Reunited and it feels so good!

Throughout my time in the Philippines, I have been fortunate enough to see many people from around the world whom I had not seen in many years. Two such people were dear friends of mine, Claire and Ana Laura.

I first met Claire in early 2013 when I was an exchange student in France. She was an Australian exchange student of Mauritian descent, and she was placed in the same town as me, Parthenay. She became one of my closest friends among our group of exchange students in the five months we had in France together. Thanks to the enormous distance between the United States and Australia, I hadn't seen her since my exchange ended in June 2013. 

As for Ana Laura, I first met her in the fall of 2015, at the beginning of my sophomore year of college. There was a conference on campus organized by some group that invited people from Latin America and asked for student hosts. Obviously, I signed up, and I was assigned Ana Laura from Uruguay. She and her now-husband, Facundo, were both attending. We hit it off immediately, and I even went to see them in her home country two years later in 2017. That was the last time I saw her. 

This last month, I was able to reunite with both of them days apart from one another! (But sadly not at the same time, which would have been cool.) 

After exchange ended, Claire and I kept up semi-regularly–that is, we would send messages on social media at least once a year. We also had the occasional video call. I told her that I would be in the Philippines for four months on the off-chance that she would be able to take a holiday here. Soon after I arrived, she sent me a message apologizing and saying she didn't think she could make it work. But then less than two weeks before Easter Sunday, she told me she really wanted to make it work and asked if we could host her and her fiancé for a few days in Manila. 

I told her OF COURSE! and the day after James and I returned to Manila from our Holy Week trip to Vigan, Claire and her fiancé Jason arrived in Manila. Incidentally, their visit came just after James and I were saying that we missed our other friends who visited in January! 

While Claire and Jason were in Manila, James and I took some time to show them around the city. We felt like we got to know it even better than when we first arrived, and I have definitely appreciated the chance to spend more time in it as an adult. We went on a walking tour of Intramuros and Fort Santiago, visited a rooftop bar, lounged by the pool, walked around a bunch of malls, and Claire and Jason even went and did their own thing, braving the light rail system on their own. 

Introducing Claire and Jason to Filipino food at Tatatito, a restaurant close to home

Claire and me at O2 Rooftop Bar

The four of us at the Manila Bay promenade, where it was blazing hot and we immediately went back into the shade after taking this picture

One activity I wanted to highlight was the visit of MV Doulos Hope. A core memory I have of growing up in Cebu City was taking school field trips to a ship that also served as a floating book fair of sorts. It would dock at the port in Cebu City, and I remember excitedly boarding the ship to peruse the rows of books it contained in the company of my elementary school friends. I remembered that it was called Doulos. James didn’t quite believe me when I first told him about it. And then I found out that a successor ship called the Doulos Hope would be touring the Philippines just when we were here! 

I immediately signed the four of us up for a visit once the books opened. On Claire and Jason’s first full day in Manila, we trekked to the port and lined up to board the ship. Along the way, crew members from around the world greeted us and showed us where to go. I loved being in the presence of young people of so many different nationalities. We even met someone from Bolivia, whom James and I were very excited to chat with! She came from Sucre, one of the cities we visited last summer. Now I can finally say I’ve met another Filipino in Bolivia, and a Bolivian in the Philippines! After going through several check points and walking onto the ship, we walked up some stairs into a very crowded book fair area. We perused the shelves and enjoyed the views of the city from the water. 

Visiting the MV Doulos Hope and getting to meet the crew reminded me of being an exchange student, while going into the book fair itself reminded me of my childhood in Cebu. I definitely felt nostalgic on so many different levels, even more so because Claire was with me. 

After a few days in Manila, we all flew to Cebu together. Claire and Jason did their own thing, I wrapped up my internship and attended a couple more hearings for the experience, and James read (and finished) a 600-page book he found yellowing in my family home, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. On the weekend, I picked up my ukulele and spent the day at the beach, and James and I also saw my friend Jillian again for a lovely lunch by the sea. 

Eventually, Claire and Jason left the Philippines. Less than two days later, James and I did too.

Our final trip abroad from the Philippines took us to Hong Kong. We flew from the airport in Cebu and finally got to see the newly-renovated international terminal for the first time. It was gorgeous! 

The day we flew to Hong Kong, it was James’s birthday. This was serendipitous, considering my first time in Hong Kong, we flew from the Cebu airport on my tenth birthday. That was also my first time leaving my home country! It was fun to recreate that flight, having visited so many more countries since the first time. James had been wanting to go to Hong Kong for a long time, so we were finally able to make it happen while living in the Philippines. Needless to say, we both had a fantastic time and were very happy not to have spent any time at all in a car our whole time there. 

It was in Hong Kong where we saw my friend Ana Laura again. Her husband Facundo is a diplomat and got assigned to the Uruguayan consulate in Guangzhou for three years. I have a standing invite to visit them wherever in the world they end up, and so James and I tried to see if we could visit them in China. However, it became too difficult, considering our other travels and the inconvenience of applying for a visa. Nevertheless, Ana Laura had mentioned that Hong Kong was only a train ride away from Guangzhou, and it is within Facundo’s diplomatic jurisdiction. So when James and I confirmed our trip, I let Ana Laura know, and she and Facundo were able to make it work to visit us! 

We caught up over dinner our first night in Hong Kong and brunch the next day, when they surprised James with a happy birthday candle on the panda waffle he ordered. Prior to China, Ana Laura and Facundo lived in São Paulo. They have a gorgeous chow chow named Lion, who unfortunately is living with caretakers in Uruguay, since they couldn’t take him to China. It was so fun to hear about their lives as diplomats and catch up on the last seven years since I last saw them in Montevideo, as well as reminisce on their visit to my college for the conference. I updated them on our mutual friends, and they gushed about how much they have been loving China. They really made James and me want to visit one day! 


Ana Laura and me with the maritime museum in the background

Facundo, me, and James at the maritime museum

Strolling along the elevated walkway

James and his birthday waffle

James at the maritime museum

Ana Laura and Facundo rightfully guessed that this diorama scene would intrigue me - it shows divers retrieving artifacts from a shipwreck and even includes the boat waiting above

Though our time together was quick, it was splendid to see them both again. They are the kinds of friends I can go for a very long time without seeing or speaking, but no matter where in the world we may meet again, we will always be able to catch up as if no time has passed. I am excited to see where we will see them next! In the meantime, I will continue following along on their diplomat adventures through Instagram.

As for the rest of our time in Hong Kong, James and I spent a lot of time walking around and admiring the bay views, public transit system, and urban infrastructure. I have almost no recollection of my first trip to Hong Kong, so it pretty much felt like discovering a new city. Here are some more highlights from the trip, in no particular order, as told through a photo dump. 

Dim sum at Tim Ho Wan

Victoria Peak

Noodles at Mak Ming Noodles

James looking out into the city nightscape on the 29th floor of our hotel

Mirror selfie 1

An aesthetic street

We spent some time having a coffee at the Peak Lookout Cafe, enjoying the breeze

Hong Kong Park, a true urban oasis - spot the turtles!!

Mirror selfie 2

I lied earlier about the "in no particular order" because the last two photos and the video are from our last day in Hong Kong, which we mostly spent walking along the harbor. We ended up going to a cafe called % Arabica that was very cute and right by the water. I could sympathize with the amount of people taking pictures and videos of its interior with the view onto the water and as you can see, even took a video of the coffee and softserve myself!

We returned to Manila from Hong Kong on April 11. These last couple days, I've finally had the time to write a few blog entries to make up for, once again, not posting in a month. Now that my internship has ended, I am officially on vacation until I start studying for the bar next month. Write again soon!