I felt like I was in a big black tunnel surrounded by giants who smelled like feet in a supermarket, and I mysteriously got myself lost in to the crowd. But I was able to find my family 15 seconds later. As I was experiencing more of the Philippines, my family and I were heading towards the entrance outside the airport. My cousin started to throw up green mushy carrots from eating airplane food, as I was standing there laughing, amused, and thinking to myself, “Ewww! That’s disgusting!”
I always wanted to visit a different country before, to tell you the truth I actually didn’t know what to expect. When I first arrived in the Philippine airport, the first person I saw was a lady who was wearing a white t-shirt, ripped-up blue jean shorts, and a pair of red sandals. She was waiting patiently in the corner of the entrance. She started walking towards me, as I was thinking in my head. Who was this lady? Do I know her? How did she know my name?
My mom introduced myself first. “Lea, this is your auntie Rose!” As I was standing there patiently greeting her, I knew for sure, she was definitely my aunt! As my auntie was passing around greeting each family member, she started squeezing my little piggy cheeks. “Oh Lea, you’ve grown so much!” She continued pinching my cheeks so hard that I couldn’t feel them anymore.
I always thought that everyone here would look like people from the pictures in the airport with happy, large, and big fat faces on a cover of a Philippine magazine, but I guess not. By far, this was an awkward experience. My cousin and I decided to fool around in the luggage area and play power rangers! I must say it was very crowded with many tourists and Filipinos surrounding the whole area, it was insane!
One thing I remember when I first arrived, a man had gotten himself arrested for stealing a flight attendant’s purse while getting off the plane. He ran through the airport like if he were to use the bathroom. He wore a tight zipped-up jacket, a pair of goofy ripped-up jeans, and was massively tall as I remembered. As more and more people were arriving, the whole luggage area became more crowed as we went along.