November 2, 2005
Pre-Departure Outbursts
Too much. This is too much. Because of the US Embassy's overly strict immigration rules, I found out that only a few of my present belongings are qualified to enter my baggage. These are my photo albums, letters and souvenirs which I've accumulated throughout the years, personal documents, laptop, and five pieces of clothing. That's it. I had to toss out my other clothes for fear that they're all fake. Even my shoes. Or bags.
To my horror, I also have to reformat my laptop because of my unregistered XP, which meant that my installed pirated softaware too, all have to go!My harmless 700 plus MP3 songs are facing the same fate as well. Worse still, I'm forced to leave behind my amassed piano sheets because they'd deport me for bringing photocopies to their country! They'd still find a way to locate those forbidden materials no matter how wittingly I try to hide them. Now, am I not so unfortunate?
Like other Filipinos, I don't have the luxury of buying all original materials, reason why I resort to buying pirated ones or photocopy bulks of books, even if it's against the law. So the more I dig into my possessions, the more painful it gets. I really feel awful for leaving parts of myself behind.
