Wednesday, May 31, 2006
2006 Philippine Medical Mission:
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Parañaque:
Arrived at Manila safely. Thanks for your prayers. A couple of things I forgot to mention about the flight over, though.
When we landed in Seoul, the plane was swiveling from side to side as it slowed down. It's like the runway was slippery or something. Then, as we were taxi-ing (how do you spell that?), one guy got up and ran to the lavatory. Before anyone could say "Hey, the seatbelt light's not turned off yet", we started hearing vomiting sounds. So okay, I guess he had a legitimate excuse. The next few minutes, though, were full of uncomfortable silence (except for the sounds coming from the restroom.)
The other incident occurred during the flight from Incheon to Manila. I was just sitting there basically being bored when I was approached by one of the flight attendants. "Can I help you?" she said. When she saw the "Huh?"-look on my face, she reached over, pushed the "Cancel 'call attendant'" button, and walked away. Hmm... I don't remember pushing that.
About an hour later, she came over again while I was reading. "Can I help you?" she asked. I thought, "Huh?", then looked up. Sure enough, the "call attendant" light was on. Lamely, I said, "Oh, is it on?" She then turned it off, gave me a look that seemed to say "Yeah, sure whatever" and went away. I think the person sitting next to me must be messing with me. I don't think she was really asleep.
Anyway, I'm staying at our house in Parañaque until I meet up with the team on Monday when the mission starts.
Arrived at Manila safely. Thanks for your prayers. A couple of things I forgot to mention about the flight over, though.
When we landed in Seoul, the plane was swiveling from side to side as it slowed down. It's like the runway was slippery or something. Then, as we were taxi-ing (how do you spell that?), one guy got up and ran to the lavatory. Before anyone could say "Hey, the seatbelt light's not turned off yet", we started hearing vomiting sounds. So okay, I guess he had a legitimate excuse. The next few minutes, though, were full of uncomfortable silence (except for the sounds coming from the restroom.)
The other incident occurred during the flight from Incheon to Manila. I was just sitting there basically being bored when I was approached by one of the flight attendants. "Can I help you?" she said. When she saw the "Huh?"-look on my face, she reached over, pushed the "Cancel 'call attendant'" button, and walked away. Hmm... I don't remember pushing that.
About an hour later, she came over again while I was reading. "Can I help you?" she asked. I thought, "Huh?", then looked up. Sure enough, the "call attendant" light was on. Lamely, I said, "Oh, is it on?" She then turned it off, gave me a look that seemed to say "Yeah, sure whatever" and went away. I think the person sitting next to me must be messing with me. I don't think she was really asleep.
Anyway, I'm staying at our house in Parañaque until I meet up with the team on Monday when the mission starts.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Incheon:
It's about 7:15AM, Tuesday morning. I'm at Incheon Internation Airport right now waiting for to board the flight to Manila. That was a long flight. It seemed longer than the other times I crossed the Pacific. Maybe it was because I woke up with at least six hours left in the flight. Usually, I wouldn't wake up until at least three hours later. And I've gotten used to just five or six hours of sleep lately, so I'm still fine.
Anyway, I ended up getting an aisle seat at the very last row. I was hesistant to take it at first, but it turned out to be not that bad at all. Actually, it was a pretty cool seat. It came with some pretty nifty advantages:
- Being an aisle seat, I could get in and out of my seat without having to hop over everyone else.
- I was closest to the restroom, so I could just go as soon as I find out it was free (which was within a second or so.)
- The best part of all was that the two seats next to me were empty. So in that middle section of four seats, I was assigned the one on the right while the two in the middle had no one sitting in them. Someone was sitting on the very left seat, though. So I just lifted one of the arm rests and ended up also taking up one of the extra seats. Instant bed! Too bad that other passenger was there. Otherwise, I could have taken over all four seats in that section. But I didn't want to invade their personal space.
Now this is a weird part. While I was in the restroom, I started thinking about ghosts and stuff in restrooms. Okay, this needs a little explanation. At work last Friday, Ate Rada was saying that in the women's restroom, she saw some woman with long hair, wearing a white top and black skirt just standing in one of the stalls. She did a double take and saw nothing. Hmmm...
So back to my story. I got out of the restroom and went back to my seat. However, I found that some girl was sitting in my seat!
Me: Umm... excuse me.
Her: Oh, sorry, sorry.
She got up and let me sit down. But she didn't really go anywhere for a while. She just stood there at the aisle for at least ten minutes. *shrug*
Well, I have to go board my plane now. So, till next time...
It's about 7:15AM, Tuesday morning. I'm at Incheon Internation Airport right now waiting for to board the flight to Manila. That was a long flight. It seemed longer than the other times I crossed the Pacific. Maybe it was because I woke up with at least six hours left in the flight. Usually, I wouldn't wake up until at least three hours later. And I've gotten used to just five or six hours of sleep lately, so I'm still fine.
Anyway, I ended up getting an aisle seat at the very last row. I was hesistant to take it at first, but it turned out to be not that bad at all. Actually, it was a pretty cool seat. It came with some pretty nifty advantages:
- Being an aisle seat, I could get in and out of my seat without having to hop over everyone else.
- I was closest to the restroom, so I could just go as soon as I find out it was free (which was within a second or so.)
- The best part of all was that the two seats next to me were empty. So in that middle section of four seats, I was assigned the one on the right while the two in the middle had no one sitting in them. Someone was sitting on the very left seat, though. So I just lifted one of the arm rests and ended up also taking up one of the extra seats. Instant bed! Too bad that other passenger was there. Otherwise, I could have taken over all four seats in that section. But I didn't want to invade their personal space.
Now this is a weird part. While I was in the restroom, I started thinking about ghosts and stuff in restrooms. Okay, this needs a little explanation. At work last Friday, Ate Rada was saying that in the women's restroom, she saw some woman with long hair, wearing a white top and black skirt just standing in one of the stalls. She did a double take and saw nothing. Hmmm...
So back to my story. I got out of the restroom and went back to my seat. However, I found that some girl was sitting in my seat!
Me: Umm... excuse me.
Her: Oh, sorry, sorry.
She got up and let me sit down. But she didn't really go anywhere for a while. She just stood there at the aisle for at least ten minutes. *shrug*
Well, I have to go board my plane now. So, till next time...
