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8:50 am June 12, 2003 (total travel time 25 hours)
It was time to get onto the Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Cebu. As I stood there in line to get on the plane, passport in hand, my stomach tied in knots. I was actually getting on the flight that would take me to see Niña. I had my personal DVD player out so I could watch a movie on the flight and hopefully make it go faster.
I had a window seat again and this time, a nice Filipino woman sat next to me. She must have been in her late 40’s or early 50’s. After a while, we struck up a conversation. She was traveling back to stay in Cebu for a while. She grew up there and still considered it home even though she had been living in Germany with her husband for the last 20 years. She was returning because her allergies were bad and always seemed to get better when she was in the Philippines. We talked a little about my vacation, and I purposely didn’t mention Niña to see if she would ask if I was meeting someone. She didn’t, but I did work into the conversation that I had someone coming to get me at the airport. Still, she didn’t ask and I was impressed at her restraint to not pry. The last hour of the flight was unbearable. All I could do is think of Niña, and be nervous about our meeting. What if she didn’t like me? What if I didn’t like her in person? What if we missed each other at the airport – we never made plans of where exactly we would meet once I arrived. This thought struck me like a hammer – what if the Cebu airport is a huge airport like the Hong Kong airport or my own DFW airport. These bad thoughts quickly gave way to happy ones about Niña again and the woman sitting next to me looked at me and said “Boy, you REALLY are excited to arrive in Cebu!”. The smile on my face must have given me away.
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