Untitled entry

THE ONE ABOUT TRIP USA (PART 1 - SIN -> NRT -> LAX)

Its been a while since I've been back from my USA trip. I have NOT had the time to organise my thoughts, much less my photos from the trip. Its been hectic ever since I touched back down in Singapore. The past 3 weeks has been madness, with everything just colliding together, event after event. Finally, on this Sunday evening, I get a chance to sit down and slowly resize my pics and slowly upload them. I apologise if the pics are sometimes of uneven size and take a while to load. I'm trying to work quickly so that I get to bed before 2 am

10th September 2005

I boarded the plane at 6 am, totally exhausted as I had not slept at all the night before. I thus snuggled up happily and slept on the SIN to NRT leg. I was fortunate enough to have gotten my window seat, and was not placed next to any screaming kid, so I could sleep peacefully.

Of course when I got woken up for lunch, I looked terrible, my eyebags showing up instantly. But then, the japanese guy sitting next to me wasn't even cute, so I couldn't be bothered to make myself look better :P

Not long after being woken up for lunch, the captain of the flight announced that we could see Mt Fuji. I immediately whipped out my camera and got this wonderful shot of the peak of Mt Fuji!

Shortly after that, we arrived at the Narita Airport, Tokyo. I had arrived in my birthland! Unfortunately, my birthland was rather unfriendly. My phone did not work there as they did not operate on the GSM network. I could not make the calls to everyone as I had promised. I tried using the public phone, but all the signs was frustratingly in Japanese and as everyone knows, my knowledge of Jap is severely limited. I tried to buy a phonecard at the convenience store at the airport, but they didn't accept credit cards, only YEN. And I obviously didn't have any YEN on me. On top of that, there wasn't a money changer in sight. I did find this though:

Unfortunately, I didn't have 100 YEN because I couldn't find the money changer, so I had to be content with standing behind the guy who was using the terminal, in hopes that he would go board the plane without using up his entire 10 mins, thus allowing me to drop an email to concerned parties. That didn't happen and I had to board the plane without reporting my safety to everyone.

After the layover at Narita airport, I boarded the plane for Los Angeles and since I had slept quite a bit on the flight before, I amused myself by reading on my Gameboy Advance SP and also watching Naruto on my laptop.

It was funny because the guy sitting next to me was constantly trying to look at my screen, yet he couldn't hear the dialogue cos I had my headphones on. I felt a bit bad, but well, I couldn't exactly unplug the headphones and use speakers as there were alot of other sleeping people on the flight.

After the long flight, I finally arrived at the Los Angeles airport safe and sound. I made it thru immigration and customs without much problems, the only thing that came up being I was asked if I had brought any mooncakes, which I had. But since they didn't have any egg yolk in them, it was fine

I was soooo excited to see Auntie Lina again after so many years. We just hugged for a long while and started talking excitedly. It was great to see my cousins again after so long. I could not believe how big Carolynn was. The last time I saw her, she was still a tiny toddler just walking around unsteadily. The twins were already so tall and Sean has become such a mature teenager. We ran some errands in the afternoon to prepare for Carolynn's birthday party the next day. We also went to dinner to celebrate Auntie Lina's birthday which was the day before.

FRONT ROW: Me, Carolynn, Auntie Lina, Uncle Gary, 1st Uncle and Auntie, Grand Auntie and Uncle

BACK ROW: Uncle Martin, Sean, Kevin, Howard, Brian

The dinner was at the Hyatt hotel in LA and it was a international buffet. I had plates of sashimi plus 2 lobsters! HEHE! The dessert was good too. The chocolate cake was just yummy! We went home after that and had some of Auntie Lina's birthday cake while the older generation sat around singing karaoke. I was exhausted from my flight and went to bed not long after.

11th September 2005

We woke up early in the morning and went to church. I remember back when I was a kid, I always went to church with Auntie Lina. It was always a special thing both of us did together. And this trip, it was no different. We went to church at 8:30 am and after that headed home to rest for a bit before going for shabu-shabu for brunch. It was easily the best shabu-shabu I had in a long while. The beef was OoHhHhHH! and they had my fav. enoki mushrooms! After that, we headed to pick up Carolynn's birthday cake and some other stuff for her birthday party. A pool party with 18 screaming 9 year old girls and I was the chaperone! Lol! It was great fun and I think Carolynn definately appreciated the fact that I came in time for her birthday and stayed to help her with it.

Look at the loads of presents!

And Carolynn is just adorable!

We had an amazing fruit bouquet that had the BEST chocolate covered strawberries. And we made sausage in blankets plus mini burgers for dinner. The girls had fun smashing open a pinata which we had stuffed with candy earlier in the day. Overall, at the end of the day, we were exhausted, but very happy with how the day went. The birthday party was a huge success! However, by the end of the night, it was time for me to fly off to my next destination -> Colombia, South Carolina!