#RPintheRP: A Travelogue

Day 16: Errands, Errands, Errands

This was a tough day as I had to go back to DFA Aseana to pick up my passport. The hardest part was getting out of bed. Because, well, you know. Six.

Six came for the ride all the way to Pasay. We were holding hands in the Uber and we both fell asleep. Slightly gross because like when we woke up there was some saliva on our hands. Someone’s drooling and that someone…I think is me.

We had a quick breakfast at the Jollibee close to the DFA and then we had to say our goodbyes. I thought I would be lining up at the DFA for a long time; however, to my surprise, receiving a passport is actually way quicker.

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Passport in hand, I took a cab to SM Mall of Asia. The two times I was here, I never had the opportunity to actually browse or go around so I wanted to take this time to explore the biggest mall in Asia. (Though it was, in retrospect, slightly disappointing. I guess I’m no longer used to mall culture. Like, yeah, it’s a big mall but that’s it. It’s just a big mall. With stores. With stores whose merchandise I could buy online, reducing the need to leave the house, but yeah.)

After MoA, I went to CCP. I wanted to buy the latest anthology of Virgin Labfest plays. As a theatre artist, I see that a lot of these plays have attained cultural significance in the recent years and I felt bad that I could not see them. Let’s settle for the next best thing: reading them.

CCP was another example of bureaucracy in action, given how many times I had to change floors and talk to people just to get one silly book. Afterwards, I had a hard time leaving CCP due to a sudden deluge of rain, but after more than half an hour of waiting, I found myself on an Uber to Cubao X.

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After a quick dinner of Mang Inasal, I walked around Cubao X, surveying the hipster capital of Metro Manila. I was able to browse through the famous Shop Expo but the ukay-ukay left a bit to the liking that I immediately took another cab all the way to the ukay-ukay stores in Anonas.

Little adventure finished, I went home and hang-out with Martin for a while. Thank god for Martin as he was the one who made my guest list for the upcoming despedida party.