Something about being on an airplane makes me melancholic ….probably since it’s one of those moments when you gather your thoughts, not knowing whether you can survive this trip and step on common grounds again or realize that these thoughts are probably the last one you will ever have…gross eh! But that’s reality. And as I sat there, feeling the throttle of the engine, seeing the fake smiles of the stewards, and watching the smog fade away before my eyes to be replaced by the all blue backdrop of the skies at times decorated with the all too white clouds, I can’t help but reminisce the time exactly a year ago last month when I ventured into something ,I went somewhere I never thought of going, beating my own fear and insecurities…to come out of my comfort zone and travel out of the country for the first time, and to travel on my own for the first time. It was something really huge for me…I did not know what to expect except that if something in this trip goes wrong I am confident with my English, being just my second language “so I think I’m going to be ok”…thus a year ago, I packed my bags and off I went to Oz….
As I recall, everything went smoothly, bid my family farewell, I’ll be back home in 3 weeks’ time anyway, checked my ticket, passport, money and of course the all too important mobile phone…which should be on roaming mode. With “all systems go” for me, I stepped right inside for a 4-hour flight to Singapore which will connect my flight to Sydney for a gruelling 6 hours. However, before we got to SNG, we had a short stop in another local city to fetch some more passengers so it came to be that my flight was a bit delayed. I got a little worried because supposedly upon arrival in SNG I only had one hour before my next flight but if this one gets delayed, the plane to Sydney might leave without me…dumb thought, but anyway, I was brave enough to ask the airline lady if I can still make it to my next flight and yup, my thought was purely nonsensical…since my baggage was already checked in on my next flight, that plane cannot leave without me in it…whew! Still, I got worried…but anyways, since I wasn’t seated on a window seat, I always chose that preferably, I don’t know why but maybe I’m really claustrophobic…I just made friends with the two women on each of my side: the one on my left turned out to be an immigration lawyer from Brisbane, and on my right was a nurse from France…but they are both Pinays, like me. They sounded so happy and proud of their accomplishments, I was saying like, “oh yeah”, “wow”, “that’s great” to both. Just because I didn’t go somewhere to seek greener pastures like they do, doesn’t mean I’m not successful too and have nothing to say….but no, I was just silent, they didn’t even bother to ask about me, anyway. In the end, the lawyer handed me her calling card, since we almost have the same destination, she in Brisbane, me in Sydney…and told me to give her a call if I get time to go to Brisbane, promised to show me around if I do visit....and it was even sweet of her to accompany me to the gate where I’m supposed to check in…since the Changi airport is so darn huge, there was a lump in my throat just trying to look for the flight I have to Sydney…as in OMG!..
the thing about being late is you never get to wait…so when I arrived everyone in my flight was checked in and in 30 minutes off we went…at that instant, I felt like, am I dreaming or is this for real?...and again, I didn’t get the privilege of a window seat, so I sat next to a young Thai guy, tried to make conversation with him but couldn’t quite get his English accent so I stopped. I only learned that he is studying in a university in Sydney. On my right was also a young man probably Indian, but well, he never hinted that he wanted to speak to me so I did not bother him and he just went around with watching movies on the screen in front of our seats. One thing though, he always called the stewardess for wine and so on the 2nd hour of our flight, he was sound asleep as evidenced by the snore. Me? I could not sleep…I had mixed emotions…I got really excited, nervous, happy, sad, all sorts but not sleepy. I watched every darn movie shown in-house and I initially tinkered with the remote gadget since I had no idea how to operate it, I didn’t even have a clue how to take it out of the arm rest…so I just observed the Thai guy and followed suit, not wanting to be known that I’m as dumb as me…haha…but I survived that and I did enjoy the movies. Not one instance did I leave my seat to go to the lavatory even if my “red tide” was on first day that day. Can you imagine? I just sat there for the whole length of my 6-hour flight.
When I arrived in Sydney, I thought “I can now relax and that the worse is over”, my flight was uneventful and I am now officially a tourist!
Little did I know that I was in for a big surprise….simply because of my being a first-timer and most especially because of the color of my passport…with the word PILIPINAS on it. I was whisked to immigration together with another Pinay, and I was interviewed by an officer, who was, herself a Filipina, but with an Australian citizenship…she was asking me all sorts of questions which later on kinda annoyed me because the way she did it was like she’s accusing me of something…in my mind I was like, “hello, I have no plans of overstaying in your country, I have a return ticket already, and I am a professional, you shouldn’t be treating me like I’m some kind of a suspect or something”…and most of all, have a heart, you are a Filipina yourself. It actually didn’t take longer than 20 minutes and so I was relieved when she let me go. My whole life I have never been treated like that but then I know she was just doing her job…after all, they can never be too careful, I have heard that we (being from the Philippines) are noted to overstay and live illegally in their country…so I just shrugged it off and went on to claim my luggage which took me so long to retrieve but then I noticed that I had to report to customs any food or beverage that I brought and unfortunately for me, I brought some for my hosts, of course…so off I went, queuing with the others to reach that counter where everything is inspected manually and through x-ray. Although ours was the first flight to arrive that morning, judging from the scarcity of people inside, because of that side trip to immigration and the long time I spent in finding my bag, I now was mixed with passengers from other flights, people who seemed to be always in a hurry, who didn’t even bother to stay on the line…and I thought this happens only in the Philippines…but anyway, after probably a gruesome 10 minutes of lining up, it was finally my turn…
An oversized, 40-something lady entertained me, same as in immigration, she asked me the same questions in the same accusing manner, which was kinda annoying since of course I am an innocent, first-timer, tourist who happened to choose their country as a holiday destination. All the more because I seemed to have lost the key to my luggage, so she patiently went somewhere and came back with this so huge cutter she looked like she was going to cut me though she ended up breaking down the lock. Then the all too consuming part of emptying everything I packed in my luggage, my carry-on and my pockets, looking through every piece of paper in my wallet, even asking “how come I hold clinic in the afternoon and not in the morning “which I dutifully answered with “obviously since I do operations in the morning that’s why I have my clinic time at 3pm” to which she just nodded her head in affirmation. Then I made a mistake of bringing along some surgical journals I thought of perusing whenever I can during my stay, which I thought would be helpful since I was due for an oral exam in Surgery in 3 months’ time. She scanned those and asked me why I brought those along and kinda hinted to me that probably the reason that I came here was to take an exam, that there’s a possibility that I was looking for work here. I was almost to my boiling point, I mean, my goodness, I have a stable job back home, the reason I came here was just to visit, they issued me a tourist visa good for one month which I won’t even consume based on the date of my return ticket… “if you doubted my persona in the first place then you shouldn’t have allowed me entry in your country” but don’t get me wrong I just said that to myself. Not all Filipinos want greener pasture outside the 7,107 islands. Spare me, I’m one of those Pinoys who still want to live in my own backyard no matter how difficult times are now…. and I even had the thought that if they are going to deport me right this instant I would be most willing to obey, I miss home already since no one at home treats me like they treat me here. And so it came to be that I was stuck there for almost two hours, bombarding me with sometimes stupid questions, wanting to extract something from me, treating me like I’m some kind of a criminal, but then again I kept my cool and thought these people are just doing their job and they mean nothing personal. I am just so sensitive and I just wasn’t expecting that rude a welcome.
Anyways, I almost hug the woman when she finally released me….and when I looked around I realized I was the only one left in that area, all the others were gone. I guess I was the only one held up. So, I stacked all of my belongings back into my big bag and retrieved what I thought was everything. I then went out of that section and found myself in the lobby with some well wishers and a lot of people. I looked everywhere but could not find a familiar face. I was supposed to be fetched by my host two hours earlier…and so I started to panic, I reached for my cell phone and looked up her number to call her that I had arrived, I surmised that she might have left already, probably had gotten tired of waiting for me to arrive and when everyone else had come out and my face hadn’t showed up, she probably had left, after all it had been two hours already since the supposed time of my arrival. But luck wasn’t really with me that day, I remembered that I hadn’t registered her number in my mobile and that I had written it on a piece of paper which I tucked inside my wallet. So I went to a bench outside the airport and found out how cold it was in Sydney in June…so again I rummaged my luggage for another jacket I brought to make me warmer…I had never experienced winter before…I lived all my life in a tropical place….then I realized I couldn’t find my wallet, where I placed her phone number….tough luck! Now I really began to panic. I searched every inch of my luggage and my pockets but to no avail…I felt like fainting at that moment. But then I saw a guy in uniform who looked like a security officer or something so I grabbed all my belongings and started to walk towards the guy, who unfortunately was also walking away from me…with all those people coming and going I surmised I probably couldn’t get through to him….and to my amazement …and pure relief, I bumped into one person for which when I looked up I saw this oh so familiar face….Eden, my host….OMG was I happy, I could just jump with relief when I saw her! It came about that she and her husband were there earlier than my time of arrival, and they even brought the kids with them, they woke up early drove a couple of miles to the airport to meet me and they had waited, they almost left thinking I wasn’t on that flight which they expected me to be in and Eden just went back one last time to make sure I really wasn’t around before they decide to go back home. So I related everything that went on and lastly, that I could not find my wallet…all my credit cards were there and my IDs. They then brought me to an information counter, the attendant of which, wasn’t so rude and was even very accommodating…again I related my tale and good for me coz I remembered the woman at customs by the nameplate that she wore…Cynthia. So he called her up, and she came running down there in a matter of minutes, handing me back my wallet which she said got hidden near the x-ray machine that’s why I wasn’t able to see it….all these happened in that instant of my arrival in Sydney…to me it was verging on disaster but thanks to my composure and probably heaven’s intervention…all went well in the end. Cynthia even wished me an enjoyable holiday.
Even with this experience, I still wanna go back if time allows. The rest of my 3-week stay was enjoyable and unforgettable…when I went to Melbourne after my stay in Sydney, I got on a domestic flight…it wasn’t so strict since it wasn’t international but the airport personnel did bring me to a spot where they tested my clothes and hands for bomb residue…and I just mumbled to myself, “do I look like a terrorist to you, seems like you look more like one than me?”…but again…doing their job..put that in mind….and when they fed it to the computer I was released…well, the only bomb I have is the bomb I deposit inside the toilet regularly, I don’t know if I got residue of that in my hands since I wash them each time.
Going back home after that was relatively uneventful. They were probably glad to get rid of one possible illegal alien in their country.
Anyway, that was my tale….my first time to travel away from home and my confidence and patience were truly tested, but boy, have I survived!
As I recall, everything went smoothly, bid my family farewell, I’ll be back home in 3 weeks’ time anyway, checked my ticket, passport, money and of course the all too important mobile phone…which should be on roaming mode. With “all systems go” for me, I stepped right inside for a 4-hour flight to Singapore which will connect my flight to Sydney for a gruelling 6 hours. However, before we got to SNG, we had a short stop in another local city to fetch some more passengers so it came to be that my flight was a bit delayed. I got a little worried because supposedly upon arrival in SNG I only had one hour before my next flight but if this one gets delayed, the plane to Sydney might leave without me…dumb thought, but anyway, I was brave enough to ask the airline lady if I can still make it to my next flight and yup, my thought was purely nonsensical…since my baggage was already checked in on my next flight, that plane cannot leave without me in it…whew! Still, I got worried…but anyways, since I wasn’t seated on a window seat, I always chose that preferably, I don’t know why but maybe I’m really claustrophobic…I just made friends with the two women on each of my side: the one on my left turned out to be an immigration lawyer from Brisbane, and on my right was a nurse from France…but they are both Pinays, like me. They sounded so happy and proud of their accomplishments, I was saying like, “oh yeah”, “wow”, “that’s great” to both. Just because I didn’t go somewhere to seek greener pastures like they do, doesn’t mean I’m not successful too and have nothing to say….but no, I was just silent, they didn’t even bother to ask about me, anyway. In the end, the lawyer handed me her calling card, since we almost have the same destination, she in Brisbane, me in Sydney…and told me to give her a call if I get time to go to Brisbane, promised to show me around if I do visit....and it was even sweet of her to accompany me to the gate where I’m supposed to check in…since the Changi airport is so darn huge, there was a lump in my throat just trying to look for the flight I have to Sydney…as in OMG!..
the thing about being late is you never get to wait…so when I arrived everyone in my flight was checked in and in 30 minutes off we went…at that instant, I felt like, am I dreaming or is this for real?...and again, I didn’t get the privilege of a window seat, so I sat next to a young Thai guy, tried to make conversation with him but couldn’t quite get his English accent so I stopped. I only learned that he is studying in a university in Sydney. On my right was also a young man probably Indian, but well, he never hinted that he wanted to speak to me so I did not bother him and he just went around with watching movies on the screen in front of our seats. One thing though, he always called the stewardess for wine and so on the 2nd hour of our flight, he was sound asleep as evidenced by the snore. Me? I could not sleep…I had mixed emotions…I got really excited, nervous, happy, sad, all sorts but not sleepy. I watched every darn movie shown in-house and I initially tinkered with the remote gadget since I had no idea how to operate it, I didn’t even have a clue how to take it out of the arm rest…so I just observed the Thai guy and followed suit, not wanting to be known that I’m as dumb as me…haha…but I survived that and I did enjoy the movies. Not one instance did I leave my seat to go to the lavatory even if my “red tide” was on first day that day. Can you imagine? I just sat there for the whole length of my 6-hour flight.
When I arrived in Sydney, I thought “I can now relax and that the worse is over”, my flight was uneventful and I am now officially a tourist!
Little did I know that I was in for a big surprise….simply because of my being a first-timer and most especially because of the color of my passport…with the word PILIPINAS on it. I was whisked to immigration together with another Pinay, and I was interviewed by an officer, who was, herself a Filipina, but with an Australian citizenship…she was asking me all sorts of questions which later on kinda annoyed me because the way she did it was like she’s accusing me of something…in my mind I was like, “hello, I have no plans of overstaying in your country, I have a return ticket already, and I am a professional, you shouldn’t be treating me like I’m some kind of a suspect or something”…and most of all, have a heart, you are a Filipina yourself. It actually didn’t take longer than 20 minutes and so I was relieved when she let me go. My whole life I have never been treated like that but then I know she was just doing her job…after all, they can never be too careful, I have heard that we (being from the Philippines) are noted to overstay and live illegally in their country…so I just shrugged it off and went on to claim my luggage which took me so long to retrieve but then I noticed that I had to report to customs any food or beverage that I brought and unfortunately for me, I brought some for my hosts, of course…so off I went, queuing with the others to reach that counter where everything is inspected manually and through x-ray. Although ours was the first flight to arrive that morning, judging from the scarcity of people inside, because of that side trip to immigration and the long time I spent in finding my bag, I now was mixed with passengers from other flights, people who seemed to be always in a hurry, who didn’t even bother to stay on the line…and I thought this happens only in the Philippines…but anyway, after probably a gruesome 10 minutes of lining up, it was finally my turn…
An oversized, 40-something lady entertained me, same as in immigration, she asked me the same questions in the same accusing manner, which was kinda annoying since of course I am an innocent, first-timer, tourist who happened to choose their country as a holiday destination. All the more because I seemed to have lost the key to my luggage, so she patiently went somewhere and came back with this so huge cutter she looked like she was going to cut me though she ended up breaking down the lock. Then the all too consuming part of emptying everything I packed in my luggage, my carry-on and my pockets, looking through every piece of paper in my wallet, even asking “how come I hold clinic in the afternoon and not in the morning “which I dutifully answered with “obviously since I do operations in the morning that’s why I have my clinic time at 3pm” to which she just nodded her head in affirmation. Then I made a mistake of bringing along some surgical journals I thought of perusing whenever I can during my stay, which I thought would be helpful since I was due for an oral exam in Surgery in 3 months’ time. She scanned those and asked me why I brought those along and kinda hinted to me that probably the reason that I came here was to take an exam, that there’s a possibility that I was looking for work here. I was almost to my boiling point, I mean, my goodness, I have a stable job back home, the reason I came here was just to visit, they issued me a tourist visa good for one month which I won’t even consume based on the date of my return ticket… “if you doubted my persona in the first place then you shouldn’t have allowed me entry in your country” but don’t get me wrong I just said that to myself. Not all Filipinos want greener pasture outside the 7,107 islands. Spare me, I’m one of those Pinoys who still want to live in my own backyard no matter how difficult times are now…. and I even had the thought that if they are going to deport me right this instant I would be most willing to obey, I miss home already since no one at home treats me like they treat me here. And so it came to be that I was stuck there for almost two hours, bombarding me with sometimes stupid questions, wanting to extract something from me, treating me like I’m some kind of a criminal, but then again I kept my cool and thought these people are just doing their job and they mean nothing personal. I am just so sensitive and I just wasn’t expecting that rude a welcome.
Anyways, I almost hug the woman when she finally released me….and when I looked around I realized I was the only one left in that area, all the others were gone. I guess I was the only one held up. So, I stacked all of my belongings back into my big bag and retrieved what I thought was everything. I then went out of that section and found myself in the lobby with some well wishers and a lot of people. I looked everywhere but could not find a familiar face. I was supposed to be fetched by my host two hours earlier…and so I started to panic, I reached for my cell phone and looked up her number to call her that I had arrived, I surmised that she might have left already, probably had gotten tired of waiting for me to arrive and when everyone else had come out and my face hadn’t showed up, she probably had left, after all it had been two hours already since the supposed time of my arrival. But luck wasn’t really with me that day, I remembered that I hadn’t registered her number in my mobile and that I had written it on a piece of paper which I tucked inside my wallet. So I went to a bench outside the airport and found out how cold it was in Sydney in June…so again I rummaged my luggage for another jacket I brought to make me warmer…I had never experienced winter before…I lived all my life in a tropical place….then I realized I couldn’t find my wallet, where I placed her phone number….tough luck! Now I really began to panic. I searched every inch of my luggage and my pockets but to no avail…I felt like fainting at that moment. But then I saw a guy in uniform who looked like a security officer or something so I grabbed all my belongings and started to walk towards the guy, who unfortunately was also walking away from me…with all those people coming and going I surmised I probably couldn’t get through to him….and to my amazement …and pure relief, I bumped into one person for which when I looked up I saw this oh so familiar face….Eden, my host….OMG was I happy, I could just jump with relief when I saw her! It came about that she and her husband were there earlier than my time of arrival, and they even brought the kids with them, they woke up early drove a couple of miles to the airport to meet me and they had waited, they almost left thinking I wasn’t on that flight which they expected me to be in and Eden just went back one last time to make sure I really wasn’t around before they decide to go back home. So I related everything that went on and lastly, that I could not find my wallet…all my credit cards were there and my IDs. They then brought me to an information counter, the attendant of which, wasn’t so rude and was even very accommodating…again I related my tale and good for me coz I remembered the woman at customs by the nameplate that she wore…Cynthia. So he called her up, and she came running down there in a matter of minutes, handing me back my wallet which she said got hidden near the x-ray machine that’s why I wasn’t able to see it….all these happened in that instant of my arrival in Sydney…to me it was verging on disaster but thanks to my composure and probably heaven’s intervention…all went well in the end. Cynthia even wished me an enjoyable holiday.
Even with this experience, I still wanna go back if time allows. The rest of my 3-week stay was enjoyable and unforgettable…when I went to Melbourne after my stay in Sydney, I got on a domestic flight…it wasn’t so strict since it wasn’t international but the airport personnel did bring me to a spot where they tested my clothes and hands for bomb residue…and I just mumbled to myself, “do I look like a terrorist to you, seems like you look more like one than me?”…but again…doing their job..put that in mind….and when they fed it to the computer I was released…well, the only bomb I have is the bomb I deposit inside the toilet regularly, I don’t know if I got residue of that in my hands since I wash them each time.
Going back home after that was relatively uneventful. They were probably glad to get rid of one possible illegal alien in their country.
Anyway, that was my tale….my first time to travel away from home and my confidence and patience were truly tested, but boy, have I survived!
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