Lonely travel expert shares his travel and study experience in Cebu

When I was sorting out the photos, I found some interesting memories during my study tour. I thought it was better to write them down to record my life.

First of all, I didn’t spend too much time from consulting to choosing a school to enrolling. Why did I want to study abroad? It was also because someone in my circle of friends shared it and I happened to want to improve my English, so I decided quickly while I had time.

Many friends who have not been to it may not know. Let me give you a general introduction. The Philippines is an island country in Southeast Asia where English is the only language. The study abroad schools are roughly divided into two places, Baguio (I have been there and written some travel notes. Friends who want to know can also go and have a look, although there are not many) and Cebu (Cebu is a famous tourist city, so I won’t talk about it). There are a few schools in Clark and other cities, and I don’t know the details. But I personally think that there are enough schools in Baguio and Cebu alone. Haha

The first step of studying abroad is of course to have money and time. Smile, the second is to find a reliable agent, the third is to determine the city school, how long to study, and what courses to study (if you have no basic knowledge, you can just choose ordinary English, don’t worry about whether you are suitable for going with no basic knowledge). The fourth is to pay the tuition and get the notification letter to apply for a visa, buy air tickets, and prepare luggage. (By the way, the school canteen is not very delicious. Friends who have gone there from China can bring some of their favorite dishes, because there are basically no Chinese supermarkets there, but Korean things can be found, and you should also bring the sunscreen you like to use 🙃).

Because each school charges different fees every quarter, they are all based on the time, and the room and course are different, the price will also be different, so don’t ask me how much money it is →_→, it’s about 10,000 a month, and the tuition and miscellaneous fees include food and accommodation, and eating, drinking and having fun are counted separately. At this time, some friends may ask me if I can find a school to register by myself? I have done a guide on this before. Basically, few schools recruit students on their own. Even if there are recruiting students on the official website, the price is not necessarily cheaper than that of the agency. It is also very troublesome if you have not been there and do not understand the school situation. In addition, the school also protects the interests of the school and the agency. The tuition fee quotes are basically the same, just in case some agencies randomly raise prices and reduce prices to disrupt the market. So basically every agency has a similar price, and the price difference is only about 100 US dollars. If you choose a regular agency, you don’t have to worry about being cheated. Just choose what you want.

The mainstream of the study tour group in the Philippines is still South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. There are relatively few students from inland China and some other Southeast Asian countries. One thing to mention, if you want to make friends with Japanese and Korean Oppa, go ahead. The school fees in Baguio are cheaper than those in Cebu. If you want to save money and concentrate on studying, choose Baguio. Baguio is in the north of the Philippines, halfway up the mountain. It is very cool there. You can pick strawberries in April and May. It is the only place in the Philippines that produces strawberries. It is suitable for friends who don’t like hot summers. It is recommended to bring some thick clothes such as spring and autumn sweatshirts. Because there is no direct airport in Baguio, you have to take a bus to Baguio, which may take five or six hours.

There is no need to talk about Cebu. You can go to various island hopping tours such as Bohol Island, Tin Island, and Palawan as long as you have time and money. You can go to the beach, banana boat, snorkeling, deep diving, parachuting, watching sharks, watching sardine storms, and all kinds of fun. Rich people, if you want to learn while playing, choose Cebu! ! ! (Friends who want to play should choose a semi-Spartan school with convenient transportation) First, I will post a few pictures of watching whale sharks and waterfall diving with Korean 🇰🇷 classmates. Shut up, shut up, shut up.







To be honest, this whale shark really scared me. It was so huge and looked a bit scary. Haha, but I don’t really recommend this attraction. I went there because I was too bored. My Korean classmates invited me to go, so I went. Because whale sharks are kept in captivity by local fishermen, they are usually gathered together in the morning when fishermen feed them for tourists to watch. Anyway, I personally don’t recommend going there. The sea water is very turbid when feeding, and the smell is really unbearable.





Here is another attraction, called APO Island. Friends who plan to go to Xidao Island can count it together, but it will be a little far. There are many turtles there, which are famous and super cute. You should be able to find detailed travel notes if you search.

Haha, back to the topic, after consulting, registering, paying tuition, receiving admission letters, applying for visas and buying air tickets, everything was done, and my study tour started. After getting off the plane and passing through customs, there will be a student manager to pick you up to the school. The agency for enrollment will also tell you in advance, so don’t worry.

Generally, the school enrollment is on Saturdays and Sundays, so you can go to the dormitory to rest when you arrive at the school. You can ask the student manager for details (generally, schools have student managers from different countries. Unless there are special cases where there is no corresponding student manager or he has asked for leave, a student manager from another country will be sent to pick you up. In this case, you can only communicate in English. When I went there, the Chinese manager was on leave, and a Japanese student manager brother picked me up. He was very nice. At first, I thought he was Chinese, so I spoke a lot of Chinese. Hahaha, he didn't understand and it was embarrassing. Haha), then there will be an entrance test on Monday morning, which is listening, speaking, reading and writing. You will be assigned courses based on your level. If you don't like the course or teacher after the trial class, you can apply for a change. It depends on the school's regulations, and then decide to buy books based on your course. At this time, you can chat with old classmates and find out about the teachers and courses of this school. Haha, like our school, freshmen can go to the front desk to change courses and teachers with the staff on the second day. You can choose the teacher and course you want to change based on your inquiry.

As for schools, I chose Sparta College of CIJ in Cebu City (I thought I could handle it when I chose Sparta, but it was too exhausting). Here’s some information about Sparta (basically you can only go out on Saturdays and Sundays, and the classes are full every day. You have 8-9 classes in the morning and intensive self-study in the evening, and there is a curfew, which is very strict), Half Sparta (you can go out on weekdays, depending on the school regulations, 6-8 classes a day, generally strict), those with strong self-control choose Half Sparta, those with poor self-control but want to improve their English in a short period of time choose Sparta, Sparta is really a test, I remember that we all got up at 6:00-6:10, because there was a vocabulary test at 6:30 in the morning, and there was also one in the evening, after self-study in the evening, we went to take the test, if we failed the test, we had to take it the next day, and if we failed three times in a row, we had to study an extra hour on Friday or were not allowed to go out on weekends, and so on, it was really miserable, at that time I could see the sun just rising every day, it was just like my days in high school!!! I remembered the scene of fighting for the college entrance examination that summer.

Here is my original schedule. I didn’t take a picture of the changes later. The vocabulary test at 6:30 in the morning is not marked. The self-study and test in the evening are basically 20:30 every day when I returned to the dormitory.

My school is located in the suburbs of Cebu, not in the city center. It takes about half an hour to take a taxi from the school to the city center, and it takes about an hour in traffic jams. However, there is a supermarket near the school, which has daily necessities and food. It is enough for daily life. But if you want to eat delicious food or go shopping, you have to go to another supermarket (SM) farther away, or to the city center (cebu city). As for why I, who loves to play so much, chose such a remote school, first, I really wanted to study hard at that time. Second, I thought that it would save money if it was a little remote and Sparta. Third, this school was one of the ones selected by my agent according to my requirements. I liked their sea view and the architectural style. But when I arrived, I was still quite surprised hahaha, it was really rural, and you couldn’t tell that it was a school from the outside. It was also quite shabby inside, and the gym was just a warehouse hahaha (but my agent told me that it was already a school with a beautiful environment in the Philippines), but it was really good to take a photo after staying there for a long time (by the way, the canteen was really unpalatable. I felt that the food there was really, too bad, either very salty or very sweet)









As for the course, you can see that I signed up for an eight-week elementary IELTS course, which includes three group classes and six one-on-one classes, two of which are IELTS courses. This is more expensive and more difficult than the regular course (although I don’t think I learned much haha), probably because my foundation is too weak, after all, it’s only level 2. And my grammar, vocabulary and writing are really poor. Only speaking, listening and reading are a little better. For the one-on-one course, we all take classes in a small classroom, which is also very warm. This is one of the benefits of studying abroad. It is not very expensive. The one-on-one course is taught in English. Although there are some bad teachers, you can change them if you don’t like them. I think it is really important to dare to speak, but the vocabulary must be improved so that you can understand and speak. If you want to speak and write well, grammar is a must. I went there and found that Korean students really have a super high vocabulary and good grammar, but their speaking is not good. It may be similar to our Chinese students, that is, many people have a good vocabulary but just can’t speak. But you can understand, right?






After lunch at our school, there would be a local handsome guy selling ice cream at the school gate almost every day from Monday to Friday, because Sparta was not allowed to go out. There was nothing else in the school except the canteen and the food he stocked up on weekends. So after lunch every day, teachers and students would wait for the ice cream guy. He was the only comforting food for me during that time. The ice cream was not like the ones we bought in supermarkets, but homemade ice cream made by the guy, super sweet, and most importantly, super cheap, 5p each, less than one dollar! So conscience!



After lunch and ice cream, we usually sit in this pavilion and chat. We can only use English. If you are caught chatting in your own language, you will be warned. I am always very good. When I meet a few Chinese students, we chat with each other in English. The teacher also praised us because there are many other Korean or Japanese students who chat in their own language. Hahaha, I met only four Chinese students, one of whom is a boy, and there are five of us in total. There are dozens of people in the school. Shut up, there are only five of us.



Speaking of being warned if caught speaking Chinese in school, I was once discussing with a girl about her broken phone, because that week was her last week, and as a result, her phone fell into the water when she went to the waterfall to play, so she took it to the Apple store in the city center to repair it. She was cheated of a lot of money, but the phone was not repaired, because our English was limited and we could only speak Chinese. Then, a teacher caught us and gave us a warning. The dramatic thing was not the warning, but because I went to the waterfall to play, which caused my legs to swell severely (I advise all brothers and sisters to bring some usual medicine if you are seriously acclimatized). I took a special leave and went back for more than half a month. This vacation depends on the school. I am an exception, hahaha. Then when I came back again, because I had to reschedule the class, the teacher who gave me the warning taught me speaking!!! At first, I didn’t recognize it because I was a little face-blind. In fact, I didn’t know it until she told me herself. Then we became good friends, hahaha, and she took me to the bar, haha, and talked about everything. A super cute teacher



Many teachers are very interesting and willing to help you. As long as you have questions, they will help you enthusiastically, so as long as you dare to speak up, you are halfway to success. This teacher is also super cute and super narcissistic. Hahaha, he takes selfies with my phone every day and says how handsome he is. Hahaha.




On Friday night, it's like being out of prison, hahahaha. All my friends go out for supper and drinking. Usually, you need to go to the guard room to get your student card before you can go out. If you want to travel overnight, you have to write an overnight bill and submit it in advance. Our school is very remote, except for a few restaurants, this food stall has the most people. There are also many teachers and students there. Basically, every Friday you can see our students and teachers drinking, playing games and dancing there hahahaha. The food is super cheap, snacks are about 100-500p, and seafood is also very cheap.




Of course, since Ku Ku is here, how can a kid like me who loves drinking and dancing only succumb to Conturside? Of course, I have to go to the city center to have fun. Hahaha, it was the teacher who gave the warning I mentioned last time who took me there. Haha, shut up, shut up, shut up. I found three bars in the center of Cebu City, which I would like to share with friends who love dancing: 1. Icon club (there are more handsome Japanese guys, as well as Koreans. There are also many locals and the atmosphere is okay) 2. Oqtagon club (there are a lot of Korean Oppas, as well as Chinese and Japanese. The environment and atmosphere are okay, similar to domestic bars and it is also bigger) There is another bar next to this one, but I haven’t been there. I don’t know the details. If you want to go, you can go and have a look. 3. Kazmik club. It feels like there are more Chinese people and locals, and the environment is average. Anyway, I don’t like it hahaha. If you only want to go to one, I recommend Oqtagon hahaha




After the daily campus and nightlife, it's time for island hopping. Friends who really want to play must choose Cebu. There are so many things to do, including skydiving, diving, and scuba diving. But there is a problem that needs to be solved, that is, everyone must pay attention to safety. It is best to have a teacher with you when going out to the island, or to join a group. It is best to organize it yourself with more men and women, because when we went to Mactan before, we just wanted to go to the beach, and then we met a few locals who tricked us into going out to sea! It was super scary. Fortunately, we had a boy with us at the time, but we were cheated of money. I realized it very late. If I quarreled with them again, I was really afraid that they would throw us into the sea and cry loudly. This is the key point, and it is necessary to circle it! Try to let a teacher or a reliable local take you when going out to the island, or form a team with more people, and the cost of the car fare and boat fare must be negotiated in advance, otherwise join a group. Don't travel alone, brothers and sisters, for the sake of life safety.

As for the islands, I recommend Bohol, Tin Island, and my favorite Palawan Island. Palawan is so beautiful. I want to spend half a month there next time I have the chance. Because the attractions in Palawan are connected to each other, the trip takes a lot of time, so friends who have time can choose to go there, or go there in a group after graduation and go back after playing enough. You can check the guide by yourself, haha.






Time always passes quickly. Before I knew it, I graduated. I had enough fun. My English has indeed improved a bit, especially my speaking. This special journey has made me gain a lot. I really think it is worth it. When I was in school, I always wanted to graduate quickly and get to the weekend quickly, but once the day of graduation came, I really couldn't leave! ! It's a pity that I can't stay longer. If you are still in school and your family has the conditions, you can really give it a try. If you are working, if you are financially independent and feel that work is a bottleneck, then you can quit your job boldly and give it a try. Give yourself a vacation and recharge yourself. It's also okay to relax. During this period, I also made a lot of friends from different countries and cities, and I have been in touch. I think if there is fate, our next meeting will be in the near future.

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