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28.10.07

Lost in SPAIN

It's been almost 3 months now that I'm blogging and I haven't posted anything yet explaining on how in the world did I get here in DR. First of all, my mom was already married to a Dominican guy making her a legit citizen of this country located in the Caribbean seas. Then she thought of bringing me here to try my luck and get a job. Actually the post would not be about me securing a job here but about one of my memorable experience of traveling by plane.


It was nearly 3 years ago when I first boarded a plane and, as you may say, I had the bad case of jitters and the butterflies just keep on messing with the contents of my stomach even before I got to NAIA. I was overexcited I had sleepiness nights. Never had I shown this to my other siblings because I don't want them to think I'm chickening out. Hell!!!I'm going to travel alone and it'll be my very first so how should I feel. My travel route was Manila to Thailand, Thailand to Rome, Rome to Spain, then finally Spain to Dominican Republic. Oh yeah that was fucking 18 hours of flight. Good thing am a very patient traveler and a persistent gourmet eater.....heheheh Ive' eaten almost everything they've offered me in the plane. Am so bloated that I even had to do it there on the plane. Poor stewardess she had to put air-freshener. Yuccckkkk!!!

On the first two trips the travel was very uneventful. I've gotten my surprise when I was traversing Rome because it was so cold and freezing, I think that was the time when Pope John Paul II had died. I didn't have any coat with me just my Penshoppe long-sleeved shirt which surely had failed to make me warm. No wonder people were looking at me besides I was about to freeze to death, but I am the only one Asian left on that trip and that I am so puny compared to them. Imagine I am only as tall up to where their chest are, I was walking with a throng of giants. I was praying they would not step on me, heheheheh just kidding.

So finally we landed in Spain and boy how I was at awe when I looked around. Their airport is attached to a big Mall with boutiques that you don't see in ours and it has lots of walkalators going to different areas. The place is so big and these walkalators were like spaghettis finding your way is a big problem. In every airport there's a certain SOP that they're were applying and in Spain you have to give your passport as soon as you get out of the plane door. I have no working knowledge about Spanish so I did not understand what the customs police have told me. Upon handing them my passport I immediately followed the crowd getting off. I ended up inside the Mall, I am a window-shopper freak and since I still have enough time I've decided to stroll around for awhile. But when it's about an hour less to my supposed ETD I got so worried already because they haven't handed me my boarding pass yet. And I don't know where exactly I am going to get it. I panicked so much that I was going to and from just like in the slapsticks comedy and while there are signs that I can read, it was no help at all, still I'm 404. With the little Spanish that I knew I've pulled all my nerve to approach the information desk and explained my case in broken spanish and using my 2 handy dandy travel dictionary. Would you believe they were looking for me already? Heheheh! I'm like a fugitive that the whole Spanish customs administration were already going nuts and yet I was just strolling around cluelessly. I guess they've had heard about Filipinos going TNT, and I was not spared being branded like them. So in my broken Spanish I tried to explain to them what had happened alas they did not understand me well (So my 2 years Spanish subject too did not help). Good heavens they've finally found someone who can understand and speak English and the problem was solved. After some questioning the guy who turned out to be a supervisor accompanied and brought me to the place where I should have gone in the first place. They made me wait outside where one of the guards,



being as inquisitive as they are have asked from what country have I come from. He's so cute like an angel with a towering nose that I can't help but look at. I'm a sucker for Caucasians. When he learned that I came from the Philippines, after I told him that I was not a Korean nor a Taiwanese, he tried to say "Magandang Araw sa iyo" to which I was very surprised. I asked him how come he knows how to say that and he said he had a Filipina nurse girlfriend before and she taught him some. All of my hopes have gone to the drain when I heard that....well what do you know I can't help it. We've talked some more and finally when the customs head called me and gave me back my passport I got saddened. I had the feeling that Miguel and I might have connected other than just being friends but I needed to go and there's no way I can stay there any longer(you wish!!!). You could say I had a mixed feeling when I boarded the plane, a feeling of relief, a feeling of enjoyment and disappointment but to sum it all up, it was a memorable experience I had in a foreign land, to be lost in SPAIN. What about you have you ever been lost?

2 comments:

Kai Santorino said...

waaaah! alam mo inggit ako. so magaling ka na ba magspanish?

i also wanna get lost in spain!!!!

yoruosu12 said...

Hahahahha! Nabigla mo ako dun Kai, mi amigo.

Medyo kasi magti-three years na nga ako di ba pero but not that yet fluent to write in spanish kasi naman yung bf ko eh inglesan ang labanan namin so hindi ako tuloy matuto-tuto ng maayos.

Anyway I can converse na so I go around a lot even on different chatsites na pinamumugaran ng mga Latino.

Hey! Who wouln't want to get lost in Spain? Ang ganda daw dun sabi ng dyowa ko that's where he took his studies. Hopefully we could visit there next year, kung mananalo yung incumbent president nila dito. Heheheh alipores kasi sila nun, kumbaga cronies.