Today is the Day! Paalam Pilipinas

Today, September 3, 2023, marks the day of me and Enthel travelling outside of our country for the first time. It was a nerve wrecking experience as we don't know what will happen to us when we first embark to Singapore.

Waiting at Ninoy Aquino International Airport

I arrived first at NAIA together with my family. We first go to an area where outsiders are allowed to enter and decided to eat at Wendy's. My 2nd sister bought her polaroid camera and started to take selfies with me and my family. It is a bitter sweet moment as I will not be able to see their faces for a month, but I do believe that they are proud of me as I'll be the first of my siblings to go outside the country.

I told my parents that I'll be waiting for my friend Enthel in Terminal 3, so we just spent some time talking and chilling at Wendy's. I remember buying some sort of beef burger with fries during that time, and it is actually very delicious!! I wanted to try it again after I come back from Indonesia.

It's 1PM, and I decided to go to the "Travel tax" section of our airport, which outsiders are not allowed. My oldest sister take her phone out and started to take a video out of me,

Group Photo with My Family

while my 2nd sister started to take some photos. It is quite embarrassing to be honest as

there are other people looking at us.

When I got inside, I decided to pay my travel tax while still waiting for my classmate to arrive. I look at my wallet and realize that I don't have enough cash to pay the tax. Luckily, my mother is behind the entrance and decided to borrow me some cash (You're a life saver mom!). The tax costs Php 3,000, which they give me a small receipt that I need to show when I go to the "luggage counter." "Do I need to pay the tax again once I arrive in the Philippines?" I wondered.

After a couple of minutes, I saw Enthel arrived the airport. She's with some sort of helper from the airport (or rather an assistant). When she saw me, we go directly to the luggage counter to way in our luggage. I was shocked that mine is only 17-18kg, while her reaches almost 25kg (she brought 2 luggage and a backpack, while I only have 1 backpack and a gianat luggage). Of course, she was told to pay the travel tax first before giving her luggage. After she done that, we went straight to immigration, which is our first obstacle.

This is our first experience travelling outside the Philippines, so we don't know a lot of procedures that we need to do before leaving the Philippines. One of those procedures that we are afraid of is the immigration here in our country. Several news report and experience from various netizens stated the difficulty in going pass the immigration. Of course, we were told and given few remainders during our pre-departure orientation, but we are still afraid that we might get laid off. On the bright side, the immigration process went smooth and we were able to go inside and wait for our flight.

While sitting and waiting for our departure, I thought to myself. What are the stuff that I will miss when I leave the Philippines? My family? Yeah, definetely. My friends? Absolutely. My students? Probably... The food? I can't say...

I still can't believe that this is happening to me. I do hope when I arrive in Balikpapan, I can meet new friends and learn different teaching strategies in teaching a new diverse classroom. I can't wait! See you in a month Philippines!!