Third day in Seattle, so far wala pa akong nagagala. Early this morning I went to one of the top 5 places to visit – as recommended by the magazine I found in my room – this one being the Pike Place Public Market. It’s a wet and dry market, with lots of mini-stalls and stores. I really wonder what the fuss was all about. I mean, it’s your typical palengke! Anyway, there is at least one good thing that came out of my early walk to the palengke, and that is to find a store of Seattle’s Best Coffee. Baggy brought home from Seattle a decaf version of their coffee, and it was really great. According to Lai, ang galing ng pagpapanggap niya, akala mo it’s the real version (note that it’s not real to her if it doesn’t contain caffeine, that hopeless addict.) He bought it at the airport, so it must have been more expensive there. I bought ground coffee beans for 9 dollars a pack. I think it is a real bargain. For the same content in grams, the decaf we bought at Starbucks in Japan is around about 1300 yen, or more than 10 dollars. And it didn’t even taste that good.

I am still jetlagged. Today I woke up at 5 am, and couldn’t go back to sleep anymore. I would probably adjust to the local time in a few more days, which would be just about the time when I have to go back to Japan. Perfect. That’s why it’s much harder to adjust when returning home. Bioclock is already messed up to begin with. Plus the travel time is longer. Just one of the disadvantages of living in the far east.

View of the downtown area outside my hotel room.

For the last two days I’ve been paying 9.95$ a day to access internet from my room. Yun naman pala merong complimentary wireless access dito sa lounge. Duh. The connection is pretty good. But I don’t see any AC outlets around here, so I am at the mercy of the laptop’s battery. Also, there really is a kind of privacy when accessing within the comforts of your own room. I could laugh out loud and even do a video conference with Baggy, even if he’s the only one talking, hehe. I forgot to bring the external mic for this laptop, so I couldn’t talk back. I should also have brought a webcam, I realized quite belatedly. Well, this IS the first time for me to be away from the family after a long while.

It’s another cloudy day in Seattle, so I guess I have to postpone visiting the Space Needle (one of the city’s main landmarks) for now. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so I think I might be able to take a walk early in the morning and climb up the Space Needle for a bird’s eyeview of the city.

The longer I stay here, the more I don’t regret coming here alone. I mean, if Baggy and Aya came with me, what would they end up doing? Drinking coffee in Starbucks (there’s like a store in every block…hayy sobra.)? There’s really not much else to see. It’s your typical American city. It’s nice and clean, lots of high-rise buildings. I think there’s more to see on the countryside, but for that will entail both time and money. We learned our lesson in Jacksonville.

All for now.

I’ve had apprehensions about traveling alone – something which I haven’t done in a long while – just thinking about hauling my big luggage from the carousel is making my knees weak. When we travel as a family, Baggy takes care of the luggage while I look after Aya. Now, it’s just me, myself and I. I feel like a free woman, that much is true. But then again, I’m not used to being alone anymore.

We did consider going together to Seattle. But Baggy already visited Seattle last May. And according to Baggy, there aren’t really any must-see places in Seattle, unless you’re a fan of the Seattle Mariners. When we inquired about airplane tickets, we balked at the price – almost the same as the price for a trip to Florence. We decided to be practical this time (ok, this is not something we do all the time hehe).

I miss my family. I wish they were here with me. Everything I saw on the airplane reminded me of my family. I saw a girl with her parents, and she was viewing Nemo on her personal A/V system. I thought of how Aya loved doing that. Hours later, I heard the same girl crying out, probably because of being uncomfortable in her seat. Aya does that too, and it could be pretty irksome for a parent trying to catch a few winks on the plane. Irksome, too, for the rest of the passengers. I know the feeling. I felt a mixture of feelings – relief, because I am finally on my own and didn’t have to mind anyone else for a change; and sadness, because inspite of the difficulties of traveling, having your family with you makes it all worthwhile. Sure, you end up exhausted and tired beyond your wits, but exploring new territories is infinitely much more fun and memorable with your family. Take my word for it.

Some anecdotes at the airport:

– There was a bitchy Pinay at the immigration. What made me notice her was her outrageously loud voice, which became particularly louder when she was harrassing, er, interviewing this family of Pinoys. I couldn’t help but notice how bitchy she was when she was asking them questions. I heard her speak in Tagalog once, – “May dala ba kayong mga pagkain???” At one point she asked them how much money they have. I didn’t hear their replies, but she repeated her question again, this time loud enough to be heard by the rest of us standing in line. I didn’t know that asking how much money one brings into the US is part of their procedure – we all have to make declarations on a custom’s questionnaire to be handed over to the appropriate officers on our way out. Anyway, that woman was clearly enjoying her power-tripping, it probably made her day to harrass fellow Pinoys that way. Note that she wasn’t as particularly bitchy when it came to other passengers. When it was my turn, I made it a point to avoid her even if she was already available, and opted to go to another available lane. The gentleman officer was particularly polite and asked me the usual questions – what do I plan to do here, where do I intend to go, standard stuffs. I got off that lane with a feeling that I was properly served and cheerfully welcomed. Now why couldn’t everyone be treated that way? I felt sorry for the Pinoy family – it seems to me that this is their first time to visit the US, and they were treated quite rudely, by a fellow Pinoy nonetheless! Sure, we can’t expect any special treatment from our kababayans, but at the very least we deserve to be treated in a polite manner.

– While waiting for my luggage at the carousel, an officer saw me holding my passport and asked me, “Indonesia?” PILIPINAS is clearly written at the cover of my pasport. Can’t you read? I shook my head and said, “No. Philippines.” He asked, “So, do you have any meats with you? Bagoon?” I shook my head to each question and said, “I came from JAPAN. I don’t live there anymore.” Not to give up so easily, he asked again, “So do you have any curries?” It was all I could do to keep myself from laughing. Ipukpok ko kaya ang poster na dala ko sa kanya para matauhan. Porke ba Pinoy ako I will automatically sneak in forbidden items like that? Gee, thanks a lot for the stereotyping. “Bagoon” – he meant “bagoong,” of course, is particularly infamous among custom officials. This is not the first time for me to be asked if I was carrying any bagoong with me!

Seattle reminds me so much of San Francisco. I could see the bay from my room, and the roads are particularly hilly, I half-expect a cable car to come out of nowhere. Not a particularly bad day outside, too. It was cloudless and sunny outside when arrived. I got to the hotel without much fanfare and checked into my room, after spending more than eighteen hours on the road since I left our house. I was asleep at 4 pm (8 am Japan time), and promptly awoke 8 hours later at 12 midnight. My bioclock is so messed up right now. But I know that I have to adjust to the local time as soon as possible if I am to perform at my peak at the conference.

So there goes my first day. Hope to blog again in the coming days. Ciao for now.

Last month, during the "Umi no Hi" (translated as Ocean Day, I guess hehe), much to everybody’s disappointment, it rained. I doubt if anybody made it to the beach on that day. As for us, we found ourselves hitching a ride to Costco in Makuhari, Chiba. It was the first time for us to visit the place here in Japan, although I did get to visit one of its stores when I was in LA. It was a nice experience. We bought many stuffs, most of them large American sizes, and practically stuffed the van with our goodies (along with our friends’ loot, of course). I was so happy to find a large bag of tortillas and an equally large can of nacho cheese!

Well, among our loot was a preschool workbook for Aya, and interactive software CDs for kids her age. Aya couldn’t wait to try each of the CDs on the computer. The CDs contained learning tasks and games for spelling and Math, video clips, even a software for drawing! The drawing software is soo cool. A some sort of Adobe Photoshop for kids. Aya was able to use the software to create drawings on the computer. Of course, there’s no substitute for drawing on paper, especially for someone her age who’s still exploring her artistic abilities. But it’s a nice introduction to what one can do on the computer. Who knows, maybe in the future Aya will be a computer graphics animator, hehe! 🙂

Here is Aya enjoying her first scribble on the computer.

Not bad for an aspiring artist, eh? This is a closeup of the drawing Aya made.