From China to Philippines

I was supposed to write a post about the clothes I made for Alice since she got here, but my hands instinctively wrote about Alice's journey from Doll-Love's headquarters in China, to my grubby hands here in the Philippines. The clothing post can wait.

The first time I saw BJDs was back in high school/early college. It was Mistula, the Philippine's first virtual band (and the first doll band). I was fascinated. After watching them on TV, I researched a bit about BJDs - and found out how expensive they are. My heart was crushed. As the eldest child of a low-middle class family, I thought I can never have that amount of money to blow on a single doll. I forgot about BJDs and moved on.

Here's a random picture of my cat just to break the drama. XDD

Fast forward to 2010. My friend, Sayou, and I started planning on getting our first BJDs. I'm not sure how the idea/plan started. Maybe its because we both have stable jobs and can actually save up money to get one. Maybe because we both fell in love with two different doll molds from the same company. Or, maybe because someone actually asked me to hold her doll for a photo op during a cosplay convention (I freaked out, I swear). Maybe touching a BJD curses you into getting one.

April 2011 was the month I succumbed to the dolly calling and asked my friend, Meems, to order Alice for me. It was right after Artemis, Sayou's little prince(ss) arrived in the Philippines. It felt like a risky thing to do. Alice was my first big purchase done via the internet. There were a lot of what ifs. What if she gets lost in transit? What if she gets damaged? What if I don't like her? It didn't help that I semi-regularly read horror stories about losing dolls on their way home. >.>

Five weeks later, she's finally home:

I fell in love again.

She never got a new name since I already liked her model name. She also came in on the same day as my pet rabbit's birthday (Alice chased the white rabbit, lol). 

I bring her around a lot. She's been to Tagaytay, to anime conventions, BJD meets, family gatherings. I get mixed reactions from people, but that deserves its own post. Right now, I'm moping excited to see her on Saturday because I haven't seen her for three weeks (she went to another BJD owner's house for a much needed MSC coating and kips insertion).

And now I'm rambling! Haha. I've never been good at ending blog posts so.. thank you for making this far and for reading my emo-ness! I just needed to record this story. I've left out a lot of details, like my experience with the Ebay seller and my customs experience (le horror!). Maybe on another post.

Thank you for reading!