okay, so i stayed in the US for exactly 34 days. possibly one of the best and craziest months of my life. muhahaha. so before anything else, let me give some of the general things i've noticed first.
- there are lots of Filipinos here. as in a lot everywhere i go, there's like someone speaking Filipino.
- US doesn't seem like much of a different country. i mean as compared to when we went to HongKong/China, it was like a totally different world. i felt like an outcast lost in tall buildings and people who don't understand me (haha. the Chinese freaked me out a little bit. there were people who would suddenlly croak and spit out phlegm. ugh) and yeah, another reason is that i'm practically surrounded by Filipinos. plus, everyone speaks English (which means everyone can understand me) so i feel like it itsn't such a different world.
- the US is so over-rated. really. i mean it's nice and all, but it's not that far from what I see in the Philippines. actually, our country (referring particularly to Metro Manila) doesn't look half bad. and you know the things you see in postcards? the real things don't match with those pictures. like the statue of liberty? it's SO SMALL it looks nothing like the statue of liberty i see in postcards and movie posters. haha. i thought it was a fake at first. the white house was SO TINY as well. Alabang houses seem bigger. haha. do they like magically enchance those pictures? or is it only me? New York (although unbelievably awesome with regards to tall buildings and all that) has a lot of garbage, homeless people, and some places smell like Payatas, haha. so yeah. all i'm saying is that i think that US being thought of as a haven of some sort is not only wrong, it's unfair.
- the food here is OMG. everything's served in bigger portions. the burgers are huge! the cups for soda (which is bottomless in all fast food stores) are crazy gigantic - they look like popcorn boxes! every food is out of this world. and some could be really fattening. it's really expensive, however. McDonald's Fish Fillet Meal is like $6 = 240 pesos. almost half of the money given to me for the trip went to food. but I love it. i can't stop eating. some of my favorites are subway (we have it at the philippines but it tastes so much better here), panda express (a chinese fast food store - the orange chicken is to die for), coldstone creamery (deadly but heavenly ice cream), jamba juice (yummy shakes), buffets (omg. buffets here can kill you. but it's really cheap and really good), ice cream sandwiches, turkey legs, and many, many more. when it comes to fine dining, my favorite is olive garden (a really good italian restaurant which serves bottomless soup) and red lobster (i would walk back here for another lobster pizza), yum, yum. plus, what's really good here - which i hope our country will implement soon - is that there are nutrition facts in almost all food stores. so i can like pick healthier options - grilled over fried, big mac over whopper. haha.
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yey. so i've decided to arrange the trip chronologically and by place at the same time. for now, i'm gonna be uploading the pics first and insert the details whe i'm done. for my other kwentos without matching pics, i'll just insert it in keeping with the chronological arrangement. yuck. kinarir? hahaha. prepare to see my face a lot. not recommended for people prone to heart attack. don't tell me i didn't warn you. hahaha.
April 25 - Los Angeles, California
- my family @ the Hollywood sign (actually, i2 ung fake na kinuha sa universal studios. haha, pero nadaanan namin ung 22ong sign. oh, bka hndi niyo pla kilala family ko. from L-R, yuck, haha. me, my mom, Ate Carol, Ate Love, Kuya Christopher. my dad and my other brother were busy with work so they couldn't come.)
- my family @ the entrance of universal studios (haha, alam mo ba at this point d p kami nliligo for 24 hours kahit hilamos man lang kasi diretso kami d2 after the flight. kaya muka na kaming sabaw. O_O)
April 26 - Las Vegas, Nevada
- me and my mom @ the Eifell Tower in Paris, Las Vegas (we were very tired here too. it's like 1 am in this pic already. tignan niyo mom ko nkpkit na. hahaha.)
April 27 - San Diego, California
- me, my sisters, and my cousins @ i forgot what the place is called. basta ung nasa likod ung skyline ng san diego. haha. sorry na po. (the 3 people on the far left are my cousins Jasper, Kuya Primo, and Ate Mae-Mae. They're fluent in Tagalog because they lived here first and mirgated there except Jasper who was born there kaya hindi na siya marunong. haha. sosyal mag-English un. nkakanosebleed. Ate Mae-Mae is in college taking up Nursing while Kuya Primo is a wrestling champion in HS. sosyal db? haha. halata ba? balita ko hinahabol daw siya ng mga babae dun. lolz.)
April 28 - May 1 - San Francisco, California
- my family @ the Golden Gate Bridge (sosyal dba? mukang postcard. hahaha. grbe ang gnda sa san francisco. one of my favorites. notice: from shorts in the previous picture to really thick jackets and scarves here. haha. change in weather ba?)
- me and my family @ the Fisherman's Wharf
May 2 - May 9 - Orlando, Florida
- me @ SeaWorld with the Penguins (penguins look exactly like i'd imagined them to be. and they are pretty cute when they walk around. kaso medyo mabaho. haha. O_O)
- me and my siblings @ Kraken in SeaWorld (new pic! haha. i just discovered it! so anyway, this was one of the overpriced pics they sell after each ride. they have this in almost all amusement parks. haha. in every ride, there's a hidden cam. by the end of the ride, they have a booth where they sell the pics taken by the hidden cam. haha. so we laugh at our faces after every ride. but we decided to buy this one because it's sooooo freakin' funny. haha. the Kraken is like the best roller coaster not in Six Flags. oh if you haven't read this post before, my kwento about Six Flags is somewhere below. my kuya looks REALLY scared and constipated. haha. since that was our 6th time to ride it - there were no lines that day - nakapagpose ung ate ko kasi kabisado niya na kung san ung hidden cam. haha. but don't think it wasn't scary as hell because she was able to pose. haha. the ride is SOOOOOOOO scary at first, but gets fun and more fun as you ride it more. haha. oh the pic of the ride i took is below our pic.)
- me and my sister @ the world's biggest McDonald's (daw. nkasulat sa loob e. haha. ang weird niya. it's like three floors. and there's a really big playplace and arcade. haha.)
- me, my mom, and my sister @ Cinderella's Castle in Disneyworld's Magic Kingdom
- me and my sisters w/ Pocahontas @ Disneyworld's Animal Kingdom (nyahaha. kktawa magsalita c pocahontas. parang high. masyadong masaya. LOLZ. bkt kaya? tsk tsk.)
- me and my silbings @ Spaceship Earth in Disneyworld's Epcot Center (the weird thing behind us is called Spaceship Earth. it's really cool! it's a dark ride which brings you through a time-machineish place. it shows like the progression of man through time.!) 
May 10 - May 28 - New Jersey
- my family @ Six Flags Great Adventure (behind us is the tallest and fastest (and craziest in my opinion) roller coaster in the world called the Kingda Ka which I rode against my will. they had to pull me to my seat. haha. not really.)
ok fine, i know i said that i'd insert the details later but i can't wait to give details about this one. hahaha. before we left for the states, we already knew the places we were visiting. my siblings are like wild rides fanatics so they requested for us to go to six flags. six flags is a series of amusement parks popular for its wild rides. my tita told us that there was a six flags close to their house in new jersey. the first thing i did was that i searched wikipedia for the six flags in new jersey and found out that luckily (or unluckily), it houses the tallest and fastest coaster in the world. i also saw the other coasters that exists there through the skyline pic i found. 
so anyway, since i'm not a big fan of wild rides (and this is an understatement) , it pretty much scared the hell out of me. i was battling with my self for days (yes. ang drama. mmk ba i2?) whether or not i'd dare ride these coasters. haha. so when we were here already, my tita asked how many tickets. i just closed my eyes, said i'd come, and finally decided that what better way to get rid of my fear (well not really fear. more of general dislike) of wild rides than to ride the wildest of wild rides.
so when the much-awaited day arrived, i wasn't nervous at first, but when we finally arrived and saw the coasters face to face, even my siblings who like what i said are like wild rides addicts were scared (ok fine, i'm only assuming this but i could tell from their facial epression and comments). haha. oh, our cousins were with us too but they've been there before. the Kindga Ka was REALLY tall. its pictures (even from other sources besides mine) can't even begin to tell how tall it really is. it's 450 ft. but here's a better picture to illustrate it tallness. it was taken at the parking lot.
when we finally got into the coaster, i was like praying and begging for it to end. haha. you know the feeling of just wanting to die instead of going through something like while waiting to be called for extemporaneouss speaking or something? haha. so after 10 years of anxiety, the ride finally started. i was like screaming like hell at this point and my sister who was sitting beside was shouting p*tang ina really loud. haha. it's good no one could understand us. it was REALLY fast! it brings you to the top of the hill (450 ft. up) in like 5 seconds. the view from the top while going down was out of this world. hahaha. and then it finally ended. haha. my comment is that you barely feel a thing. it's really fast so when it goes down, your stomach doesn't follow anymore. and so after the best (and worst) 30 seconds of my life, it was finally over. haha. here are videos from youtube which will like give you an idea of the experience. but of course, the real thing's a million times better (and worse). http://youtube.com/watch?v=HN8nv4tVFuA and http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q2cdqDMcUW0
so after that, the other coasters were like peanuts. hahaha. although they were deadly-crazy too. we were pretty much able to ride everything since there were no lines. my second favorite after kingda ka is nitro. it's also very funny. what it does is go up then go down then up again. haha. nangaasar din parang kingda ka. the first drop is very high (200++ ft). i know kingda ka's 450 ft but this time, you can feel your stomach drop as the coaster goes down because it's not as fast as kingda ka. but it also used to be the tallest and fastest coaster. here's a pic from wiki. haha. i also loved superman. it's a suspended coaster so it kinda feels like you're flying.
- me @ the Statue of Liberty (haha. i swear. pandak siya. and she looks kinda old, figuratively. kailangan na niyang magpa-Vicky Belo. haha. pero maganda pa rin syempre. it's like seeing for real something you've been seeing not for real you're whole life. labo ba?)
- me and my family @ the Rockefeller Center (oh yah! kwento muna. when we - my family and my 2 cousins - were here, some guy from Good Morning America invited us to be part of the audience. but that was for the following day, and we were scheduled to go to Niagara falls. aww, too bad. we look "good" daw. yuck. watever. want some bola bola? haha.)
- my family and my cousins @ Times Square (the 2 people on the far right are my 2 cousins, Ate Beryll and Kuya Brian. they both grew up in the States so they can't really speak Tagalog. haha. kaya nga for almost 3 weeks English ang gamit ko e. haha. nosebleed again. they're both in college. Ate Beryll is taking up Excercise and Nutrition Science or something like that. kaya ang dami niyang trivia about excercise and nutrition. duh. haha. aliw nga e. Kuya Brian is taking up Biomedical Engineering. grabe noh? hardcore ung course. biomedical engineers are the ones who create pacemakers and stuff you put inside the body. astig! pwede kang Dr. / Engr. kaso wla atang course na ganun s10. he's really smart. sabi ng mga ate ko pareho daw kami ng aura. tapos kwinento niya sakin na akala nung friend niya nung nakita ako na ako siya. lol. haha. don't really see the resemblance though.)
oh and gush. the cheapest of them all... CHUCKS! they're only $15 = 600 pesos. what the hell right? so all of these shoes = only $75 = 3000 pesos. that's like only one really nice chucks here. oh. but, like the jackets and shirts, they're really cheap only if you know where to look. hahahaha. i'll teach you when you go to the States.
see? i told you i never buy anything not affordable. which the only reason why i bought so much was because they were really very affordable. and it would be years before i return again. haha. these stuff come with a price though (duh. haha.). my 5 years worth of savings from christmas and birthday cash presents = GONE. my pocket money given by my dad and tito = GONE. plus, i'm like forbidden to buy clothes for a very long period of time. haha. sob, sob.
i'll talk about the prices of gadgets next time. hahaha. gadgets here are sooooooooooo CHEAP i wanna cry. haha.
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continuation of New York
- me @ M&M's World in Times Square and the mighty M&M's wall (haha. the wall is huge. it's covers 2 floors and all the tubes are filled with M&M's chocolate. i tasted very exotic M&M's there. my favorite was the mint one. haha. too bad i wasn't able to bring some home. hahaha.)
- me @ the top of Empire State Building (yuck. emo pic b? actually, candid iyan. haha. d bagay sakin emo noh. kung naging emo ako guguho na ang mundo. haha.)
May 15-16 - Niagara Falls
- me @ Niagara falls (Niagara falls is my supeeeeeer favorite out of all the sightseeing spots. it was - no other word for it - breathtaking. i've never seen anything like it. it's so totally awesome! it's a million times better than the statue of liberty and white house. haha. tlgang dinidiin ko un e. we were all staring at it with awe for ages. sbay bukas ng bunganga pa. nyahaha. ingats, bka mapasukan ng langaw.)
- my family and my cousins still @ Niagara falls now overlooking the Rainbow Bridge and Toronto, Canada (what's amusing is that you could see Canada on the other side of the falls. the only thing separating us from Toronto is the Rainbow Bridge. the buildings and the ferris wheel you see is already part of Toronto. haha, but we couldn't pass through because we had no visas.)
- me, my sister, and my cousin before boarding Maid of the Mist (the boat that we rode was called Maid of the Mist. it brought us to the foot of the falls itself. it was like heaven there. haha. puro mist. haaaaaaaay. grabe. i LOVE niagara falls. it's my next best favorite after six flags. haha. nothing can beat six flags. six flags is the best place in the world! haha.)
May 18 - May 21 - Atlantic City, NJ
- me @ the scandalous shower in our hotel room. (haha. in Atlantic City, we stayed at a suite room in showboat for free because my mom has this friend who's like a high roller at the casino so she gets free rooms. anyway, the room was huge and soo nice! haha. BUT, it had this see-through, transluscent, and as my cousin would call it, scandalous shower. apparently, the room was a honeymoon suite. HAHA. it's sooo funny. you could see from the outside the shape of the body of the person who was taking a shower. hihihi. naku. bagay ito sa mga mamboboso diyan. haha. to solve that problem because everyone absolutely refuses to shower, we covered the outside part with chairs and pillows and stuff. haha.)
