Tonight, we headed to the nearest place where pre-Fourth of July fireworks were being set off, starting at 9:30 p.m. We passed plenty of people sitting on lawn chairs out on sidewalks, and plenty of cars parked haphazardly on sidewalks and even along the highway. Lots of people also lolled about on picnic blankets with a citronella lantern set in the middle. It was basically the type of summer evening I've always enjoyed, and it still evened out to a lovely time even though we had to wait a whole hour to get out of the parking lot.

I've long lamented the difficulty Filipinos face in obtaining visas--even plain tourist visas--to other countries. Or maybe it's usually just me being paranoid about being denied a visa. Maybe to the rest of the travelin' Filipinos, visa acquisition is easy as pie. Maybe I'm just really, really irrationally afraid all the time.

Anyhoo, Joey, an LJ friend, just started a blog called Beacon Backpackers, and the topic of countries that don't require visas for Filipinos recently popped up. A quick discussion in the comments section determined that a list of such countries is in order, and one was immediately procured:

Brunei

Brazil

Bolivia

Cambodia

Colombia

Ecuador

Guatemela

Indonesia

Iran

Israel

Nepal

Malaysia

Mongolia

Morocco (Could've gone on a day trip, tsk!)

Nicaragua

Peru

Singapore (Check!)

Sri Lanka

Thailand

Vietnam

I'll add Suriname, Bermuda, Fiji, Seychelles, and Costa Rica to that. It's a fairly pitiful list compared to those countries whose citizens can basically strut into any country as long as they have their passports in tow, but it's better than nothing.

I love my niece Kristen for posting this in her Facebook, hehe.

Ok. I really need to settle this. This question of "are Filipinos Asian or pacific islander?" is always popping up and everyone always asks me. I’m going to clear this up. The Philippines is an archipelagic nation in Southeast Asia. Basically, it’s an archipelago. I have no idea why everyone thinks that to be "Asian", you need to be Chinese exactly, all Asians look different and not all see "in widescreen". People from the Philippines, are ASIAN and PACIFIC ISLANDER. The Philippines is IN ASIA. We are considered Asian because we are Asian. Asian isn't a racial term, it basically means anyone originating from the Asian continent, which Filipinos did. Filipinos and Chinese are very different people but they're both from Asia. And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Filipinos are Asian.

My basic point is that Filipinos are Asian and can be considered as a Pacific Islander, because we're just that cool. And don't be so stereotypical towards Asian people. Please don’t bring the Asian jokes to point where it can be a racist remark, it does get old and you should be mature enough to know when to stop. It can be funny sometimes, just don't go too far. Have you ever thought how a comment like that can effect someone? No. That's what I thought.Just think about it next time.

And its nice when people appreciate other cultures.

Thanks guys. Just wanted to clear the air.

I was horrified this morning to turn on my laptop and discover that the wi-fi in the lodge where we're staying has broken down. I slept off my disappointment for a few hours, hoping that by the time I woke up, the wi-fi would have been revived. No such luck. Checking with the managers downstairs proved fruitless, because the network is indeed unavailable. I was all set to go ballistic about the facility's wi-filessness when I remembered my own lectures about chilling out and shrugging off the small stuff. Whew. At least it gave me the chance to head down to the computer room and interact with some of the guests, and tonight, I'm all set to plop down with a book for the first time in a while. The lodge's library has a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, so I snagged that one, woohoo!

Finally. I've been waiting for that terminal to open for like six years now. I almost worked there, too. In 2002, I took an exam to be considered for employment in that particular terminal's corporate communications team; I clearly remember drawing a guy with a Manchu hairstyle on my short brown envelope containing my resume and other things. The woman who interviewed me afterward, who was really nice but whose name I forgot, was a lovely person who also majored in History for a year but eventually shifted to tourism. The exam and the interview went swimmingly, although my math scores were in the gutter. I did get the job, but the salary was pathetic: P7,000 a month, and that's gross--and I use that word to mean two things.