[BGmusic: Honey Tree by The Mostar Diving Club]

Quote for the day:

“The durian is a very Asian, non-individualistic experience. When you eat it, everyone around gets a little taste… whether they like it or not. BWAHAHAHA.”

- Kuya Phil, American and durian connoisseur
defending his right to eat durian in the van

Can I say that again?  I’m alive!

I’m in Malaysia right now to bum around in a more exotic location help out at this conference my parents are attending, and at the moment enjoying the free wifi at our swanky hotel’s lobby.  I’m pretty much settled here in my little corner, but just a few hours ago, I was on…

THE SCARIEST FLIGHT I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY TWENTY-ONE YEARS!!!!! [Exclamation marks, capitalized & bolded letters needed to stress this point. Anticipate more of these.  Bear with me.]

See, our flight had been shaky from takeoff, but that didn’t bother me.  DQ can take a little turbulence, ’scuse me.

Our descent to KL – now that was a whole different bag of banana chips altogether.

Let me illustrate. Literally. [And be blown away with my MS Paint skillz.]

This is what a normal landing should look like:

This was what ours felt like:

If my art [heh] hasn’t convinced you of how frightening the whole thing was, you’ll just have to take my word for it.  It was the first time my whole body actually rose out of my seat, and it happened, like, three times.

So, what did I learn?

1. Never fly with [airline] again, if I can help it. [We're flying with them again next week to go back to the Philippines - d'oh.]
2. Tough times bring people together.  Ask my dad’s seatmate – she was clinging to his arm the whole time [note: we didn't know her - haha].
3. They [tough times] also push you to talk to God.  So me and him had a heart to heart.  Went a little like this:
   “God, is this it? Is this really how I’m going to die – a fresh graduate, on plane crash on a perfectly sunny day? It’s a pretty pathetic way to go, and I guess that’s okay because I’ve lived a pretty happy life, but if you decide to let me live… it would be cool. Help!”
   At the face of death [or so I thought], you’d think I would have bargained a little better for my life, or at least prayed a prettier prayer, but that’s all I could cough up… Which brings me to my last point: 
4. Appearances and words don’t matter. No matter how crappy your prayer may seem, God listens, and always answers. [And I like his answer to this particular prayer.]

I’M ALIVE! Woohoo!

[P.S. I didn't actually scream. I just yelped. Once.]