Filipino Breakfast and Airport Hassles Our plan is to be at the airport at 8:30am, so we get up before 7am and are ready to go by 7:45am. We walk down and Vit has prepared a monster spread for breakfast - chicken longganisa (chicken sausages), SPAM, daing na bangus (marinated, fried milkfish), scrambled eggs, red rice (kinda like brown rice), vienna sausages, toast, and ponkan (a type of orange) juice. It was delicious! Brings me back to my childhood days. I love Filipino breakfast because they’re basically like lunch! I have come to love American egg breakfasts too, especia [View Full Entry]

---

---

Early Start and Hectic Transfers We are up on time and ready to go by 6am. The bus is a tad late, but not too much, and the ride to the airport is the stipulated 45 minutes. We are amused by the driver’s chit chat on his radio with other drivers and headquarters. They all say good morning, give each other traffic updates, and say all kinds of other things that I simply can’t understand because of his thick Aussie accent and the static. We are especially entertained at how frustrated he gets at cabs that take too long or don’t [View Full Entry]

---

---

Oh No! What About Vietnam? We wake up and ponder breakfast and Wicked Sunday. Walking around last night, we looked at STA Travel and found out they would be closed on Sunday. We had stopped by to talk to a travel agent last Wednesday and got some brochures of tours in Vietnam. We have been undecided on what to do in Vietnam since we planned the trip many months ago. With only seven days there, it’s a bit too much to go from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, formerly Saigon) all the way north to Hanoi and Halong Bay, where the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Brekkie Messiness Autopia Tours is going to pick us up at 8:15am, so we wake up early and even have enough time for breakfast. Unfortunately, the brekkie is not ready at Base, and most of the other restaurants on Acland St. are still closed. The Galleon Café, our first stop on day one of our stay here, is open but it’s full and we are not disposed to wait. I know McDonald’s has breakfast starting at 7am, so we head in that direction. Leroy orders the usual breakfast with pancakes, but since they don’t come with sausage here, he also orders [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today was a lazy day. We treat ourselves to one of these everywhere we go, though sometimes it is imposed on us, like that stormy day in Argentina. I woke up and wanted to go for a stroll and have some me time. Meli headed for the beach. It is clear that she was tropically bred. My stroll took me first to “Veg Out”a community victory garden or sorts. There weren’t just crops in this garden, however; chickens, parrots, peppers, tomatoes, vines, and even an art center. All over the place were signs about the watering restriction in place. Apparently, Victoria [View Full Entry]

---

---

I will just come out and say it: I love Melbourne! The weather is perfect. The people are extremely friendly and many are jogging outdoors and running along the beach. And anywhere we go we can get gluten free pasta, soy lattes, smoothies, fat free this, low fat that, food without peanut, milk, or milk products. This place is California on steroids, minus the smog. Definitely a place I could live in. Perhaps it was the experience of a few weeks ago in a certain country that makes this place even more appealing. I’ll give you that. But beyond that, this [View Full Entry]

---

---

Back in Oz The Qantas flight from L.A. to Melbourne is smooth. I fall asleep before takeoff and wake up nine hours later. Usually, I’d love that, but with the entertainment options aboard with Q OnDemand, I regret not having more time to watch all the movies I want. I manage to squeeze watching Volver (Pedro Almodovar’s latest, with Penelope Cruz, great), Blood Diamond (great), and almost all of Dreamgirls (great so far). I still don’t know what happens in the end, but maybe on the Qantas flight to Manila, I’ll get my chance. Leroy watches Blood Diamond and [View Full Entry]

---

---

We had numerous family photographers documenting our night at Dave and Buster's with the SUMMA graduating seniors, Match Day, The Move, and our chill-out time in L.A. before leaving. Enjoy! Also, look out for an update from us now that our disposable camera pictures from Carnaval in Salvador are on Snapfish! [View Full Entry]

---

---

The Mom Perspective on Match Day My mom sent an email to our family in the Philippines detailing Match Day from her perspective. We figured it sufficed as guest blogging, so here it is, with factual modifications. Also, you can check out a link to a Stanford Report article about us on Match Day at http://mednews.stanford.edu/matchday07.html. Yesterday was a very exciting and hectic time. At 10am, the advisors handed out the envelopes containing the letters telling each med student where they matched. Meme and Leroy had di [View Full Entry]

---

---

This blog is being written almost two weeks after our last day in Santiago. A lot has happened since then, and our next blog on The Match and The Move will bring you up to date. But first, we need to say goodbye to Chile. Too Little Too Late We wake up at the usual hour and breakfast is hearty and delicious because of our grocery shopping yesterday afternoon. Meli immediately begins packing and Leroy follows suit. Our flight is at 11:30pm, but we are planning on leaving at 6pm to check in early and take advantage of the Admiral’s Club. [View Full Entry]

---

---