Flight Date

I was leaving the country I call home for good. Was it difficult? Yes and no.

For the yes part, I was devastated by the fact that I was gonna be apart from my girlfriend for an indefinite period of time. It was also difficult knowing that I was probably gonna miss X-mas morning at home in 2009. But the thing that bothered me most about leaving, was my dog. Who was gonna walk him? Who was gonna pick up after his poop? Who was gonna scratch his tummy? Although I knew that he was gonna be in the care of my folks, I also knew that nobody showed him more affection that I did.

On the no side, well, I was excited. I was constantly dreaming and calculating how much moolah I was gonna be making. I was even checking out cars and the payments that came with them and how I was gonna budget my monthly salary. Of course, it all depended on how much I would actually earn so I made plans in my head for all possible pay grades. Sure, I was counting my chicks before the my eggs hatched. Still, it was all part of the excitement.

Jan2009: A month after I purchased my plane ticket to Toronto, I get laid off from work. Good thing, my pocket money was already in place, however, I also had a scheduled trip to Singapore in Apr2009 and was planning to spend what I earned from Jan-Mar on it. Also, I couldn't cancel the trip even if I was laid off, coz my girlfriend was looking forward to it and would literally kill me if I shot down her hopes. So, without a job, I had to slum it and spend as less as I could before I go.

Feb2009: So there I was, jobless and leaving the country in 3 months. I was actually looking forward to just bumming around. Without my night shift job, I could sleep with my girl at night. I figured that maybe losing my job that January was a great thing. I was so wrong. That month, my girlfriend was assigned to Cebu to set up their company's operations there. I was pissed. I asked her to get out of it. Of course she couldn't unless she resigned but I couldn't affor for her to do that 'coz I was jobless and we were living off her income. So, that was the case a week before the last anniversary I'd have with her before I was gonna be gone indefinitely.

I'm a sentimental person, I knew that I needed to spend that anniversary with her, it was more important than X-mas. Luckily, February is an off-peak month for airlines. Naturally, the prices dropped. So I bought a plane ticket to Cebu with no idea where I was gonna stay when I got there. Still, I packed a backpack and flew there on our anniversary.

My flight back to Manila was scheduled 8 days after my arrival in Cebu. In those 8 days, I had no idea where I was gonna stay in Cebu. My girlfriend was checked in at a girl's dormitory so I had to get a place of my own. That being the case, when I got there, we spent our anniversary night in a cheap motel with roaches under the bed. I didn't care, I was with her anyway and it didn't break the bank.

Valentine's day was great too, it fell on a Saturday and we took a trip to Moalboal beach for some snorkeling. It was great. Here are the pix. After our beach weekend, she was back at work, and I was spending the day looking for a cheap hotel to crash in. It was a long shot, I wasn't ready to spend a Php1000 per night. So we spent another night at a 10hr room.

Then my luck changed. The next day my girlfriend's cousin from the US arrived in Manila for a week long vacation. He had been to manila before and was looking to spend some rest and relaxation time with my girlfriend, so he came to Cebu and we all checked in at the Marriot. My problem was fixed. A week in a five star hotel was more than I needed.

March2009: At last, my girlfriend's stint in Cebu was over. She was back in Manila with me and our dog. Everything was great, I had no work to worry about and we had money to spend, not a lot but enough. We even went with my dad on his class field trip, and there for the first time I showed my girlfriend how I wanted to spend my time at the beach, because unlike most people, I didn't go to the beach to take pictures, or splash in the water, or bask in the sun. I never liked the idea of being a tourist at the beach. I on the other hand loved to have purpose, and that time, my purpose was to baby-sit my dad's students and show them marine eco systems and how they worked.

Apr2009: Two weeks before I was scheduled to fly to Toronto, my girlfriend and I had planned our first international trip together in Singapore (and Malaysia). By this time, my pocket money for Canada was safe in the bank, and we also had enough to bring and spend for our vacation. Since one Singaporean dollar was worth about 30 Philippine pesos, we opted to bring US dollars instead. That way, it did not hurt that much on the foreign exchange counter. And so there we were in Singapore, met up with our friends and had a good time on a budget.

Although I've never been to Toronto by this time we were in Singapore, I already did my research and was comparing the two cities. I was trying to immerse myself into the efficiency and expensiveness of the Singaporean lifestyle in preparation for my life in Toronto. Anyway, Singapore was awesome, just as I remembered it when I first went there 16 years earlier.

That week in Singapore passed by and as we boarded the plane back to Manila, I thought to myself, "One day we'll come back here, first class all the way."

Apr 24, 2009: I asked my girlfriend to skip work and spend the day together. We slept in, made love, then went to my house where my mom was packing my stuff. I know right, my mom packed my stuff. Well, it wasn't as easy as you'd think. I was only allowed 23kg of checked baggage, and 7kg carry-on. So it was kind of tricky. Although I was leaving for good, I didn't bring most of my stuff. Essentially, I didn't bring anything I did not need. Also, because of the weight limit, I did not bring a luggage bag that had wheels on it. I brought box. And it wasn't a balikbayan box like you'd think, it was actually a box that was used for cartons of cigarettes. We reinforced it with duct tape and tied it up with nylon. It was light, the box only weighed 1kg as compared to a luggage trolley that weighed in at at least 5kg.

As night fell, I was with my dog, talking to him, and scratching his tummy just as he liked it. I also took my car out for a short drive, and was talking to it too, telling it that it has been a good car and I thanked it for the convenience it brought me. Finally it was time to drive to the airport, I hugged my nanny, her daughter (who is practically my sister too) , my dog, and said my goodbyes.

I was driving the van, my mom, dad, sister, aunt, cousin were seated at the back while my girlfriend sat up front with me. I wasn't gonna drive myself to the airport, I was on the wheel because my girlfriend did not want to go to the airport and see me off and we were driving to her place to drop her off. I understood this very well. I hate goodbyes.

So I dropped her off at her apartment, kissed her and hugged her goodbye. Then I was numb.

At the airport, my brother, his wife and daughter came to see me off, I said my goodbyes, boarded my plane, and looked back as the lights faded from the runway in the country I call home where all the people I love stayed. The day had come, I was on the plane, my life was gonna be different from now on, I should have been excited, ecstatic and thrilled. No, I was sad. It was a grief I never felt before. Naturally, a tear rolled down my cheek.

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