The Day I Almost Kind Of Met The President Serendipitously. (Based on a True Story)
If you ask me “how did your day go Elle?” I’d say “Fantastic!”
“Tell me about it.”
*Cue dramatic music*
I woke up in the morning and went for a jog down my street.
Little did I know, there were police on motorcycle on my way. My first thoughts were “Oh no, was I jogging too fast? I swear I was only running 5 km/hr.”
Then they just smiled at me. Just then, I saw a car which had a small Philippine flag inside the windshield! Then it hit me: The Philippine president was staying at Westin hotel on my street! (I was like OMG!) I felt giddy and proceeded to the Parliament. Philippine flags were flirting with the wind against the cerulean skies and crisp spring morning breeze. (And there was a small spider on my shirt. Yikes!)
I spotted the GMA and ABS-CBN reporters, two of the largest TV network station in the Philippines and I had the opportunity to talk with the GMA reporter, a very pleasant lady who congratulated me for being a Canadian citizen and a university student. (Thanks(?))
Then I made me way near the Parliament building where an RCMP officer informed me that the president was coming at 10:00 AM. He insisted we take a selfie.
It turned out, Filipinos in Ottawa were too busy to meet the president and it was only Miss Eve, a fellow Filipina who left work to take videos, and I who decorated the street to meet the president. As all decent Filipinos would do, we took a selfie. Teehee.
We waited and waited. And of course 10:00 AM was Filipino Standard Time. The president arrived at 10:45ish (Canadian Time). We didn’t realize it was him and we completely ignored the diplomatic cars going by. Turned out, he had passed right under our noses!
Nevertheless, we met the Filipino “Men in Black” Rolando Vargas and the other guy (dunno-his-name) and we chatted with Rolando and he informed us that they were indeed staying at the Westin Hotel(!!!!) Few doors down my apartment. I was like “Waah no way! That’s like soo weird.” His Excellency had gone to Rideau Centre, (Mall next to my house) which was connected to Westin, to buy some CDs.
Soon, we made a mad dash towards the parliament building to capture Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Benigno Aquino, although from a far distance as we were not allowed to be near the building.
Going home, I also witnessed a peculiar sight with different types of Canadian army. They had a moment of silence and oops, I pressed the button to cross the street and got dirty looks. I’m really sorry!! D’: