not really, but i'm here for about three hours. all the damn filnight scenes were going in my head while checking in, gloria's suicide song, and hella other stuff. i passed out during most of the flight and only woke up for meals and to catch the last half of the pursuit of happyness. food was good, ramen was spicey. no real revelations right now except the idea that "this is asia". there is no order for bording except for business class. people start to get up and line up at the plane door while the plane is still moving and the fasten seatbelt sign is still on and you hear hella different languages surrounding you. also all the duty free shopping is wierd to me. this terminal is more of a mall with the 'trendy zone' and 'spirit way' stores behind me, but at least they got free internet. you can feel the humidity. i'm still trippin in more ways then one. off to explore and look at all the stuff i wont buy.
lets see if this post will work. 80% of the computer text is in chinese.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007
i'm off.
my bags are all packed....for the most part, been preppin for this trip my whole life, or at least since the last time i came..first time everything was new..mga sorpreza..family i've never known except through bcube box names..kept in touch via friendster..it had enough impact on me to devote the last 5 years to attempting to understand my identity, my culture, who i am..all in all it has set shit in motion..enough to where i don't know where i would be now, or who i would not have met if i didn't go this path..the goal this time..i dunno..maybe find inspiration or ways to go back more..something to give me that push while in school for the next 8 or so years..something to be proud of..something to bring back..it is my home..an imagined placed in a far away land..where all my expectations will be exceeded..a lot of studying..time to live it.
i'm outro. next post will be in taipei or manila. ingat to me!
ps. great job to the filnight cast/crew. maybe i'll run into a boxer, popstar, student, and sayaw in the bathroom.
i'm outro. next post will be in taipei or manila. ingat to me!
ps. great job to the filnight cast/crew. maybe i'll run into a boxer, popstar, student, and sayaw in the bathroom.
Monday, April 30, 2007
thank you wikipedia
travelling via air can be problematic. aside from the long lines checking in, no bottles greater than 2oz, and that something that always seems to happen. in 2001, my passport was issued as DODDA SIMANGAN, unknown to me until a trip to canada in 2003; had to use D.SIMANGAN for my tickets to london sep 2004 so i wouldnt be in trouble. in feb 2007, i decided to have only carry ons, forgot about the liquid bottle rule and had to throw away everything except my almost empty toothpaste, which was later thrown away at the kirksville, mo airport, on the one of two flights to kansas city. after congress passed stricter laws on passports i decided not to risk it with my trip to the philippines next week, so i filed for a passport change in the last week of january, only after $100 and 12 weeks later to get it. now today a new issue found via prince harry being sent to iraq news article stating that his uncle was the last royal to see combat in the falkan islands war to being curious about the new passport securities to finding out a visa is required after 21 days in the Philippines. my trip is 29. so i will rush after work to get it all figured out. pay all the priority mail stuff, and hope to get it by this saturday.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
billete/chit
i got my ticket for eva air on friday, so its official. more official than setting up a blog and saying i will go. my parents bought it for me at aa travel, down the street from balikbayan cargo. they wanted to buy it at bbc because you get free phone cards, and they wanted to be efficient since they were there anyway sending a balikbayan box which will arrive one day after i do. so that is my two 70lb checkins (probably only 40lbs of my stuff), 1 bbb, and some carryons, so mga 250 pounds. i have a lot of junk in the trunk.
i will be visiting about 9ish families (its sad that i dont know exactly how many, nor all the names and faces) over there (3 live here in the states), and staying mostly with my cousin who is 24, and an MSI (medstudentyear1) on summer break (contacted via friendster). actually most of my cousins are around 20-30yo which will constitute going out a lot. the families are for the most part doing pretty well over there, some in politics, medicine, engineering, all in or have graduated school. ive only met them that last time i went (only one uncle has visited in the past 15 years) so this will be an interesting trip, on top of flying solo, and being 15% competent at tagalog. overall my plans are still in the air. there are some events and places i want to check out but i dont want to overly-intinerize myself. if anything i set goals of what i want to do/see, and its family, relax, music, medical sites, and natural/historic sites. i know i will never really enjoy my stay, perhaps because i know too much, or too little. all in all i think it will be bittersweet.
i will be visiting about 9ish families (its sad that i dont know exactly how many, nor all the names and faces) over there (3 live here in the states), and staying mostly with my cousin who is 24, and an MSI (medstudentyear1) on summer break (contacted via friendster). actually most of my cousins are around 20-30yo which will constitute going out a lot. the families are for the most part doing pretty well over there, some in politics, medicine, engineering, all in or have graduated school. ive only met them that last time i went (only one uncle has visited in the past 15 years) so this will be an interesting trip, on top of flying solo, and being 15% competent at tagalog. overall my plans are still in the air. there are some events and places i want to check out but i dont want to overly-intinerize myself. if anything i set goals of what i want to do/see, and its family, relax, music, medical sites, and natural/historic sites. i know i will never really enjoy my stay, perhaps because i know too much, or too little. all in all i think it will be bittersweet.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
prologue 1
its been about 6 years since i've been to the philippines, an event which steered me in a direction that i still live by today.
every personal statement for every application in the past 6 years has included this life changing experience. my entire college career was based on this trip and all of my social consciousness and awareness began here. it was the perfect precursor to my senior year of high school, and will be the perfect precursor to my first year of medical school.
for a detached upper middle class filipino american, notions of class and social inequality are easy to forget and get caught up in the system of a society that is more focused on the individual, on materialism, on escapism. i always need some sort of check now and then to remind me of the privileges i have and continue to have. detached in that i grew up away from extended family. detached in that i grew up away from my homeland. detached in that i didn't grow up speaking my languages. detached in that i live in a strata of society that a majority of my people do not. all these things which i cannot change, nor blame my parents for it. they chose what they had to for our family. all i can do from here is only understand and attempt to reconnect the bonds which where forcefully severed by the same system which i live in today.
every personal statement for every application in the past 6 years has included this life changing experience. my entire college career was based on this trip and all of my social consciousness and awareness began here. it was the perfect precursor to my senior year of high school, and will be the perfect precursor to my first year of medical school.
for a detached upper middle class filipino american, notions of class and social inequality are easy to forget and get caught up in the system of a society that is more focused on the individual, on materialism, on escapism. i always need some sort of check now and then to remind me of the privileges i have and continue to have. detached in that i grew up away from extended family. detached in that i grew up away from my homeland. detached in that i didn't grow up speaking my languages. detached in that i live in a strata of society that a majority of my people do not. all these things which i cannot change, nor blame my parents for it. they chose what they had to for our family. all i can do from here is only understand and attempt to reconnect the bonds which where forcefully severed by the same system which i live in today.
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