Sorry it took so long, guys. Been busy with other things, and because it was Halloween week, I became extra busy, so here's chapter 2!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, the Paguro family didn't pack much from their home underwater. Sea monsters don't have so much stuff to bring on a trip other than seaweed clothes. But for the Paguro family, now that they often visited the surface, all they had to bring was their human clothes.

As for the Marcovaldo family, Massimo and Giulia pack some extra clothes and food for the trip. Giulia even packed up the world map and history books that have the topic of the Philippines. She packed up a magazine of Portorosso, just in case she misses home. Alberto wanted to bring his knife, but Massimo forbad him since weapons and sharp tools are not allowed in the airplane.

Both families met up on the shore as the Paguros dried themselves to turn themselves back to their human forms.

"Is everyone set?" Massimo asked.

"Already packed what I need, Papa," Giulia announced, carrying her suitcase, "I think I got some extra money for Philippine currency."

"Yeah, I don't have much stuff," Alberto added, only carrying a small backpack.

"We packed our own... just a few important stuff," Luca declared while carrying his own suitcase.

"Now let's get to the train station. When we get to Rome, we'll head straight to the airport," Massimo declared as they carried their stuff to head to the train station.

"Airport?" Alberto was confused of the term

"You know, where the airplanes are. That's where we'll begin our trip out of Italy," Giulia explained.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a long trip from Portorosso to Rome. This is why they have to leave earlier than everyone else's morning routine. It will take the train less than 8 hours to reach Rome. While on the train, Lorenzo and Grandma Paguro fell asleep on their seats while the older sea monster slept with her eyes open. Daniela was looking out of the window, watching the sight of the outside world. Massimo ordered himself an espresso. Luca and Giulia were reading a book about the planets while Alberto was drawing a figure of him, Luca and Giulia riding on a Vespa while showing it to them, making them giggle.

When they arrived in Rome, both families had no time to rest and look around as they were almost late for their flight. By taking the taxi (the model was old and different back then), they headed straight to the airport.

With the help of Massimo and Giulia, they were able to check-in for the "secret" sea monsters. No one in other parts of Italy knew much about the coexistence of humans and sea monsters yet, so it'll be safe if they kept themselves dry for a moment.

After waiting for the announcement of their flight, both families heard their flight number, and decided to follow the line of humans to the gate where their plane is.

When they got out of the airport, they saw their plane ahead as the children ran in excitement. The passengers have to climb the stairs to get to the main door. When two families did, the Paguro Family and Alberto were fascinated by the inside of the plane. Even Giulia herself, but she knew what the insides of the airplane looked like, despite not being inside of one before.

According to the ticket, the three children should sit together in the same row of seats. Danila, Lorenzo, and Grandma Paguro sat together on the same row just in front of the children, while Massimo sat behind the children alone because of his size, but this gave him the opportunity to watch over the children in front of him

"So this is what inside of an airplane looked like," Alberto chuckled, "Glad that we sat together,"

"It'll be so much fun," Giulia squealed excitedly, "I'm kinda scared of riding an airplane sometimes, but it'll be relaxing when we get on the air," She then noticed Luca hyperventilating like he was nervous on his first flight. Giulia then took out a magazine from the pouch of the seat in front of them, and gave it to Luca, "Here, read some magazine so you can relax before the flight."

When Luca took the magazine, and opened to read what's inside, he read the article about food, then clothes, which they weren't so bad, but when flipped the next page, he saw the whole two pages of an airplane crashed and exploded at one side of a mountain, "I don't feel relaxing anymore!" Luca felt a small sweat rolling down his temple, revealing a small track of his green scale, and felt he was melting in fear.

A flight stewardess kindly helped Daniela to fasten her seatbelt, and Lorenzo followed how to do it.

"I'm not sure if this is safe," Daniela was scared. She has never been outside of her home or Portorosso, ever. Revealing herself as a sea monster in Portorosso was one thing, but she wasn't sure if she and her fellow sea monsters were welcome in any parts of the world.

"We'll be fine as long as we don't reveal ourselves as sea monsters," Lorenzo reassured her.

When the airplane finally took off after almost an hour, the pressure caused Luca, Alberto, and Giulia's bodies to get themselves pushed into their seats. Both Alberto and Giulia cheered in excitement for their first flight, but Lucan sat still in panic. This wasn't falling off the cliff at all. He wasn't scared of falling anymore, but now he's afraid of flying or worse... crashing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took almost a day of travel by flight to get to the Philippines as their flight made one or two stops along the way. The Underdogs fell asleep at their last stop as they were covered by a blanket by a stewardess.

When morning came to their flight, the three slowly woke up. They weren't used to sleeping while sitting down on their seats. Giulia slightly opened the window since her seat was next to it. The light of the sun almost blinded her as she quickly closed the window. She has to let her eyes recover from her sleep.

After getting breakfast, both families were fully awake, but they had to stay on their seats until further announcements.

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking," the pilot declared from the P.A., "We will be arriving at our destination in Manila, Philippines in 15 minutes."

Giulia gasped in excitement, "Did you hear that, raggazi? We're almost there!"

Alberto stretched his arms, "Finalmente, after taking two stops, we finally made it."

When Giulia could open the window, she finally saw the land of the country called Philippines. Despite being so high, she could see a lot of mountains and vegetation around. The country was surrounded by water. It was like the country was an island, but it was a big country when people stepped on it, but if they flew on the plane up high, it looked like an island.

Lorenzo opened the window, and noticed the country down below, "Oh, Daniela, look."

Daniela looked at the window when her husband moved backward to give her space, "Wow!"

Grandma Paguro could see the window from her seat as she chuckled, "What a beautiful sight."

The children were watching the country from their own window, and beamed in amaze.

"Whoa, the Philippines look small from up here," Luca commented.

"Emozionato, Giulietta?" Massimo asked from the back seat.

Giulia turned around along with the boys, and she answered, "Si, Papa! Ooh, I'm so excited once we get out of this plane!"

"I've never been to this country before but I know this is a great place, and I know you would like it," the fisherman smiled.

"This is gonna be some vacation!" The girl squealed.

Alberto looked back at the window, watching the view, "I know I said I wanted to see the world, but... I have never seen a different country so... wonderful.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the plane finally landed on the open runway of Manila International Airport, the passengers could leave the plane as they walked down the stairs. The Manila International Airport was a humongous lot with many roads for cars, buses, and other modes of transportation to drive on. There were many bus and car stops where the vehicles halted to pick up or drop off passengers that were going to or leaving the airport. The building itself was ginormous, and a beautiful shade of white, with many glistening windows all in perfectly organized roads, and lights strong enough to shine lights so bright, it could rival the sun. On the roof, you could spot the tall watchtower, where security officers went to scout the area and make sure no one was trying to sneak in, while at the same time, get a good view of the planes coming in or leaving, and the passengers entering or exiting the aircrafts.

After getting their check-in luggage from the airport, both Paguro and Marcovaldo families went out of the airport where the warm sunlight shone around them

"So this is the Philippines," Luca whispered while carrying his bag, "It's beautiful!"

Since they have less money with the Philippine currency, they needed to save some for a place to stay for 2 weeks, so they decided to talk out the airport to find a place to stay for the entire winter vacation. Manila was a wide and bustling city, where almost everywhere you went, you saw cars being driven down the road, or the occasional horse carriage being pulled down the street. You got cars ranging from small simple automobiles that all seemed to share the same shape of the Mendosa Benz, but came in a plethora of colors, to the mighty buses that picked up and dropped off passengers coming and going to different cities. The sidewalks were full of people heading to many different places, and within the crowd, you would find the women wearing many different colored and different styled dresses, some long, and reached over the knees, while others were short and hung just above the knees. Some dresses sported beautiful ribbons and intricate designs and patterns, while others were simpler and more singularly colored, like the cars. The men, however, wore an array of short sleeve and long sleeve shirts, that too also came either with designs or was kept simple and in a plethora of colors, and pants, usually ranging from brown to black, gray, tan, and khaki. Everywhere you looked, you found tall, tall buildings that towered over the streets, some offering fine dining services, others offering consumer products, such as clothing, food, gas, etc, and they all also had big signs that displayed their names far and wide for all to see. Some buildings were only a few stories high, about 5 or 6, like others towered 10 to 12 stories high, displaying multiple windows and balconies for the people to rest out on. In every building, every house, and every store, there were colorful parols hanging above the doorsteps and windows. The parols were shaped like stars that had a framework, and covered by colored pieces of either Japanese paper or crêpe paper. Some parols are made up of empty plastic bottles and cans, probably they were being recycled and made into a parol. Some parols were hung on the street lights and trees. Some of them have circles around the star. Parols might be decorations for the holidays in the Philippines. The Underdogs were impressed by how people in the Philippines celebrate the holidays by decorating their homes with star-like lanterns, and went to a big "house" called church. Giulia knew what a church is, but it'll be hard to explain to her two friends.

"The Philippines is a tropical country, which means it's hotter and rainier here. No snow at all, just the rainy season, and in winter, it often rains or the air gets colder," Giulia explained with Luca and Alberto walking by her side.

"So, where can I stay for the whole vacation?" Alberto asked.

Massimo turned to the children, and answered, "We'll search for an apartment. Living in a hotel is small for us, so we can ask around if we can find a cheap apartment that fits for all of us."

The children nodded quietly as they continued to walk, following their parents ahead of them.

While they came across at the side of the road where there were bushes of flowers around, a Monarch butterfly fluttered around the three children.

"Oh, look! A butterfly! La farfalle!" Giulia pointed as the butterfly fluttered on her mouth, making her feel tickling, and giggled.

The butterfly then flew on Luca's nose. The boy was fascinated by the butterfly, landing calmly on his nose. He giggled when the butterfly started to flutter off his nose. The butterfly then flew in front of Alberto's face.

"Hmm, interesting little fella, are you? Ciao there!" He pointed out his finger as the butterfly landed on it. Alberto slowly used his other finger to touch the butterfly, but when he did, it flew off, and fluttered on his mouth, "Hey, cut it out!"

The butterfly then flew around back to Luca, then Giulia before flying to the air when the light of the sun touched its wings, and it was out of their sight.

"Bye-bye!" Luca waved goodbye at the butterfly.

"Hey!" Massimo caught their attention, "We can enjoy ourselves later. We have to stay close until we find a place to stay or you'll get lost."

The three nodded in agreement as they continued to walk, and followed their parents.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they found a certain building, Massimo knocked on the door, and a Filipino woman around her 30s or 40s opened the door.

"Hello po! Can I help you?" She asked.

"Hello, we came from Italy, and we need a place to stay," Massimo said.

"Oh, you're tourist? Well, you're in luck because my last customer left for the holiday, so the apartment is yours. My name is Charo Reyes, and I recently owned the place," the woman chuckled nicely, "How long will you be staying?"

"Just 2 weeks," it was Lorenzo's turn to answer.

"2 weeks? Well, that would be easy to pay. If you're going to stay for 2 weeks, you have to pay the rent weekly, which means the total will be 2000 pesos," Charo declared.

"Uh, pesos?" Daniela was confused by that word.

"I can only afford just 600," Massimo gave Charo 6 100-peso bills.

When the landlady counted, she smiled, "Oh, that's right, you're from Italy. Don't worry, you can pay extra by working for me. You get paid, you pay me your earnings, and the rest will be your needs."

"What jobs do you suggest?" Massimo asked.

"I do need a lot of cleaning around here," Charo admitted.

"I'll clean," Daniela raised her hand

"Me too," Lorenzo added.

"Magaling! So, you two will start tomorrow," Charo told the Paguro couple, then shifted her head up to Massimo "What about you, sir?"

"I... can do the cooking, and cleaning the dishes," he answered.

Charo couldn't help but notice a missing arm from Massimo. As kind-hearted woman, she didn't want to give him a hard time working with just one arm, "That can work! There was a small restaurant at the back. I hope your food is good! I heard Italian food is so delicious!" the Filipino woman chuckled before asking Grandma Paguro "And you, lola, I don't think you can do a lot of work around here."

"I can tell some stories," The old "sea monster" answered, making Charo grinned silently.

"Well, I can really use some entertainment, but I don't know if I can pay you."

"Oh no, no, mine is free."

"Sige, alright! And I only have 2 bedrooms, so it can fit for a family like this."

"We're separate families," Giulia corrected.

"Well, one bedroom per family, that won't be a problem now, would it?" Charo inquired as Luca was the only answer by shaking his head, "Magaling! Well, enjoy your stay in the Philippines. I'm looking forward to learning much about you."

The Filipino woman giggled before going out of the room, leaving the two families to settle from their trip. It was revealed that Charo lived right next to the apartment she was staying in. She was only fixing the place for new customers to arrive.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While the Paguros and Marcovaldos finally settled down, they found their own bedrooms, and luckily, there were bunk beds in each room. Alberto and Giulia shared a bunk bed as the two fought whoever would use the top, while Massimo had his own bed solo next to the two. In another bedroom, Luca had to be on the top of the bunkbed while his grandmother stayed at the bottom, and Daniela and Lorenzo's bed had enough space to share. The rest of the day, they all unpacked their stuff, and decided to get some rest as they were too tired after a long trip.

On her bottom bunk bed, Giulia giggled in excitement as she put her hands behind her head, "We're gonna have the best winter vacation ever!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, from them on, there will be translations in this story

Italian:
Raggazi – Guys
Finalmente – Finally
Emozionato – Excited
Si- Yes

Filipino:
Po – sir/ma'am/ms.
Magaling – Excellent
Lola – Grandma/Grandmother
Sige – Okay

I hope you like my new chapter. Please review