I was planning on what stuff to bring for my trip to Bacolod on Wednesday when I stumbled upon the bag tag which I used during the WYD in Sydney. I hurriedly placed it around my luggage handle so that I won't forget it when I pack my things tomorrow, but then, suddenly, my inner sentimental self got me... what if the tag breaks (because airline peeps normally throw luggage around)? That would mean goodbye to something so special! Aww! (Oo! May ganung drama moment talaga ako!)

I took the tag off my luggage and placed it back into my memento box. This is too precious to even be scratched, I told myself. In the box I found my other WYD stuff.. books, travel guides, maps, and pins among others. What caught my attention, though, were those little pieces of paper and cards that will forever be part of the amazing experience. I kept them all!

I realized one thing: I am a pack rat. I am a collector of random, useless objects (as Christine puts it.) I mean it's not only with my WYD stuff, you know. If something (though small) is part of a wonderful experience, I have the tendency to keep it. Haha! I know, right? Weird me. I keep telling myself I would put them together in a scrapbook which I never got the chance to even start! I've been slacking over that project for months now! Or years maybe!

So anyway, just to make myself feel good about the scrapbook thing, I got some of the WYD items that still make me go "Awww.." whenever I look at them. I slapped them against my scanner (too bad the other things weren't scanned because of the limited space) to get something to share with you. It's actually quite interesting to do this, if you ask me. =)

Hanapin nyo nalang kung nasan sa picture ha!

1. My Bag Tag
That's the one with my name and address and the Philippine flag as the background. This tag was on my pilgrim backpack the whole time. I mean, we all had the same bag so it was something to identify mine against the sea of red, orange, and yellow. Plus, I purposely had the flag on there for the reason that I want to always tell the whole world (especially the one right behind me) that I am Filipino and I proudly carry with me the tricolor (pang Olympics ang drama!).

2. Boarding passes
PAL boarding passes for my Manila-Melbourne and Sydney-Manila trips. My Melbourne-Sydney boarding pass (not shown) from Virgin Blue was printed on receipt-like paper and the print is slowly fading away. Boo.

3. Metlink train card
That was the only time I paid for public transport. This was the train card I used to visit Victoria Market. Good thing I got the Sunday promo for less than $3. Their train cards can cost up to $10, which is ride-all-you-can (including buses), good for a single day. Imagine Php400 for transpo in one single day... I would rather walk along SLEX, thank you.

4. Ripcurl tag
This spells only one thing... SHOPPING! Aussie = Ripcurl (also = Billabong = Roxy haha!) This was my purse's tag! I got it on sale!! Woohoo!

5. Receipts
Speaking of shopping, I also kept the receipts from my shopping escapades. There are receipts not shown here because if they were, there would be no more space for all the other stuff. Seriously!

6. Check-in luggage tags
Yeah, I keep those, international or domestic. Teehee! The ones here are from PAL and Virgin Blue.

7. Philippine terminal fee receipt
Ohhwwkay. So why do have this? How come there's no such thing as "terminal fee" in the other countries I've been to?

8. My WYD08 Pilgrim Pass and ID
This was the ultimate PASS ever! Free train and bus rides for a week! My Parañaque neighbor who now lives near Randwick asked me why was I still wearing the ID even though the WYD ended a day ago. Told him it's for the free ride. Drivers still honored it even 3 days after the WYD.

9. Opening Mass Pass
Since me and my housemates were separated from the delegation on the first day, we were not able to get our Pilgrim Pass from our leader. So it went kinda different for us. We squeezed ourselves among Pinoy pilgrims so that the bus driver wouldn't notice we dont have IDs on (Pinoy nga talaga!) We rode the train with another group of pilgrims so the absence of our pass wouldn't be noticeable too! As we were entering Barangaroo, someone handed us extra Opening Mass Passes. Sobrang wow! I was like, now where did that come from?!

10. Commissioning Mass Pass at Telstra Dome
That gate pass was also our transport pass around Melbourne that day. We went to see the business district and some important places. The Mass was pretty much the only big event we attended while we were in Melbourne because our host parish was pretty far from the event sites. We didn't have a transport pass for the DID08 in Melbourne so it would cost pretty grand if we were to visit the city all the time for the activities. It didn't bother us, though, since our host parish came up with activities for the pilgrims.

11. WYD Merchandise tag
Partly hidden behind my bag tag. This was from the navy WYD SYD 08 shirt I bought from the merch store at Hyde Park.

12. My Vodafone SIM Card
I didn't really want to buy a SIM card there but I was forced to. I figured that my Globe phone bill could shoot up in a month if I use my Philippine SIM card to call the peeps I have to meet in Sydney, so I got a Vodafone SIM from 7-Eleven in Melbourne. Thing is, reloading credits was quite puzzling there. I mean really. It's quite complicated there than it is here. Anyway, I should've gotten the $2 SIM then recharged $29 so I could get $130 worth or calls and text. But because I couldn't understand how reloading goes there (blame it on the 7-Eleven lady! She didn't know the difference between the cards they were selling!) I got the $10 SIM, reloaded $20 credits then have only $30 worth of call and text (you get your $10 back when you reload at least $20.) Plus, you gotta register the SIM before you can actually use it. As in you talk to a rep to give personal details. I guess that's good because they can track who's using the number, but still! Ugh. Complicated.