Fourth of July

I arrived in LA just in time for the July 4 fireworks. My Tita Girlie picked me up from the airport and drove to a friend's house in Rosemead where a group of Filipinos from Binan gathered for the celebration. There was sinigang, rice, halo-halo, baby back ribs and ... mahjong!

About the fireworks -- mas maganda pa ang fireworks ng kapitbahay naming Chinese pag new year :-)

By the way, my flight was smooth. PAL apparently has flights without stopovers (we usually flew via Northwest before) . I just slept and woke for a while, then tada! We were 2 hours away from LA na (the total duration of the flight was 13 hours) It was better to sleep because the inflight movie was some Will Ferrel movie that involved man-man figure skating! (Jops, Ave, Sam -- alam ko favorite nyo siya pero I really cant stand him!)

I breezed through immigration -- the officer did not even look at my one-way ticket. Siguro hindi ako mukang mag TNT. He told me to have fun in America! The baggage guy even told me "Welcome Home!" So, did I look like as if I "belonged"? Heheh

Tomorrow I will go last minute shopping for personal effects with my Tita (because I failed to buy some "essentials" ) and then meet with my cousin. On Friday, we pick up Rafael from Brazil (my co-delegate) who'll be having a whole day stop over in LA before he flies to Denver for Up With People at around 3PM. He wants to see the Walk of Fame in Hollywood and we'll be happy to take him!

I fly to Denver at 8:30 PM On Friday (July 6) also. During the trip from Manila to here, I realized that it is SO HARD to carry the laptop and another carry-on bag. Horrors when I picked up my suitcase from the conveyor -- ANG BIGAT ! I am now having thoughts of re-packing because I cannot imagine dragging them around all over the US and Europe.

But I feel like I've packed all essentials already and anything less than that might be hard also. Anyway, bahala na. I guess this is the time where I'm going to have a complete work out!

Here are more photos:

"Patriotic Paula" - she's a 15 year old Shi-Tzu owned by one of my Tita's friends. Cute! And guess what? They drug the dogs so they won't be so scared of the fireworks (don't worry! recommended dosages by the vet naman!)

Snack'em Strawberries - HUGE! Sarap!

Fourth of July , Pinoy Style: Mah-jong!! :-)

It's 12:40 am here and 4PM sa Pinas. Huhu -- I am so awake. I miss you guys!