I’ve been thinking a lot about what my first post would be and how it should be different from what I should put in my “About Me” page. So, I figured, in light of the general topic I’ll post here, let’s start with my story (not my LIFE story, but just a chunk – a good portion of how my feet found its way to the Concrete Jungle).

See, this is a story of Chichay (me!) a few years before NY.

Once upon a time, after 2 failed long term relationships, she found herself single for about 3 years (!!!). A lot has been going on with her career though, which is always great. She recently got a chance to travel to the US for work, which gave her B1/B2 visa. And while she did travel mostly to NorCal and Phoenix, her feet found itself in Seattle, Oregon, and Minnesota. That was when she knew that the US travel bug hit her. There are many states, an extremely limiting 10 year visa validity, an ever-dwindling funds, and a perpetual itch for traveling that won’t go away.

And so, the next year, she planned to go for a proper vacation. Armed with a gift from her friend who works at an airline that allows her DISCOUNTED airfare, she flew to LA, NY, and FL.

But something happened in NY…

Something good.

She got to know an old time acquaintance who offered his couch and toured her for 3 days when her ailing aunt in Queens had shingles. Mind you, nothing much happened there, except, maybe, the part where they clicked. But vacations end and so she went home. But lo and behold, he’s going home too! In fact, he got there first. 🙂

Minus all the drama that ensued, they got together and said “WTH! Let’s date!”. And so they did despite MANY reservations about the type of relationship they’ll have (and of course, the folks included in the drama mentioned earlier). But vacations end and so he went home. Deja vu.

Communication never stopped though. That’s what’s great about our generation – communication should never be a problem, even for folks across the oceans. Anyway, suffice it to say that they both closed their eyes and jumped into a committed relationship. They’re both lucky enough to have support from each other’s workplace, so they get to see each other in NY and Manila for 3-7 weeks at a time for at least twice every year with thousands of miles added to their frequent flyer accounts. They’ve been going on their (almost always) merry way for 3 years when he popped THE question and she answered “yes”.

The end.

I kid! This starts my blog. This starts my journey of uprooting myself from the comfort of Manila (while leaving a lot of anchors, of course) and moving to NY to start my life with G. As mentioned in my “About Me” page, this blog aims to document the steps we took for me to get here and my path to citizenship. Of course, it would be peppered with some random posts about the other aspects of my life, too.

So, hello! Welcome to my story.