Note: I write this and all succeeding entries in retrospect.

All week I was busy preparing for my activities in Toronto, so I finished packing the night before I was supposed to leave. I know n^th hour packing is a bad idea and I'd advise against it, too, but most of the stuff that you pack esp. into your carry-on, are stuff you really need and use regularly, like your computer, your toiletries, etc.. And so, I ended up getting barely 4 hrs of sleep.

So there I was at the DZR airport, puffy-eyed, with nothing but a sip of hot choco in my tummy. I was not able to bring myself to eat as I was very nervous. This was the day I travel the farthest---ALONE. I kept telling myself that since not doing it was not an option, I just had to face it as bravely as I could, and welcome every new experience (with sharp eyes and ears, my mom kept saying hahaha yes, friends, laugh on!). I had always wondered over the past weeks whether I'd be able to properly go through the whole airport eklavu--for the same reason that my mom kept giving me that reminder. Well, cheers to the Tacloban City airport, they've constructed everything for dummies, or at least Warays with minimal common sense, so I had no trouble at all. [achievement number one! Level: Easy]

I took a friend's reminder to heart: chewing gum. She said for my ears--I didn't know what logic there was to it, but I kept chewing on that piece of gum anyway. Then, because I didn't have breakfast, halfway through the flight I had some crackers and had to get rid of my gum. After a while, I could feel a sharp pain in my ears, which I kept ignoring. It persisted until after two hours after the plane landed, and half the time I was contemplating, "Hmm, what flavor of gum should I buy for the next flight?"

Anyway, I had almost 8 hours before my flight to Vancouver and I really didn't have much to do but sit around. I kept daydreaming about wireless aircards, but I think that will remain a dream for another ten years. Anyway anyway anyway, because I was so tired of staying in the part of the airport for non-passengers with my 10-kilo non-wheeled carry-on on my shoulders, I decided to board 3 hours early. Now, I think I either had angels or my ancestors' souls praying to God for divine intervention. I can't say I didn't have an inkling of the events that followed because the institution at the root of the incident had given me such a headache from the moment I tried to get a passport.

I fell into the queue for boarding only to be told that what I was holding was already my boarding pass...hmmmm my mom is my mom. I proceeded to pay for the terminal fees, and with a heavy heart, let go of the cart (I found out I could use a cart after about three hours of walking around with my carry-on on my osteopenic shoulders). I then fell into another queue for the immigration procedures. The lady was going through my passport and passes and e-tickets and everything was looking good until she had to type my name into her computer. That's when she became pensive and I noticed that the guy on the queue next to ours was already done with his thing, and I knew the lady had already been going through my papers when he had handed his papers over to his attending officer. Anyway anyway, she spoke at last. "Iskolar ka ba, hija?" (Were you a [government] scholar dear?) And then I knew it, and I felt blood drain from my face. "Oh no! This can't be happening..."

Okay, just so you understand, I had these grants from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), which had financed a good portion of my education. When I entered junior high, they offered the first grant on the condition that the scholars will pursue a sci&tech course and then work within the country for four years after graduating from college. This grant has a college level counterpart, which I also used for about 2 years. From the moment the offer was made, they had made it clear with everyone that our names will be submitted to the Foreign Affairs Department, the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Investigation, to prevent us from being able to leave the country. The logic was that the government will invest in our education and they will not allow another country to benefit from it before the Philippines did. I gave little thought to it then, I was 12 years old, fer cryin out loud, world travel did not interest me, especially after my father had come home from Saipan without a penny in his pocket after their employer just closed the company without warning. So the thought of going abroad then was unattractive, scary even.

So so so, when I was trying to get a passport, the Foreign Affairs people asked me for a clearance from the DOST. It took a month before they were able to give me that clearance. When I finally got it and went back to the Foreign Affairs dept, the clerk there insisted that she needed the original copy with the letterhead and everything. I said no, that's my copy, you can have the other one without the letterhead because as you can see anyway, it is an authentic copy. We haggled over it and I hung on to that original copy for dear life, but I ended up letting it go because I needed my passport pronto and I didn't have time to go through the bureaucracy of getting them another copy with that stupid letterhead.

Now, back to the airport and the immigration lady. She said I was flagged in their database and there was no indication that the DOST had cleared me. I told her that can't be true and I even had a copy of that clearance with me. And she said, "I'm sorry dear, what you should have done after getting the clearance was blah blah blah...". It was as if I was not hearing the rest of what she was telling me because I could see the bottom line of her spiel: No can do i.e. I was going to have to miss my flight! And I also knew that for the thought of not making my flight, there was no other answer but NO. I thought of all the expense and preparation and summoned the courage to ask for her supervisor.

The supervisor asked me loads of questions and asked for all the papers I had thankfully brought with me in anticipation for the worst. She kept saying I should have kept the copy with the letterhead because the one I had with me could have just been printed anywhere and signed by anyone for all they know. I found everything that was happening appalling, stupid and so backward! Doesn't clearing anyone from these lists just take a few mouse clicks? I called our office and asked them to have DOST fax a copy of the clearance to the immigration office. The supervisor waited with me for about a half hour, all the while asking me a lot of questions and telling me about how many other scholars had missed their flights before and how it was a lucky thing that I decided to board early. She left the desk after a while, then got back to ask me more questions before gathering all my papers from her desk and disappearing into their office.

After a few minutes, she approached one of the immigration officers attending the queues and handed my papers over to them and I feared that she would leave me with them to wait for the fax message. Then, to my surprise and immeasurable glee, she told me she was letting me off this time! I thanked her like I've never thanked anyone before, but before she let me go, she warned me that this kind of consideration was only going to happen this once. The next time I had to leave the country, they don't want to see my name still flagged because then they will really no longer let me leave. Whew! [achievement number two! Level: Crazy]