January 8, 2009: Home

The return was a bit more eventful.  I used a pay terminal for the internet in Narita a couple times before our flight, chatting briefly with Drew on Gmail and making a small Facebook update.  The flight left at noon and landed in Chicago at 8:30 am on the same day, which needless to say was not just a bit weird but also really awkward.  On the way to Manila we'd left at noon and arrived there late at night (the next day, calendar-wise, but still), at which point going to bed made perfect sense and got us immediately acclimated.  The reverse was true on the way back; we woke up around 6:30 or 7 am Tokyo time, got on a noon flight, barely slept (I never can sleep on planes for more than a couple hours), and then landed in the early morning.  I would have had to stay up all of Chicago's Thursday to re-acclimate, and it just wasn't happening.  I fell asleep around noon and woke up around 7 pm; then I was up until 5 or so on Friday morning and slept until 3 in the afternoon.  (Fortunately I had already taken Friday off work, figuring on jet lag and also that it was Alma's and my fifth anniversary.  Of course, it wasn't much of an anniversary given the odd sleep schedule.)

By the following Monday, when I did have to return to work, I was pretty close to normal, although it took me over a week to stop waking up at 5:00 every morning.  That worked out pretty well on my first day back, however; my coworkers had tried to set up a prank involving moving my desk, but I got there so early that the ruse quickly became obvious.  It's just as well since I had left most of the contents of my wallet at home and so had to pay out of pocket to use the CTA and had to have the building security guards call up to let me into work because I didn't have my ID badge.  Add that I was still jetlagged and I wasn't exactly in the mood for a big ol' prank.  But that's another story.

I really enjoyed the Philippines.  It was warm (even if the weather shock made me a little sick), I got to see a lot of awesome stuff, I got to brush up my Tagalog ever so slightly, I got to bond with Alma's family a little, I got to visit Asia, and I got to have a great experience overall.  I would say "once-in-a-lifetime," but hopefully it's not once in a lifetime; we may well get to go back eventually, as Alma's sister is talking about going in a couple years.  The funny thing was that after I got back it quickly felt a bit like I'd never left, but this journal will stand as a reminder of what I did and saw, because what I did and saw was generally pretty great.  I like travel, I love Alma, and traveling with Alma (yes, even in the decidedly unromantic presence of her extended family) is just about my favorite thing in the entire world.  Whether we go back or not, I'll certainly remember my first trip to the Philippines forever.  Thanks again to everyone who made it happen and made it great.

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