Postcards for the weekend 57: Anything you wish

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from North Houston, Texas
Sent 2 Dec 2013, Traveled 13,241 km in 10 days

For our theme this weekend, anything you wish, I'm sharing an anecdote, facts, and trivia about the United States of America and the states that I'm visiting during this 3-week business trip.

CA-669234, Sent from Montreal, Quebec
Sent 11 Oct 2016, Traveled 14, 644 km in 15 days

According to a report published by Instituto Cervantes, the United States of America has more Spanish speakers as compared to Spain. My first conversation after getting out of my 13 hours flight from Tokyo to Washington, DC was with a gentleman, whom I asked for directions. My un poquito Español was put to the test. Good thing some Spanish words are incorporated in my native tongue, Filipino. Evidently, one needs more than English to efficiently get by in the USA.

RU-1711183, Sent from Yekaterinburg, Russia
Sent 29 Apr 2013, Traveled 6,872 km in 37 days

My flight from Tokyo (I flew in first from Singapore to Japan) landed at Washington Dulles International Airport. I wish I budgeted a couple of days for sightseeing. I could have seen the Lincoln Memorial in the capital. 

Direct Swap, Sent from Vienna, VA
Sent 22 Nov 2016, Traveled 15,685 km

From Washington DC, I flew here to Cleveland, Ohio. This is my first main destination for my 3-week business trip here in the USA. When I came to the office yesterday, I was given a goodie bag, containing several items and a paper with a Did You Know? header. As you can imagine, it's the inspiration for my choice of postcards for this post. I learned that Ohio is the Birthplace of Aviation, as the Wright brothers were born in Dayton, Ohio.

TW-1056264, Sent from Taiwan
Sent 25 Oct 2013, Traveled 1,171 km in 13 days

On Sunday, I will fly from Cleveland to Seattle, with a connection via Chicago. The Ferris wheel was invented in Chicago in 1893.

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from Seattle, WA
Sent 19 June 2015, Traveled 12,970 km

The state of Washington is my second and last main destination for this trip. Washington state produces more apples than any other states. I'm pretty curious if I'll have the chance to see apple orchards while I'm there. Moreover, I also hope to see one of our blogging friends, John.

Happy weekend everyone,

~maria

Of A Sun & Three Stars

I went home to the province for a few days. School has started and visiting my Tatay's (father) office opposite the barangay grade school, nostalgia swept me. This is the time of the year when we used to pester our parents with pieces of yellow, red, and blue papers and bamboo sticks strewed on the floor. As we, my younger sister and I, struggle to make the most decent looking yellow sun and stars cut-outs.

Back to the present, the classroom windows decorated with mini flags waving at us was a delightful sight. I told my sister, we should have brought a camera to capture the sight!

Come June 12, the Philippines will commemorate it's Independence Day. Declared in 1898, the Philippine was freed from the colonial rule of Spain with the public reading of the Independence Act and the unfurling of the Philippine national flag -- the same design used and honored until today. The same flag by which we recite our pledge of allegiance, the same flag which proudly sways with the wind, hoisted in public places: schools,government offices, by the monuments of our notable heroes, constantly reminding us to hold true with our oath:

I am a Filipino

I pledge my allegiance

To the flag of the Philippines

And to the country it represents

With honor, justice, and freedom

Put in motion by one nation

For God, for the People,

For the Nature, and for the Country.

I definitely missed sharing my postcards with the blogging community and looking at what they have up in their pages, so click the link below for postcards viewing this weekend! :)

~maria