Closer to Home - Seafood City Supermarket and Jollibee

October 15 - The feeling was surreal. I woke up really early that day despite staying up late to pack my things the night before. I left the hotel before 7:30 am to get to my 9:45 am flight to Seattle. I was really excited to go home but I was also looking forward to my trip to Seattle. I was visiting a family friend whom I haven’t seen for close to a decade.

My Delta flight was a few minutes delayed. And I needed a train ride to get to the baggage claim area at the Seattle airport. I reached the area and I panicked when I couldn’t find my bags. I found all of them after almost half an hour. My next struggle was how to transfer all my bags to the cart. You should have really seen me that day because Wonder Woman would really be embarrassed! :p

I was supposed to meet my best friend Hervi before noon but I got out of the airport by 12:30. It was really weird that I could send her text messages but I wasn't receiving her replies. So I had to text my dad who then told Tito Taka (Hervi’s father) to tell Hervi to pick me up. After another half an hour, I finally saw a familiar face. She drove me to their beautiful house and we had a Filipino lunch. Wohooo!

There was definitely a lot of catching up to do but she needed to go out for a meeting so I took that chance to watch TV and scan all the cable channels. I was really amazed because I got really tired of the 20 channels in our hotel (two of which are not for kids like me). But ironically, I was watching TFC most of the time. With nothing else to do, I decided to take a nap.

I woke up after a few hours as the house begins to sound like a typical Filipino household. I already heard the voice of Tito Taka so I went up from the basement to greet him.

He then drove us to Seafood City, the only place in the US in which I felt closer to home. I saw cars with stickers of the Philippine flag, I heard people speaking in Tagalog and Sharon Cuneta’s face greeted me as we enter the supermarket.

I got used to only eating eggplants and string beans in Minnesota so the sight of our local vegetables at the supermarket was amazing. I saw local brands of shampoos and soaps. And yes, instant pancit canton is everywhere. They even have Tagalog translations in the different supermarket sections.

There was Red Ribbon, Chowking, Tokyo Tokyo and…


They were worried that I might not like having dinner in Jollibee since I was already going back to the Philippines. I honestly didn’t mind. Jollibee has been a Filipino pride so I wouldn’t let the opportunity pass to try it in the US and see the difference. My verdict? Our Chickenjoy is better but I liked their version of the Jolly Spaghetti more than what we have here.


I really enjoyed my three-month stay in Minnesota but it was overshadowed by this particular experience. I’ve never seen a nation as happy as we are. It made me realize that Filipinos may have tasted the perks of living in a foreign country but there’s still no place like home. That experience actually made me more excited to come back to where I truly belong.

And yes, Jollibee dinner in USA is priceless!