When I had an 11-hour layover during my trip from US to Philippines, I was able to step on the ground of Taiwan, but I did not attempt to get out of the airport despite the long hours of staying there. I just thought to myself that I would return there as a tourist, not as a passerby. And I did. 

Travelling the world is also one of my many dreams in life. I guess dreams keep us going too in life, like hope. This is my first time doing solo travelling. I am bit nervous, which is normal I think. I tried to prepare rightfully for this trip. 

The Trip.com app has been my go to online software for my travel ever since I booked that ticket with my friends for Cebu trip which is seven years ago.

Everytime I travel my goal is to find the cheapest but safest flight, hotel, and tour. I am always travelling on a budget. 

This time for the booking I used US dollar currency, since it felt more affordable and not painful on my pocket when I look at it. Well, yes, it is more of a psychological thing and hopefully, it is helping rather that damaging me.

Flights. For the plane tickets, I spent $110.50. It is a round trip ticket already for 4 days and 3 nights trip or more like 3 days and 3 nights because of the flight schedule.

Hotel. For the accommodation, I tried booking in a hostel. I booked for 2 nights, since I would be spending the 1st night at the airport. I spent $24.10 for the hostel. I made sure that hostel is a walking distance to the training station.

Tour. I decided to avail a package tour since I would be travelling in a unfamiliar land. I thought it would be safer and cheaper because the tour includes the transportation. As it was advertised, the tour is composed of 7 tourist attractions to visit. It is a one-day tour. I paid $49.75 for the packaged tour.

In total for the plane tickets, accommodation, and guided tour, I spent $184.35 which roughly converted to 10,139.25 Philippine peso.

I am excited and nervous at the same time for this trip, but I am definitely looking forward to it. 

Join me as I travel the world. Tara!

Love,

Whenever I hear Tyler, TX the first thing that comes into mind is Rose Garden. A friend’s post on Facebook left this impression on me, since it is always fun to visit places with flowers I got interested in that part of Texas. So when I got the chance to go to an area near Tyler with my boyfriend, I didn’t want to miss the chance to be able to visit the flower garden. 

It was always a long drive getting to Tyler and aware that driving was not easy, I always tried my best to be of use to the driver. I tried my best to be the navigator which I did okay and food commander which I did good feeding him while he drove us safely to our destination, and he always did a good job behind the wheels. 

I got to be in Tyler more than once and visited a few places, thanks to my generous and kind tour guide. Here’s the list of places we got to drop by from all our visits to Tyler:

Broadway Square Mall. It is an old mall in Tyler. You could see pictures of the old mall on the wall of the hallway going to the restroom which felt nostalgic. 

Boba Loompia. So good! Filipino food in Tyler, represent! It was so good and nostalgic. 

Rose Garden. I was so in love with all the flowers. They were gorgeous  and some of them were in full bloom.

Painted Tree. It was a boutique where you might find some of the curios things you would ever see. 

Crumble Cookie. Yum! Yum! Yum! I got no other words but delicioso! Bon appetit!

UT Tyler. His graduate university and my heart was full when he took me there. I love him for sharing that part of him to me.  

Bass Pro Shop. It is an outfitter store. It is still amazed me by their wide selection of outdoor clothes, equipments, vehicles, and a lot more. They got everything you need for a wild adventure.

We also got to try some restaurants and this list is not comprehensive since I forgot some of the places we ate at. I am going to update this list as I remember those places. Hopefully, fingercross.

Rotolo's Pizzeria. The Angry Pig was so good. Non-traditional pizza with spicy BBQ sauce, Italian sausage, bacon, jalapeños, and cheddar cheese.

Another Broken Egg. We had our Valentine's date here. The food was good and serving was big. I was so full and so happy to spend the day with him. 

The homemade food was the best part. I got to experience real and authentic American food. So good!

I miss Tyler, I miss Flint. I miss him so much. 

No post for June. It was a month of tears, heartbreaks, pain, and disappoinment. 

But for the month of June, I finished reading the book Joyful Surrender by Elisabeth Elliot. I guess that was the book I needed that time. It was a good book companion going through the process of another surrender in my life.  

There is nothing joyful in surrendering the fight to be with the one you love. Never in my entire existence thought of struggling to be with the one I love physically would come my way. I had this thought that it was something that could be won easily. Like as long you love each other, it will work out, and I am pretty sure it is going to be hard, but at the end of the day it is still going to work out. 

I was never ready to give up. Though I had anxious thoughts, I always thought that if I stick with him through thick and thin, he will do the same too, and he did, but up to a certain level only. He wouldn't go down deep in the dirt with me, and I get him. I so get him that I tried so hard to convince him that we could make it through together physically, but he would not try it. And I still love him. 

He was right it was a lot more complicated, but my simple mind saw it simple. It was simple for me. 

Maybe he was right when he said everything was falling apart. On my side, I thought I was doing a good job trying to keep it together. I was breaking, falling apart, but I tried to stay in one piece to keep the relationship, to stay together physically, because distance, a long, long distance can bring loneliness in a relationship.

He decided to let me go and it was something I did not want him to do. I thought he would not want to be apart from me, as much as I hated the idea. But he made his decision, and I did not have nothing to change that decision. 

I decided to surrender in hope that it would give him peace and joy. In hope that God will open doors for us. My heart was breaking, is. My soul was torn apart, is. It was the hardest decision I made in my life, to let go. To leave him, and be thousands miles apart from each other

I miss him every single day. I miss him in moments I am happy and in moments I am sad. I love him. But God should come first, and I guess that's the part that I missed, we missed maybe. He was the center of my universe. He was my world. I thought us going to church was putting God in the center of our relationship. But I guess, there were times we didn't put God above our relationship. We let Him down. I always pray that God will be glorified in our relationship and I still do. I pray that God is glorified in this season of my life as I wait again and try to live a life of freedom, joy, and faith all through Him and in Him.

Joyful surrender is hard at the beginning of letting go of the battle you have been fighting for to win. It is still hard and difficult during the process, loneliness is another constant battle I have to deal with. Only God can make it easy. If you let go, and let God. 

Before the end of June, it was also a month of hope and new beginning. As what he said, hope keeps us going.  

This step is the part of self-publishing where you decide to have a print copy of your book. I have come upon this company that helps in printing self-published books. I am glad to find IngramSpark. 

You just have to prepare two (2) documents: a formatted manuscript and a full book cover.

1. Formatted Manuscript

For most of the books I self-published, the size I use is 8 by 5. I use Microsoft Word for the interior of the book or the manuscript itself.  

2. Full Book Cover

The application I work with to make my book covers is Canva. The front, back cover, and spine are all created with Canva. Just make sure you use the template book covers for you have the right dimension. Since I use an 8 by 5 size for the interior, it is only right to have your book's front and back cover in the same size. On the other hand, the width of the spine depends on the number of pages of the book, and the height remains the same as the front and back covers.

To calculate the width of your book spine, you may use this tool from IngramSpark: Spine and Weight Calculator

Here’s a sample of the book I published on demand with IngramSpark. Behold! 😂

I hope this helps.