October 5: Good Evening LA

I landed in LA after a grueling 12 – hour flight from Manila. The flight was quite bumpy due to turbulence from the bad weather in Pacific region near Korea – Japan. Aside from the occasional jolt, the strong winds rock the plane so violently that I actually felt that I’m at sea and not in the air (even though I’ve never been to the sea before). Anyway, the ride was so shaky that I hardly slept on board the plane even though I’m tired and haven’t slept much prior to my trip due to anxiety. However, not many passengers share my trepidation. Most of them including my sister who is traveling with me, slept rather soundly despite the turbulence 37000 feet in the air! In fact, the passengers behind me and beside me in the middle row (I sat in the window aisle near the rear of the plane) snored so loudly that it disrupted any attempt I had in sleeping (this is in addition to the fact that I might also mess up my gelled hair, which I rarely do by the way). Oh! How I envy those hearty sleepers for it’s not easy for an insomniac and a light sleeper to enjoy the simple comfort of sleep. Even so, I tried my best to get some shut eyes. I could actually read the book I carried (“The World Is Flat”) instead but every light inside the plane was shut off and though I could open a reading light to read my book, I risk interrupting my sister’s beauty sleep. No choice indeed but to bear the “torture”. I left Manila on October 5 2200h and arrived in LA also on October 5, 1900h. I arrived on the same date because I passed the International Date Line. So technically, I lived an “extra” 15 hours of life without aging for a day (LA is 15 time zones away from Manila). And because of that, I got to eat 5 square meals and 2 snacks, 3 in Manila and 2 on the plane as well as 2 snacks. Talk about cheating on life. Anyway, I never did planned to visit the US anytime soon having spent my vacation already in China this past Lent. It’s just my sister got only a year’s visa and she wanted to use that before it expired in June of next year and it also happened that my aunt who is living in Taiwan has a long holiday around the 10th. Add one to the other and puff, I’m here. This is my second vacation for the year and I’m with my sister, my aunt, and of course, my cousin, Philip. I joined the Taiwan tour courtesy of my aunt and the trip took me to Disneyland Anaheim on the first followed by a visit to the Chinese Mann Theater, and then to Universal Studio then Las Vegas on the third day followed by a tour of the Grand Canyon, then to Laughlin for some shopping (Oh, I sooooooooooo hate shopping!!!!) next to Calico and Fresno, Yosemite National Park, and lastly, to San Francisco, from where I’d took a plane home on October 12 and arrived 2 days later on the 14th. Anyway, as the plane geared to a landing at Tom Bradley International Airport terminal, I was treated to a beautiful nighttime sight of LA with all the streetlights and the car headlights on. LA looked like the reflection on the ground of the heavenly stars at night. Impressive I would say with all those rectangular street layouts. The first impression I got about LA at least from the airport is that I don’t feel like I’m in the US at all. Truth to tell, I felt like I was at home or least in some Asian world city like Hong Kong or Shanghai for I noticed that there is a predominance of familiar Asian faces at the airport. Even the languages you overheard at the airport are mostly Chinese if not other Asian languages like Filipino. That is my perception until I saw a Caucasian couple, a man and probably his girlfriend locked in embrace and engage in a deep kiss lasting like 2 minutes or more. Now, definitely, I’m in the US! (Among Asians, you would rarely see a public display of affection. Usually, it’s a peck followed by a bear hug) Another thing I noticed in LA is that I saw a lot of fat locals (Caucasian, Afro – Americans, and some Asian Americans as well). They are not just simply chubby or plump or portly. They are really fat as in the size of a boulder! And surprisingly, it’s not the rich people who are fat here in LA. It’s the ordinary Americans! I supposed that McDonald’s and it’s clones are indeed very popular here in the states (or so I thought). Anyway, we were billeted at the Holiday Inn at Buena Park that night. The rooms are ok but not exactly the type that I’m accustomed to but who is complaining as long as I got a comfortable king size bed all by myself. Finally, I could get a welcomed sleep (which I did)! My cousin who is sharing the room with me with his own bed cannot sleep on the otherhand due to jet lag (he even fiddled with the lamp at 5 in the morning waking me up in the process) but not me, no jet lag got hold of me. I definitely slept like a log that night. “ )