Advertisement
Published: June 30th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Star Spangled Banner
The American flag flies high at the Universal Studios Hollywood. April 30. Philippine time.
Approximately six hours before the flight. I'm starting this entry at 3:51pm, April 30.
Everything's packed -- a set of clothes for around a week, four travel guides (and counting), my DSLR and three sets of lens, my 160GB external hard drive, and a few toiletries. Everything else I figured I can just buy there.
I just withdrew from the bank a substantial amount of money to last me two weeks in the U.S. with my uncle, two aunts, and a handful of cousins before my parents meet us in London on May 14. Then from there, we're set to hit at least 10 more countries, France being the first and Spain being the last.
As I write this, Ate Cel walked by and asked if I'm excited.
Am I?
I can't describe it. This has been a longtime dream, something you've always seen yourself doing but never really expected to happen THIS soon. Maybe just one or two countries, tops. But to hit both sides of the Atlantic in one go? I mean... ME doing that?
I've concocted several ideas in my head how to storyboard the whole documentation
of the trip... how I would like the cover for the France album would look like, the Netherlands album, the Germany album, and so on. I've listened to a dozen tracks to get me in the mood artistic-wise on how to create the texture for each album.
But I've traveled many times enough to know that hardly any of the best-laid plans get carried out when you're on the road. The best you can do in terms of photography with limited time and resources is know the rules (technically and etiquette-wise), take as many pictures as you can following them, and then as many as you can violating them. Then choose.
4:05 pm. Less than two hours before we depart for the airport.
Earlier this afternoon, we watched Iron Man 2... figured we can do it here rather than in the US, where a movie costs on average $10 (roughly P450). I do plan to watch with my brother Nightmare on Elm Street there. Thought it would be interesting to see how American audiences react.
Speaking of America, we'll be landing at LAX (with a dream and my cardigan) and spend a few days in La
La Land before heading to Las Vegas. We'll spend three days in Sin City and then move on eastward to Pennsylvania to meet with Tita Marie. Three days later, we'll head to Washington DC, the site of the oh-so many news stories I've written the past few months as an editor of a news company I previously worked for. Call it serendipity.
Three days later still, we'll be off to NYC (and all the kangkong, garlic and tomato... never mind). On May 13, we'll be catching a trans-Atlantic flight to the UK, where we'll stay for roughly a week, before five more weeks in continental Europe.
Anyway.
I think this will be my last entry in a couple of days as I will have to adjust with the time zones and the new environment. (It's still springtime in the US, and the temperature in LA iiiiis... *checks Yahoo! Weather*... at most 18 degrees Celsius. Approximately as cold as an air-conditioned room.) And I'll take all the time I can get to suck in all the scenery and start taking pictures.
So there. So much for an impromptu prologue. It's 4:20. Just over five-and-a-half hours before the
flight. Gotta get back to last-minute pre-flight fixings.
With my hands up, they're playing my song, you know I'm gonna be OK. Yeaaaaah, it's a party in the USA. And then more.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 24; dbt: 0.028s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb