Chasing the sun and wishing it would set

Chasing the sun and hoping it would set

Wow! What a trip! How does one prepare for such a trip; three flights accumulating to 171/2 hours of flying not considering layover times. Not only is the trip long, but knowing that upon arrival everything I am used to would be completely opposite; snow in Colorado; rain in Manila, morning in Colorado; night in Manila, my appearance being the norm in Colorado; standing out as a tall, blond hair, blue eyed American in Manila! While at the airport I felt a little bit of shock and adrenalin when I said to the lady checking my bags that my final destination was the Philippines! I knew what was happening, but it didn’t seem real.

To start out I had a beautiful flight to Seattle. One is able to view the mountains continuosly! At my layover I had some issues. I have a one way ticket and itinerar, but the Philippines is strict in this area and wants more than an itinerary from a travel agency and so I had to buy a ticket to Hong Kong, which I can change. I was pretty nervous and when standing in line to buy some food I thought that the man next to me had stolen my money right out of my pocket and I therefore gave him a shocked look as I slipped my hand into my pocket to check if my speculation was true. I felt my twenty as he said “Hi, how are you?” I felt so bad. We talked a little. This is how nervous I was! Because I had had issues at check-in I was totally on edge. 

Once I got on the plane all the nervousness  left me. The plane was the biggest I’ve been on. It was awesome and for those of you who have travelled internationally know of the free movies and meals and continuous drinks. I watched Julie and Julia (alright. She is way infatuated though!), Up ( I really wanted him to make amends with the explorer guy instead of killing him), and 500 Days of Summer (very accurate movie-sort of painfully, but really good). And there are your movie reviews from Lauren. I will be here all week. The couple next to me were from India and had unfortunately thought that they could communicate if they just knew sign language. ohhh. disappointing I’m sure. 

Next was the South Korean airport (awesome because it had wi-fi). This is where my seemingly quest for the sun ended with the Korean sunset. Now all I wanted was to get to my destination and SLEEP! I felt as I do now--tired!!! And that’s where the other half of the title comes in; night please come soon!

When I finally arrived I met up with a Coloradan whom I had met in Seattle. We went through customs/ security together and found Jeri or rather were found by her, who wasn’t sure if it was me because I had arrived with a second person! We drove home in crazy traffic and I saw a jeepney with a bunch of people hanging onto the back of the thing! I’ll have to take a picture of it sometime. We got to the house and spent time talking about things like how to flush the toilet with a bucket of water. Oh! And I met her daughter, Sarah. Being at her house I realized I was really in the tropics! I fell asleep around 2:30. 

At 6:00 I was up this morning and took a cold shower (not so bad since it’s so hummid). They’re house manager made me breakfast. We left for the birthing home at 8:30. A man named George is her official driver. I watched as over 40 pregnant women exercised and watched a skit dispelling fears and myths the women had asked about. Then Jeri introduced me to the women. After this I helped weigh the women and right down their blood pressure scores and gestational ages. It was awesome jumping right in even though it is a tiny thing I was doing. George drove me back to the house. I am now trying to stay awake! I think we are going to a market sometime this afternoon.

So there’s my first couple days of this new journey! 

P.S. That last video is a great example of me when I am jet lagged like I've been for the last 8 hours. : P