Since 2/3 of our friend group here at IRRI are from the USA, we planned a trip to the beach in Batangas to celebrate American Independence Day. We rented two IRRI shuttle buses for 15 people and took a 3 hour bus ride on Saturday morning to the coast on the Chinese Eastern Sea. When … More “Star-Spangled Banner”

Dr. Ali had me do some research on Plant Breeding and for the past two weeks I have been reading his books and publications and helping some of his technicians sow seeds in the field for his experiments. Now that I understand more about Green Super Rice we finally figured out what my experiment will … More Keeping the Farmer in Mind

Six IRRI students and I decided to travel to Manila during out second weekend at IRRI. At 930am on Friday morning we took a shuttle bus to the biggest mall in Asia, Mall of Asia. It looked like Mall of America, but on the ocean and with a lot more security guards and metal detectors. … More Manila

I am having a great time here in the Philippines but, I have discovered that the public transportation here is insane! For 20 cents you can ride a rickety metal bus called a Jeepnye with 40 of your now closest friends for 8 km. We went into town the other day to buy fruit and … More It’s the Experience that Counts