Reporting from the Midwest

The first leg of my US vacation was spent in the Midwest, particularly in Chicago, IL. My Tita Tel (Papa's sister) and Tito Ruben were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and it was for this reason that this US trip was primarily planned. Tita Tel and family migrated to the US in the late 80's and she is my dad's only sibling to be living outside of the Philippines.

I left Beijing at Thursday 5pm and landed in Chicago still on Thursday 5pm (hehe) after a 12-hour flight, due to the time difference. When I got to Chicago, Papa, Mama and Tata were already here. Immediately after dropping my bags off at my Tita's house, my cousins Robin (whom I have not seen for 5 years) and Tricia (whom I have not seen for 14 years!) and my sister headed to the cinemas for the first screening of the  

The next morning was spent shopping for a dress to be used during the wedding and reception, and then we had the rehearsal in the church for the renewal of wedding vows. The next day, Saturday, was the big day. Together with Rob and Tricia we got ready for the ceremony, which was at 2pm. It was a brief and intimate ceremony attended by family and close friends. After that we headed to the reception for... party time! I had a good time and I was very glad that I decided to come out here for the celebration.

Sunday was spent just lazing around the house; jet lag and fatigue finally caught up with me so I was asleep for most of the day. Or maybe it was just a prelude to the next day where we drove an hour to Aurora, IL for some... outlet shopping! On the way home we bought Cranium, Taboo and the Monopoly Here and Now edition and we ended up having game night - twas so much fun! On Tuesday we headed downtown to see the famous Chicago skyline, dropping by the Sears Tower, Millenium Park and Navy Pier. Wednesday was again shopping day, though we headed home early to pack.

So what do I think about Chicago? The weather this time of the year could definitely be better. It was cold on most days and it also snowed at some point. And although I am a fan of cold weather, having consistent below-10-degree days are not that fun, specially if you want to go out and see the city.

With Chicago having given me a first glimpse of the USA, I can tell that this entire country is consumer heaven. Everything and I mean everything seems to be here. Every need and every whim can be fulfilled in exchange for cash. In my side of the world, I can say we are not spoilt for choice this way. Many creature comforts are not really made available to us since as a people we can barely afford the necessities, let alone anything on top of that. But how easy and convenient it is to live like that (the qualifier, of course, being that you can afford it).

On the other hand I can see my relatives have built a good life for themselves here. My cousins have turned out to be very kind and fun people, and I can see that their life as a family is going well. I throughly enjoyed my stay there and I am also glad to have reconnected with my cousins whom I have not seen for so many years. I cannot wait to visit them again. But for now I am very much looking forward to the West Coast leg of my trip and I am extremely happy to be heading towards warmer weather!

High Hopes for a Grand Adventure

I had been impossibly busy on the days leading up to this vacation, that I haven't even had the chance to share with you guys just how excited I am to go on this trip. I have been planning and obsessing about this vacation for a month already, since I want to make the most out of this longest personal trip I've ever taken -- 18 days, woohoo!

I really wish Kuya and Ate Bew could join us, but then again there'll be other chances. Anyway I will be with family (Papa, Mama and Tata) for the most part, except for a few days in between when our itineraries would diverge, and then meeting up again towards the end of the trip.

So where am I headed? First it's The Windy City, or The Second City, or best known as US President-elect Barack Obama's hometown. It is also pseudo-Gotham City (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were shot here) and home to my first ever sports hero Michael Jordan. Chicago is destination no. 1 primarily because my Tita Tel and Tito Ruben are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, which is the reason for this whole trip in the first place. We will be spending a week in Chicago, after which my family and I will go our separate ways for 4 days as they head to New York and me to the West Coast.

Destination no. 2 is California -- I will be flying into San Diego on Nov 27th and then meeting up with Jaim, and shortly thereafter (early next morning) driving to destination no. 3, Sin City -- Vegas baby!!! I heard we will be staying at the Venetian for a few days (thanks Ate Bam!). From Las Vegas, I really want to take that sunset helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon... I'm still thinking about it but I am 80% convinced that I should do it. As for the other activities in Vegas... well you know what happens there anyway. Funnnnn. :)

Then on Dec. 1st we will be leaving Vegas since Jaim has to go to class and work (loser!!! hehe joke lang). She will drop me off at Anaheim where I am again meeting up with my family. The next couple of days will of course be spent in Disneyland, Universal Studios and an LA tour which will take us to Hollywood. Tita Emie and family, who live in San Diego, will also come out to LA to be with us. On Dec. 5th my family is headed back to Manila, while I am staying back for a couple more days to explore LA some more. Jaim and I are headed to the Getty Museum and Santa Monica Pier and of course, the not-to-be-missed home of grrrrrrrrreat roller coasters, 6 Flags Magic Mountain!

All in all a pretty packed schedule but I really like traveling that way, making the most out of the trip. I can sleep and rest when I'm back home right? I hope everything goes to plan and that this turns out to be an grand and enjoyable adventure, otherwise I will be happy to just have lotsa fun during this time off and of course come back with a (significantly) heavier suitcase filled with goodies! :)

Harassed

This is it. I have to write. I am feeling restless and a hundred different things are running through my head. I had one month to plan everything but, according to the natural order of things (which I noticed I now currently use as my scapegoat for many situations that I find myself in), of course I left everything to the last minute.

Tasks to finish at work. Things to hand over. Pasalubongs to buy. Stuff to pack. Activities to plan and decide on. Tickets to book. All within the next 68 hours; 20 of which I have to spend in the office, and at least another 20 for sleeping, which leaves me with roughly 28 hours (including bathroom breaks and meals, which I most likely will forsake in favor of the above mentioned things to do). I could so freak out right now.

But, but, but, I have decided not to ruin the fun of it all by being stressed out about the trip -- this is supposed to be a vacation after all. I need to get rid of the stress and make way for excitement.

I'm trying to shake it off. Trying.

I'm No Fish Killer

Do you remember my old entry 'Fish and Relationships'? Well since that first couple of fighting fish which I stupidly put together (which according to Dan should not be done, since they'll try and kill each other, which they did), I have had several others. On my birthday, Irene gave me three new fish, two of which barely lasted a week.

I guess it's because of this that my friends tease me about being a Fish Killer. Which is ironic, because I have always had every intention of keeping them alive for as long as I could, until of course it becomes inconvenient for me... (i.e. cleaning the water every other day? come on!) Hence it's not killing. It's not murder. Just homicide.

Anyway here is attempt number three. I'm hoping to get it right this time. If the fish still die... this is really not my fault anymore!

I believe I gave my seven (yes seven!) new fish a good home: light, plants, more sand, better food, even a couple of white coral-looking rocks. But above all I put in an oxygen pump. It was a very significant and noticeable difference; the water doesn't become dirty as easily and the fish like to play with the bubbles. Well at least some of the bigger ones. The smaller ones seemed to be freaked out by the pressure, and for good reason, since the bubbles could very easily push them out of the way.

Now when I go home, I look forward to spending a few minutes with my fish and watching them swim -- no, more like wiggle around -- in their tank. They are so alive, that I think it's the oxygen making them all giddy and high. I find it both amusing and relaxing at the same time, and having other living creatures inside my apartment makes it feel a bit more homey and less empty.

What does this mean, you ask? Is this entry really just about the stupid fish? Or does it have something to do with relationships -- like most of Teng's entries seem to be???

Well, actually... this time, I prefer it to be just about the fish. :)

Turning Silver

Anyone who knows me well knows that birthdays hold a special place in my heart. I believe that you are given one day a year that's yours and that you should be happy, if not on any other day of the year, then at the very least on your birthday. I feel that friends and family owed it to you to make it special. People always say, "Nah it's just an ordinary day, don't make a big deal out of it." but everyone will always be pleasantly surprised when you do something special for them... which is also why I like going to extra lengths to arrange surprises and celebrations particularly for my (sometimes lonesome) expat friends here in Beijing.

But as November 3 rolled in, I did not know what to expect. And as always is the case when one does not expect, I was very pleasantly surprised... all day long!

Three "anonymous" bouquets, two surprise birthday cakes, one delicious ice cream cake, wonderful gifts, text messages, emails, Friendster messages and comments, Multiply guestbook entries and PM's, Yahoo offline messages, posts on my Facebook wall and countless other greetings later, I headed home feeling more than happy... I felt extremely loved.

For a single girl who lives alone and who's celebrating her 25th birthday in a foreign land, I really could not ask for more. :)

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I was looking for last year's birthday entry, here it is: A Day After, and I am happy to report that compared to the tone of last year's entry, this year's birthday was much happier. :)

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Photos here!

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Here's a blow-by-blow account of what went down on November 3, 2008:

12:02 am - First greeting received
1:00 am - I get to bed, feeling like a grade school kid anticipating a field trip. I couldn't sleep, for whatever reason!
6:30 am - Parents wake me up for a birthday call. I complain that I didn't need to be up until 8:00am! (But of course I was still touched; Papa's outrageously off-key rendition of happy birthday was just so funny!)
8:00 am - I drag myself out of bed, not having had enough sleep. Get ready for work.
9:00 am - I get to the office. First time I check my mobile phones. A bunch of messages have come into both China and Globe numbers. No one from my team greets me by the way!
9:30 am - Joyce comes over to wish me a happy birthday and gives me a box of Krispy Kreme donuts all the way from Hong Kong! Still no greeting from anyone in the team.
10:00 am - Haifa and I start planning the birthday dinner.
10:40 am - Invitations sent out for my birthday dinner @ Saveurs de Coree, a Korean place in one of Beijing's hip-happening hutongs.
11:00 am - Receptionist gives me a call, saying I've got some flowers. That put a smile on my face. =)
11:02 am - I walk out to reception to pick up the flowers and boy was I shocked. They were huge! Bouquet no. 1 had more than 4 dozen red roses in a giant arrangement. There was no card.
11:04 am - I return to my desk with the roses. Of course everyone in the team starts wondering why I got them and who they were from. I finally received birthday greetings then. Hehe.
12:10 pm - Me and my friends and some teammates leave for lunch. We were meeting Haifa and Gauri at the Thai place downstairs at 12:15 pm.
12:20 pm - I was starving so decided to not wait for Haifa and Gauri anymore. I ordered all my favorites–yum yum yum! I was happily eating.
12:30 pm - Already halfway through lunch with still no signs of Haifa and Gauri. I give Haifa a call and she says they're on their way and arriving in 5 minutes.
12:40 pm - Still no sign of Haifa and Gauri. I was starting to get suspicious. Also because the waiters were acting very weird as well!
12:45 pm - My friends walk in and of course they were singing and holding a lighted cake! Everyone was looking but we didn't care (suki na kami sa Thai resto na yun e) and I blew the candles on my first cake of the day. Black Forest from the China World bakery - yum!
1:30 pm - I return to the office to find a second bouquet of roses on my desk, with a card that read: "I know what you did last summer. Happy birthday! Love, Anonymous." Hahahaha that cracked me up, more so because I could recognize the handwriting! For sure it was either Gauri or Haifa, which they denied, of course.
3:00 pm - All of a sudden the lights go out, and in comes a couple of my teammates with Cake #2 for me. :) Blew the candles on cake #2, with the same wish I had for Cake #1. Who knows, maybe the more times you wish it, the better the chances of getting it!
6:00 pm - Left the office. Joyce helped me carry the giant bouquets home.
7:30 pm - We arrive at Nanluoguxiang for the birthday dinner. Food was quite good and that hutong (small street) is really cool.
8:00 pm - I receive a call from some Chinese guy. Another delivery is waiting in my apartment. I wonder who it's from. I ask it to be delivered to a friend's place since I'm out.
8:30 pm - Kuru says my 450D and LV don't go well together so I open my gift - a new Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home camera bag. :)
9:30 pm - We finish dinner and head to Haagen Dazs for some dessert. Cake #3 is blown - again, I have the same wish. :)
11:00 pm - We walk home from Haagen Dazs and I enter an apartment filled with gifts and flowers. Such a nice feeling.
11:30 pm - As my birthday draws to a close, I reflect on the day I have just had. I think about how I'm going to write about it. I select the photos I'm going to post. But above all I relish in the warm-fuzzy-wonderful feeling of having family and friends who make me feel extremely loved - despite distance, time zone or cultural differences. Then I say a prayer, thanking Him for the past year and asking for guidance and protection for the next, not only for me but for my family and friends too.

All in all, an awesome birthday on all counts. I don't know how turning 26 can top that! :)