cruisin' down the highways

i got my car today!!! well, it's not really my car but it will be for the duration of my business trip. it's a beige chevrolet malibu and i had to adjust to it since i was only used to driving my car in the philippines.

one cool thing about it --- it has a sunroof! it's not as cool as a convertible but i can live with that. :)

we drove from the airport back to the hotel, with roman giving me directions and basically guiding me through the freeway. it was like i was going back to the days when i was just starting to drive. when i was driving on the freeway, i was at the maximum speed already (65 miles) but all the cars were passing me! normally, i wouldn't care. all i care about is that i am within the speed limit (wouldn't want to be caught speeding and get fined). but roman said that i COULD get caught because i was slowing down the speed of the freeway. and so i stepped on the gas (lightly, may i add) and tried to go with the traffic flow.

we arrived at the office in one piece. :)

i'm off to the other side

in changi airport, waiting for our connecting flight to los angeles.

i just want to share something tremendous that happened to me yesterday, on my last day of preparation before leaving for a one-year assignment in the US.

it started like most days do... me getting into the office late. there was a team meeting that i was supposed to attend but because of the more pressing matters (one of which was packing my trolley for our move to the ortigas office), i decided to forego it. the discussion took longer than expected so after i finished packing and reading my emails, i decided to join in.

our manager was there, explaining matters that were, for the longest time, a topic of heated discussions. things like salary increase, promotions, payband. that discussion led me to really think about the plans i have for my career. which, for the moment, is none. truly. i've been taking it all in stride, accepting assignments as they come and never really planning on what i want to be in say, five years. so i guess i'll be doing a lot more of that soon.

lunch was with rose, the ever-makakalimutin donits who did not realize that i was leaving the next day. we ended up at soho in paseo center and had our usual chika-filled time together. rose would probably be the one i would be missing most from the group since she's the one i see constantly. whenever i would like to see her, i'd either just go down to see her or ask her out for lunch or merienda or dinner. so after lunch, i hugged her goodbye and promised we'll see each other in december.

then as i was finishing up with my day's tasks, sarah tapped me on the back saying, "merienda". i immediately got up, asked ryann to join, and told him about our "tradition" of having merienda once a week. little did i know, it was not the weekly merienda but our "farewell merienda". they bought us cheesecakes because they knew l.u. absolutely looooove them. they even made us say farewell speeches. as much as i wanted them to know how touched i was with the gesture and how much i was going to miss them, i didn't want to be cheesy as well. soon after that, i was hugging everyone, saying goodbye.

i have been to business trips before but somehow this time felt different. maybe because i will be leaving for quite a long time. things will surely be different when i get back.

i thought i had a lot of time to spare, to finish all the things i have to do before leaving. but no. somehow, time was the one thing i needed but could not get enough of.

i arrived home around 9 pm with my family, friends and relatives waiting for me --- even my cousin, reynard, who was much too tired. everyone was making their last minute bilins and some even gave me going away presents. i had a book from tita baby, a rosary from tita cecil and two boxes of polvoron from tita fely. too soon, they started saying goodbye because it was getting late. but as soon as tita eva stepped out of the house, she immediately said that i had visitors. lo and behold, it was tintin and eden! i could not help ut jump with excitement. then, they started coming in --- alvin, andrew (fresh from japan!), his brother, rumel, einstein and reno (three people who i haven't seen for a long time --- especially with the latter). martha soon followed. we were hoping that rose could join us but her hands were tied with work until late. seeing them was a big, wonderful surprise! a great ending to a bittersweet day.

my goodbyes finally ended this morning as i said it to my family. i was only able to say goodbye to karla via the phone since she had to work at night and we had to leave the house really early. the last ones i was able to see were mom and dad since they brought me to the airport. they were used to seeing me off but i guess, same as everyone else, this time it's different. it's going to be longer. they're going to have one less person in the house. and it's going to be a lot less noisy, with karla off to work most nights and me in the other side of the world.

sigh.

i am going to miss the philippines. and everyone in it.

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happy birthday, rosie! too bad, i didn't get to spend it with you.