In another post, I talked about the team, the Seoul Sisters that I played with once before in Seoul. I also mentioned that they invited me to go to the Philippines with them for a tournament. You might be thinking that a weekend trip all the way to the Philippines is a little insane. Well, you're right.
We all met at the airport where we were given further details about the theme before we boarded the plane. Apparently when the team goes on these "tours", as they call them, they choose a theme for the after-party. This time the theme was stewardesses. We were given a packet with some rules to follow such as, "You must gesture like a stewardess when you talk to people", "You can only call your teammates by their stewardess name", "You can only drink with your left hand", etc.
Our flight left at 7:40pm and when we got there it was around midnight. Walking out of the airport was a bit like walking into a sauna. I actually changed clothes right away in the airport because I had left Korea wearing a sweater. We got a shuttle bus to our hotel and chose roommates (I was with Sandy). When we got to the hotel, we pretty much went straight to our rooms, which were actually really nice. They were pretty small but they had big TVs and super comfortable beds with more pillows than a normal person would ever need...
The next day we were up early to head to the tournament. First we had breakfast at the hotel. From what I've had of Filipino food, I like it. It's different enough without being super foreign. Again, it was very hot and humid outside...which I'm guessing is the reason they shortened all the games for the tournament. We were playing 10s, so they would have been shorter than a regular game regardless...but we played 8 minute games. Usually in 10s, you'll play like two 10 minute halves. We played 8 minute GAMES. It was really strange but with the weather, even that tired us out by the end. We didn't win any but it was still a lot of fun.
After the tournament we went back to the hotel to get ready for the party. Remember how I said the theme was stewardesses?
The party was pretty cool but we left before it was officially over to check out some of the other clubs/bars in the city. I only ended up going to one and it was pretty similar to most of the bars I see in the US. Some people stayed out pretty late but I didn't want to push it since I knew I was going to be rushing home the next day so I went with a group that left early.
Sunday was probably the best day. This was our day to be real tourists. We went out on a boat, went snorkling and hung out on a sandbar off an island. It was awesome. The water was warm and the views were beautiful. I had always thought snorkling sounded kind of lame but it was actually really cool.
We drank coconut milk out of the coconut. Then, I had them break mine open and I ate it :P.
Snorkling!
Stopping at an island for lunch.
Hanging out on a sandbar.
After the boat, we went back to the hotel and this is where the fun starts... I had to rush up to the room, quickly change my clothes and go straight to the airport. I had to leave earlier than everyone else since I had to go back to Daegu, which is farther from the airport than Seoul. I took a taxi to the airport and my flight left Cebu at 6pm.
This was out my window on the cab ride to the airport.
Then, I had a 4 hour layover in Manila. I left Manila at 11pm and by then I was already exhausted. I even slept for almost the whole flight, which I'm almost never able to do. When I got to Incheon airport, I took a cab to Gwangmeong station and took the KTX to Daegu. I got to Daegu at about 7:20am and got back to my apartment with like 10 minutes to change before heading to work. Success! That day at work actually wasn't as horrible as I had been anticipating. All in all, it was totally worth it.
Artist: Girls' Generation
Song: Himnae (Way To Go)
Album: Gee
Released: January 2009
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