Flash Back: 3-12-2007
March 12, 2007 - Monday
Updates....only 8 more months....
Current mood: excited
Ohhhh... just 8 more months until I'm on that plane to go back to the Philippines. I booked my hotel about a week ago! Orbtiz.com was having a very nice sale and I saved $100! F.B. & I will be staying in Makati City for a full week this time. January 7th-12th. We really enjoyed staying at the Best Western Astor Hotel there and it's right in the city so plenty of places to drive or walk too.
We will get to spend our engagement anniversary on January 10th in Makati City. I think we are going to go out to dinner somewhere. Maybe Gerry's Grill, hehe, we love that place. And F.B. is going to get me a proper engagement ring and propose properly as well.
Been having issues with the ring I have now. F.B. gave it to me on Christmas day when we were together. I love my ring, it happened to be a size too big, so I had it resized, then a month ago the stone fell out when I was at the store, my Mom, Brother & I went back to look for it and my Brother found the stone in the doormat to the store. So I took it back to the jeweler and they had to replace the head on it. I just got it back this week. F.B. & I have both put alot of money into the ring... which is why I wanted it to be my engagement ring, but it was never really intended for that, and F.B. wants to get me a proper sturdier engagement ring, and propose to me on our engagement anniversary.
F.B. graduated on Friday!!! He's all finished college now! You can see a few pictures in his profile from his graduation. He's first on my friends list. I'm so proud of him... I wish I could have been there for his graduation though... I feel sad that I missed that.... I called him at work this morning at 8:30am- it was 8:30pm in the Philippines and he was out to dinner with his Mom & Aunt.
Tomorrow I am having an early mother's day with Mom, we will be going out to lunch and to the mall, so I'll be off to bed now.
*~Sarah~*
March 12th, 2007: I am off to the Philippines in about 10 more months! The ticket prices are too expensive for Christmas this year, but they were very cheap for January. So I will be going back to the Philippines in January 2008!!!
I just booked my ticket! Orbitz will be mailing my ticket to me. I'll be leaving from Philadelphia on January 2nd, 2008. And arriving in the Philippines on the 3rd. I'll be coming home on January 24th, 2008!
It will be nicer anyhow, since I can spend the holiday's with my family this year at home. And F & I will get to spend more time with each other after the holidays, when it won't be chaotic & crowded every where.
Only 10 more months until I'm with my boy again! I'm so excited! I put the ticket on my credit card this time though, so now I have to repay $1,167.00 back... but my laptop will be paid off at the end of this month- only two more payments. And then I can work on paying off my plane ticket. It should take less than a year to pay that money off, so it's not a problem. And I can still continue to save for getting married. The money in my savings is for my future with F. So I can't touch that at all.
I will probably be booking the Best Western Hotel in Makati City sometime soon. We are thinking of staying a week in the city this time. Either from, January 7th-12th. Or January 7th-11th. We'll see. I have to save up a little money first and then book that, because it will probably cost $300.00-400.00 dollars for 5 nights.... oh well... just about 10 more months!!!
Time for bed now, if I can sleep! I'm so amped up! But I have to wake up at 5;15am... blech.... so goodnight!!!
*~Sarah~*
P.S. This is quite ironic... I'll be arriving in the Philippines on January 3rd, the day I left this past year, hehe.
Philippines Trip: 2008.
I returned to the Philippines this past January (2nd-24th). It was quite an adventure this time though. In Philadelphia alot of flights going to Chicago were canceled because of snow and my flight was delayed until 9am. By the time I got to Chicago I only had 45 minutes to get to my next flight when I was supposed to have a 3 hour delay there!When leaving Chicago the plane stopped on the runway because the air conditioning unit fell off the plane. They had to return to our gate to fix it. We were delayed nearly 3 hours just sitting on the plane before we took off. I was late getting to Hong Kong and I was supposed to have a 4 hour delay there but when I got to Hong Kong it was already 8:30pm and my next flight was boarding at 9:20pm. I had to rush throught the airport to make it to my flight!
During my flight to the Philippines the stewardess asked me if I would give up my seat for a mother and child so the child could sit next to her mother. She ugraded me to first class! That was an interesting experience I've never been in first class! The seats were like lounge chairs. They put a table cloth on your pull out food tray & they even had real dishes and utensils. I had salmon on the plane (yummy!) and they had this fancy cake for dessert and they would keep refilling your water glass!
I arrived in the Philippines around 11:40pm. I met F.B. & his Mom in the waiting area outside the airport. They were holding a red 'Sarah' banner this time, so I could find them. We hugged & I didn't say anything stupid this time around, lol! (See: You're not so short!) He had flowers for me in the car. We got back to F.B.'s house around 1am. When I arrived at his house his family had made me another welcome sign. F.B. had rose petals scattered all over the floor of his sister's room that I was staying in. So sweet! Hehe!
We spent a week in Makati City this time. We stayed at the Best Western Astor Hotel again. We got to spend time in Greenebelt again and Glorietta Mall. We also spent alot of time at Mall of Asia in Manila. We had our 1 year Engagement Anniversary on January 10th. We went to Saisaki Buffet for the occasion! Saisaki is our favorite Japanese buffet! I got a cute stuffed horse/donkey? with F.B.'s iced tea. Saisaki always does that. Last year I got a purple stuffed dog, hehe.
We also visited the Ayala musuem while in Makati City. Where we saw Philippine History Dioramas and Philippine Art. On January 9th I got to meet up with my friend Gayle whom I met on myspace. We got together at a Starbucks in Glorietta Mall. F.B. & got to see a play on the 11th in Greenbelt. We saw 'Tuesday's with Morrie.' (My first play!) And we went to see a 3D movie at the Imax Theater at Mall of Asia.
I caught the cold his family was passing around when we were in Makati City. I had it pretty much the whole trip. F.B. gave me some vitamin c pills to take and some medicine. The one afternoon at the hotel he let me sleep in. And I got to visit 7 Eleven in the Philippines and bought some Gatorade.
We visited alot of malls during my stay. Sta. Lucia and Big R. Trinoma Mall, Mega Mall, Market Market, Glorietta, Mall of Asia. And got to eat at all my favorite Filipino places, Gerry's Grill, Chow King, Tokyo Tokyo. I also got to try Jollibee this time. (Basically a Filipino Mc Donalds.) And Yellow Cab Pizza became one of our other favorite places to eat. I finally got to try Wendy's in the Philippines, that's my favorite fast food place at home. And Starbucks... we must have gone 9 times in 3 weeks! I'm addicted now! Help!
I got to try Goat for the first time when his family had a family reunion lunch. The dish was a bit spicy for me. My favorite Filipino dishes are Liempo, Pansit, Chicken or Pork Adobo & I love Corn & Crab soup with Quail Eggs. Yummy!!!!
I also got to go to my very first Basketball game in the Philippines. We went to the Cuneta Astrodome on January 20th. We were just behind the courtside row. There was a lady reporter there filming, I kept ducking because I didn't want to be on TV, haha! F.B.'s mom & Aunt said they saw F's hair on TV! We also took some amazing sunset pictures at Manila Bay outside of Mall of Asia. The year before it had been too cloudy for sunset pictures.
The one night the power went out at F.B.'s house around 11pm. He tried playing around with the fuse box but that wasn't the issue. So I had to take a shower by candle light that night. Then we sat outside on his porch talking and having s snack of dried mango and some pringles. I saw a lizard climbing up the porch wall. And we also saw a bat flying over one of the palm tree's. The power didn't come back on until about 9am. It was hot without the fan so F.B. fanned himself and me while we tried to get some sleep that night.
F.B. & I had such a nice time together. It was sad when we had to part after the 3 weeks again. Got to the airport in Manila around 6am on January 24th. F.B. and I said our goodbyes. We were both crying outside the airport. Luckily I was at the smaller airport again just for Philippine Airlines so he was able to watch me through the windows. We waved to each other until I had to go past customs.
I arrived back in the USA on January 24th after a 24+ hour grueling travel day. The lines were really long for customs in the Philippines and I almost missed my flight. The airport tax changed from $12 up to $18 now! You have to pay the airport tax to leave the country.
I got to Hong Kong for my 15 hour flight, but got stuck next to this crazy Asian lady. The guy on the aisle seat was going to Philly also, and we kept giving each other these 'looks' when the crazy lady did stuff. She was like hanging over the guys food tray talking to people in the aisle, she accidentlly split beer on me. Thanks and when I was sleeping she kept taking snacks and stuff from the stewardess for me- poke me when I was sleeping and I'd have to say, "I don't want it. I just want to sleep."
Got to Chicago and had a 1 hour delay which was not enough time to go through customs- wait for my baggage hand my baggage back, take the tram car, go through more security and get to my gate- the entire waiting area was empty everyone was on the plane, I barely made it. I got back to Philly and guess what? No baggage! My luggage was missing! 5 people including me that were on the Hong Kong flight to Chicago and then back to Philly lost their luggage because our flight left. Luckily United Airlines returned my baggage later that same night.
F.B. kept a journal the entire 3 weeks. At night he would briefly write down everything we had done that day. When I got home he mailed me the original and made himself a copy. That was really nice, because now we can look back on our trip and read about what we did on each day.
Please check out all the photos from my Philippines Trip in January by clicking here!
Makati City Trip.
Philippine Traffic... looks more orderly than it is!
The cabs say 'with aircon’ (That's what air conditioning is called in the Philippines.)
We also ate at our favorite places; Gerry’s Grill, Chow King & Yellow Cab Here is F.B. contemplating which slice of pizza he wants!
Saw some more movies. We watched ‘Strangers’ which I thought was a lot of anticipation and not a lot of action. And we saw ‘Mirror’s’. I thought it was similar to the ‘Sixth Sense’ in a way, but not as good.
We went to Manila Ocean Park- Aquarium on Tuesday. They had a lot of pretty fish, sharks, sting rays, alligators. They even had a glass tunnel you walk under and the fish swim all around you.
Stone Fish:
F.B. & I acting silly in Makati:
Sad news though. I found out my Dad had to have his dog Hunter put to sleep this week. He was really sick and wasn’t eating. He was around 13 years old. We’ve had him since he was a puppy. He was a guard dog at my Dad’s junk yard for quite a few years.
