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Memorial Day Party

May 28, 2012

National Holiday today in the US so I’ve no work. *grin* But I’ve no plans either. *switch to sad face* Almost everyone are taking an out-of-town trips because of the long weekend so yeah..

I really would love to eat at McDonald’s or Burger King because believe it or not, I haven’t eaten there (well while I’m here) yet. I live Downtown and what we have here are restaurants, not greasy fast foods. And.. I dunno why but the people I hang out with (i.e. Lara, Randy, etc) doesn’t like McDonald’s or fast foods. Randy doesn’t even eat meat except for chicken. So anyway, I thought of eating there today and ride the crappy and only public transpo here, the MATA buses. But when I looked at the schedule.. um never mind, so I thought of eating at the Arcade Restaurant instead. The last time I was there was mother’s day and they closed early so I didn’t get the chance to eat there. It was 11-ish so I wanna make sure that they’re still serving their famous breakfast dish at lunch time so I googled it and they are! So I took bath and walked down there.

I got their TV Network favorite~ sweet potato pancakes, sunny side up eggs, bacon and fries. It was delectable. I was so full! My $11.92 + tip was worth it. :-)

This food’s a lot so I this is what I end up (minus the fries and egg). -_- I didn’t even know how to eat my yummy eggs without rice or bread. -_-

The Arcade Restaurant is one of the places you need to go when in Memphis. (At least that’s what I’ve heard.) It’s even included in the Historical Sites!

I wasn’t even finish eating when they started preparing to close down at 1pm. Because it’s memorial day, they are closing early. I’m glad I was on time this time.

I walked on the way home too and passed by the National Civil Rights Museum. I’ve been there before but today is different because there were a lot of tourists there today. And I’m a tourist today too. :D

I also stopped by The Peabody Place for a while and just checked the building out.

I just stayed at home for the rest of the day until Peter asked me if I want to go to a party. It sounds weird going to a stranger’s birthday party but I think it’s better than just lazing off at my apartment. And, I really wanna make the most out of my remaining days.

Peterpicked me up at 8-ish and we drove to Shane’s house, Kat’s boyfriend. Ate Kat is turning 23 tomorrow. I met a bunch of people there, 4 of them are Filipinos. They’re all University friends and I’m glad I came because I had fun and at least I experienced how a house party/college party looks like. :D They danced, do Karaoke (because there are Filipinos here!) and more dancing! :))

Filipinas: Kat, Kim (I originally thought she’s Japanese), Me

With John, Kim’s boyfriend. He’s half-Chinese, half-Cambodian. They’re both from California.

L-R: Shane (Kat’s bf), Rickey and Pia (she’s a Korean who disses her country and countrymen lol. She hates SNSD but loves 2ne1 and Bigbang)

Zac (the one on the farthest left is taking up dentistry and doing medical missions in the Philippines), his twin brother and his girlfriend (I forgot their name, they left early so I didn’t have much time to talk to them).

Because Peter is giving me a ride, I had to wait for him. Peter, Mark, Pia and I were the last to leave at past 12 midnight. We watched different videos including the Cholo Adventures and they tried scaring Pia and I with ghost videos. I hated it, I’m living alone so please noooo!

When I got home, I just slept because there’s work tomorrow at 9. :-)

Touristy Sunday: Trolley Tour Around Downtown Memphis

May 13, 2012 (Day 22)

As I’ve planned, I’m gonna tour downtown with the downtown trolleys. It was very gloomy and it was raining when I woke up that’s why I hesitated to go outside. But after I take a bath and get dressed, I decided to go because I may not have time to do this again. I’ve got the whole weekend off for the first time and next weekend will be the Barbecue contest and the week after is the Sunset Symphony.

I went out at 11:30am and went to Walgreens first to buy the Cover Girl thing for Tita Let after I consulted my sister. At the store, while I was looking through the make up aisle, there was this guy who spoke to me and said.. “You’ll look good in any of those.” I said “Oh.. thank you” and then he asked for my name, how’s it spelled and asked for my number. I was totally friendly with him and I just told him I don’t have an American number, I’m from the Philippines and that I’m going home on June. Then he starts telling me his number and he said.. can you remember that? And I said No! Of course not.. if I wouldn’t write it down. :-P And then I walk away.. :))

Then I rode the trolley, the riverside route and just see the city. I purchased the all-day pass for $3.50 which is cheaper because I’m planning to go off the train to see different sites and one ride on the trolley is a dollar.

I got off at Beale Street, the famous street where the Blues Music originated. It’s like their red light district here.

Cute little restaurant across the FedEx Forum has the Philippines’ flag and the Memphis in May’s Philippine art. :-) COOOOl!

The FedEx Forum, where the NBA games are held. There’s actually a game going on there. I wish I could watch next time.

Have I mentioned that there are a lot of tourist carriages around downtown? And this is the cutest! Very Cinderella-ish. :-P

I bought some stuffs here including your Memphis ref magnet, Charles! :-)

And I’m off to ride the trolley again to my next destination. I rode the trolley that goes to Madison Avenue next. :) I met Carol and her husband while waiting. They’re in the city to attend a wedding and they’re going home to Minnesota later this evening. They’re grandparents already to 4 little girls. :)

On my Madison Avenue trip, we passed by the Autozone Park, where the baseball games are held. There’s a game going on there too at the moment! :-)

The trolleys are old but still well-maintained. :)

The pyramid! Before, it was the place where the NBA games are held but when the FedEx Forum was built, they started doing it there because it’s bigger and better. Today, this place is a sporting house. This structure is really tall.

The Arcade Restaurant. I was planning on eating here today but they are closed! I got here at 3:05pm and they closed at 3pm because it was Mother’s day. :(

I checked out American Apparel which is just right across the street from the Arcade Restaurant. And because the clothes are expensive, I just looked. :))

I had lunch at Subway along the Main Street. I got a bacon sub. :)

While waiting for the trolley… :-D

I stopped at the Mud Island Park next. This is their cool monorail to get to Mud Island. :)

Travelling alone is nice.. but to actually have a picture of myself is hard! =)) Imagine how I did all these photos with myself not holding the camera. :))

Travel to Memphis

I’ve expected a 22-24-hour flight to Memphis. But God wanted to challenge me again.. as always so it became a 39-hour flight. Nothing ever comes easy for me hahaha, which I guess is good because of the experiences and lessons brought about by it.

April 23, 8:15 am is my flight to Tokyo - Narita Airport. I was sent to the airport by my whole family plus cousin Fam. At first I was scared because it was my first time to travel alone (which is cool also and which I’ve always wanted). Everything went well. I was even served by a classmate at UP which is having her practicum at Delta airways. 

The 4-hour flight to Tokyo was fine. I just watched Always, a Korean movie starring Han Hyo Joo. I even watched Wizards of Waverly Place. :) The problem I encountered was there were too many choices of movies, tv shows, music, etc to choose from that I can’t even decide what to watch!

My breakfast at the plane was yummy.. corned beef and egg with dried mangoes, fresh fruits and muffin. :)

Tokyo was rainy then but the airport were full of Tricia-Gosingtian-look-a-like if you know what I mean. :) It was cool though, they have these Children’s Play Room and cool vending machines. Two cute Japanese concierge even helped me connect to the internet because I can’t read Japanese.. figures haha.

After 3 hours of walking around their terminal and checking out stores, it was time for boarding again for my next stop: Los Angeles, CA! This is the longest segment of my flight itinerary which is 9:25. But because we took off late, we naturally landed late. The air traffic in Tokyo is serious! I mean, planes line up for their take-off turns and landing airplanes are lined up in the sky which I also observed in other airports. It’s fascinating! :)

This plane ride is full of irritating Korean ahjummas! They’re so noisy, even their tour guide is super annoying! I was moved to the exit row seat because my Korean ahjumma seatmate requested to have an aisle seat which I have so the flight attendant decided that I need more leg room and transferred me. I don’t have a seatmate but there’s a guy by the window.

My dinner. The one with the shrimp is so gross! I didn’t eat it, I don’t like the taste of the shrimp. It’s like.. raw.

Breakfast :-)

All throughout the flight I slept, watched movies (Tower Heist & A Cinderella Story: Once Upon A Song) and tv shows. :)

LAX is soooo wide! Seriously! I can get lost in that place a lot. Because this is our port of entry to the USA we have to go through Customs, Immigration and Baggage claim. The line was long cause there were several flights that arrived at the same time which explains why two hours didn’t allow me to catch my next flight to Memphis! ;( I was just a few minutes late. :| I hate that the airport is tooo big and I can’t find my way through the gate I was supposed to go. :(

Because I need help cause I missed my flight, I have to go to another terminal and thank God this guy saw me and gave me a ride! Reminds me of JB’s Never Say Never and Hannah Montana! :-) Loved it!

There was no wifi there, so I have to make do with these. I got into a lot of trouble getting a few quarters to make a call to Memphis in May to inform them that they shouldn’t pick me up later. I talked to a lot of Japanese but they just don’t understand me! HAHA. Talked to Americans and finally made the call. :)

I changed my flight by calling their hotline through the available hotline telephones Delta have. The line was long at the help desk ‘coz a lot of people missed their flight ‘coz we were late and ‘coz of the situation at CIQ. My next flight was at 6pm and it was only 12pm so I ate, watched Rooftop Prince and walked around. Too tiring!

Because of the changed flight, instead of a 3-hour plane ride from LAX to Memphis, the earliest arrival time next to that has two stops - Salt Lake City and Atlanta. So that’s 14 hours! Ha. Challenging!

My flight from LAX to Salt Lake City is 1 hour and 25 mins. I was surprised when some guy called me while I was already settled at my seat and said my seat is at 1A.. meaning first class!! Woohoo! It was the only seat available there. Yay! I think they felt bad for me.

Snacks.. chocolates! :-)

This was the nicest view from the plane ever! Does this count as finally seeing snow? HAHA.

Salt Lake City, Utah! :-) Yay for free wifi! :)

Stayed at Salt Lake City for 4 hours and then came the next flight to Atlanta at 12:55am. So we took off very dark and landed still dark. I was sitting next to a handsome guy which I guess is a sports person playing for a team ‘coz I saw his team mates welcome him. He’s wearing an orange Nike shoes. Our only conversation was.. Him:”Is this a blanket?” Me: “..Yes” HAHA.

It’s very hard to keep track of the time because it’s always different on each destination I’m stopping by at! Good thing I have a world clock on my phone.

At Atlanta, I thanked God for these seat where I can finally raise my feet and rest! I actually slept curling my body there! I was that tired! 

Well this guy had his way of sleeping! I envy him! :)

I slept like a baby the whole flight to Memphis, from take-off to landing! I can’t keep my eyes open because I’m obviously worn out. My luggage wasn’t there when everyone else’ baggage arrived already. Turns out my baggage arrived before hours before me.

Lara, Randy’s assistant picked me up at the airport. I talked to her on the phone before and we exchange emails a lot, I didn’t imagine her to look like that. Angel is teasing she’s black but she’s white.. and kind and pretty. The drive from the airport is 20 minutes to my apartment. We went there and then Randy, my boss, dropped by shortly after we arrived ‘coz the office is only 2 blocks away from here. They let me sleep first and will pick me up at 6pm to see the office so naturally I slept for 4 hours straight! :-)

We dropped by the office and it was nice. I’ll have my own table/working area with computer. I met some of the employees and they were really nice. They said they were waiting for me for last month but glad I’m here and it’s better late than never. :)

Day 4: Dumaguete City (going home)

January 23, 2012

Last day in Dumaguete! We woke up early to go to the market to buy Budbod Kabog which is like suman but it’s made of birds’ seeds. I have no idea what that is but it’s expensive.

Walking to the market, we passed by the Dumaguete Belfry.

We ate breakfast at  and they have these cool seats! We had lunch at Sans Rival and to also buy pasalubongs (cue: Silvanas!).

Our messy room! We were panicking because it’s almost check out time. :P

Then it was time to home. Our flight was *drum rolls* slightly delayed! HAHA. Surprise surprise! It was again due to the heavy traffic in NAIA, it takes time for planes to turn around and take off. Only one of the many problems of the Tourism Industry.

And that concludes my Negros Oriental trip. :) Yay it’ s more fun in the Philippines! :D

Day 3: Apo Island

January 22, 2012

Early call time to head to Malatapay, Zamboanguita to jump on a boat to Apo Island which is part of Dauin, Negros Oriental. We passed by McDonad’s for breakfast and then was at the jump off point in 45 minutes. All six of us: me, Danica, Erika, Abie, Sette and Mai were in one van and the assigned tour guide for us was Ms./Madame Pearl. She’s a former teacher and she’s like a mom to us. She gave us sun block, water and even took care of our belongings (cameras, phone etc) when we were snorkeling.

On our way to the island, it was unexpected and so fortunate for us to see dolphins! We were just talking about it the night before and how Danica really wished to see dolphins in an open sea and that it’ll make her cry if she did. It was too awesome! First there were only 2 of them jumping out of the water then comes a lot of them! We clapped with joy without knowing that doing that is like calling them. We were overjoyed. Too bad I didn’t have a camera at hand because the sea current was too strong and it’ll got us wet so no valuable things should be out in the open.

Apo Island has become my favorite island (so far). It’s really a paradise! There are two baranggays in the island and they live a very simple life. They get their water from the main island or in deep well which is still kinda salty. They also have a small chapel and we saw how they all cooperated. We saw this boy banging this metal to notify the people that the mass is about to start. After the mass, they formed a line outside because someone donated slippers to them. It was a beautiful sight because they were all happy.

The island has a lot of diving spots and snorkeling sites but because of typhoon Sendong, some of the spots were ruined like the clown fish snorkeling site.

Another highlight of our Apo Island tour was swimming with the pawikans! It was tooooo cool for words. They were big and you can see them in their real habitat swimming and eating! We also saw a blue starfish, clown fish, sea cucumber (which is like an eggplant), sea urchins and other marine species that I don’t know of. :P 

After our binalot lunch, we head back to the main island and had a side trip to Bacong Church where the oldest pipe organ from Zaragosa, Spain is at and also to NOAH (Negros Oriental Arts & Heritage) for souvenirs. We also had ice cream at Panda Ice Cream Haus where they sell low-fat and low-sugar ice creams.

After washing up in our hotel, we went out and go to Siliman University, which is older than UP. We also hunt a restaurant to eat at for dinner and we found Kamalig where you’ll ask them to cook the food. We had grilled scallops and sisig squid. The price was okay, not too expensive.

What I noticed in Dumaguete City was that there were a lot of foreigners. In every restaurant or bar in Rizal Boulevard, there are foreigners with Pinays. I love the Philippines, but that’s reality.

Trivia: Apo (as in grandchild) Island got it’s name because there’s a grandfather island (Negros) and a father island (Siquijor). Correct me if I’m wrong. :D