My first swap meet

It's like PI with a twist. We were there as early as 10am on a saturday morning. It was really cold and the weather forecast said it was to rain midday, but the place was already packed.

It was a huge parking lot were vendors brought different things at the back of their cars such as used electronics, power tools and furnitures, etc, etc to sell. There were also tons of new stuff that would lure you into buying, either because it's cheap or really, really nice, eventhough you don't really need it.


We enjoyed the super carne asada nachos (that's ground beef, melted cheese, salsa and guacamole with jalapeno!). Although we had a budget of 50 dollars, we just spent half of it. We bought $10 Chargers stickers for our car and a $15 guava plant for Ninang Lynn and Ninong Ato's new home. It was a day well spent.

Crossing Over

Heavy traffic at the SLEX, the never ending clatter of sidewalk vendors, the roaring noises of the tricycles, the echoing shouts of the “magbabalut” at night and tons of stuffs that makes me a Filipino is now thousands of miles away.

I’ve been to several countries before but this time, I’m here to stay. I was excited, not because everything is new to me, but the fact that were finally together after years of waiting.

Anyways, on our way to the airport, my mom, sister and aunt was with us to see us leave. Of course, when we said our goodbye’s tears eventually poured. We had our last ube ice cream before we boarded our plane headed for Seoul.


We only had 2 hours to spend inside the airport at Incheon before heading to LA. We took several pictures and browsed at the duty free shops. We then decided to have dinner early and ate at Welly&. It’s a Korean restaurant that Anna’s been waiting to dine at for so many years but wasn’t able to until that day. We then boarded our plane bound for LA.




We arrived in LAX at one in the afternoon. Right after the bus ride from the tarmac, I saw a sign welcoming visitors and decided to take a picture. Fortunately for us, we already took a snap shot until a customs officer appeared and told us to stop what we were doing. We then headed for immigration and presented all the necessary documents. Again another break, everything went smooth and the customs officer did not give me a hard time and welcomed me to America.


We decided to drive from LA to SD and so we rented a car. Unfortunately, the rental company that saved us a car was “out of cars”. We then called Budget and again luckily for us, they had a PT Cruiser on the lot for less than $70. I was a bit skeptic at first because we have 2 pieces of huge luggage, a hand-carry, 2 backpacks and of course-- 2 BB’s!! How could all of our things fit in the small PT Cruiser?! But the impossible happened and it all went right.


And the 2 hour drive to San Diego was all set to go.


It’s been more than a week now, after a few days of flu, jetlag, tons of stuff that needs to be taken out from the luggage, non stop going thru and fro from the mall to buy essential stuff and familiarizing myself with the confusing wide streets, I, among all the Filipino’s here in the US made another unforgettable experience.

And I have crossed over to start anew.