124. Raining (more like running) in Manila by Lola Amour. (Dear Mei)
Dear Mei,
The post is inspired by you and Raining in Manila by Lola Amour. A great song and very topical.
I had another layover. I actually had about 5 hours to kill at the airport, but I decided to go outside of the airport (again!). I have the horrible habit of going through immigration queues and leaving the airport whenever I have a super long layover time. Why would I want to be stuck in the airport for several hours when I could go outside and see the city for a bit?
I ran out of the airport. I was the last person out of the aircraft, but I was the first person outside, standing right in front of the taxis. I had a car ready for pick me up. I actually made plans with my good friend, Mei, that day. I was very excited to meet her.
A blurry photo of the immense amount of traffic I experienced hehe
It's a bit of a scramble actually. I did not anticipate the insane traffic that I would encounter. It was an actual nightmare. Cars and motorcycles were whizzing by. It gave me horror flashbacks to LA traffic. The traffic was so terrible, the driver started watching Tiktoks on his phone. It took me more than an hour to commute to our meeting point. (The traffic was long, but not horrific. I'm just talking it up for dramatic effect.)
Around 6:05 PM, I ran out of the vehicle and into Mei. We cheerfully greeted each other and headed over to the boba shop. I looked down at my phone. We technically had only 32 minutes to talk. I laughed so hard.
We had to cross the street to the boba shop, but we couldn't find a crosswalk. We asked a security guard for some guidance. We chatted with him for a little bit, trying to search for safe passage on the busy road. Funnily enough, he actually stopped traffic on street and helped us cross the road. Wow, just two beautiful girls getting an escort from the police <3
Mei and I had a wonderful half hour chat. The first 10 minutes of our discussion was really me trying to calm down from the hectic traffic in the car. I felt a bit bad because I was a bit frazzled by the rush hour. Frankly, I was coming from a town that had a very chill level of traffic, incomparable to the bottleneck I had experienced on the drive over to the mall we were meeting at.
I haven't really had the "speed date" experience until now. It was very fun. We shared stories of our lives while we sipped on our tea. The half hour ran so fast. I had to set an alarm, just in case. I was running on fumes, hopefully making my flight back, and Mei had to go, right after our hang.
We laughed, we cried, we cringed, we connected. There was a tiny gift exchange! Mei shared her zines and postcards with me and I felt truly touched. I absolutely adore her art. An utterly amazing 10/10 half hour experience of a friend hang speed-run. It was all boba and tea (gossip).
"SANA ol or Na ol" (Sana all) is a slang expression that is used by young people today to wish for an individual's success or luck to spread to other people, mostly barkadas. It's a phrase which means 'I hope everyone experience that'
Around 6:40, Mei had to leave for class and I had a plane to catch. We hurried back to the mall and said our goodbyes :(
The rustiest looking van swung by to pick me up. I asked the driver if we could hurry up and he said: challenge accepted. I looked at the Google Maps and hoped for the best. What stood in between me and the airport were rows and rows of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and taxis on the freeway. I was so nervous about missing my flight. I updated my friends on my flight back home and all I got were light lectures and shared anxieties.
"Kayla, you crazy son of a gun. I would've had heart attacks multiple times if I were in your shoes lmao"
"Bro my anxiety could never lol"
"See miss?" the driver said to me, "We made it before 7:40. You know you really should plan your travel hours ahead of time..." The driver continued to lecture me as we pulled into the departures drop-off area. I thanked him and tipped him for the speedy driving. I ran through that damn airport.
I made it right at the boarding call time at 8:15PM... However, once I arrived (I sprinted), I waited for the announcement. They said that the plane was delayed for one hour.
We are 4 for 4 in layover tours. I have never missed a flight. Let's knock on wood.
a very blurry photo of the night drive to the airport
I got the window seat :)
Our day was so quick. I wish my mouth could flap faster or that time could pass slower.
me sitting in front of the boarding gate with all of Mei’s goodies. Thank you so much, my friend. This is so sweet. Mei’s art is so wonderful
Good luck with everything, Mei! Our conversations were so great and it was fun catching up with you. I really enjoyed sharing so many stories and tea with you. It was such a fast meeting, but we will surely meet again in the near future. This time, I will be in your city for more than 5 hours... Much love and appreciation for everything that you do. Keep writing!
~ friendship speedrunner,
<3 K