One of the best parts of my trip was when my aunt, uncle and cousins took us to a club. It had a live band that covered R&B and some alternative. They were awesome. I forget their name, but they covered stuff from Keith Sweat to Creed. It was also funny because my brother was into the female singer. When she announced her name on the microphone, “Hi, my name is Juuulia,” my brother just melted. He’s such a dork sometimes. He was trying to work up the courage to ask on her a date, but he couldn't do it. He's not very good at the whole dating thing. I remember I googled his name once and I found him on a dating site! I never told him about it, because I know how humiliated he would be.

Anyway, I had a wonderful stay there, except for the part when I got sick. And that was the last few days, too. We could have gone more places, but I was too sick to do anything. And then, I had to ride the eight hours back to Manila to catch the plane. Boy, was that some lap-slapping fun. I wanted my mommy. It was an unbearable pain, but we did stay at a hotel in the rich city of Makati.

It was an ideal place for the luxury shopper. If you want to go to the mall and are a shopping freak, well you get your own personal share of shopping bliss. There are huge shopping malls that cover the whole block and they are from three to five stories tall. Talk about shopping mania. And if you wanted to go to another mall, well, you just cross the street and whoopdeedo, there is another one!! I wasn’t into it though. Being sick and going shopping don’t mix. I stayed in the hotel with my brother the last day. Unfortunately, after my dad left the building the cable and lights in the room went out because the key was not in the handle. My brother and I were left in a dimly lit room with a blank TV for a while.

But in the end, we finally got ready and caught the plane home to Noosa. Great God I was going home! The 16-hour flight seemed shorter than the way there and I was happy to be home. Hello clean toilet, hello bed, hello Kiki (my cat), hello clean streets, hello refrigerator with non-food poisoning food, hello advanced electricity. I would have kissed the ground, if I wanted to, but no.

I don’t regret going to the Philippines, but I sure know what it’s like to be home. It was a great
influence on me to know what my culture is and how they live over there. One day I want to teach my kids about living here in Australia and living in the Philippines.