December 14th, 2006 I arrived in the Philippines for the first time. I was scared to death. It was the first time I had been out of the United States. It was the first time I'd ever traveled alone. My flight had taken me from Philadelphia to Chicago. Chicago to Hong Kong- Hong Kong to the Philippines. A 24 hour flight all together. I arrived in Manila a little after midnight on the 14th.

When I pulled my suitcase out to the waiting area. There was F.B. & his Mother waiting for me in the crowd of people. His Mom was holding a purple banner with my name on it. It was the first time F.B. & I were face to face. We gave each other a hug and my first words to him were, "You're not so short!" See what happens when your brain is sleep deprived!? He always cracks up when I remind him of the first words I spoke to him in person. (It really wasn't a big deal though. I'm 5'6" he's 5'3") He gave me white roses when I got to the car and waiting at his house was a stuffed monkey I named 'Mr. Unggoy'. (Monkey in Tagalog.)

Blog Flashback: Got to the Philippines on 12-14-06. After a lonnnng flight. About 25 hours in total. I was pretty nervous at all the airports... the Chicago airport was pretty small. But I was scared to death in Hong Kong... that airport is HUGE! I had to ask for directions. I had to take this funny shuttle thing to the check in area. And then they didn't put a gate number on my ticket & I had to go look on the board to find it, and at first it was in Chinese. But then it changed to English. Got to Manila airport around 11pm. And met my boyfriend & his mother at the airport.
3 years into the relationship and we had finally met. After all the roller coasters in our relationship we were finally together. The first night we were together we hugged alot. And we shared our first 3 kisses that night as well. We couldn't believe we were actually together after all this time. It was a little weird at first being together in person, after talking online, through letters & the phone for so long. But things fell into place. We got along so well in person, we were best friends. We felt so comfortable around each other. For our first date. F.B. took me to the mall near his house. We ate at 'Tokyo Tokyo' and I tried Sushi for the first time. Then we got to see our first movie together, 'Happy Feet'.

I stayed for 3 weeks in the Philippines. We got to spend Christmas and New Years together. (On Christmas I was given my ring- though we hadn't decided on getting engaged just then.) We stayed a few days alone in Makati City and a few days alone up in Tagaytay City seeing the Taal Volcano. We had such a good time. It was so hard to say goodbye. I left the Philippines, January 3rd, 2007. When I was standing in line to check in for my flight I got a text message from F.B. saying to look behind me. He was able to watch me through the windows of the airport and would walk along when I did, waving to me until I had to pass through customs... and board my plane...

Some pictures from my first trip to the Philippines:



















































Blog Flash Back: 12-16-2006

Got to the Philippines on 12-14-06. After a lonnnng flight. About 25 hours in total. I was pretty nervous at all the airports... the Chicago airport was pretty small. But I was scared to death in Hong Kong... that airport is HUGE! I had to ask for directions. I had to take this funny shuttle thing to the check in area. And then they didn't put a gate number on my ticket & I had to go look on the board to find it, and at first it was in Chinese. But then it changed to English. Got to Manila airport around 11pm. Went through customs, got my luggage & went outside. There were a tonnnn of people... I was so nervous. F's mom had made a purple banner with 'Sarah' on it, so I could find them, and I saw F. & Gave him a hug and said, "You're not so short!"

The next day F & I went to a mall near his house. It was 5 levels. And huge!!! Lot's of people. We stopped and walked around a supermarket in the mall. We also had Japanese for lunch & I tried sushi. Then F & I saw the movie 'Happy Feet'. Lol. But it was just okay.

Today we just hung out around his house. And tomorrow we are going to church. And Monday we are off to Makati City for 4 days. That's about it for now.

Christmas in the Philippines 2006:

Been in the Philippines almost 2 weeks now. On Christmas Eve, F's family has the Filipino tradition of 'Noche Buena'. Where at 12 midnight they have a Christmas dinner and exchange gifts. We went to the church, but there were so many people we were outside- it's an open kinda church so you could hear stuff, but we got tired standing for awhile and sat in the car with the windows rolled down, we could still kinda hear stuff. Then when we got back to F.B.'s house we exchanged gifts and took pictures. And then we had dinner.

Christmas we went to the Mall of Asia again and had lunch with his family. But F & I went home after lunch, we've been to the Mall of Asia 3 times now. We hung out here at his house and watched Titanic & Back to the Future, and had dinner.

Tomorrow I'm taking F out to lunch at Friday's, and then we are going to do some shopping at the supermarket & get some snacks to take to the hotel with us up in Tagaytay- we were having midnight "picnic's" when we were at the hotel in Makati City. So, Wednesday we will be heading up to the hotel in Tagaytay and coming home on the 29th. It's F.B.'s mom's anniversary on the 30th so I'm taking his family out for a buffet dinner.

Here are some new pictures:

The sign F's mom made for me- that I saw when I was at the airport. It's hanging on his sister's bedroom door for now, since I'm using the room:


F got me this cute pink Adidas bag for Christmas at the Adidas store in Greenbelt in Makati City:


Me in the doorway on Christmas Eve:


F & I exchanging Christmas Gifts:





They made us kiss for the camera... ewwwww! hahahahaha!


F.B. gave me a purty ring for Christmas:


Us on Christmas Eve before church:


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

*~Sarah~*

This post is 13 hours behind... it's really 2:15 am on 12-26 as I'm writing this... lol!

12-27-2006:

F.B. & I went to Friday's for lunch this afternoon. I treated him, this time. Friday's is my favorite place to eat at home, so I wanted to try it in the Philippines. It's pretty much the same, just a few different menu items. I had some chicken fingers & F had some fish and we shared onion rings & my margarita which made me a bit... hilo... (dizzy.) Then we shared dessert. We ate too much... ackkkk I was so full tonight. Then we stopped at the mall to pick up some stuff for our trip to Tagaytay. We are leaving tomorrow around 11pm or so, because check in up at Taal Vista Hotel is 2pm. We'll be heading back to F's house on the 29th. Here's some newer pictures:

My margarita... it made me a bit dizzy, lol... and they don't even card you at the Friday's in the Philippines:


Our dessert we shared.... yum. haha:


Me in F.B.'s car, while he checked the air in the car tires:


Called my family last night to wish them a Merry Christmas. It was 12pm there on Christmas day & about 1am on the 26th when I called. Mom said "F's a true gentleman." Let's see.... he opens the car door for me... and if I try to get out myself he complains. He buckles my seatbelt for me sometimes. I have to force him to pay for movies or lunch sometimes... bad boy. He cuts my meat for me sometimes, if I can't get it... then we feed each other sometimes too... hehehehehe. He wakes me up in the mornings, though the first morning he turned on the light and blinded me. And he's just my guwapo guwapo silly corny boyfriend.... and I love him.

*~Sarah~*

F.B. & I have been married two weeks now. We got to spend our first Christmas & New Years together as husband and wife.

Christmas Eve day F.B. & I went to Robinson’s Metro East early in the morning. We hung out at a net café for a couple hours while I uploaded more wedding photos, etc. Afterwards we had lunch at Wendy’s in Sta. Lucia Mall. (Baconator…mmmm… deadly, but delicious! Hehe!)

We stopped at an electronics store after lunch so F.B. could get me a Christmas gift. He got me an 8GB USB Flash Drive. Yay! We also stopped at the Guess store again… I have a bad addiction with that store in the Philippines! I’ve gotten 4 t-shirts from there already, and it’s not exactly cheap. They were all around P800-P1300. ($17-28 USD).

Christmas Eve we went to church around 9:30pm. The church was packed with people. When we got back to F.B.’s house we had ‘Noche Buena’ around 12am. We exchanged Christmas gifts with the family and took pictures. We had dinner around 1am and didn’t get to bed until around 3am Christmas Morning.

Christmas Day we stayed home and relaxed. Around 6:30pm we went to Mega Mall to Saisaki Buffet to have dinner with F.B.’s family & relatives. Afterwards we had Starbucks.

Christmas Photos:

F.B.’s aunt got me this cute wooden mouse pen and wooden mouse toy for Christmas.

Mugwort eating in the kitchen:

December 28th we had a free overnight stay at the Malayan Plaza Hotel in Pasig City. It was a gift from one of F.B.’s aunts. It’s just around the corner from Mega Mall and Robinson’s Galleria in Pasig City. Our hotel suite had its own little kitchen, with a microwave, stove and full fridge. There was also a DVD player, but we didn’t bring any DVD’s with us!

Our Room:

Our Kitchen!

View from our hotel room:

We wanted to go to the IMAX Theater at Mall of Asia, but it was still packed with holiday shoppers, etc so we ended up going to Robinson’s Manila to spend the afternoon there. I got another cute keychain mouse/rat to add to my collection! We also checked out Fort Santiago but it was really hot that day so we didn't stay long.

New Years Eve we headed to church around 9:30pm. We got back home around 11pm. It was pretty loud with people setting off firecrackers and fireworks all over the place. At 12am we had dinner. F.B. & I had Spongebob necklaces that light up from Ate Malou’s daughter, Jenny.

New Years Photos:

With Jenny:

I also got to call home to my family on Christmas & New Years. My ratties are doing well while I'm away. They even got banana chips as a Christmas Gift from my Mom. Hehe. Here's a photo of Saffy they sent to me, she's wearing a Santa Hat!

Sunday we are headed to the Best Western Astor Hotel in Makati City for 5 days, 4 nights. We check out on the 7th. We also still have to pick up our marriage certificate sometime soon and we are also still waiting on the professional wedding photos. We want to head back to Tagaytay one day this month too. For our first wedding “monthiversary” on January 19th, we are going to go back to the Manila Hotel.

The 23rd I will be heading home. I've already been in touch with our lawyer. I will be contacting him when I'm back in the USA, so we can start F.B.'s immigration process. It's estimated to take 1 year to 2 years at the most. We are doing a longer process on purpose because it will save us money in the long run and F.B. will be a permanent resident when he finally steps off the plane in the USA.

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia. 

The countdown is on. I leave for the Philippines Monday! Yesterday I was out sick. There's been a virus going around at work and I caught it. A lovely little head cold. Blah. I spent Thursday in bed. Oh well... the first time I visited the Philippines I gave F.B. a cold. And in January his family was passing around a cold & I ended up catching it. So I guess it's my turn again to give him a 'sipon' (cold in tagalog.) Going to sleep in most of this weekend and finish packing on Sunday. So maybe I can get rid of this cold. Been taking extra vitamin C all week.

F.B. & I had our Tagaytay Trip on Wednesday (12-31-06). The way up to Tagaytay is about 2 hours, it's up in the mountains. Saw tonnnns of palm trees, and tons of pineapple fields, they are so neat looking, spikey plants growing out of the ground, with little baby pineapples growing off the plants. We were up in Tagaytay from the 27th-29th.

We stayed at the Taal Vista Hotel. It wasn't quite at nice as the Best Western in Makati City, even though it was more expensive. The hotel in Tagaytay was more like a campus. The check in and reception halls weren't even attached to the rest of the hotel. The room part was kinda across the parking lot. F.B. & I had trouble finding our room at first, he asked someone and they were like, "I don't know." Our room was a little smaller than the Best Western, but still nice. The bathroom was bigger, but the shower was more narrow and slippery, bruised my leg up good, haha. And when we left the 'Make up room' sign on the door, and we came back later I said, "Hey we got clean towels!" But it turned out they just folded up the wet towels we had already used?!

We took lot's of pretty pictures of Lake Taal & the Taal Volcano. It was quite windy up in the mountains and much colder at night time. F & I drove around Tagaytay, up into the mountains... wayyyy up into the mountains. It looked foggy, but it was only because we were so high up it was like we were in the clouds. We were on this little narrow winding road, where there were no buildings or anything, and you could see down the mountain side. There's this sky park, where you can take a shuttle up into the mountains, but the road was really steep... and I was scared, hah, so we just drove around instead. Not so much to do up around in Tagaytay though. It's a smaller city. Lot's of places to eat around there though. We had lunch & dinner out in Tagaytay.

I came down with a sipon (cold) while we were there though. My throat was a bit scratchy before we left for Tagaytay but the next morning my throat was all sore & swollen and my nose was stuffy and runny.F.B. & I found a drugstore and got me some medicine. I'm still a bit sick, so we'll have to pick up some more at the drugstore tomorrow. We just kinda hung around at the hotel.

Tomorrow is F.B's mom's wedding anniversary, so I am taking, his mom, sister & him out to this Japanese Buffet place at one of the malls. And if we have time we may stop at a mall close to his house, so I can visit this clothing store & souvenir shop I like.

Here's some photo's from our Tagaytay trip. On the way up to Tagaytay & The hotel:

F.B. & I out back of the hotel where you can see Lake Taal & the Volcano:

F could have pushed me over the wall... but he didn't... aren't I lucky? Tee hee...

More of us:

It was kinda sunny out and we were squinting, haha:

Lake Taal & Taal Volcano:

At the hotel:

In the car (F says I looks Lasing... (drunk...) lol! It's the sun I swear!) & out to eat... and look... they have Banana Ketchup... it's pretty good, they just color it red, haha:

12-31-2006: Today F & I stopped at the mall earlier today & then later in the evening, we took his family out for dinner. It was his mom's wedding anniversary. We went Saisaki, a Japanese Buffet at one of the malls. I had some sushi there, haha. My favorite kind without raw fish, but then some with raw salmon. And other food..I tried quail eggs too... haha. They were like tiny hard boiled eggs. F & I only had two plates each though, and we were full, haha. I only have two pictures. One was at F's house. And the other his sister took of us at the buffet place. They gave away these goofy little stuffed dogs when someone ordered iced tea, so I got F's, haha. He was a purple dog.



F.B. got me a pair of jeans at my favorite store 'Kamiseta' at the mall here in the Philippines. They have rhinestones on the back pockets. I love that store, I'm a small in jeans there, hehe. Tomorrow (Er... today, it's 1am.) is New Years Eve. We're going to church around 9pm, and then having a little dinner thing back at the house here for New Years. F said it's going to sound like a war zone, with all the firecrackers and stuff. It will be 2007 here at 12am- when it's only 11am on New Years Eve Day at home.... and still 2006... weird... haha.

F.B. got a sign on his door now and we took a picture, heehee: