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Monday, April 07, 2008

Back in the States

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: Stars in the Yard--Jim Chappell (Dusk)

I'm back :-)! I've gotten quite a few messages from friends asking me:

"How come you haven't blogged?"
"When are you going to blog again?" and,
"Can you blog about something OTHER than World of Warcraft?"

I was in Manila the past couple of weeks for work, and I had forgotten to bring my videocam with me :-(. Not too many pictures to post this time. But I can give you a rundown of what I did while I was over there :-)...

I arrived the weekend of Holy Week, which gave me a chance to be with family in Tagaytay for the weekend :-). I haven't been to Tagaytay in YEARS and I'm happy to say that it's just as relaxing over there as I remember, even with it having become a little bit more commercial. I spent a lot of my time napping :-D.

While I was in Manila I also got a chance to meet with some friends outside of work: one high school friend actually works at ePerformax as well, Kitch Dalma (who is one of our DIET Trainers), and we were finally able to spend a little time to say hello when we had the new trainer's space blessed on April 1 :-).

The day before I left for the States (which was a Saturday), I got a chance to meet a few of my college buddies for breakfast. Most of them are Steve's friends now too, and Steve said that he wished he was in Manila with me to see them again. I met with Meyan, her fiance Joy, Robin, and Calen (whom Steve hasn't met yet). Meyan's going to send me some pictures to post on the blog :-). It was great seeing everyone, and Calen left us in stitches with his Chinese "Meet my little brother" schtick :-).

CC and Meyan

Joy, CC, Robin, Calen

After that I met with Ana Estavillo, another high school friend, for lunch. I haven't seen her in years, and it was good reconnecting with her :-).

I didn't get a chance to meet Pebbles or Teacher Jed, but I hope to be able to see them on my next trip over. There's been some talk about me maybe coming back in June, but I'm not sure--will keep you posted :-).

One definite advantage about being given the opportunity to fly over as often as I have this past year is that I've hit Platinum Elite status on Northwest :-). Some of the benefits:

Can check in at the World Business Class counters at the airport (practically no waiting time checking in :-))
Your luggage gets tagged "Priority" (that means it'll be one of the first ones out of the plane when you land)
Priority business class upgrades depending on availability (I was upgraded to business class from Memphis-Minneapolis, Japan-Manila, Manila-Japan and Detroit-Memphis)
Access to the airport lounges for you and a guest on international itineraries (definitely made the waiting time much more manageable. I took advantage of the lounge shower facilities at the Detroit airport :-)).
125% travel miles earned. If you fly someplace that's 50 miles away, you get credited 112.5 miles :-). Those miles will come in handy for free flights :-)

The only downside is you have to fly at least 75,000 miles a year to hit Platinum Elite (about 4 round trip Memphis-Manila flights), so I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep that status up after 2009. We'll see :-).

And just a TEENY update on World of Warcraft: I just hit level 40, have my horse (it looks really cool--its eyes and hooves are on fire), and was able to get a new pet :-).

Labels: Travel

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