepover at someone else’s place. The homes of my classmates were far from school so they decided to crash at Mau’s place. I joined in even if I was only a 5-minute walk from school because I don’t want to miss all the fun. There were three girls and three boys in one room. What do you think they would do to spend the night? Well we talked, ate, watched a movie, and played all night long until we were sleepy. Look at our faces after we played.

Saturday morning. We were early at school. The bus was leaving at 5AM. We were already there just on time but I forgot to bring my waiver so I ran to the dorm to get it. When I came back in the bus, I realized I left my phone. I guess was still feeling dizzy due to the lack of sleep. Again I ran back to the dorm and grabbed my phone. I was sweating all over the place, early in the morning, inside the bus.

We arrived at 8AM. Our first stop was a place called nowhere. It was a field of green grass with cows in it.  Objective: Clas Insecta. We took pictures of all the insects that we could see. We walked through the grass and take a shot of any flying insect that we could see. We also saw a few Arthropods (spiders) and what surprised us was the snake skin. We saw three shed skin of snakes which really made us worried. I then realized that we were actually strolling through a rice field. We walked. We really walked! And my feet were already killing me. The scorching heat of the sun plus insect bites plus my sore feet was a great way to start the trip. Biologists at work!

What really made this trip were the activities we did after morning. The sun was already manageable and a few clouds were there for us. The next place we crashed was heaven. I saw a sign saying San Juan, Batangas so I guess we were finally somewhere. Objective: Phylum Anthozoa (Corals) and Phylum Mollusca (Seashells). This means we were on our swimming suits, goggles, breathing apparatus, and trunks. We took pictures of corals and some fishes living in them. Of course we used underwater cameras. Too bad I don’t have any pictures of the corals, I’ll show it someday if they upload it. It was my first time to see corals in front of my eyes. They were beautiful with different patterns, shapes and colors. It’s really nice to appreciate nature once in a while. I swam far from shore and tested what I learned from PE3: Advanced Swimming. The farther you go, the deeper the water gets and the more diverse the corals become. I was far away from everybody, alone. The waves then became stronger because of the wind currents. I was quite worried because I might die at the wrong time and place so I went back where there were a lot of people. I missed a lot since people were already having wounds and they were stung by sea urchins. By the time we finished snorkeling, blood was dripping on everyone’s legs and some with stings on the soles of their feet. I guess all of us would say that it was our first time to encounter corals. I only had a minor cut when I got hit by a wave and my leg was hit on a sharp coral. Just to remind you, WE DIDN’T DESTROY ANY CORALS. I am starting to love MARINE BIOLOGY.

It was already 6PM and the sun was setting. Objective: Class Scyphozoan (Jellyfish) and Phylum Echinodermata (Starfish). We were in a place with a lot of mangroves. Everyone took out their flashlights and we started walking in mud. It was low tide so we were walking in the middle of the sea! We saw small jellyfishes specifically Cassiopea sp. (upside-down jellyfish) and small starfishes. They were the cutest things today! Insects suck!

Basically that was this week’s entry: all about the field trip. 

(Source: keevolution)