2014 was another great year for me. During the summer break, we had another road trip to Bicol. Afterwards, I enrolled in a summer French class program. It was a fun learning experience for me, and the teacher was very kind and funny. I was a little sad because I wasn't able to make friends with any of my classmates, but then I discovered that I didn't have anything in common with them. They were into modern pop music and were quite rowdy. In fact, one of them wouldn't stop boasting about how many selfies she took. I couldn't stand it! Anyways, in July, my mother and I visited England for the very first time. It was a fantastic trip for us. I was also touched by the friendliness of the British when not one, but two Englishmen helped us with our luggages in the train station. They asked us, "Excuse me, madame, do you need some help?" We replied, "Oh, yes, please!" Afterwards, my mother shook their hands and said, "Thank you so much! We couldn't have done it without you both." They replied, "No problem, ladies!" The cities that we went to for this trip were Brighton and London. In the following month, we attended a seminar in Iloilo. My mother had a frightening experience when she got trapped in the hotel elevator along with a fellow delegate for several minutes. Thankfully, I wasn't there at the time and my mother's cellphone had a flashlight. They managed to get out eventually. However, we decided to just take the stairs for the remainder of our visit. This hotel is actually quite old already, and there were even claims that it's haunted. Our experience here was so bad that I even wrote a review about it. As the year came to a close, we went back to Germany as my mother attended the same conference, which takes place every year. I got another surprise on my birthday during the Alsace tour when the other delegates sang Happy Birthday to me while waiting for the boat ride. It was unexpected and hilarious at the same time, and it made my birthday even more enjoyable. After the conference ended, we rode the Eurostar train going back to London, where we stayed for three days. We even stayed in the same hotel room!

TO BE CONTINUED