Saturday, April 15, 2006

Across the Heavens

Current System Configuration: Rather cold
BGM: The Seven Angels by Avantasia. From Avantasia: The Metal Opera. An epic, 14-minute long song that's so complex it could be called a symphony.
Breakfast: Grilled cheese and turkey sandwich
Lunch: Frozen pizza
Dinner: Macaroni and Cheese

(First of all, disregard the date. I'm in the US right now so I'm 12 hours behind my usual readers in the Philippines. I'm sending a message to the future! Yeah!)

I'm in the US right now, and I have to say that my trip here was one of my most interesting trips yet. Let's take it step by step.

Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Short, uneventful flight. This flight took only an hour. Nothing much happened except that we saw thunderstorms from a distance. Lightning bolts look awesome when viewed from the sky. I was wondering if I'd see sprite lightning and the like, but alas, the sky wasn't angry enough to produce those.The highlight of this trip was Singapore's Changi airport. I mean, any airport that offers free broadband internet has got to be awesome.

Kuala Lumpur to Stockholm, Sweden
This is where I found out that my plane doesn't go straight to New York---it was passing through Stockholm, Sweden! Kuala Lumpur's airport was pretty awesome. It was huge and bustling, and had the look of the interior of a cosmoship from Gunbuster. Really hi-tech. Like Hong Kong's airport, you have to take a high-speed train to get from one part of the airport to another.

The trip to Sweden was pretty cool. The sky was clear all the way, and the seas below were calm. You could see the clouds reflected in the water!

We flew over the deserts of Kazahkstan, and one could see the snow-capped mountains. Then we went through Russia, and endless fields of snow (or at least what looked like it) were visible.

The food was alright--- breakfast was chicken sausage and omelet with hash browns and lunch was this rather strange but tasty solid pasta (it was like macaroni except it wasn't hollow).

Sweden was breathtaking from the air. You could see the olive-brown and red-colored farmland, with patches of snow every now and then. Arlanda Airport in Sweden wasn't as grand as KLIA, but I have to say the ladies were as lovely as the scenery. Oh, and my female students might have enjoyed staring at the men. All of them are tall, slim and blond, with long hair. <_< style="font-style: italic;">Unfortunately for you girls, I didn't bring my camera. (My mom brought it to Israel).


Stockholm to Newark International Airport, New York, USA.
A rather uneventful and boring flight. I forgot to mention that we were flying westward from Singapore, so in effect we were running towards the sunset. Thus, for 24 whole hours, we could see the sun. I had to keep the window shade down, because the sun was blinding. It was reflecting off the ice sheets of Norway, Iceland and Greenland, filling the plane cabin with bright white light. What was awesome, though, is that I saw an actual volcano on Iceland from the air---cone, crater and all. Fantastic.

The food was good enough---a corned beef sandwich, followed by dinner: braised beef in olives and mashed potatoes.

The worst part of this trip was that the US Department of Homeland Security held me for about 15 minutes because they thought I was an illegal Mexican immigrant. My name is entirely Hispanic, and I was born in Quezon City. PLEASE. Ask any Mexican, and he'll tell you he's never heard of it. And what illegal immigrant, in his right mind, would book a flight all the way to Singapore, put up with all the strict airport security and take a flight through Malaysia and Sweden for 24 hours just to get into the US through a New York airport, where security is tightest when the US is right across the border from Mexico? What illegal immigrant even has that much money? Finally, dear readers, will you ever find a Mexican with a Philippine passport?

In the words of the Filipina American immigration officer who came to my rescue,
"Don't say a word, just don't say a word." (Regarding the other officer who accosted me)

***

Right now my brother and I are house-sitting for one of my uncles who went out of town to North Carolina. We haven't really done much, though yesterday we did go to Manhattan to have a walk around. We bought an entire box of Guildpact Magic cards, and we were pretty happy with the stuff we got. I bought an awesome journal from Barnes and Noble, as well as the novel that tells Guildpact's story. Oh yeah, apart from the bus rides to and from New York, all the travelling around Manhattan was done by foot. That's about all the exercise I've gotten. We bought lamb gyros (That's basically shawarma, except it had lamb, tomatoes, peppers, brocolli, lettuce and yohgurt sauce instead of the typical stuff that goes into Filipinized beef shawarma.) from a food cart (yes, they have street food in New York) and ate at a park. The lamb gyros were really good, and taste better than anything I'd have gotten if I bought food from McDonald's.

Right now we're hoping that someone picks us up for an overnight over Sunday so we can go to church for Easter. Right now we're just sitting around and eating. We have internet access, but it's pretty boring just sitting around. We've already finished watching all the anime I brought and my brother needs to modify his Magic decks (as I've been owning him a bit too much) We need company and fresh air. >_<>

A little personality test I found on Katie's blog: (But uh, the tests on this site seem to be geared toward a primarily female audience)


You Are Fall!

Thoughtful
Expressive
Creative
Poetic
Smart


~Be Just or Be Dead~
#1406AD20062331
ー黒獅子アスラン

4 comments:

Aslan Cross said...

It's also boring right now :/

But yeah, they really thought I was from Mexico. The officer who was processing me at first asked me how long I was in the US during my last trip, and I said "a month and a half." He said "...really? Tell me the truth." At that point I was already thinking "Uh-oh, what's wrong?" He led me aside to a separate room and left me there for about 10 minutes. Then another officer called me.

I heard the Fil-Am lady who was fixing my papers say "Place of Birth: Philippines. Quezon City is in the Philippines, NOT MEXICO! My uncle's from there! Ah well, don't say a word, just don't say a word."

Vasanti said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Vasanti said...

It isn't that boring over here... for one, I'm having fun with vain attempts to learn some strategy card games and how-to-draw stuff. XD

And, yes, they really do have tight security. Illegal Mexican immigrants usually stay a month or two in the US then (according to some people) go and get a tourist visa some other place. But the thingie is, I never heard of any Mexican going through the Singapore Airport (also pretty secure, I hear) and KLIA. Then again, if somebody thinks your name is Mexican should have his head checked...

Eruanne said...

wow sir ang swerte mo!!! daya daya daya daya... waaah, no pictures?? no pics of the gorgeous scenery and utterly hot gay men? (hey, you said so yourself!)

kawawa naman po kayo sir, they thought you were MEXICAN???? huh, you don't really strike me as Mexican looking... o_O Ok lang po 'yan, sir, at least you're fine and having fun and all that chuva...

... unlike us, your poor female students (most of the people commenting are female <_<), who are stuck here and dying of unprofitable boredom. *joins kate in giving significant looks*

keep in touch, 'kay? PASALUBONG!!! hehehe, joke lang... but i won't say no to one... *hint hint*

this kitty misses ya! =^.^= *mreowr*