I had to spend the holidays in the Philippines this year. At first I was disappointed. I miss my family, my friends, my church, and my home. When the break from school started at the end of December, I longed to be back in Minnesota exchanging gifts, reminiscing with relatives, and telling stories of my journeys thus far. God had other plans for me.
The first week of winter break I traveled to Baguio and Kabayan to climb Mt. Pulag with three high school guys. We took the more difficult and experienced route up the second largest summit in the Philippines over the span of 4 days. God graced me with an incredible amount of gorgeous scenery, as well as a humbling realization of how out of shape my legs are. I never considered myself a mountain climber or an outdoorsy person, so adding the Mt. Pulag summit to my life resume was that much more rewarding.
A few days after returning from Baguio, I traveled to Puerto Galera with a missionary family from Minnesota. God blessed me with a sense of home here in the Philippines as we talked about things like the Twins baseball stadium, the hopelessness of the Vikings, and the various kinds of fish we could find in the land of 10,000 lakes. Puerto Galera also provided with a time of much needed rest and reading. I must say, spending the Christmas and New Year season on the beach had its benefits.
When I returned to Manila I still had a week let before spring semester began. I got in touch with my grandparent's doctor's nephew. The doctor is practicing in Minnesota and before I left for the Philippines in July, I met him and he gave me the phone number of some of his family members living in Manila. I contacted Oli (the doctor's nephew) and we arranged to meet for coffee at a nearby mall. Oli is the Vice President of Marketing and Sales for the Filipino TV station called GMA. He knew I graduated college with a degree in Media Communication so we had lots to talk about.
Before I left the mall, Oli invited me to the GMA studio to be in the audience for the show "Party Pilipinas." When I went to the studio on Sunday, we got front row seats nearest the stage. Famous Filipino celebrities were literally inches away from us. Oli took a bunch of pictures of me with the celebrities and I even got a close-up of me watching the show on live TV. Just watch the video below!
Despite not being in the States for the Holidays, I truly was gifted with a number of incredible experiences. Spring semester has just begun and I will be updating my blog more often to keep everyone in the loop!
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