Hello everyone! Just a quick life update. But first, I want to apologize for not posting a blog for a long time because I moved both physically and virtually.

  1. I moved to another country.
  2. I moved the site to a new domain.

Physical Move

I’ve made a life-changing decision to move to Toronto, Canada. I’ve been living here for almost 2 years and studying marketing. I told myself before that I will never go back to study in college again but here I am now just a couple of months left before I graduate.

Canada has always been my dream travel destination primarily because I have a family there. In addition, Niagara Falls was in my bucket list.

I’ve never thought that I would go back to college again more so in another country. Looking back, I somehow manifested into reality this new chapter in my life for at least two times.

Magic Mittens

The first one was because of these mittens.

I was a new hire for a Canadian company back in 2010. Just a few weeks in this graveyard shift job, the energy was different that evening. Everyone in the office was excited about the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics because our bosses from Toronto are raffling some Winter Olympics merchandise.

I was the lucky(?) one who got the mittens. My officemates were laughing at this prize because I won’t have any use for it in the hot and humid Philippines.

I can’t remember what other items were given away that night, but I remember telling myself someday I’m going to use these mittens in Canada.
I tucked it away in my closet and it stayed there for a long time. I actually forgot that I have it until I saw it again while I’m cleaning out my closet to prepare for the move to Canada.

This photo was taken last year during my first winter in Canada. ❄️ So, that’s the story of these mittens and the power of manifestation.

Skyscanner

The 2nd one was when I joined a contest by SkyScanner during TBEX Asia, a conference for travel bloggers, back in 2016. Skyscanner asked us to pose for a Polariod picture while showing on the map our dream travel destination. I only submitted an entry because my friends submitted too. The winner will receive $200 Skyscanner gift certificate that can be used to book a flight to anywhere you like. Long story short, I won!

That’s me pointing at Canada and I’ve written the specific place where my family lives.

Well, the $200 won’t be enough for a plane ticket to Canada plus I don’t have a Canadian visa at that time so I opted for my 2nd dream destination – Japan.

If I’m being honest, Japan was kind of my stepping stone to get to Canada. As someone from the Philippines, I figured it would give my 3rd world passport more “power” if I could get a Japan visa so that when I apply for a Canadian visa they’ll see that I’ve been to Japan which would help increase my probability of getting approved. Ultimately, the dream destination was still Canada.

It did happen! Fast forward to 2017, I visited Canada for 3 months then a year later I got accepted to study here.

Sorry for the long side story.

Virtual Move

Now, let’s talk about the virtual move. I moved to a different country which means the “Staycation Philippines” brand won’t work anymore. For a time, I switched it to “Staycation World” with a domain using staycation.world but Facebook suddenly blocked my site. Apparently, they’ve made a decision to not allow .world domains anymore in their platform because other sites have been using it on scam/spam websites which affected legit sites like mine too. I tried contacting Facebook support to tell them my site is legit but it’s very hard to get in touch with them.   (Lesson learned! Only get a .com domain. ) I just decided to do another rebrand and put all my content under my old travel blog – Plan Your Trip Now. This will also make it easier for me to update and maintain just one site.

Basically, I’ve been busy with school, work, and other responsibilities as I tried to settle in my new life in a foreign country. I’ve procrastinated on updating the blog because of personal and technical issues. But, I’m back now and excited to create more content for you and share my experiences.

Let me know what you would like to see on this blog.

Thanks for reading my life update. Catch up soon!