I apologise for blogging so late. I had no intention of doing so. ):

Okay, so our flight out of Singapore was in Terminal 3. Terminal 3's so cool! (:




1) Terminal 3
2) A bronze seed sculpture thingy
3) The restrooms in T3



View from our window of LA. Somehow, it seems we always sit next to the wing? :P


Day 1. Wednesday, April 2.
After we touched down at LAX, we waited outside for the Flyaway bus to take us to Van Nuys, as usual.



1) Speckled bus!
2) Van Nuys (:


Tita Agnes picked us up at Van Nuys and we headed to Tito Bobby's house for dinner. We didn't stay long and journeyed to Tita Agnes' place in the desert in Lancaster to stay there.




1) Lancaster peeps' living room
2) Jessica's room, where me and my dad stayed
3) A robin's nest in the backyard


They have a new addition to the family-- Bubba! He's a pug! And he's so cute!







1) Bubba, all head
2) Bubba and Jessica
3) Bubba's tongue and toy
4) Claire, Bubba, Jessica, Tita Agnes
5) Bubba and me
6) Cinnamon roll tail! :D


For a late-night snack, I accompanied Jessica and Claire to Taco Bell drive-thru. First time I was in a car with Jessica at the wheel. Claire wanted to drive but Jessica isn't 25 yet. Claire only has a permit, making it necessary for her to have a licensed driver at least 25 years old accompanying her. The Cinnamon Twists were so good! We wanted to get the apple empanadas, but they were all out. ): There's always a next time though.

Day 2. Thursday, April 3.
For breakfast we had the McGriddle with hash browns. Yes, from McDonald's. It's like a Sausage McMuffin, only you can choose between bacon or sausage. AND! The bread resembles pancakes. Pancakes with maple syrup, to put it more accurately. It was SO DELICIOUS. After that there was the Cinnamon Melt. Yes, from McDonald's! How I wish McDonald's in Singapore would start selling these! Sigh.




1) Milk, McGriddle, hash brown
2) McGriddle, close up
3) Cinnamon Melt


After bf, me and my dad went to the Department of Motor Vehicles. My dad neaded to renew his driver's licence and I got an ID, similar to an IC in Singapore.

Then we headed to Ross, a store that sells cheap clothes, with Tita Agnes and Claire. I bought shirts! :D And I chose some for Natalie, which Tita Agnes paid for. And I got a new pair of sneakers! To replace my almost-2-year-old ones. Oh yeah, I tried on dresses and such for fun, and I found out I'm a size 4 here in America. D:

Next we met with Tito Eric and ate at Panda Express! I ordered my usual Orange Chicken and Beef & Broccoli. But I had no appetite. ): Seems like my tummy was still jetlagged. Lunchtime here = 3 am there. So I barely touched my food. Cry. However, I brought the leftovers home and it found a good home, filling the void in Jessica's tummy before dinner. Haha.



1) Menu: Instruction #2
2) My food!


We played bowling after lunch! It's been a while since I played. I've become really rusty now. D:


Tito Eric, Claire, me, father


We stopped for gas after at Costco Gasoline, where the gas is cheaper than usual. Check out those queues!!!




After that came my favourite part, taking pictures with the Joshua Trees! For those of you who don't know, they're these trees that grow in the desert. They have spiky bark that hurts when you touch it. They're SO COOL! I *heart* Joshua Trees!






1) Joshua Tree flowers!
2) Joshua Tree-hugger! (:
3) Can you spot me?
4) Me and father and Joshua (Trees). Okay, lame.
5) My shadow in the desert sand


Day 3. Friday, April 4.
I accompanied Tita Agnes to bring Claire to school. Then we went grocery shopping. There's so much food! Too many, I think. Imagine whole aisles filled with only one type of food. Welcome to the consumerist society of America.



1) Produce! Fruits and veggies, yay! For some reason, it reminds me of the Knorr broth cubes commercial in the Philippines-- Makulay ang Buhay. Haha. See it on YouTube. :P
2) The CEREAL AISLE. Watch your eyes, keep them from popping out entirely. :P



After shopping, we went to buy doughnuts! And we had them for breakfast! (:


Then I went to Tito Bobby's dental clinic for my first day at work with Tita Agnes. My very first job was paper-shredding. After a few minutes, the machine overheated and broke down, so I was demoted to file-finding. Each of the 6,000 over patients has a file. Sometimes I need to put papers or X-rays in, so I have to find the right one. It's not that hard, since all the files are arranged chronologically. BUT! Some of them weren't there, so I had to go looking in the Billing Section, where the files are helter-skelter and all askew! It was okay though.


FILESSSSS


I also did some photocopying and highlighting. And arranging documents in chronological order with this cool gadget that helps you arrange documents chronologically. It basically has many separate divides by date so you dont have to shove your fingers in between the papers. Made my job much easier. (: In between I got my teeth cleaned too, with Mint Chocolate Chip flavoured toothpaste. :D


Giant Listerine!


Day 4. Saturday, April 5.
Me and my dad drove to Burbank. We were in this house where there were pastors of different churches in the area. My dad gave a presentation about FEBC and challenged people to donate to the ministry.

When everyone else went home a handful of us were left. There was this little girl named Patricia playing Super Mario on her Nintendo DS. I found out that she's actually Ide and Robe's cousin and my 3rd cousin. Is that the same as 1st cousin twice removed? I don't know, haha. Anyway she couldn't get past a certain level and me, having had experience with the game, offered my services. :P So I finished the level, and the level after and the level after, even so far as to beat the boss in that level. And there was another girl who came to watch-- Camille. And we had a grand time! They must've thought me weird for playing Super Mario at my age. Haha. Our picture in the house:




After, me and my dad drove to the Glendale Galleria mall. There were lots of cool stuff but we didn't get anything 'coz after that we had another activity. I saw Forever 21 there! :P



1) Pink tree!!
2) Forever 21 in Glendale Galleria


My dad gave his presentation again at a church's couples' meeting. By that time my jetlag started kicking in. I was dying. During the prayer when we were all standing, I fell asleep and almost fell over. ): But then it was over quickly and we were able to return back home to Lancaster.

At night, Tita Agnes settles down and watches her pinoy telenovellas. She was watching Maging Sino Ka Man 1 when we first arrived, on DVD because she didn't have TFC. Although I watched it on TFC over a year ago, I wanted to watch the ending, which I had missed because of my conference call with the ExCo. And we stayed up until 1:30 am, despite the fact that I wanted to sleep so badly. :P

Day 5. Sunday, April 6.
The next day my dad and I woke up at 5:30 am! :P We had to go to a far off church in LA. I've been there before, last or last last time I went to the US. My dad preached for both the Tagalog and English services.



1) Fog! On the way to the church.
2) My dad preaching in Cornerstone International Christian Church. Or, as I like to call it, Church #1.


For lunch we ate at a Chinese restaurant with the Maddelas. There was so much food! :D Look at the kiddies!

Zachary, Joseph and Hilary :D


After, we went to another church where my dad preached again at the 5 pm service. The church's restrooms were under renovation and there were only port-o-lets! D: Good thing they allowed me to use the parsonage restrooms.



1) Church #2, Community Christian Church
2) After-service food


Anyway, throughout all these activities, I have had to force myself to socialise. ): It's sad and difficult as I have yet to undergo metamorphosis from an anti-social cocoon to a social butterfly. D:

Day 6. Monday, April 7.
We visited Jessica's house finally! She lives in a farm-like area. No Internet connection. Which saddens her techie husband John. :P







1) Me, Jessica, John and baby Rebecca (not their baby though, haha)
2) Me and Rebecca. She's so FAT and CUTE!
3) The outside of Jessica's house
4) Jessica's garden which she takes care of herself
5) Jessica's house
6) TONY! Jessica's neigbour's dog. Bubba's good friend.


Afterwards, me and my dad bid adieu to Lancaster and made our way to Apple Valley, to visit Tita Heidi and family. Look at the mountains we saw on our way:




It was more desert, and my skin died. D: Dry weather sucks. Anyway, the houses in their estate were sprawling! Their house wasn't as big as the others, but still. :P Anyway I ate a lot again! I ate Loaded: Butterfinger ice cream. I think everybody here has the same mission: TO OVERFEED ME. D: Save me people of Singapore! Lol.




1) A big house
2) My dad, Carla and Tita Heidi and the latter's house in the background
3) Berries!


Finally, we headed to Tito Bobby's house where we'd be staying next. :D Check out our reflection on the shiny tank in front of us!




It isn't the same as before though, when we usually come as a family. And when there's only us around. As in, no other guests in the house. :P I'm not able to interact much with Carlo and Ria. ):

For dinner, Tito Bobby and family and me and my dad ate out at Salt Creek. I ordered Lobster Bisque (soup) and a burger from the kids' menu. It was HUMONGOUS! I doubt any kid could finish it. Crazy, all the sizes here. Everything's BIG. The plus side is me feeling slim compared to the people here. Harhar. Anyway for dessert we had a chocolate souffle. IT WAS HEAVENLY! *drools*




At night I was able to watch Palos and Lobo on TFC. Muhaha. And it's a good thing they have the recording feature. So if I happen to miss it I can always catch up. :D

Day 7. Tuesday, April 8.
Breakfast was kielbasa and egg with sinangag! Too good. RAWR. Add Welch's Concord Grape Juice to that and it becomes almost too good.




My second day of work! More files awaited me! This time, though, I had the added task of taking down all the voicemail. WHICH is more fun than working those files. The files this time were especially tough, since many of them needed to be found in the Billing Section or the evil bags! The bags had random file numbers inside. And there were 7 or 8 bags like that. ): In the end, because of the sheer number of files I needed to look for, I decided to ease my search by leafing through all the file numbers and writing them down one by one ona piece of sticky pad which I then stuck on the wall on top of the bag. I did that for the Billing Section shelf too. If I needed a particular file, I just quickly scanned the numbers on the pieces of paper. Are you proud of me? :D

After, Tita Pilar fetched me, along with the whole gang. Whole gang = Carlo, Paolo, Timmy, Javier (the latter three are Carlo's cousins). I guess they are quite a fun bunch, my cousins' cousins. :P ANYWAY. We all went to fetch Ria. And her friend Carina came along too. Then we went to fetch Nanny. And the car went beyond it's maximum capacity. Haha. We got Cold Stone! And the younger kiddies got Starbucks. Kiddies + Starbucks? Haha. Talk about caffeine high. :P


COLDSTONE and STARBUCKS! :D



Tito Bobby, Ria, Tita Pilar, Carlo, Paolo, my dad


Late that night, I accompanied Carlo and Tito Bobby for Carlo's driving lessons. It was okay. At first. Then came the "Three-Point Turn". It's basically the reversing and turning back 180 degrees. Carlo was jittery and stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake. And Tito Bobby was shouting the whole time. We went up the embankment twice. The second time, we were inches from the fence! D: Too bad I wasn't able to get a picture of it though. I guess I was too much in a shock. :P Good thing I'm still in one piece. I'm sure that when I come back next time to America, he'll already know how to drive and Ria will be learning. Haha.