Not at all Type A

Your Travel Personality Is: Easygoing

When you travel, you're looking for a lot of downtime. Vacations are your chance to recoup. All you need is a scenic spot and plenty of time on your hands. You'll figure out the rest. You're not one to make lots of plans when you travel. You just follow whatever path seems right.

What's Your Travel Personality?

Excited

Three debuts and one fiesta down..I have a few more that I am excited about in the coming months.

Journey concert in July. I may have been young then when Steve Perry was with Journey but I knew about their songs in high school. I remember singing along to "Open Arms" and "Faithfully" when bands back home would cover their songs. Now that they have Arnel Pineda as lead singer, it is going to be a double treat. There are 13 of us watching so it will be fun, never mind that its on a Wednesday.

When I was a sophomore, my cousins, Ate Joyce and Kuya Justin went home for a vacation. Ate Joyce brought as "pasalubong" magazine clippings of New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) and also a NKOTB watch. I had tapes of their albums and listened to them a lot. I wasn't a big, big fan but I was a fan so it will be a fulfillment of a childhood wish to watch them in concert.

And now I am. They will have a concert at the Staples Center on October 8 and Chrissie and I are watching it. She already purchased our tickets. I cannot wait!

After reading about Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture" and him talking about his childhood dreams and how he was able to fulfill them in the course of his life, it made me reflect on what were/are my childhood dreams. He said that it has to be specific. I cannot think of all of my childhood dreams are off the bat but I have one that I cannot forget.


When I was 5 years old, I started taking ballet lessons for the summer and did so for the next 5 summers until I was 10. Every end of the summer, we would have recitals, like our graduation and we would have prima ballerinas like Lisa Macuja, Anna Villadolid and others as guests. If not during our recitals, they would have ballet concerts in our province and I remember watching pretty much all of them growing up. I think in one I was the one who gave a bouquet of flowers to Lisa Macuja. I would read their biographies and they have danced with really big and famous ballet companies like NYC Ballet, Atlanta Ballet or Academy of Russian Ballet or Munich Ballet. I have stopped dancing ballet but I still dream of being able to watch a performance of any of the famous ballet companies. Sometimes, some of them have performances in either L.A. County or Orange County but its for a limited run and by the time I find out its either sold out or already passed. One of my childhood dream was to dance in a big ballet company but since that's not possible now, I will be satisfied with being able to watch a performance of either the New York City Ballet or the Atlanta Ballet.

But, this is what I am excited about now..

I read on Monster Muncher's blog about a Kyochon Chicken in Orange County. YAY!! Kyochon is this Korean fried chicken. A year ago, Chrissie and I went to the one in Koreatown in L.A. after watching a screening of "Lust, Caution". I have read about it from Wandering Chopsticks and she read about it from "Best of L.A." magazine and for some strange coincidence that day we both felt like trying these famous fried chicken. We went and there was a wait for those chicken but it was sure worth the wait. We ordered a large (about 15 pieces) of mixed wings and drumsticks and we finished it all, just the two of us. It is delicately battered and double-fried but oh so delicious. It has hints of sourness and saltiness and sweetness that we cannot really point out for sure. It came with a bed of cole slaw drizzled with mayo and ketchup and a side of pickled radish. We came out of there very, very satisfied. I have photos but its in my camera phone. I will upload it as soon as I can. I have been craving for it but Koreatown is just too far. So, I am really excited to know that they already have a branch in Orange County and I googled it, its only 12 minutes using surface streets from my cousin's house. Yay! They deliver too but I have to know up to what distance they will deliver. I wonder when our next party is and I will order these chicken that I have been raving about to my cousins.

How Filipinos travel will have a new meaning

Traveling light is a personal option. But for Filipinos, traveling light is not an option, its a waste. There have been so many jokes about Filipinos traveling not with luggage but with boxes. If you want to know where the Philippine Airlines counter is amidst the chaos that is the airport, just follow where all the balik-bayan boxes are headed. This is a no-fail strategy because for sure behind mountains of boxes would be the PAL counter. Hey, we have to take advantage of the two free 70 pounds luggage allotted for each passenger.

How many times have I heard my relatives say "sayang yung space." when the box has reached its maximum weight - 70 pounds but the box isn't full yet. Or "sayang yung weight." when the box is busting in the seams and is way below 70 pounds. I think my family have nailed the art and the science of packing down to a T. When I say family, I mean my mom, my sister and myself. Well, its more my mom and my sister now. I try to veer away from it as much as I can. Its a lot of work and they do a better job at it than I do. We have done a lot of lifting, moving around of stuff to pack to be able to achieve a full box with exact weight, the perfect balance. Its not the easiest thing to do but for some strange reason we feel a sense accomplishment when we are able to do so. Or maybe because at least my sister and I wouldn't be hearing the "sayang ang space", "sayang ang weight" comments from the peanut gallery (translation: our aunts, uncles, lola etc.).

Well, that's all going to change. I just read over at PDI - PAL to limit baggage weight on North American route. Uh-oh! The dozens of sardines and corned beef have to be cut down. The packs of Knorr Soup will have to be less. The papaya soaps will be one for each now rather than a half a dozen. The shoes, the clothes, all the pasalubongs would have to be reduced. This is going to need some getting use to. I have a ton of relatives going home this month. Thought their flight home is not going to be affected, its coming back that will be. This policy is going to take effect after July 1 and it didn't say travel to Philippines, it said travel to North America. So my relatives will be going home with 70 pound boxes but coming back with 50 pound ones. This is going to be tough. My mom will have a crazy task of packing their boxes back with 50 pounds maximum in mind. I bet there will be many that will be left behind that are most often than not are enough to fill another 50 pound box. How that will get here is a question that really doesn't have an answer yet.

I actually welcome this for some reasons. I have always wanted to travel light but I know that it was just not possible having a family that I do. But now at least its just not going to be an option for me but a requirement, something that I or them cannot do something about.

I wouldn't want to work at the PAL counter on July 1. I can already sense the confusion and chaos. Not to mention the irate passengers. Boy oh boy! Good luck! Well, at least they will sure earn from all the excess baggage fees that they will be able to collect.