Day One: Arrival

Sept 14th and 15th

Today was pretty crazy. I got about 1.5 hrs sleep because of the Sweetapple Rock Bandstravagasma. Mom and Dad drove me to the airport where Pat, Crowley and Steph were waiting for me. That was nice to see. After I said all my goodbyes I met up with the other interns and began the long journey to the Philippines. The first leg of the flight wasn't so bad, but the 15.5 hr flight from Toronto to Hong Kong was brutal. I kept falling asleep for a few minutes, waking up, and expecting the flight to be nearly finished. I was always dissapointed. One highlight was the inclusion of “My Blueberry Nights” on the movie channel. Fucking hilarious. Well if you understand the meaning, which you probably don't...*cough*...

My Blueberry Worstmovieever

So anyway, Hong Kong airport is pretty crazy. It seemed to be a mash of convienince type stores and designer clothes stores. There was a huge Gucci store right next to a Relay. Speaking of Hong Kong, the city is beautiful to fly over. It's so bizarre to see high rises and sky scrapers peppering the mountainous archepelagic landscape. Huge factories and industry hugging the coastline with large bridges connecting the whole crazy mess. Hundreds of boats of all sizes zipping in all directions. Other aircraft flying below us. I took one shitty picture, the plane window wouldn't allow better. I'd love to travel to Hong Kong before my trip is over.

So we finally land in Manila, and it's hot. Immigration and customs was no problem at all. We got a shuttle to our hotel the beautiful Swagman's Hotel. People have been telling me about Philippino drivers and the crazy mess of the roads, but you really have to experience it to understand. It's not quite the unorganized mess I anticipated, but rather a careful orchastrated clusterfuck. A woman came up to the side window at a stop and asked me for money. I said I didn't have any, which at this point was 100% true. Well, I had some American, but there was no way she was getting a 20. She waited a few moments and then moved on to the next van. Andrew looked at me and said ,”Notice how they didn't ask the brown guy for money...”. Pretty funny.

We get to the hotel late, go to the lobby for a quick beer and internet access. Andrew is typing away and making phonecalls. Apparenelty he has a few Manila contacts. One came through and he took off to the local mall to meet up with her. He asked me to come along but I was literally dropping. I sat down and began typing a journal entry but conked out cold at the computer. That was the end of that day.

Somewhere between Toronto and Hong Kong I contracted 'Intercontinental Madness'