Goodbye California :( Hello Hawaii :)

So I didn't really do much during my last 2 days in Cali. I figured I had visited enough places and that I needed my rest before my next vacation... in a week and a half. So I can't really remember anything significant. Well, my cousin did tell her mom that she could bring me and my grandma to her school when she dropped off her lunch and her mom told her that no one wanted to go to her school. So the next day, I went with her mom to drop off her lunch and I personally got out of the car and handed it to her. She seemed very happy. She's so different from me when I was 12. I lived right across the street from my school and I hated going home for lunch. In fact, I never did unless I knew no one was home. I didn't like being dropped off either. I also went over to my 4th aunt's house for lunch during on of those days and her and her husband cooked up a storm for us. My aunt went and bought this kind of fish that has 2 eyes on 1 side (weird looking but oh so tasty), and fried up tons of them. I ate a bunch for 3 days straight. On my last night in California, my uncle decided to take me to Target as my farewell memory of Cali. Yes, Target. Well... I'll give him credit. We were originally going to go to Spectrum, which is a mall near their place with a ferris wheel and apparently really nice at night, but it was closed at 8pm. Since we decided to go out at 8, we ended up going to a place that was open, and that was Target. We spent a good hour there and walked out empty handed. Damn Americans. Food there is so damn cheap. Nina said that she was glad she moved away from Canada because Canada is not for poor people. That, she is right. So, after Target we made a last stop at 85 degrees cafe so that I could get one last sea salt coffee, which I put in the fridge to drink the next morning. It was yum. My 4th aunt and my uncle came the next morning to drive us to LAX. Flying to Canada is apparently considered not international and we went to the airport way too early. We spent an hour sitting at some crappy seating area talking for an hour before we entered the gate. My grandma cried :( I thought crying at airports only happened in movies. 

All in all, I had a great time in California. A much better time AND a much busier time than I had expected. My aunt, who hates going out and taking people around, made a big effort to keep me entertained, and Tara and Darren were also great hosts. I guess you can say that I definitely don't mind going back again :)

PS. Nina and my aunt may come by to Vancouver near the end of the summer. We shall see. 

Till my next blog!...... Next up = HONOLULU, HAWAII!

San Diego

This morning we got up and left the house at 8am and arrived at Coronado Island at 9:30am. This whole time I kept thinking that my aunt was saying that we were going to go to Colorado Island because that's what it sounded like she was saying. When we got there we went into a famous hotel that was built in 1808... or was it 1888? Anyway, the main lobby had one of those old school elevators with the gate, like in Titanic :) We wanted to ride on it but there was an elevator guy so I don't think he would've appreciated it if we told him to take us up and then right back down. So we sat around the lobby, used their washroom and then left. Of course. We walked around Coronado Island which was nice and full of tourists. We walked around the beach and saw lots of beach resorts and also a wedding being set up on the beach. That ought to be pretty. I could've enjoyed the place a bit more except I was STARVING. 

Next up we drove to Balboa park which was really really neat. It used to be a University and was built in the 1600s. The architecture is fully Mexican since it was built such a long time ago and hand carved in stone. It was gorgeous. We took some pictures and that was when my camera died! I was really upset. I attempted to reserve as much battery life I had left but it was no use. While we were in the botanical garden, my camera failed me. In the garden there were varieties of orchids I had never seen before and many other plants. It was a nice and sunny day, as usual. For lunch we went to a International food festival, which was awesome. There were different countries from all around the world, except my aunt and my grandma didn't seem to appreciate any of it. Of course they don't eat standing. That would be monstrosity! We went with Tara, Darren and his parents and they tasted 3 different countries. I had to have a perogie from Ukraine but they called it a varenyk or something like that. Then I had a falafel plate from Israel. I really wanted to have paella but the line up was too too long. They had different performers from different countries perform. There were Chinese kids doing some Chinese dance and then belly dancers etc. When we left we found my aunt and my grandma being cozy underneath the shade at some crappy Japanese 'restaurant'. 

After lunch we headed over to Old Town, which was my favourite part of San Diego. So many cool shops and old museums. I adore looking at stuff like that. Again, my aunt and my grandma spent most of the time trying to find places to sit. Sigh. I can understand that my grandma is old so I'll give her a break, but I wasn't going to miss out on anything. I walked ahead of the pack and did my own thing. I think I went into all the shops and tried to go into as many museums as I could in the amount of time that I was alloted. I somehow got the camera to work a couple more shots before it REALLY died out on me, and then I spent another 10 mins moping about that. We spent a few hours there and I bought a carving for my mom that was carved out of a tagua nut, which is 'vegetable ivory' according to the little card next to the carvings. It does kind of look like ivory when it's carved. I like it. The one I bought has a full nut as well as the carved ivory looking part. I spent $30 on it! It's something different though. 

We left Old Town at around 5pm and we were originally supposed to go to another beach but my aunt decided that she had had enough, and suggested that we head in the direction back home and stop by at the outlet along the way. Tara and company decided to do the same and of course I ended up shopping :( I couldn't help it. I bought swimsuits on sale at the Gap. I do need them for Hawaii so I guess they're necessities! My aunt bought my 70 something year old grandma a Juicy Couture bag. I thought that was funny. We left the outlet at around 6:30 and headed back to Irvine for a late dinner. We didn't get a seat until 8:30pm and it was close to 9:30pm by the time we finished eating. It was a long day but eventful. I think it's time to relax tomorrow. 

Disney

So I haven't updated in a few days so here' s a condensed version of past few days.

After hanging out with Tara and Michele in LA and Vegas, Tara drove Michele to Mission Viejo to see her friend. We didn't stay there for long and we headed back to my aunt's place. My aunt took Tara and I to 85 degrees C cafe, which is a cafe that opened in Taiwan. The business there is supposedly excellent. It was pretty darn busy when we went. They have a baker as well and we bought some of the bread. I bought a squid ink bread with cheese. I ate it when it was a couple days old so it wasn't as good as it could've been I guess. It was ok. We did have a rose cream cheese bread on the spot and it was delicious. At first I ordered a cafe latte and then while I was browsing I saw a poster of their best seller in Taiwan which is a sea salt coffee. Hmm. That could be totally off, but I decided that I'm on 'vacation' and I had to try it. So I ordered it and I loved it. It was an iced black coffee that was sweetened and topped with salty foam. I mixed it up and the end taste was really good. It was still sweet and if you didn't pay attention there really isn't much saltiness behind it. I might ask my aunt to bring me back there. I wasn't able to sleep until 3am that night :(

The next day my aunt took me and my grandma to Fashion Island in Newport Beach. It's an outdoor mall as many of the malls around here are. Even when I went to Nina's middle school open house, the lockers were all outdoors and the lunch cafeteria was outdoors too. That would never happen in Vancouver. I told myself that I was simply going there to walk around and get out of the house but that I wasn't going to shop, and I DIDN'T!!! I went to the gym that day and although I told myself that I would go for a long workout, I did a rather short one, and that was pretty much the extent of my day.

The next day after that, Nina and I spent 12 hours at Disneyland. Since I just went to Orlando's Disney World last summer, this year wasn't as spectacular. The rides at Disneyland were the same as the rides at Magic Kingdom in Orlando, with a few variations. Indiana Jones and Big Thunder for example aren't in Orlando. I'd say that Indiana Jones was my favourite ride that day. We also watched 3D shows, which I love. We watched Honey I shrank the Audience, and at one point they accidently cloned a bunch of mice which were running around the stage and then they had fake mice run across our feet and hit our legs. Things like that. I think they're 3D shows are awesome. It's a Small World made me want to fall asleep this time. Orlando's was better I think. My favourite ride, Peter Pan, from Orlando wasn't open, which sucked. Halfway through the day, I kind have wanted to leave. I was really tired, but we stuck around until the 9:30pm fireworks which is always great. Disney spends big money on their fireworks show. It's worth watching. 

Today we went back to Disney because our ticket lets us go to both parks within 30 days of the first use. So we went to California Adventures which is a relatively new park right next to Disneyland. Nina liked Disneyland better but I liked California Adventures I think. If I hadn't been to Orlando last year, I would probably choose Disneyland but you really only need to see it once every 5+ years. Cali Adventures had my FAVOURITE ride of all-time, Soarin'. It was great. We went on it twice. It's the one where you're seated and lifted up and into a big screen and it makes you seem like you're flying through the clouds, over the ocean, over the forest etc. I love it. It also blows wind at you so it really feels like you're flying, and the one here had an additional element than last year at Orlando. They let us smell pine trees when we flew over pine trees and they let us smell oranges when we flew over an orange field. Still the best. Unfortunately, I did not go on the Tower of Terror because Nina was too scared to go. She did choose out of 3 to go on California Screamin' which was a roller coaster. It's drop wasn't bad at all but it was fast and loopy and still fun. Another ride that stood out was a 4D Toy Story ride where we would stop at different stations and shoot at things like we were playing games. So the ride was a game. That was neat. The 3D shows today were even better than Disneyland's. My favourite was a Bug's Life 3D because we got sprayed by a bug with acid (it's really water), we got stunk by some stink bug (yes, they release some odour into your face), and of course there's always the sudden thing behind your seat that nudges you. We left after lunch today and came back at 9pm after Soarin' for the 2nd time. 

Tomorrow I'm heading to San Diego!

Vegas!

I woke up yesterday morning at 7am to get ready to leave for Vegas. I didn't fall asleep until after 4am just 3 hours before! I didn't have any trouble getting up though. I got ready and we left the house at around 7:45am. The desert wasn't as sandy and flat as I had expected. I guess I was expecting something like an egyptian desert or something. Instead it was hilly and there were lots of plants and trees growing out of the ground. The desert trees are called Joshua trees because the branches spread out and it looks like it's praying. Anyway, it is roughly a 4 hour drive to Vegas. Luckily, we never saw that no A/C sign on the way there so we were able to keep our A/C on the entire way. After about 2 hours we did make a pit stop at a very small town (if you can even call it that) called Baker at around 11am. We went to Del Taco and I had 2 fish tacos. The fish was fried so it wasn't as good but it's Del Taco, what can you expect? There was a tall sign that showed the temperature in Baker. It was 101 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 38 degrees C! At 11am in the morning! I felt like I couldn't breathe. We continued on and we saw some houses along the side of the road in the desert and wondered where these people bought their groceries. There were no grocery stores anywhere in sight and there were only 2 restaurants that they could eat at. We continued on and reached Primm Outlet at around noon. Originally I didn't really want to stop at Primm Outlet because I really didn't want to spend money because like I said, I'm not supposed to shop. Tara wanted to stop by at JCrew though so we had to go in. Lets just say that I ended up buying the most out of the 3 of us. Damnit! I can't control myself! Ok, I don't regret any of my buys though. I FINALLY after so many outlets found exactly the Coach dog collar that I wanted. I've always wanted to buy a khaki Coach monogram dog collar for Pipi but they never have one large enough. Guess what? They not only had it at Primm, they also had the matching leash!!! Not only that, they were MASSIVELY on sale. I bought both for $54!!! The collar at regular price is $68! Who says only small dogs can rock out in style? So we ended up at Primm for 2 hours and ended up getting to Vegas at around 3pm. 

Vegas was HOT. We stayed at Imperial Palace. Not exactly like the last time when I went to Vegas and stayed at MGM Grand, and got to visit the presidential suite, but it's on the strip and it was under $100 for the hotel room for the 3 of us. Good enough for me! When I walked into the Casino, the first thing I thought was Rush Hour. I wonder if they filmed there? Ah the cigarette smell. We checked in and took the elevator up to the 16th floor. We stayed at room #16115. It was decent. It was supposedly newly renovated so it was decently clean and I got a bed to myself. Tara was telling us how many of the refrigerators in the hotel rooms there now have sensors so if you even touch anything they will charge it to your room. We didn't have a fridge in our room so that was good. We put our stuff down and headed downstairs and started hotel hopping. I love hotel hopping. We never even hung out in our own hotel. We immediately left to go see all the other nice ones. We went to Paris first and took pictures of the eiffel tower and walked around inside because I wanted to see the little french stores. They had canned duck confit in one of the gift shops, pinot noir in tetra packs, and duck foie gras! We were getting hungry so we decided that we were going to eat early and headed over to the Bellagio buffet. It was a 'cheap' $30 which was a surprise because we were expecting $50. There were the, as expected, overly salty king crab legs, which I had a few of, but there were also other tasty things like mushroom ravioli in truffle sauce, lobster ravioli, chilean sea bass, shrimp cocktail, sushi, ahi tuna poke (mmm), salads, creme brulee yada yada yada. We tried to eat as much as we could but the buffet was a total waste on us. None of us ate $30 worth of food. After dinner we walked over to Caesar's Palace because Tara said there was a big mall inside of it, but as soon as we walked into the first store, I spent $60 there. Let me tell you, there are some massive sales going on in Vegas right now. Everything is on sale! It's like going to an outlet. Business is bad. I bought 2 rhodium 18K gold plated hoop earrings with Austrian crystal for $29 each, one in white gold and a smaller one in gold. I talked to the sales lady a lot and asked if she would give me a discount if I bought both so she gave me another 10% discount on top of the sale. Since my ears can't take anything but gold, it's not everyday that I can afford to buy hoop earrings, with crystal too! By the time I decided and bought the earrings it was already nearing 7:30pm and we had to catch the show Jubilee at Bally's. We headed over to Bally's and went to the box office to pick up our tickets. Tara had ordered them online but when we got there they didn't have her name on the system and couldn't give us our tickets. We ended up being late for the show so they switched our tickets to the 10:30pm show, which I will talk about later. So after we picked up our tickets, we walked over to the Bellagio to watch the water show. It wasn't that spectacular but I guess you have to see it. We headed back to the hotel to rest for awhile because we were all so stuffed. By then I was really about to pass out due to my lack of sleep the night before, and my lack of sleep on the way there. We headed back out to catch the show and were delighted to see our new seats. Instead of the back rows, they gave us a table on the floor right smack in the middle front of the stage. I thought Jubilee was a burlesque show but it was more like a topless show girls with big feathers type of show. It was pretty good expect I found that the in between acts were more amazing. There was a juggler who did the usual juggling tricks with pins and then tennis balls but then he started playing a keyboard using tennis balls! He would throw the tennis ball to hit the keys that he would want to hit and then catch them as they bounced back and he did it with such accuracy and speed, it was amazing! Another in between act was these 2 guys who did a lot of holding each other up with a single arm, those types of things. They were so strong and so steady. I was happy to see that all the topless girls were all naturals. No fake boobies here! The show was good but seriously nearing the end of it I was totally dozing off. It was almost midnight and I had to try so hard to keep my eyes open. It was around 12:30am by the time we got back to the hotel and we all just passed out. No partying for us!

We woke up the next morning and headed over to the Mirage to the Carnegie Deli to have breakfast. I cheated and I ate beef because I had a pastrami deli sandwich. Pastrami's beef right? I couldn't help it! I was at a NY deli and I wanted a sandwich. It was HUGE! Way bigger and way more meat than what we got from Katz. It was the same price too ($14.95)! I couldn't even finish half of it. The pickles were awesome. They were super crunchy and really fresh. I packed the rest and tried to eat it throughout the day but still ended up throwing some of it away. After breakfast we visited the Venetian, which wasn't as spectacular as I had remembered, but the Venetian is still one of my favourites. Bellagio on the other hand didn't stick out to me at all compared to the last time I went, which was 6 years ago. They were still playing the O show, which is a great show by the way. We visited a couple other hotels and then we went to Wynn. I think since Wynn is one of the newer hotels, it was the nicest hotel to me this time around. The Venetian and the Bellagio are sort of old to me now. Wynn had this waterfall where people could sit outside and order drinks and it was beautiful. Of course there were also the high end stores that were completely empty, but nice to walk by and look at from afar. We walked around 30 mins to the Monorail because we were originally planning on taking it to the other end of the strip to New York New York but when we got there we saw that the price for a single trip was $5. For the 3 of us, that meant we'd be spending $30 to and from. No way. I suggested that we walk back to the parking lot and drive our own car instead, which we did, but by the time we got back to the car, none of us wanted to get back out on foot. It was seriously too hot. Whenever I was standing still I could feel the UV rays burning through my skin and hot smoke seeping through my pores (OK I exaggerate but still). We ended up just driving to the other end of the strip to MGM Grand and New York New York and then... goodbye Vegas. It was the shortest and most brief Vegas trip I had ever been on, and it was also the first and probably the only time I will ever drive 4 hours through the desert to reach it, so I guess you could say that it was a different sort of experience. Also different in the way that I had to pay for things myself and couldn't afford to live in any of the bling hotels. Next up... Dubai!

It took us less than 4 hours to get back. We stopped by at Tara's boyfriend's work. He works for the company that invented and makes NuBra, which is a silicone adhesive bra without any straps. They started out making just the silicone fillers but the NuBra sources out to Victoria Secret, Macy's and other department stores now and retail for over $60. I got 2 prototypes for free :) They're in the wrong size, but they'll work, and I love free stuff! We got a tour around the factory and got an brief rundown of how the NuBra is made and the steps that it goes through to reach the finished product. The factory employs 4o employees and the adhesive part of the bra is painted on by hand. After we left, we went to go eat Taiwanese food. I had requested it since we're in California and there are more Taiwanese people here than there are in Vancouver, I figured it would be nice to try it out. We went to this place called Classroom 203. It was super cute! They ordered the desks that they use in Taiwan elementary schools to use as tables and they had the old school backpacks to carry the chopsticks and paper napkins, and they also gave you the food in the silver lunch boxes students used. They had the menu up on a chalkboard and had all these old Taiwan textbooks around the place. I thought it was a great idea for decor. I wasn't hungry because I had been munching on bits and pieces of my pastrami sandwich all day so I just ordered a small thing, one thing that I never ate when I went to Taiwan, a pork blood cake dipped in sweet and spicy sauce, covered in peanuts on a stick. It's in all the night markets but I don't know why I never bought it. It was good! The menu had more variety than what we have in our bubble tea places and they also have that really fluffy shaved ice that I said was awesome from Shi Lin night market, so my verdict is: California Taiwanese food = better than Vancouver Taiwanese food. They do have more Taiwanese people so I'd imagine it would be anyway. We went to the nearby Chinese supermarket and I suddenly thought, since they have more Taiwanese people, maybe they'll see Tong Yi pudding. Nope, they didn't have it. Someone really should export that stuff! I think it'd sell. 

Anyway, so we got back home a bit after 8pm after a long day on the road. I still feel like I don't know what just happened. Everything came and went so fast! I'll be heading back to my aunt's place tomorrow morning. In the morning Tara is going to bring us to a Taiwanese breakfast place, something we don't have in Vancouver! After that she's going to drop me off back home and go with Michelle to visit her friend in Mission Viejo. I definitely need to go to the gym tomorrow. 

Venice Beach, Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive & Hollywood.

This morning Tara woke me up at 9:00am. We left the house at around 9:45am and headed to Venice beach, where they filmed 'There's Something About Mary'. I loved it! We didn't spend ANY time on the beach however, we spent all of our time on the ocean walk. It was a very looooong strip of so many cool gadgets and things that people were selling. Lots of performers too. Very neat. I saw rastas for sale, listened to Bob Marley, saw tons of hippy vans, hippies in dreads, lots of peace signs. It was AWESOME. Oh, I forgot to mention, I saw 2 LAPDs 'driving' around those things that Paul Blart the mall cop rode around in! So funny! There's something about Venice beach and pit bulls. There were TONS of them. It seemed like every other dog was a pit bull. Lots of people were holding 4 week old pit bull puppies there too that they were trying to sell. I had an awesome time at Venice beach. Tons of local artists with cool jewelry, artwork, surf board clocks etc etc. There was one anal lady who got mad at a little girl for touching her jewelry though. How does she plan on selling anything with that kind of attitude? Oh well. Oh yea, people love Obama. There were Obama t-shirts being sold alongside 'religious t-shirts', Obama magnets, Obama was everywhere. Almost as much as Bob Marley.

Today I broke my promise to myself that I wasn't going to shop on this trip due to the fact that I have another trip coming up next month, and technically this wasn't supposed to be a vacation. I merely agreed to take my grandma here so that she could visit her daughters. I failed. I first bought a pair of Sanuk flip flops because the bottom looked like wood. Of course I needed them. I then bought a silk beach dress. This I don't regret however. I love it. We at along the ocean walk and I had California's favourite salad, the cobb salad. 

PS. The water tastes strange here.

After Venice beach we headed down to Beverly Hills to visit the famous Rodeo Drive! As soon as we entered Beverly Hills, it was obvious. A VERY expensive Maybach pulled up behind us and then beside us, along with the most Bentley's I've ever seen in one place all at once. Seriously, the people in Beverly Hills are as you see in the movies... ballin' out of control. We were obvious tourists as we clicked clicked clicked our cameras all over the place. Oh look! It's Harry Winston! Oh look! That's where I saw Arnold Swartza blah blah last time! Oh I hope we see someone famous! Oh look! The Rodeo Drive sign! Slow down, slow down! It was great. We walked around for awhile. Of course we didn't buy anything, but there were some normal stores around there, like Guess. We also saw the hotel where they filmed Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts walks along the sidewalk. While I was taking pictures of the hotel, what oh what do I see? A Royce. Oh, but that's not enough. Right behind it was a nice and shiny Lambo. Yes, I took a picture and it took me forever to get one without any traffic blocking them. Damn. We're really in Beverly Hills. Too many Bentleys! Ahh, surrounded by too much money. 

Our next stop was to Hollywood. I saw the Hollywood walk of fame, which was awesome. I took as many pictures as I could. There were tons of people in costume there. There was Jack Sparrow. There was Yoda. There was Freddie or some other horror guy, I forget. He slashed my stomach with his scissor hands and I laughed. We also saw the Chinese Theatre where they have many of their movie premieres and where they have famous people's handprints and footprints outside. I took pictures of Julie Andrews prints, Will Smith's, George Clooney's etc etc. Star struck. Still... no famous people. Sigh. I really just wanted to see a group of paparrazzi (I cannot for the life of me figure out how to spell it) somewhere so that I could take a picture of them. Here I spent a bit more money at Forever 21. You can't say I wasted money. We don't have Forever 21! We went to this really cool mall where there were 2 huge elephant statues right near the Roosevelt Hotel and the Renaissance Hotel. We took the escalator up a few levels to get a clear view of the Hollywood sign up on the hills. I couldn't get a good picture because it was too far away BUT we ended up putting a quarter in the telescope and taking a picture through the telescope of the sign. I got a great picture too! No, I didn't come up with the idea. There was a sign there and said you could do that. It was the best 25 cents ever invested. It was getting late so we stopped at Jonny Rockets diner for dinner. I caught a video of the waiters and waitresses dancing :) We left the high roller life and headed back to Chino Hills at around 8:20pm. We got home pretty early before 9:00pm. Tomorrow we'll be driving 4 hours through the desert to Las Vegas, Nevada, where there are less cases of swine flu than in California. Tara warned Michelle and I that there was a section of the desert where you could not turn on your A/C because the car running with the A/C would cause it to overheat and your car could break down. Hmm.. the car breaking down in the desert where there is no cell phone reception and no water. Not to mention we are going to pass by Death Valley where people supposedly commit suicide by taking off and hiking and never coming back. Sounds just about the perfect backdrop for a Hollywood horror movie. Nooooooo!!! Come on! We're out of Hollywood now. We're gonna crank up the A/C before the no A/C zone and then keep our windows rolled up to keep in the cool air. I hope that works. Because of this reason, we are leaving tomorrow at 7am to avoid the afternoon heat. UGH. I hope all goes well. I never thought I would ever have to drive through the desert. I remember watching horror movies and always saying ah I don't need to worry about that, I will never need to drive through the desert. DAMNIT! 

PS 'Freeways' here are bumpy and have ridges because it doesn't rain much so when it does it gets too slippery. As a result, when you're on the freeway, the car is always bumpy!

It's 12:03am. The owl outside is hooting and I can't sleep. Luckily I'm not driving tomorrow.

Quail Hills to Chino Hills

In the morning Nina and I both had a hard time getting up because of our secret 'slumber party' the night before. We woke up at 8:30am and got ready to head out to the local farmer's market. We went to the farmer's market right across from UCI (University of California Irvine). Coco Lee went there. Nina and I walked around in circles so that we could sample as much free fruit as we could. The farmer's market was cool. It opens every weekend. We don't really get that in Vancouver because we don't have that many crops. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

To top off our healthy taste testing, we headed to In and Out burger. Sorry to say, I did not try their burger due to my lack of beef eating these days. I did however try their fries, which are fried from fresh potatoes rather than the usual frozen stuff. I must admit that they were really good! They actually tasted like potatoes, and cheap too :) So now I can say that I went to In and Out. 

After we got home, I went out to the gym again. I love how there's a gym so close! I have to make up for massive eating now before it happens. I then went back home and continued to read Twilight until it was time to leave for Tara's house. Tara (my uncle's younger cousin) invited me on a 4 day trip with her and her friend Michelle who is visiting from NY. I met Tara last year on my trip to Orlando, Florida with Nina and her mom. We drove from Quail Hills to Chino Hills, which is where Tara and her boyfriend live.  

PS. Everything is called something hills here because it is very 'hilly'

We all went out to dinner at a 'local' Chinese restaurant. I'm sure you all know that it takes forever in a car to get anywhere. It wasn't bad. We got back at 8pm. My family left me to go back home and I'll be staying here for the next 4 days except for when we head to Vegas. I spent the remainder of the night reading Twilight until I fell asleep.

Day 2 in Irvine

This morning I got up and got ready earlier in the morning. We waited for my 4th aunt to arrive and once she did we headed out to Laguna beach which is super close to my aunt's place. I'd say no more than a 15 minute drive. I'll give it to her. The beaches here are soooooooooo much prettier than what we have. It looked like it could be a resort beach.I It was gorgeous. Vancouver beaches suck now :( We ate at a buffet restaurant. I think it was a mexican restaurant but it was just regular breakfast. I screwed watching my diet as I normally do when I go out for breakfast and had an omelet, roasted potatoes, eggs benedict, bacon, waffle with maple syrup and fruit. I was stuffed. After breakfast we walked around the beach but since I was with a bunch of taiwanese ladies nobody wanted to step in the sand so we just walked down the gravel pavement from above. Oh well, it was still nice. Afterwards we walked towards the shop area and browsed around and I bought a pair of cool looking sunglasses at a random store ($16). We left for home around 1:30pm because my grandma can't walk for very long and my 4th aunt had to go pick up her kids at 2:20pm. After we got home I talked with my aunt for a bit and then I took a nap. Once I woke up it was time for dinner. This couple from my aunt's church group came over and we all had dinner together. While we were eating he kept going on and on to my grandma about Jesus and how so many people who are buddhists don't even know where buddha came from and don't know the history and why believe in something when you don't know the history. He talked about how he converted most of his family on his most recent trip to Taiwan and gave her an all too detailed description of his life before God. He just went on and on and on and tried to convert my grandma. Now to make things clear, I'm not against Christianity or any religion for that matter. I don't know enough about each one to pass judgement. What I hate though, is when people talk about their religion as if it's their life, diss other people's religion, and try to convert complete strangers. Anyway, I made it clear to my aunt earlier in the day that I wasn't going to attend their church group this evening, which is where they're all heading later. I told her that I was going to stay home and go to the gym instead. Grandma on the other hand was pressured into going. Haha, now she's hiding upstairs until they leave because she didn't want that guy to keep talking to her about his religion. So while everyone went out, I headed out to the gym and got in some exercise. Later on at night, Nina (my 12 year old cousin) dragged me into her room for a 'slumber party' and we watched Twilight until 2 am. I ended up loving it, and now I'm starting to read the book. 

First official day in Irvine

I got up this morning at around 10ish. Some relatives came over along with my 4th aunt, so I sat around and talked to them for a bit and had a bit of fruit. We then went out to dim sum at a place nearby called Crystal Jade. Here is what happened when we walked in.......

Red Flag #1

We were greeted in english asking us how many

Red Flag #2

I saw latinos working behind a bar. Non-chinese people working in a Chinese restaurant? That never happens!

Red Flag #3

A bar? I repeat. A Bar?

Red Flag #4

I proceeded to walk into the restaurant. The restaurant was decked out in fake plants to give it I dunno, an ambiance? Chinese people don't care about ambiance! What kind of world is this?! 

Red Flag #5

Then... the biggest red flag of them ALL.... white people, TONS of white people. So we're in a Chinese restaurant and not very many Chinese people in sight. There has got to be something wrong with this place (it did fill up later on with more Asians). 

Anyway, in the end the food was alright. Better than Golden Unicorn, but then again, what place isn't better than Golden Unicorn? 

Ok, one complaint was that everything was super salty. I was warned by Nadia before the trip that everything here is really high in sodium, reason being that 'it's America'. Well I've only ate out once so far but it proved to be correct. Unnecessary amount of salt and most likely MSG, but I guess that goes hand in hand with restaurant Chinese food.

After dim sum we attempted to walk around the mall but that didn't last for very long because my grandma and 4th aunt were tired. This is what happens when you travel with old people. They get tired after 1 hour. Sigh. What can you do? We came home and I got ready to head out to the Quail Hill gym. It's about 3-4 blocks away from the house. Californians are definitely not fat like they are down in Florida. I worked out in the gym for an hour then headed back home and did Ab Jam. On the way there, I saw a hummingbird a foot away from me. I've never seen a hummingbird before. At around 5pm I went with Nina to the open house of her future middle school. Middle school here is only grade 7-8. I felt a little offended when Nina's mom said the school here was better than Vancouver's because there's really no way to judge that. What can I say, I'm a proud Vancouverite. The school only has 2 grades but it has around 1000 students. That's ALOT. It works like high school where you have a teacher for math, a teacher for english etc etc. It was tremendously boring. We basically just walked around the school and looked at student's work. We went with my aunt's friend and her son. They used to live in Vancouver and I've seen them before but I don't really remember them anymore. Nina went missing for about an hour and we didn't end up leaving until 7:30pm. We came home, ate dinner and that was my day. I borrowed Twilight from Nina. She said it's really good and she wants me to read 500+ pages in 2 days. Haha. Yea right. Tomorrow we're gonna get breakfast at Laguna beach and probably walk around there until the old people get tired (I give it 1 hour tops)

PS. Last night on the highway back home, I saw a sign that said Cherry Ave/Spring St. I miss NYC. I wanna go there again. 

Verdict of California: Haven't seen enough of it to judge, but roughly what I expected. Nice weather, lots of green, typical Californians. I'll wait until I go to LA. 

Oh yea, there was a taco/burrito truck at the school's open house. I was tempted to get a bean burrito, but I didn't. 

Arrival in Irvine, California

I'm a little late to blog because I originally wasn't planning on starting another blog this time, but then I thought hey what the heck. I might as well. I've become one of those people that brings their laptop with them everywhere. Might as well make good use of it and be able to look back on my trips later on down the road. I've been traveling quite a bit for the past 2 years and it's always nice to look back on them and read about the crazy things that I get to see. So here goes.....

First of all, I'll just say that I booked my flight online. I thought I was booking for Air Canada but right after I paid for it, it said that the flight was operated by United Express/Sky West airlines. F! I don't want to fly a small plane. My traumatic experience with a small plane to Singapore 2 years ago has made me hate small jets. Because my grandma holds a Taiwan passport we had to fill out extra paperwork for her to enter the US. She also had to have her fingerprints scanned. So strict. Sky West airlines flew us in the smallest little plane ever. 2 rows of 2 seats, 1 aisle, maybe 15 rows or something. Super duper small. It wasn't so bad this time considering there wasn't any lightning bolts looking like they were hitting our wing (which happened on the way to Singapore). The flight was 2-3 hours long. Not bad. It seemed long but definitely less tiring than flying halfway around the world. Oh yea, we got charged $15 for each check in luggage. I should've figured. My uncle came to pick us up at LAX airport. It looks old and small. It took us an hour to get home. Nina's family lives in an area called Quail Hills in Irvine, California. It's a town home area but way cooler than any of our town homes. It's more like a vacation villa. My uncle took me around for a walk after we got home and there's a huge ass soccer field, basketball court, 3 swimming pools, jacuzzi, parks, tons of bbqs, and every section of this 'villa' looks different. They are all built differently. Some are built into apartments, some more like town homes, some of them have their own court yard with water fountains and lots of pretty flowers. Makes you want to sit there for afternoon tea. Last but not least, get this.... there is a gym here! It's only maybe 5 minutes away and I can use it for free because it's a part of the facilities! Hehe. Granted the gym they have is really puny with only a few weight machines, 3 treadmills, 2 ellipticals, and a stationary bike, but it's better than nothing! Their home is a decent size and cozy :) Quail Hills is pretty big. It's a nice quaint neighbourhood. Really safe and quiet. Only people that live in here or visitors come in here, so it really reminds me of the villas when I went to Orlando except they are actual residences instead of timeshares.