Arriving at NAIA

June 20, 2010.

This day, I arrived in the Philippines when me, my wife and mom arrived at NAIA Terminal 1. It was like a dream. Here I am being at place that I am waiting a long time for. First thoughts arriving at Terminal 1 was, “Wow. It is a old terminal.” The facilities have been outdated. I was nervous going through the immigration officer. I have been told by some of my Filipino friends about some that you don’t need to get a visa. Since I have been staying 27 there, I decided to take a chance. I got information stating that if you marry a Filipina, you don’t need a visa. Since I have been married for over a year at the time, I felt it will be okay. However that was not the case. They only allowed me to stay until July 11th. My flight out was July 16th. This caused a snag. I would have to get a extended stay. Since my wife is from Baguio City, we dragged about going back to Manila to get it settled. I had all these thoughts come in my head wondering what is going to happen. We got our luggage and headed out to the customer pick up area.

The weather was hot and very humid. More humid than a typical summer day in Chicago. We are expecting my wife’s brother to pick us up. It was 11:30 AM by this time and my wife was expecting him at Noon. Despite it is Fathers Day, everybody is outside and I must of know that traffic is bad. After 4 hours of waiting in the heat and my socks are soaking with the humidity, he finally arrived. We got all of our luggage in the van and we are all set to go. However we found out there was another problem: the car overheated and would not start. They had to get it fixed and the van had to stay at the airport. Unsure what to do, one of them have to stay with the van while the driver has to get the parts to fix it. After my wife and her brother talked about what to do, it was decided to take us somewhere until the vehicle gets fixed. So me, my wife, my mom and Koby took a taxi and headed to the Mall of Asia. My adventure was just beginning.