Every 4 years our family goes to the Philippines to help children and their families and we also visit our relatives. The year was over so, after school ended, we started packing for our big journey across the world!
After we packed all our things, we slept until 4:00 am to go to the airport. But, I couldn’t sleep at all! I was too excited to go! I didn’t even sleep…. Our cousin was picking us up to drive us to D.C. Airport so we rushed outside to get in their car.
We were in New Castle County, when I started feeling drowsy. I fell asleep for the rest of the ride. After 7 hours of sleeping, our cousin finally made it to D.C.! We got out of the car and stretched. I helped load the bags on the cart. My dad then went to a line for Philippine Airlines. It seemed like forever! But eventually we got passed it.
The time we got to the Boarding Station was 1 hour before the employees started boarding. To pass that time, our family ate some breakfast. By the time that we finished eating it was boarding time. We went on the plane on 2nd class. Our family sat in the middle row in the back. My sister and I dozed off, but after 3 hours of sleeping we woke up to chicken, rice, potatoes, and ice cream. It was delicious! Then I fell asleep for 7 hours.
We finally landed in Manila, Philippines at 1:00 am. We had to wait for our grandfather, but we still had other things to do. Our family had to get all of our bags and get through the security check line. Our dad looked every where for our grandfather, then we spotted him! We then got out of the airport and I sniffed in the fresh air of the Philippines, (which wasn’t really fresh). My grandfather, mom, and dad had to load the bags in the back. I finally got in the car and took a deep breath in. After 4 years I still loved the smell of my grandfathers car, it smelled like candy!
I didn’t fall asleep this car ride, I kept my eyes wide open. I wasn’t used to the time frame yet. Our grandfather was sleepy and tired while our whole family is awake! We then got to his guest bedroom. I haven’t been to the Philippines in a long time so I was still getting used to the heat like lava! I couldn’t sleep at all, so I just closed my eyes, and started counting sheep.
I woke up and my parents were out of bed and in the kitchen. My sister was still sleeping though, so I went to the bathroom to freshen up. I then woke up my sister saying “WAKE UP! WAKE UP!” She then rubbed her eyes and went to the bathroom too. Our parents walked upstairs to tell us that we had to take a shower. In the Philippines there is no heated showers! So I was freezing cold for 10 minutes!
We had to travel to the airport again to go to Disney Hong Kong! It was only a 2 hour ride so it wasn’t much trouble. When we got there, we saw the beautiful entrance! We then went to the check in for our rooms. My sister and I waited in the kids section watching Mickey Mouse cartoons.
After a long excruciating time, my parents finally finished checking in! I then quickly got in the elevator with my parents, sister and grandfather . When we got in, the elevator actually talked to us. It was the most magical elevator ride ever! As we looked for our room my sister and I played: Who finds the Room first? My sister won, but our parents and grandfather were still taking there time walking.
It took a long time settling down, because we had 1 bus full of things! But, we worked through it! My parents were extremely tired because of the different time frames. Otherwise, my sister and I were so pumped to go swimming! At 7:00 pm we finally got what we wanted! We went swimming at night at their amazing pool. We finally took a step in. We got relaxed for a while, until my sister and I had a swimming race. I then finally won one of our races in the Hong Kong.
When our family got back, we took a shower. Finally we all got to shower in a heated shower! Especially my grandfather, he hasn’t had a heated shower ever since! Finally we could sleep in a different time frame and not be nocturnal! We woke up to the shine of the light, which came with the heat. I was so happy, today was the day we saw our cousin! We haven’t saw him since he was a baby! 4years later and now he is 7 years old! We rushed to the car assuming that it was him and his mom. The car opened with our fingers crossed. It was them, I greeted them with a “long time no see” hug. We then showed Uno to the gift shop. He said it was awesome and I totally agreed with him, it was awesome and amazing! After showing him all the toys, we went to the small arcade. We asked if we could all play, but our dad said later. I wondered why we had nothing else to do today. Our dad said we would be going to Disneyland. I was so happy, I always wondered what Disney Hong Kong would be like!
As we boarded the transit train there was a ton of people boarding. Sadly, our whole family got squished into one tiny corner! Also in that moment I searched up are “Hong Kong people known to be impolite?” The results said most of the people are rude. So I assumed that the people on the train were part of the most people!
We finally got out of the crammed train. We let all the people get out first so we had the entrance way all to our selves! We got out and saw the radiant sky shining upon us. It was actually so radiant, I couldn’t even see! My mom saw the entrance way and took a couple of pictures of us. Then we finally checked in, but the bad thing was that there was another security check line. It took us a few minutes to get through, but it was all worth it in the end!
When we got in, we were in Mickeys Town Hall. My sister and I wandered around until we saw an art place. She really wanted to draw art, so we waited in line for half an hour. I rushed in next to my sister awaiting for fresh cool air. Finally, we had some oxygen that was partially not hot! The smell inside smelt like cookies! I saw that everything inside was related to the movie “Inside Out”. We then saw the drawing place, it was humongous! My sister and I then rushed to the front seat. We learned how to draw goofy, mine didn’t look as good as I hoped. But, my sister was a total show off!
When we got out of the drawing place, we went to Tomorrow Land. Though the walking took up most of the day, we still made it to Tomorrow Land! I looked around to see if any attractions caught my eye. Then I saw it! The Stitch encounter! I rushed over to my mom and dad, I then told them if we could please go to the stitch encounter. Thankfully they agreed and said yes. The downside was that the waiting time was 1 hour. We had to find something to pass the time. We looked and saw Space Blasters, we went over there to play a game or two.
After getting out of the game, we looked outside and it was raining! We couldn’t just run to the Stitch encounter because it was too far away, we were at the entrance, and stitch was at the back! It seemed like it rained forever. To pass time again, we went gift store shopping. Since it was my sisters birthday, she bought 2 things and I only bought one. I bought a stitch bracelet and she bought Tsum Tsums. It was still raining when looked outside. To pass time again we went to a food place right next door and ate some things. It finally stopped raining, so we ran over to the Stitch encounter to get to see Stitch!
I finally got what I wanted. We made it to the opening doors and went in. It was dark, but then I could see stitch. The point of the attraction was for people getting totals to Stitch. Sadly I didn’t get to talk to him, but I was ok with that. We always had tomorrow. Our last ride was to go car racing. The point of that was to not hit the rail in between the car wheels so you don’t slow down. Me and my dad worked together. Even though, we didn’t win, we had fun! It was finally time to head home. We went to our hotel room and went to sleep.
The next day we went to Disney again. The only reason we went there was for me to try to see Stitch. So, we went back and got chosen! He called our cousin Uno “Cousin Uno” and he asked my sister if she wanted chocolate that he barfed out of his mouth. She said yes, but he put his barf back in his mouth. We had to leave to go to Bicol shortly after.
We had to go on a 2 hour flight to Bicol. The plane finally landed in Bicol! I was so excited to see my relatives! When all of us got off we we all waited for our bags. While we were at the plane I remembered seeing the Mayon Volcano in Bicol. It was a beautiful from afar. My mom then saw my cousin who was going to pick us up. Our family got in the car and I dosed off. When we got there,my sister woke me up. I saw their gates open so their car could get in. I then smelt dogs I wondered why but I didn’t ask. I never remembered them having their own dog. But I couldn’t believe my eyes, I saw two dogs. They looked so cute, so I ran over where the dogs were and started petting them. There was a baby one named Brittany that I didn’t touch, she was about to bite me! On the other hand Oscar was calm and I loved him the most.
We finally got to meet my family on my moms side again! While we were there they gave me some of my cousins daughters clothes. But unfortunately they didn’t quite fit me, yet. They then showed us to their guest building. Downstairs was the bedroom and bathroom, upstairs was my cousins daughters playroom. It was AWESOME! We played, but we had to leave a few days after. We then traveled back to the Philippines to see our Grandmother. She had her own restaurant called Mama Ellies Resto and Grill. We got to work outside to sell candies and drinks. We only got payed a little amount, but it was fun anyways! And as a souvenir she gave us 2 of her employee hats!
The summer was fun, but it was starting to slowly end. our family had to pack up our stuff and leave to go back to America. We said our goodbyes and left.
When we got home, my dads friend came to pick us up. Sadly, when we got home, our bunny died. We also weren’t used to the time zone yet! Our dads friends children came over and played next to us while we slept. The Philippines was a fun trip! Hopefully in 3 years our whole family could go back again! See you soon Philippines!

Chelsea