Ready for a rollercoaster ride? Here it goes: I was supposed to stay in Hazleton originally for 6 business days to receive training. So I thought, I'm going to have a weekend and I'd like to spend it in Chicago! Why Chicago? Well my friend Sally, who's in Illinois, and I have been planning for us to meet for the longest time. I was dead set on going there-- by hook or by crook! After getting my visa and finalizing my departure, we bought roundtrip plane tickets from Avoca (Wilkes-Barre Airport, PA) to O'Hare (Chicago) online for that weekend. I was to leave PA at 6:00am, and leave Chicago the next day at 3:00pm. It cost me a whopping $499!
So here comes my business trip-- Monday. To my disappointment, they told me that the raining is not going to push through. Good thing though that I have other things in my agenda. However, my bosses instructed me to cut the business trip short to two days and make travel arrangements. So I told Sally about it and she was delighted to know that I can make it there earlier after all! I was now to depart on Wednesday, at 1pm. So we had my departure rebooked and paid $197.50. Sheez! I thought well, it's still okay. I'm still going!
The next day, Tuesday, is yet another bad news. They were having issues with the hotel refusing to not charge us for the remainder of the reserved days that I'm not going to use. So the latest note from the bosses-- stay for the rest of the week. I was in shock. We just spent almost $200 on rebooking last night! And now I needed to rebook again. When Bong picked me up later that day and learned about what had happened to my flight to Chicago, we just started to laugh SO HARD! And I started releasing stress from dealing with my screwed up schedules!
Wednesday at the last minute, I was able to rebook and Thank God, I got an earlier flight this time-- Friday 11pm. The plane should land at 12:30am. But I would be taking off from Philly instead of Avoca. So I will be taking the Greyhound bus from HZ to Philly.
Friday came and I hugged the trainers goodbye. And on the same limo service, I'm off to the Greyhound station to catch the 5:30pm bus. I waited at the humble station for almost an hour along with a lot of black kids probably ranging from 15 to 20 years old. And they were really loud. At long last, the bus came. It was difficult lugging my 32-lbs suitcase around where everywhere's self-service. So I threw it neatly in the bus compartment and boarded afterwards. It was sad leaving Hazleton but I was excited to see Sally at the same time.
We had to transfer to another bus that will take us to Philly which took some minutes. Not to mention, the trouble of figuring out how and where I need to throw my suitcase again since the compartment has gotten disorganized. Then one of my busmates, a tall black guy in his 20's asked, "You need any help with that?". I answered, "Oh yes please!" He dropped his white jacket on the wet pavement, took my suitcase and threw it on top of the other baggages. Haha! Of course I said big thanks afterwards.
The supposed 3-hour bus ride got stretched to 4 hours and almost everyone's tension's up because of the delay. They were getting loud again, which was kinda scary. At 9:45pm, we arrived at the Philly Greyhound station. I immediately got off the bus and looked for my bag in the compartment. OMG! I couldn't find it! I'm not someone who'd break into a panic easily but it was starting to get to me! Where the hell is my suitcase?!?! After a few seconds of nearly getting desperate, I thought "Aaaahhh!!! Nilipat lang pala ni manong ng compartment!" I found my friggin' suitcase, took it out and hurried inside where I can ask how to get to the airport. They told me to ride a train from there but don't know where the train is. Luckily there are cabs outside and I took one. I finally arrived at the airport after 15 minutes. Whew!
Unfortunately, my flight got delayed for an hour. I could feel my face getting so oily. Yuck! Finally I boarded, took off, landed, and excitedly waited for Sally. She instructed me to step outside and stay at the outermost lane where she's going to pass. It was soooo cold! I was wearing my thick trench coat and a scarf. The wind was blowing. And I would see other people waiting wearing light clothing. Pang-asar! After 30 minutes, I saw a familiar car -- a black cherry Scion, with the driver and her huge smile. OMG SAAAALLLLLLYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! She stepped out of the car and called out, "MYLEEEEEEEEEENE!!!!!!!!" We hugged. Oh wow, it's been four and a half years! And then later on, she broke into laughter and said, "OMG MYLEEEENE!!! Balut na balot ka! Hahahaha! Kaya mong naka-scarf pa eh! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Yeah and I noticed her just wearing a light jacket without anything on her neck. I said, "ANG YABANG MO AH!!!" Hahahaha!
So here comes my business trip-- Monday. To my disappointment, they told me that the raining is not going to push through. Good thing though that I have other things in my agenda. However, my bosses instructed me to cut the business trip short to two days and make travel arrangements. So I told Sally about it and she was delighted to know that I can make it there earlier after all! I was now to depart on Wednesday, at 1pm. So we had my departure rebooked and paid $197.50. Sheez! I thought well, it's still okay. I'm still going!
The next day, Tuesday, is yet another bad news. They were having issues with the hotel refusing to not charge us for the remainder of the reserved days that I'm not going to use. So the latest note from the bosses-- stay for the rest of the week. I was in shock. We just spent almost $200 on rebooking last night! And now I needed to rebook again. When Bong picked me up later that day and learned about what had happened to my flight to Chicago, we just started to laugh SO HARD! And I started releasing stress from dealing with my screwed up schedules!
Wednesday at the last minute, I was able to rebook and Thank God, I got an earlier flight this time-- Friday 11pm. The plane should land at 12:30am. But I would be taking off from Philly instead of Avoca. So I will be taking the Greyhound bus from HZ to Philly.
Friday came and I hugged the trainers goodbye. And on the same limo service, I'm off to the Greyhound station to catch the 5:30pm bus. I waited at the humble station for almost an hour along with a lot of black kids probably ranging from 15 to 20 years old. And they were really loud. At long last, the bus came. It was difficult lugging my 32-lbs suitcase around where everywhere's self-service. So I threw it neatly in the bus compartment and boarded afterwards. It was sad leaving Hazleton but I was excited to see Sally at the same time.
We had to transfer to another bus that will take us to Philly which took some minutes. Not to mention, the trouble of figuring out how and where I need to throw my suitcase again since the compartment has gotten disorganized. Then one of my busmates, a tall black guy in his 20's asked, "You need any help with that?". I answered, "Oh yes please!" He dropped his white jacket on the wet pavement, took my suitcase and threw it on top of the other baggages. Haha! Of course I said big thanks afterwards.
The supposed 3-hour bus ride got stretched to 4 hours and almost everyone's tension's up because of the delay. They were getting loud again, which was kinda scary. At 9:45pm, we arrived at the Philly Greyhound station. I immediately got off the bus and looked for my bag in the compartment. OMG! I couldn't find it! I'm not someone who'd break into a panic easily but it was starting to get to me! Where the hell is my suitcase?!?! After a few seconds of nearly getting desperate, I thought "Aaaahhh!!! Nilipat lang pala ni manong ng compartment!" I found my friggin' suitcase, took it out and hurried inside where I can ask how to get to the airport. They told me to ride a train from there but don't know where the train is. Luckily there are cabs outside and I took one. I finally arrived at the airport after 15 minutes. Whew!
Unfortunately, my flight got delayed for an hour. I could feel my face getting so oily. Yuck! Finally I boarded, took off, landed, and excitedly waited for Sally. She instructed me to step outside and stay at the outermost lane where she's going to pass. It was soooo cold! I was wearing my thick trench coat and a scarf. The wind was blowing. And I would see other people waiting wearing light clothing. Pang-asar! After 30 minutes, I saw a familiar car -- a black cherry Scion, with the driver and her huge smile. OMG SAAAALLLLLLYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! She stepped out of the car and called out, "MYLEEEEEEEEEENE!!!!!!!!" We hugged. Oh wow, it's been four and a half years! And then later on, she broke into laughter and said, "OMG MYLEEEENE!!! Balut na balot ka! Hahahaha! Kaya mong naka-scarf pa eh! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Yeah and I noticed her just wearing a light jacket without anything on her neck. I said, "ANG YABANG MO AH!!!" Hahahaha!
The first thing that we did is go to a hotdog place fondly called "hatdugan!", because I was so starving. The next day, we're off to go around downtown, have dinner at Carnivale, meet Rui, and of course take LOTS of pictures! These are my favorite:
Tinubuan ng Jordan. United Center.
103rd floor of the Sears Tower
At Carnivale with Sally and Rui
Chicago skyline from Lake Shore drive
(where they shot "When Harry Met Sally")
Illusion by Solleh
Reflection
"What now?"
Tulips of downtown Chicago
Next stop: The Survival Challenge
1 comment:
anak ng...nakaChinelas ka na naman! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! panalo ang mga pics! lurve it!
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