The Last Few Days...

So I've finally arrived in Manila. OK, I've actually been here for over 3 days... I've just been too lazy to update.

Tuesday night, close to 20 friends came out to McLean's to see me off. After a few beers, I went home and finished packing, slept about 3 hours and then headed to the airport. Upon arriving at the airport, I realized that I had forgotten my passport! Cassey and my dad headed back to pick it up for me and then I was on my way to Vancouver.

I landed in Vancouver close to 11, put my luggage in storage, put on my red mittens (despite the 12C weather) and made my way downtown to soak in some of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic festivities. In less than 8 hours, I watched hockey in the rain, saw the Olympic cauldron, got my picture taken with the Stanley Cup, carried the Olympic torch and stood a few feet away from Ashleigh McIvor as she held up her Olympic gold medal for ski cross. Team Canada won 4 medals that day and the men's team destroyed Russia with a score of 7-3. What a day!

After a day spent walking around downtown Vancouver, I made my way back to airport to catch my flight over to Manila. I had the privilege of flying business class this time which made the flight amazing. Despite the Philippine Airlines having an old fleet, business class was still very comfortable and the service was amazing. Foie gras and duck appetizers, luxurious toiletries and big reclining seats... Impressive! I watched Surrogates and slept 8 hours before landing in Manila at 4 AM.

Later in the day, I headed to the office to say hi to everyone and was greeted with a hero's welcome! There was applause, a video montage of team members welcoming me back, banners, food, drinks and even my Olympic torch picture had been printed and put on the wall. Simply amazing and humbling! After a short nap, we all headed out for karaoke and beers.

The rest of the weekend was spent sleeping, watching the Olympics and shopping for amenities for my apartment. I woke up at 4 AM MNL this morning, cranked up my air conditioning (its over 30C here), put on my Canada Olympic hoodie and watched Team Canada take gold in a nailbiting final against the USA. Go Canada Go!

Class starts tonight, so I need to finish preparing, then I'll hit the pool for a bit to catch some rays before heading to bed for a few hours. TTFN.