Poker Night

The Players (left to right) - Tom, Joey, Julie, Jimmy, Genti, Jaejay (taking the pic)


The Players (left to right) - Jimmy, Genti, Jaejay, Joey, Tom, Julie (taking the pic)

Over pizza and beer, the guys tried to teach me how to play a game that can destroy a man's well-being - a game called poker. I didn't know there is a variety of poker. Jimmy helped me in understanding the game. Here's what I learned:

1. Straight flush - poker hand which contains five cards in sequence, all of the same suit

2. Four of a kind - four cards of one rank

3. Full house - three matching cards of one rank and two matching cards of another rank

4. Flush - five cards of the same suit, not in rank sequence

5. Straight - contains five cards of sequential rank but in more than one suit

6. Three of a kind - three cards of the same rank

7. Two pair - two cards of the same rank and two cards of another rank

8. One pair - two cards of the same rank

We played Texas Hold 'em, Regular Draw and In Between. At first I was winning! At one point Genti thought he already won, but it turns out my cards are higher than his. He complained that it's because of my bad shuffling. Whatever the reason is, I'm still winning! As the game continues, my chips are...decreasing. It's a quarter for one chip and our initial chips are worth 6 dollars which is a total of 24 chips. My stack is approaching its inevitable demise. Tom is dominating the game. He even got the whole pot in one of the In Between games.

I'm winning!

And so the game continues... The winner with the most gain was Tom. I lost 6 dollars while Joey and Jaejay both won around 10 dollars. Crap!

Happy faces of the Poker Winners

My Apartment in Legends Resort, Myrtle Beach, SC

At first I thought Legends Resort is an apartment compound near the beach, it turns out it's a golf resort. It was raining when Jaejay and Joey dropped me off in 4578G (which is my villa number). Their villa number is 4532C, just a few minutes walk away.

After almost 24 hours of traveling, I can finally rest. I looked around and this feels like a really nice place.

Living Room

Kitchen

It seems that my apartment has a classical theme, more like a grandma/grandpa theme. The furnitures has an old feel to it (the TV has no input/output!). The alarm clock reminds me of the old radio in wooden casings used by farmers back in my province, it looks like the first 'modern' digital clock that humans have ever made. And the bible that is displayed on the living room can really fend off evil spirits, it seems as though it was really written by the disciples (not until I realized that the paper is not papyrus and it's not a Hebrew writing).

Alarm Clock (blast from the past)

Behold! First Compiled Bible!

It has two rooms with two beds on each room. I chose the room with its own bathroom. I'm not sure why I was really happy to see the hair dryer stuck on the wall eventhough I didn't forget to bring mine.

Bedroom


Bathroom

Whoaaa!!! *clap *clap *clap

My first dinner - McDonald's (I'm Lovin' It!). Isn't it amazing that halfway around the world, they have the same catchy phrase even if it's in a different language? (I'm Lovin' It! = Love Ko Toh! ). Even if that's the case, they don't have "Pa-burger ka naman! Burger! Burger!".

This is a regular size here? FRIES..BURGER..

The Royal Throne

Here's a view of 4578G in the morning.

Front

Trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (Oct 11 - Dec 14, 2008 Onsite Assignment)

I initially thought that this will be a very comfortable flight and that I will arrive in my destination at the planned time. Hell, I was so wrong!

NAIA Terminal 1 (Manila, Philippines) - I went to the airport 3 hours before my departure, the line was already long as expected. Surprisingly, there was no one on the NorthWest check-in counters. They were huddled up at the left side. And then...they announced the bad news over the microphone. We only understood the first few lines, the rest of the announcement was spoken using an alien language i.e. 'Attention passengers of flight NW72, we apologize for the delay. Apfarrenli we ar habin shhhhshhh shhhh (static)' . The NW personnel started handing out some cute paper cutouts with the information of why we are in the middle of such a mess. It turns out they are having some technical difficulties, their system is down so they cannot check-in the passengers. As part of their 'contingency plan', they are going to do manual check-in. As the guy in front of me blurted out, why didn't they think of that an hour ago? At that time I was actually thinking, what the hell is a manual check-in? Are they going to manually write down the boarding pass and manually write down your name or something? Anyway, whatever it is, do it and just let us have our seat. We finally left Manila around 9:30 AM (3 hours delayed as our original sched was 6:35 AM) and arrived at Nagoya Airport around 2:30 PM (Japan is an hour advanced compared to Manila time).

Nagoya Airport

Nagoya Airport (Japan) - As we disembark the plane and on our way to the next gate, we were greeted by a board with 'NW72 Detroit' written on it and with an arrow pointing to the left where the NW counters are located and where Japanese personnels were chanting 'Trip to Detroit?! Trip to Detroit?! Detroit? Detroit?' We have to line up again to get our reprinted boarding passes since some of us were checked-in manually. It was my turn. My conversation with the NW Personnel reminded me of my fave anime because of their expression when they are startled or when they heard something unusual - 'eEhhh?? '

NW Personnel: Here. Eto, final destination Washington?

Me: No.

NW Personnel: EeehhHhh? (looks at me and looks at the boarding pass)

Me: My destination is South Carolina.

NW Personnel: EeehhHhh? (looks at me and looks at the boarding pass, deciding which one to believe)

Me: I have a connecting flight from Washington DC to South Carolina.

NW Personnel: Ahhh. Different airline. This, different.

Me: But since our flight is delayed, I'm gonna miss my flight to South Carolina. Shouldn't I have a new boarding pass?

NW Personnel: In Detroit, they are going to give you. Please check in Detroit.

Me: Ok.

So off I went to Gate 19. But before that we have to pass the security check. The security people are obviously stressed out and as the items started piling up, he began saying 'Tsonto mante kudasai, tsonto tsonto' to us. (As an anime fanatic, I know that means please wait for a moment. But since nobody understands him, the passengers just kept on putting down their items.)

I was looking for the smoking area and I saw this lady who's looking for Detroit passengers and was pointing to the direction of Gate 19. I approached her and asked where the smoking area was. She looked at me and asked 'Huh? Ahhmm, Detroit?' and pointed at Gate 19. So I just asked again 'smoking area, doko desu ka?'. She smiled and said 'anywhere (pointed to her left and to her right), go straight'. So I went, well, anywhere.

Detroit, Michigan - We arrived at Detroit around 3 PM (3AM Manila Time). Again, there was so much chaos as the NW counter give us our new itinerary. They've rebooked our connecting flights. I was asked to go to Level 3 to check-in again. At level 3, a guy was shouting and swearing at the lady at the counter. Finally, the airport security were asked to take the guy away since he's becoming a threat. Three airport security then came and they hold his arms behind, placed his head over the counter. He was eventually shouting in pain.

Ceremony to honor the hero

Instead of Washington DC, I'm going to Atlanta then to South Carolina in Delta Airline. My gate is in councourse B so I head to the tunnel. My flight is again delayed! Apparently, there is a fallen soldier transported by the plane that arrived and there is a ceremony to honor the soldier. As I was waiting, I met a woman (who's also a Filipina) and asked me if I was also from the NW 72 flight. I said yes and started explaining her new flight details and showing me her ticket. She also said she has to call her someone who's suppose to pick her up (which reminds me that I also need to call Jaejay!). I helped her since she doesn't know how to use it and which coins to put saying that it's her first time in the States. Eventually, she just followed me around since she was nervous that something might get wrong because all of us have boarding pass and the new ticket issued by NorthWest is all she has. I told her to ask the lady at the Delta counter and she said she already asked her and told her she doesn't need a boarding pass, she just need the ticket. Huh?? It was finally time to board the plane, she just stick with me and asked me to help her talk to the lady coz she doesn't know what to say when they ask her. Okay, so we waited for all the passengers to board the plane before going in. She was immediately stopped by the Delta personnel saying that she already told her to rebook her flight / get a new ticket from NorthWest. I looked at her and asked her, 'I thought you said you already asked her and she said it was fine since you have a ticket? Turns out you have to rebook'. The Delta personnel asked me if we're speaking the same language and I ended up being a translator. Oh my goodness. Here's the situation, even if she gets on the plane, she'll just be stuck in Atlanta since she's gonna miss her flight going to Charlotte so she needs to go to NorthWest to rebook her ticket and choose a different flight.

Atlanta Airport

Atlanta, Georgia - I really have to call Jaejay since they are expecting me to arrive at Myrtle Beach at around 6PM. It's already 7:30PM and my flight from Atlanta to South Carolina is 8:45 PM so we'll be arriving around 10:45 PM. I rode the train going to concourse D and started to look for telephone booths. I don't have any coins so I bought a diet coke (first product I purchased in the US for the year 2008) and asked for coins for my change. I was able to contact Jaejay and Joey and told them about my flight details. This leg of my flight is on time, hallelujah!

Hooorrrayyy!!!!!!!

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina - dan dan dan dannnnn... I thought this excruciating experience is finally over... BUT my luggage is missing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ROOOAaaaaRrrrrrrrr!!! Arf Arf Arff!!!