I'm here. I'm HERE!!
Yup, I am H.E.R.E. I'm in the States for summer vacation.It has been great! I'm typing this blog entry now in my (big!) uncle's house, and I've been thinking that it's about time that I update my blog a bit since I haven't typed anything for the past month due to the SHEER EXCITEMENT of being here.
Here are some great things about America that I have seen and experienced on my vacation here, right off the top of my head (these are not arranged according to order of importance):
1. This place is the epitome of the land of plenty. I think I'm getting fat (moi? fat???!! hard to believe, eh?). Honestly, they serve you in the restaurants as if you eat like a horse (which I obviously don't). KAPIRANGOT lang ang food sa Pilipinas compared sa food dito. Grabe. Even the food they sell in the groceries are in excess, and they are cheap to boot. You really get your money's worth here.
2. Taxes here definitely come back to you. There is a plethora of welfare benefits that you get if you're a citizen here. You won't EVER go hungry since the government provides the unemployed some money for food and other needs. The roads are very smooth and nice (up to eight lanes on the freeway!) and heavy traffic is rare and almost non-existent. Tram rides are free too!
3. White people are actually very nice and friendly. In fact, they're too friendly, they're almost PERKY! Restaurant and fast-food staff greet you with an ultra-jolly "Hi!! How're you doing today?", which when applied in the same setting back home would be considered overboard. People greet you in the street though you don't know them, which is kinda weird, knowing that in the Philippines everyone is so paranoid that nobody ever talks to strangers, which leads me to the fourth point, which is...
4. The place is ultra-safe and pollution-free. I once saw some people in the foodcourt of a mall leave newly-ordered food on the table (they left to order more food), and I couldn't help thinking that in the Philippines, the food would have been gone 5 seconds after those people left the food unguarded. Walang pakialaman dito, which is kinda good for me. The air is clean, there are a lot of trees, people care about human rights, animal rights, and all the rights they could think of.
5. The malls are GREAT, even though they're kinda far from the residential areas (which doesn't matter because there's no traffic anyway). The shoes they sell are really nice! There is always a sale (10% off is NOT a sale for people here), which makes shopping here so addicting. I mostly buy my clothes from Old Navy though, since the prices there are so cheap (just $8 a top or less!). Actually, Gap and Old Navy are cheap brands here, although they're really expensive in the Philippines. One thing I learned here is not to convert dollars into pesos since people here earn more than people in the Philippines.
Yup, obviously everything has been wonderful so far.
We went to California Disneyland, which was very fun despite my Baby Cousin Kendra's crying, my Lola's killjoy tendencies, and the extremely loooong lines for the good rides (90 mins of waiting for Splash Mountain! really!). My favorite ride was the humongous roller coaster.
The Haunted Mansion. It's kinda corny but the special effects are good!
We spent two days in Disneyland, and we haven't even ridden all the rides.
We also went to Legoland. The Miniland was amazing; they made miniature Lego models out of the White House, Mount Rushmore, Sydney Opera House, Giraffes, Einstein, skyscrapers, train stations, cities, etc. I honestly never knew that there are so much stuff you can do with Lego (and a lot of patience...the miniature White House took 2000+ hours to build).
Grabe ang tiyaga talaga ng mga model-makers ng legoland. They made a mini New York out of lego!
We didn't get to go to Universal Studios since Baby Kendra might not enjoy the more mature rides there.
In Seattle, we went to the Museum of Flight and the Museum of Glass, courtesy of my jetsetter uncle..
This is a real concorde in the Museum of Flight. It's cramped inside, but it goes real fast.
The University of Washington in Tacoma.
I'm happy and content here so far, except for one teensy weensey thing:
I really really want an Apple Powerbook, a really cool laptop with an operating system light years away from Windows XP that it's impossible to get a virus, spyware, malware, or adware in it. I really really REAALLLY want it.
I really want it, I'm OBSESSED!
Oh well, that's wishful thinking. I mean, it costs $1200+.
Toodles!
posted by steph @ 5:50 AM
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