tuesday morning was a project defense in stat lab. turns out we wouldn't officially be sophomores until friday morning, when we can email the revised paper to our prof. it all seemed like a casual school day, which was in fact our last until the first sem for second year starts in less than two weeks. it thus came as a surprise to some of my friends that i would be leaving for the states that very evening.

it would be my second trip alone, and my first trip without any sort of assistance from anyone, aside from my transpo to the airport. my flight was at 11 pm, but for some unconceivable reason, i left the house at 4:30 and arrived at the airport around 5:30 pm, nearly 6 hours before my flight, and 2 hours before the check-in counters for my flight opened. i then burned that time listening to jam 88.3 on my mp3 player, while constantly glancing at the airport clock and feasting my eyes on the psp a fellow traveller brought out at the seat in front of me.

when check-in finally started, i was able to skip lines using the silver elite card i finally earned, and got entrance to the miascor lounge in naia. now, since business class and elite status are usually reserved for or bought by elderly business-like people, it must have been quite a change to have a 17-year old mooching on the free stuff available at the lounge. what's funny is that even if there were tons of food and drink available at the lounge, the other visitors didn't even so much as sniff at the food, but usually just take a can of beer or a glass of wine and hole up in their newspapers or magazines or at the news on tv. i, on the other hand, am not one to pass all that up. repeated servings of pansit and arroz caldo, two slices of mocha cake, several cans of mango juice, and a cup of hot tea later, boarding time finally came and i had to leave the sanctuary that was the lounge. that beat spending time at the regular passenger lounge.

the rest of the trip was snoozeworthy at the least. after cramming our stat paper on sunday night and having our last poker party for the first year on monday night, i had only scraped out less than 10 hours' sleep for over two days. and as it would happen, the 24-hour trip would be the perfect way of catching up on much-needed sleep. regardless of the waking dawn, blazing sun, or silent night going on outside the window, i just slept through it all. nothing like cross-global travel to mess up your internal clock. the only times i held awake was during layovers, 3 meals i had throughout the trip, and the filming of little black book and elektra.

the only other noteworthy event during the trip was a panorama at 35,000 feet, one only nature could have provided. at the start of the honolulu-houston leg, we were sent off by the setting sun off the hawaii horizon. the flight continued through the night until the captain called our attention to the right side of the plane, where an amazing view would be awaiting us. out of the blackness, a crimson disk seemingly melted into the horizon, then drifting up into the night sky while shifting to a beautiful golden hue. it appeared like a phoenix, rising up from a sea of darkness, basking in all its fiery glory. a moonrise like no other, visible only from the heights we were on.

it's just moments like those that i wish i had a digicam.