kwentong pinas part 1

mood:

I came to the US on March 11, 2002. I went straight to MA that time and stayed with Tita Laling (Mama’s cousin) for about more than 2 months. Having found a job in NY, I moved here on Memorial Day (May 2002). While I have always spent Thanksgiving Day in MA, I haven’t visited my family in the Philippines since.

Finally, after a little more than 3 ½ years, I went home for a month’s vacation. I arrived there on September 18th. The trip was long. It took 14 ½ hours from NY to Seoul, Korea and another 3 hours & 40 minutes going to Manila. It was my 1st time to board Korean Air though. I would say their service is great. They make sure their customers are satisfied. They served good food. The plane was nice. We had individual monitors where there’s a great selection of music and movies.

I had mixed emotions while on the plane. I was excited. The happiness I felt was really overwhelming. I was even nervous I don’t know why. My heart was beating fast when the plane captain announced that we were landing shortly. As the plane got lower, I’ve seen house roofs and cars on the road. I was like… I’m finally here! I didn’t really have a hard time at the immigration. I should say I came out of the airport fast. The very 1st person I saw while going down the ramp was Irvin. My sister said he has been there since 9 AM. My arrival time was 10:50 AM by the way. Papa and my brother Mickey were there as well. We went to Duty Free where Papa bought some liquor. We went to San Andres directly afterwards. The 1st thing I noticed when we reached home was the message “Welcome Home Faye” by the living room. Everyone was excited as I opened my luggage and ‘balikbayan box’. I wasn’t even feeling tired considering I flew for 18 hours. The feeling of being with my family is just very special. The whole family attended the mass and my brother Adoy treated us for dinner. They initially wanted to go to Chef d’ Angelo but I requested for Filipino food. We went to Dencio’s. Whew! We were stuffed!

To be continued…