Yet another Travelblog

In case some are unaware, my wife and I joined a group of teachers and students going to the Phillipines over Thanksgiving break. Those who know me know my love of travel is almost equal to my love of yammering about it, so here goes. Day 1.

We arrived at the bus station on time. We also arrived at the airport on time. We got to the necessary desk, and...there was a problem. Two of our students were under fifteen and had the necessary paperwork. Unfortunately in the world of travel, today's necessary is tomorrow's unacceptable. If the parents weren't with us, they couldn't go.

We pleaded, paced nervously a little, then gathered as a group and prayed. This was it. we were going, or sending these three students home. We hoped for the former.

Shortly after the prayer, we got a call from one of our staff members. There was a possible way. It took a while, so those who were able crossed over and waited as we gobbled down overpriced sandwiches. At that point, we had about a half hour to go before boarding.

The flight was delayed by a few minutes and the remainder of the group joined us in time. The flight was four hours long and uneventful.

We heard a whistle while we waited outside the airport in Manila. One of the three dropped and said "I'm fifteen!" Thankfully, the whistling was unrelated.

By 2:00 in the a.m., we were in the Philippines, trying our best to sleep.

Crawl to China

We went to China over Labor Day weekend because we could. We didn't actually crawl, as the flight went quite smoothly. But the song title reminded me of how long it took me to finally visit this country. I originally thought this was where I was going to be. Six years ago I was ready to spend a year there.

The interesting part was as Beka's uncle and aunt pointed out changes since the Olympics in Beijing, we were noting a few (not many, but a few) similarities with our current home in Korea. Tall buildings and roads newly and quickly built, and slowly rising prices of formerly cheap items. We thought a pizza was quite good, but we later learned it was getting more expensive lately.

Over the next few days, I hope to share some of the experience we felt. It was amazing to see changes, similarities, differences and an unfinished theme park vaguely reminiscent of Disney World. And yes, we saw the Wall.

Until then, look up Christian metal, keyword tourniquet, and enjoy the atypical but legitimately rocking song.