Wanderlusting ✈

Mactan-Cebu Airport

Perhaps it’s because I haven’t flown domestic in a while or perhaps it’s because I haven’t been to the Philippines in almost a decade.  Whatever the reason may be, within 10 minutes of walking into Cebu-Mactan domestic air terminal, I couldn’t help but notice a few quirky things that most people in the western world may find interesting, funny, or annoying depending on your mood.  For me, it was more of an annoyance.

Having arrived in the Philippines (for a much needed vacation) just a couple of days ago, we are all still a little jet lagged.  I called my parent’s hotel room 40 minutes after we were supposed to leave for the airport only to find out that they were still deep asleep.  Either they slept through the alarm clock or it failed to go off.  Needless to say, what happened next was the fastest I’ve seen them get ready for the airport.  The poor girl at the hotel’s checkout counter couldn’t even get a couple sentences out before we were out the door.  Fortunately, there was already a taxi waiting outside the hotel.  Continue Reading »

Tags: airport, flights, security, umbrella

Adventist Church in Al Ain

The day started out early enough. Perhaps way too early. I was wide awake by 3 am for no reason. Maybe it was the combination of being in an unfamiliar location plus all the anticipation for the events of the day. Having just arrived to Dubai a few hours earlier, we were going down to Al Ain that day.

Al Ain is one of the cities in the Abu Dhabi Emirate. It is around 2.5 hours drive from Dubai. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has a few members in that area and last Sabbath we had a chance to visited them. The drive was long but comfortable enough. Not too comfortable because I was not able to pay back my sleep debt from the night before. I was always startled awake every time the GPS lady gives us directions.

The church members in Al Ain (or the whole UAE for that matter) are composed mainly of expatriates. In fact, I don’t recall seeing any locals there. They meet every Sabbath in a rented facility from some other Christian denomination. Continue Reading »

Tags: sabbath, uae, vacation

Here’s a question for you frequent flyers out there. How many of you actually pay close attention to the safety briefing at the beginning of each flight? After you’ve seen the same “lift the tab to release the buckle” demonstration for the umpteenth time, you probably feel like you could recite the whole script from memory.

Apparently, the big wigs at the airlines know this too well. While the content is pretty much the same, I’ve been noticing more creativity in the delivery. Take for instance David Holmes. As a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, he thought he’d rap the safety briefing. Yes…RAP!

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Tags: airline, safety

Source: Wikipedia

Just recently, I read a somewhat humorous article. A UK teen claimed to have the longest name on record. George Garratt legally changed his name to “Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined.”

Oddly enough, his name may not actually be the longest on record. A one-year-old baby from Wolverhampton has 25 middle names. Personally, I just want to see the information page of Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown’s passport.

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I promised myself I was going to update this site whether I feel like it or not.  So here goes…

These past few months, being stuck at work all day made me feel a little restless.  I felt like I need to get out of the country or go somewhere.  I would have loved to go the US or somewhere far but airline tickets are expensive.  I even filed for leave from work assuming that I would be in the US.  However, I decided that I couldn’t let go of that amount of money so I have to look at other options.  My parents suggested that I go to Dubai instead because I have a cousin there who can show me around the area.  Besides, it will be an opportunity for me to learn a few new things.

Let me back up a little bit.  A few weeks ago, I was contacted by one of the top luxury hotel operators in Asia if I was interested to work with them.  Since I already have a job, I wasn’t really looking for one.  However, that got me curious.  I wanted to know what it was like working for a huge luxury hotel.  So, I decided to go to Dubai and get a little taste of it.

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Tags: dubai, travel

Phew!  It’s been a hectic few weeks.  Since I got here last month, it’s been an up and down experience.  Sometimes I would have nothing to do, at other times I don’t have enough time.  Throughout it all, I’ve been quite lazy with documenting my stay here through pictures.  That’s why unfortunately, I don’t have much to post.

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Tags: travel, vacation

The summer’s finally here and school’s out.  For me, it will be out permanently…or at least for a long time.  I’ve decided not to come back to Maxwell for another school year.  Next month, I will start my new job as the IT Administrator of Middle East Union in Beirut, Lebanon.  Technically, this is a departmental director’s job but unfortunately, I’m the whole department.  I can already tell I’m going to be swamped with work every day, or at least until I catch up with the jobs that are already waiting for me.

I left Maxwell around a couple of weeks ago, on May 29th.  I flew from Nairobi to London to Chicago and then to Orlando.  That’s where I am right now…Orlando.  At Heathrow, I met up with Heidi who happened to have a layover at the same airport at around the same time as me.  We really didn’t have much time because our layovers were only a couple of hours.  We did have enough time to grab a bite at a small place inside the airport.  Needless to say, being inside the airport and being in Europe, the prices were ridiculous.  Then again, I just came from Africa…what do I know about prices.

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Tags: maxwell

I know it’s a bit late but I would like to extend my congratulations to Maxwell Adventist Academy’s Class of 2008.  I know personally how hard they’ve worked to get where they are right now.

Tags: graduation, maxwell

On Friday (April 4), most of us woke up bright and early in the morning because we have a couple of hours trip ahead of us. After breakfast, we piled into the bus at around 7:30 and set out for a 1 hour drive to this tour operator called Charlie Claw. After the bus ride, we boarded 3 wooden motor boats towards Kisite Marine Park and other dive sites.

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Tags: kenya, vacation

Over the weekend, the school went on the much anticipated trip down to the south coast of Mombasa where we spent 3 days just being in the beach. This year, Maxwell’s traditional trip to Brackenhurst for a spiritual retreat did not happen so this trip down south was sort of the replacement for that. Almost the whole school went: only the Ver Steegs stayed and maybe around 5 students.

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Tags: kenya, vacation