mahalo for your kokua

i'm blogging here instead of at hawaii-oh5.blogspot.com because i don't really feel a part of it coz i wasn't there during its creation and i reckon my name appears maybe only 3 times in all the posts. plus this is my away-from-home blog anyway.

hawai'i this year is a lot harder to recap than last year coz it lasted twice as long and it was more eventful. so i'm not even going to try the paragraph style. point-form is it for me. (oh but if you prefer the paragraphs, go to hawaii-oh5.blogspot.com coz nix did a thorough recap... of the stuff she could remember hehe)


DAY 1 - MY FIRST DAY IN HAWAII
- got leid at baggage claim :P
- that was after they paged me over the PA system.. how embarrassing
- had to ride shotgun in the transfer bus coz i was the only person in the bus travelling alone
- the toilet wouldn't flush at the hotel so i called the maintenance man. turns out it was fine. i just didn't know you had to practically sit on the flush button to make it work.
- took a walk down the main strip and realised that waikiki IS pretty
- also realised our old hotel was extremely far from where we clubbed every night last year. how the heck did we walk all that way every night.. in heels?!
- hung out with solo at the apartment watching full house, the cosby show, and my absolute favourite the andy milonakis show (that little fart is SO funny!). very (x4) fun night (remember that?)

DAY 2 - KANEOHE
- went with solo to his place up in kaneohe. its so pretty up there on the windward side! very lush and green and fresh feeling
- hung out with him, mike and matt all night
- mike and solo fight like anything! and they both try to get me on their sides haha
- had dinner at 12.30am.. delicious chicken pasta. i would've eaten more if i wasn't half asleep.
- also a veeeery fun night

DAY 3 - NEL & NIX ARRIVE / WAIKIKI BEACH / PIPELINE
- matt drove me back to the hotel. i've never felt so thug in my life. it was only about 10am and we were blasting hip hop the whole way to waikiki.
- matt's police detector thing makes me feel so illegal haha
- nel and nix finally arrived!! complete with stories of near-arrests and other crimes they apparently committed
- we had no water for the first couple of hours. how's that for a nice welcome to hawai'i?
- nix kept asking me if he was mad. i tried to ignore her for as long as i could.
- apparently waikiki beach is man-made. its really weird how the waves go both ways.. i'd be treading water one minute then the next i stand up on the sand and the water's up to my knees
- the lady at reception was very stingy about getting us some extra pillows (nix: but there's only one pillow.. and three of us...)
- had dinner at a pizza sports bar where we got very patriotic about australian football
- went to pipeline with solo, mike and matt. not the greatest.. i think we had big expectations. i don't think i danced all night.
- nix and i got pretty tipsy though hehe i didn't even know i was mixing drinks till solo told me the next morning
- i made mad friends with the restroom lady. solo made me feel guilty for not tipping her.
- back at the room.. wasn't the best of times. i feel like i missed out on a lot coz i was too busy floating in and out of everywhere
- nel and nix scored new dork nicknames. i'm just a troll. thanks mike.

DAY 4 - THE NOTHING DAY / ALA MOANA
- hung out at the apartment with solo and matt, and went the whole day on 10 minutes sleep no joke
- had a nice talk with mike.. i wish i could've hung out with him more. we get along well.
- matt dropped us off at ala moana 20 minutes before it closed (mike was right... don't tell him) so all we had time to do was eat
- had a quiet night in coz i was absolutely dead

DAY 5 - DIAMOND HEAD / MOOSE'S & DDH / GIBBY'S CRIB
- we looked like the biggest tourists taking pictures of the TheBUS bench. how embarrassing!
- we got off at the wrong stop (of course) for diamond head so we had to get back onto TheBUS which was embarrassing enough, but then the disabled lady had to maneouvre her wheelchair around to make room for us =/
- the walk to the entrance of diamond head was a hike in itself
- and then the actual hike... MAYTE. that was challenging. the whole thing is uphill, and on top of that you gotta deal with loose gravel and rocks, burning heat, and winding paths. that's before you even get to those evil evil stairs.
- i did feel all accomplished though when we reached the top. the view was amazing. too bad there were so many bugs.
- when we got back down, nel's camera clock told us that the whole experience took us 4 hours. as wrong as that sounded, i kinda believed it. we sat and rested so many times and the way my muscles were aching, it seemed likely. then we realised what she thought was an 8 was really a 6.
- that night we paid our first visit to our old regular spot at moose's. it was kinda boring but when i heard what gibby had to say it made my whole day hehe
- somehow we made friends with these two guys sitting at the table next to ours. rodney and brock came to be our favourite new hawai'ian friends! i knew we'd get along with them when i saw how they made fun of how other people dance. boy versions of us!
- somehow plans were made to go hiking with them the next day. if it weren't for rodney saying "yes ma'am" (sigh) when i asked if we could rest along the way (haha i'm such a loser) i wouldn't have agreed to it.
- the boys introduced us to Da Dawg House (referred to from now on as DDH coz i feel so tryhard when i say or type that) which was badly Red Lion But White lol
- that was the night we started getting scared of hawai'ians coz rodney nearly got beat up by one over a game of pool. that was scary.
- other than that i think i was a bit off my chops. all i remember from the walk home was that the boys walked with us which was sweet of them.. very fun night.
- we called gibby when we got home to relay some information :) and i don't know if he invited us over or if we invited ourselves (i hope it was the former) but suddenly we were making nel come with us down the steet to his apartment, where pat (white pat, not infamous pat) made nix and i some sort of evil drink that got us drunk all over again
- next thing i know, i'm asleep on gibby's lap, nel's asleep on the other chair, and nix has just finished taking a shower. what the heck?! what a crazy night.
- did we stop and talk to brian (our favourite concierge) that night? we probably did coz i remember him making fun of how we came home at 3am and then went out again and didn't make it back till after 5am. he thought we were crazy. i think from that day forward he greeted us with "good evening crazy girls" every night.

DAY 6 - MAUNAWILI FALLS / MOOSE'S
- HUNG. OVER. BAD. what the heck was in those drinks pat?!
- rodney and brock were late picking us up thanks to traffic (hmm?? haha) and as we stumbled into the car i think we messed up the pre-assigned seating plan. sorry :( i just really hate riding shotgun in this country. the car ride was so fun though! i've never laughed so much. that pair are too much. i've never met such entertaining people.
- first we went to pali lookout.. that was so beautiful! i just wish i didn't look like death in the photos.
- then we were on our way to maunawili falls. what an experience. it wasn't as physically tiring as diamond head but it was so much harder because i spent the whole time trying not to fall and crack my head on a rock. the whole time i walked with my head down, in full concentration trying to work out where to put my foot next. i've never done something so wildnerness-ish in my life. i felt so badly inadequate everytime brock and rodney would run ahead and practically skip down the trail or over a stream.
- when we finally got to the falls though, that was so nice. it doesn't look like much in the photos but it really was pretty. it took nix and i a good half hour to actually get in the water coz it was freezing and then another 2 hours to jump off the 10ft cliff thing. what wimps!
- moose's that night was packed because a ship had just come in. marines galore. i'm a bit over marines though.. i keep hearing bad things about them. i danced with a few losers that night.. one that told me "i was only dancing with you coz i thought you didn't have a boyfriend" and one that got angry at me for dancing with some other guy while he was "waiting" for me to get back from the restroom. niiiice. not such a fun night.

DAY 7 - SANDY BEACH / ZANZABAR
- i did not enjoy sandy beach at all. i think i caught a case of leptosperosis (from maunawili falls) so i felt like absolute crap all day and the sporadic rays of sun and the wind weren't helping me. plus we were so sandy (at sandy beach haha) after we left coz the sand there was sticky.
- also i was feeling slightly off emotionally that day so i just wasn't in the mood for anything
- until i received a phone call later that evening... hot hot hot! it was one of the toughest things i had to do though, to refuse AGAIN (esp after last year) but i knew i had to
- that night the girls went to the club ahead of me and i never actually made it in (looong story) but i had fun waiting for them outside anyway. and when they finally came busting out of there that was when the real adventure began. that was just.. such an experience. i think i only started breathing again once i had both nel and nix safely back in the room (which took nearly an hour to do i reckon)
- and then i felt so terrible (even though i wasn't involved) when rodney called to ask why we hated him :( poor boy... imagine what he was thinking!?

DAY 8 - MY 2ND NOTHING DAY
- i was still feeling the leptosperosis effects so i hung around waikiki while the girls went out for the day with rodney and brock. i was bit jealous when they came back with wide smiles and all their stories but i reckon i would've just felt even more sick if i'd gone and tried to hang out on a beach with my fever and sore throat.
- oh and besides, solo and i "broke up" that day.. should've seen nix's and nel's faces when we told them haha

DAY 9 - PEARL HARBOR / RED LION & MOOSE'S
- the line to get into pearl harbor was a joke. it went around the whole front lawn (which was probably as big as a soccer field) 1.5 times! then when we finally got in we found out we'd have to wait two hours till our tour thingie began. yeh right! we were half contemplating not even going but then that'd feel like a waste.
- so then we tried to find a place where we could sleep, and failing that we decided to be lovos and amuse ourselves with taking pictures of ourselves. that was badly the highpoint of my pearl harbor experience! haha
- i fell asleep during the movie about what happened the day pearl harbor was attacked and i felt really bad coz nix came out of it feeling so sad about what happened, and i was too tired to feel anything. i'm sorry :(
- the Arizona memorial itself was nice though.. took lots of pictures in there. i think its so nice how americans are so patriotic. even i was getting snap happy taking pictures of their flag and stuff.
- we went shopping at pearl ridge afterwards. i might've enjoyed it if i wasn't soooo dead tired. all i wanted to do was lie on a beach and sleep. but its ok coz i got a hair straightener there! yay. i also bought an eyeglass repair kit (haha how dorky does that sound?) but i think the counter lady stole it coz i couldn't find it when we got home.
- on the way out we ran into marcus (the dude who was only dancing with me coz he thought i didn't have a boyfriend) and he turned out to be not such a loser coz he drove us all the way back to ala moana after i said we were lost and didn't know how to get out.. that was nice of him. it was all we could do not to say "bling bling!" when we saw his car. we rode to ala moana that day in style!
- we got home and while the girls went to go hang out at the beach (and the internet cafe haha) i caught up with an old friend from last year. twas veeeery fun.
- that night we decided to check out the new red lion.. waste of time! it is totally a different club to what it used to be.. they need to change the name. there were uni kids there gyrating up on each other in the most awkward way possible, and girls in tracksuits who took it literally when lol jon told them to bend over to the floor and touch their toes. it was painful i tell you. i had to look away. i was so much happier sitting at the bar watching royden make nel's martinis.
- after red lion closed at 2.30 (?!) we checked out DDH but it was dead too. nix and i decided to go to the restroom at moose's (coz that makes so much more sense than peeing at the hotel right? haha) and ended up staying a while, while nel went to the hotel and hung with the night crew.
- while nix did some ballroom dancing with some old dude i listened to chae sweet talk me. my favourite bit was when i asked why he was shaking his head at me and he replied "i'm just trying to shake the thoughts of you from my head.." hahah he was so adorable. OH! and when i asked him if he was from the south and he said "yes ma'am", i dropped. that phrase gets me every time. he was a nice guy.

DAY 10 - IMP / GERMAINE'S / MOOSE'S / GIBBY'S CRIB
- we went souvenir shopping at the intl market place and had another run-in with an angry stall owner just like last year. "you keep try, no buy!! always try, on and off, then put back and no buy! that is right size, buy now! you try, no buy!" OKAY! bye then! rude ass woman. sorry if we need to make sure the rings actually fit us before we buy them!? so we ran far away from her and her cursing.
- i got quite a lot of stuff but not as much as last year coz it was all the same thing. when we got home i did a money count and realised i'd spent around $700 in hawai'i alone. eeeeeek.
- next we went to catch our ride to germaine's luau. that was fun and we had a cute bus tour guide guy, cousin jaysin. too bad his jokes were lame.
- the luau was so lovely. we got to see the sunset and the food was awesome!!! the best meal i had in hawai'i by far. i wish the dancers were a little hotter like at paradise cove hehe. and i wish there were activities. but still, i liked that luau. very satisfying.
- that night we planned to go to zanzabar since everyone said it was poppin on tuesdays but when we got there the bouncer let us know there were only 8 people left. the heck?! it was only 1am!
- we went to DDH next but that was shit too so we landed at moose's. we don't even like moose's that much anymore and we still frequented it the most. they were playing dance music and michael jackson's greatest hits and other crap like that so i spent most of the night on the wall or sitting on a stool. i was a bit sad during the last song of the night (back at one.. ahhaha) coz i had no one to dance with :( i was stuck talking to Weird Filo Guy in Yellow Shirt about how nice a guy he was or something.
- we were sitting at hotel reception afterwards talking to brian and kalani when nix and i saw gibby walk past and he invited us back to his place again to meet his non-girlfriend. she was cute. it was so weird seeing this little asian thing sitting cradled against gibby.. kinda cute actually. it was not cute how at one point she straddled him though, right there on the couch next to nix. haha.
- pat got home and made us another one of his evil drinks.. i got real scared when i was about to take my first sip and nix whispered "smell it first!!!". man we were drunk after the first sip! all i remember was eating their pizza (after gibby told me 3 times he didn't want to give us any) and using their toy guns to shoot rubber darts at the tv. oh.. and for some reason we told them how much we liked the whisper song so they played it for us hahha. nang badu nang badu!!!!

DAY 11 - ALA MOANA / D&B & DDH / DENNY'S
- nix and i decided to leave gibby's before pat made us anymore drinks. we stumbled back to our hotel then chatted to brian and kalani until their shift ended at 6am. then we decided (and brian backed us up.. kalani really didn't care either way, he was too sleepy) that if we tried to sleep we'd never wake up and make it to ala moana beach, so we might as well just go and do the sleeping there.
- we caught TheBUS the earliest we'd ever caught in and got to ala moana beach by 7.01am. there were all these old people swimming back and forth in the water like it was a pool.. it was so weird! and that beach has absolutely no waves. we slept for about 2 hours all up (with no tanning oil.. grrrr nix!!) and when we couldn't take the heat and the dehydrated feeling anymore, we walked back to ala moana mall...
- where we received a call from rodney to say he was going to meet us there. nix and i just had to laugh at the fact that everytime we see these boys we looked less and less attractive. the night we met them we got drunk, the second time we were hung over and doing a freaking hike through the forest, the third time i was chasing nel down the street as she cussed at them, and now here we were on 2 hrs sleep, dehydrated, and with sand all over us. greeeeaaaaaattttt.
- when nel got there we did some more shopping.. i bought "andies" hehe and we got "thank you and goodbye" presents for the boys.
- along with solo we headed to dave & busters for our last night in hawai'i *tear*.. where we ran into rodney and brock (who were wearing the shirts we bought them that day! haha how cute). and so started one of the most awkward nights i've ever lived through.
- the line to get up to the bar in D&B was too long and nel was getting heated with some girls in front of us.. and since we didn't wanna hang out on a queue for our last night (and neither did we want another display of nel's fiesty side) we decided to leave and go to DDH.
- DDH was fun! i didn't dance much but it was still fun. we had a few dramas throughout the night.. i felt annoyed, sad, guilty, happy and relieved at least 5 times each while we were there. i even cried! i can't get over that!
- our time there ended up abruptly and we followed nel home. since it was our very last night in hawai'i, nix and i weren't ready to call it a night yet so for old times sake we went to denny's for some eats. awkward awkward awkward! it was an interesting night..

DAY 12 - BYE HAWAI'I
- i woke up with much difficulty and watched quietly as nix tried to sort out our airport transfer
- i said my goodbyes to solo outside the limo cab... which was really sad. coz i'm never gonna see him again.
- i had to have extra security measures carried out on me at the airport coz i handed them my receipt rather than my boarding pass and i guess that made me look like a terrorist or something
- the whole morning was messed up. i'm not gonna pretend i wasn't pissed and offended and most of all hurt by that, but whatever.
- and on that note, i said my goodbyes to the girls and headed to my own gate alone. and then our holiday was officially over :(


RANDOM CONVERSATIONS

*dancing to wait (whisper song)*
al: hey.. wasn't the plan to dance to this song with a boy? ... not each other...?
nix: .. oh yeh! .. oh no...
al: okay i'm gonna find solo

rodney: i'm going to Like Like (pronounced lih-keh lih-keh)
al/nix: .. what?
brock: its a road
nel: oh! i thought he was telling us he needed to use the restroom

nix: then we went to the military base --
al: *gasp* you went to a military base.. without ME?
nel: yeh we were driving in going "ooohhhh alisa's gonna hate us..."

*middle aged filo marine walks past and eyes us*
nel: .. yeh okay.. TITO

cousin jaysin: okay ladies, you're on this bus
nix: coolies!!!
al: did you really just say that nix? did you?

nel: i love how i have to break my back everytime i go to the toilet just to reach the toilet paper

*bitchy aussie girl pushes infront of nel*
al: pffft... perth!

nix: so.. gibby's actually nice..!
al: yeh! he doesn't hate us anymore. you even showered at his place!
nix: omg! why did i do that?
al: i have no idea! but it made sense at the time.

al: i was so squashed in the bed last night!
nix: so was i!
al: i thought it was you taking up all the room!
nix: i though it was YOU!
nel: oh gross, it was me

nix: can we get a donut with chocolate on it?
dunkin donuts guy: what about this one?
al/nix: OKAAAAAAY!!!

*phone rings*
nix: i'll get it!
al: that soooo better be solo..
nix: al, its for you
al/nel: who is it?
*nix shrugs*
al/nel: WHO IS IT?
nix: well... its not solo...

*nel talking on the phone at the top of diamond head*
nel: yeh its nice! ... we're okay ... alisa's dying

nel: you have bugs in your hair
nix: omg! get them out!
*silence*
nix: please?! i'd get them out for you!!!!
nel: yeh later. i wanna take a photo first.

*rodney turns on the a/c and brock opens his window*
rodney: yo brock what are we doing here? cooling down the whole world.. or..?

nix: brock was telling me he likes to go camping... with knives and guns...
al: like... for hunting?
nix: yeh... and i'm like "well.. i like sleeping.. at home.. in my bed"

rodney: hey brockli, do i go straight?
brock: uh.. no. go left.
*a minute later*
brock: oh.. actually...
rodney: you monkey ass chicken f*%#er! i was 75% going straight, then you said to go left so i went 25%, and now we're 100% this way! ... that doesn't make sense but it adds up!

rodney: you shithead!
brock: don't go there
rodney: oh my bad. i'm sorry. i called you something rude and i apologise
nel: what so... "shithead" is bad?
rodney: yes. i need to go home and cry now.

*playing truth or dare*
solo: i got a question for you! WHY was you all up on the geek in the club?!

al: i don't think gibby will let us cut the line...
nix: why not?
al: we're not THAT close..
nix: hello we were at his house till 5 this morning!

solo: yo fix her up. she bout to break loose.

al: omg what's in this drink?
pat: little bit of rum, fruit punch, and OJ
nix: "little bit" my ass! he was in the kitchen making it forever!

al: what the heck is going on with me?!
nix: i'm telling you al... unchartered territory!

al: haha you look like a little sailor girl nix!
nix: that's what nel said too
nel: except i said she looked like a little sailor boy

al: hi what are you guys doing?
brock/nix: saying goodbye

al: do i look like i've been crying?
nix: no..? do you want to look like you've been crying?
al: no..?
nix: don't cry al! *mwah* look! i can withdraw money in hawai'i! yay!

gibby: you ladies want a drink?
nix: not if it was that same shit from last time

al: have you .. grown or something?
pat: i was bout to ask if you've shrunk
al: shut up!
pat: well it don't matter to me. but you cut your hair!
al: ..yeh
pat: you cut it!
al: well.. its been 8 months! what was i supposed to do?

al: do you want another drink?
nix: ... okaaaaaay..
al: do you wanna not shout each other since we're so poor right now?
nix: okay!
(we ended up shouting each other 2 rounds anyway)

nel: its so mad singing in our bathroom! you can hear yourself so clearly!
al: yeh and we could hear you too
nel: i don't care! it sounds so nice in there!

nix: is that safe al?
al: no.. i'll probably wake up with a penis growing on my forehead or something

aloha!

hawai'i pictures are up too!

i'll be back soon with my recap. in the meantime...
hawaii-oh5.blogspot.com

smiiiile!

pictures are up

www.imagestation.com/members/alisa.g

my last day in so. cal

i can't believe i'm leaving tomorrow! these 2.5 weeks have flown.. and dragged as well. weird. southern california is really pretty.. there are ghetto areas but overall its nice (ignore the smog). streets are wide and houses are pretty. motorists drive crazy but they'll stop in the middle of the street for j-walking pedestrians. everything's so cheap - real roxy shirts for $11, 10 pack of pepsi for $3, boba for $1. the weather is so nice and the beaches are within half an hour from where i'm staying. they use styrofoam way too much and i don't think they recycle. having to tip sucks but it means wait staff are nicer to you. oh and i hate that nothing includes tax so unless you can work out 8% of something fast, you never know how much its going to cost at the counter. and i really have to start remembering that "lemonade" here doesn't mean sprite or 7up like it does at home.. it seriously means LEMONade like what we used to get at boston market. i always get a shock when i take my first sip. i'm slowly getting used to all this coinage but really, who has time to count out 73c at the counter? i'm also used to the roads now, and the fact that when we make a wide left turn it doesn't mean we're heading into oncoming traffic. i still have to get used to veering right instead of left on a busy sidewalk though.

i went to laguna beach yesterday. is that really meant to be "the real OC"? coz its not that pretty i'm sorry. the water was dirty and the sand was sticky. and the size of the beach kinda reminded me of waikiki. i don't think i'd go there again. the area was nice though.. pretty houses. the stores (i have to say "the store" rather than "the shops" now haha) sort of looked like bondi in a way.

i also went to san juan capistrano mission. that was interesting... but i wish i knew a little more about it before we went coz i kinda didn't really know what it was all about while we were walking around. i'll go read up on it in my lonely planet book later. on the way home we got some tacos and i swear my stomach is still feeling the effects.

today we went boating at laguna. that was FUN! it was the first time my uncle took his boat out so he and my other uncles were a bit eager and we went crashing over a few waves a bit too fast. us girls were sitting on the front of the boat hanging on for dear life, my auntie yelling "enough na! enough na!!". boys and their toys. don't worry that your wife and children are practically falling off. then they wanted to get their fish tracker system working so i was reading the manual trying to work it out for them and i got real seasick. i went down and forced myself to sleep till we got back to the dock coz i was so ready to throw up. sometimes when i sit still i can still feel the boat bobbing up and down. we were meant to go to san diego tonight but everyone's wiped out from boating so i think it'll be a quiet one.

i can't believe by this time tomorrow i'll be in hawaii! yay i'm so excited.

the question everyone's asking

my cousin anna
her: hey ate do you have a boyfriend?
me: nope
her: ooooh let's find you a cute american boy!
me: haha yeh ok
her: eh.. too bad there aren't any
(i beg to differ.. i'm watching dawson's creek reruns an i die everytime i see chad michael murray's face)

my uncle benny
him: when are you getting married?
me: uhh..
him: you got a boyfriend in australia?
me: no
him: uh oh! you know a lot of your aunties didn't get married...
me: yeh i know. its in my blood.
him: hahhaha yeh, could be
(the first person to ever agree with me. go uncle benny)

my auntie noeme
her: hey are you gonna get married?
me: not at the rate i'm going
her: don't worry anak, what i always say is.. what is meant to be is meant to be
(i wonder if that saying consoles my spinster aunties)

my cousin breanna
her: woah she's 30 and she doesn't have a man yet?!
me: what's wrong with that?
her: that's OLD!
me: that'll be me in 7 years
her: *gasp* don't say that ate!
(i nearly hit her)

i miss being that age where everyone's more concerned with me having a boyfriend and consequently ending up a pregnant drop out, rather than me having no boyfriend and turning into an old spinster. at 30.

ahhhh well.. such is the life of a 23 year old single girl. although.. i did get asked out the other day. he said "will you go with me?" and i said "to where?" (gotta love my ignorance) and he said "will you be my woman?". so i said no and we laughed and he changed the topic and we laughed some more.

two days till hawai'i!

i like you, i can't help that i'm black

OH NO. my dad called my uncle today and about half way through their conversation my uncle decides to tell him that a boy was "persuing" me at grace's wedding. and he doesn't stop there. he also informs my dad that the boy who was "persuing" me was half black (he was?). then he tells my dad he regrets not introducing me to the groom's brother because "he's half black too, and he likes filipino women". and the whole time my uncle is chuckling like its the funniest thing. can you imagine the palpatations my dad was having? i just sat there like.. are these words REALLY coming out of your mouth uncle?? he got off the phone and went "oh your dad, he's too protective of you" - if you knew this then WHY did you tell him all that?

solo asked me once (probably the most awkward conversation we've ever had) why colour mattered. eeeek. i never thought i'd ever have to answer that one. how do you answer that without making your parents look racist? they're just of a different generation i guess. oh well, after july 28 that's not something i'm really going to have to think about. lets just hope the topic doesn't come up while i'm there.

i lost my footing on the stairs last night and kinda fell. haha it was funny, except my mobile was in my back pocket and now my fat ass has damaged the external screen. dammit.

okay so i have less than a week left here. before i leave i want to: sunbake (that's a word right? my cousins laugh at me when i say it) at laguna beach, shop at The Block, and go to San Diego. probably only 1 of the 3 will get fulfilled but i'm satisfied with my stay already so i don't mind. apart from the last 2 days, i've had a blast here.

waterproof mascara

the past couple of days have felt like hell. i am so over smiling and being friendly and looking like i'm having a good time when really all i wanna do is be alone. coz anything's better than feeling like an outsider.

i was really looking forward to meeting all these new people at the 2nd wedding this past weekend. i'm good in most social situations. i don't usually need to be babysat at a party where i don't know anyone. but to fit in and belong is a two way street. i will smile and act upbeat and make small talk till i'm blue in the face, but if people refuse to reciprocate or even let me in the damn circle they're standing in, what the heck am i supposed to do apart from sitting there alone? if i had a dollar for everytime i had to stand with someone's back to me i could buy myself a ticket back to australia right now. i was so over it.. i left the reception and went freekin souvenir shopping in the hotel lobby. (btw vin, i bought merv a really cool fridge magnet while i was at it hehe) i didn't even care how anti-social i looked.

before i left my parents gave me a hundred lectures on how to act while i was here. i was told not to be aloof (since when am i aloof?) or shy and to be friendly. and that's all i've been since the moment i arrived. but i am TIRED now. i'm tired of being introduced as "pinsan ni benny, taga australia!!", tired of having to sound enthusiastic everytime i repeat the story of why i'm here for 3 months (heck even i'm starting to question that), tired of making sure i don't look bored at any moment.. and most of all tired of knowing NO ONE.

so when we got home i asked if i could borrow my auntie's cell and i called james and solo - the two people i know in this country from some time before june 30 2005. man it was good to hear a familiar voice. so good that i stayed on the phone till 3am. james is gonna be in my area as of tomorrow and i'm gonna make it my business to hang out with that boy coz i need to get out of here. and solo.. he makes me laugh and i'm probably going to see him in about a week.

i hate how insecure this has made me feel! what the heck is up with that!? i even lied to get out of hanging with these mean people today. i've never felt so conniving. i'm in a foreign country, and i KNOW i had more fun watching charmed and felicity and reading in bed at home today, than i would've had if i had gone to the mall and to the bowling alley with them. thats so messed up. eh whatever, i can't wait till hawai'i. i'm counting down the days. only 6 more to go!!

cha-ching

vegas is HOT! it took us about 4 hours to drive there and when we reached our hotel it was 109 degrees outside.. i think thats equivalent 40-something degrees celcius. man when it gets that hot in sydney they close the schools down! we walked most of the strip and it took us about 4 hours to do it too coz everytime we walked into a new casino we'd find some chairs and rest. i've never done anything like that. high school walkathons were easier than that. but it was fun. i got to see a lot of things i didn't last time i was there and this time i was of legal american age so i got to gamble a little too. i lost about $19 and stopped.

the strip is pretty if nothing else. the venetian is beautiful with its fake indoor sky that looks kinda real if you don't stare too hard. caesar's palace was really pretty too. we watched the sirens show at treasure island and the water fountain show at the bellagio. very nice but not something i'd wanna do over and over again. my calves are still aching.

i'm slowly working on my tan. nevada sun helped a lot. i've got this gay little brown circle between my boobs though thanks to the design of my bikini. but you know, i'm just happy to have a tan at all hehe.

on our way home we stopped at the outlet stores at primma. i spent over $100 there!! i couldn't believe it. it was mostly souvenirs and pasalubong.

this was such a boring entry. i had fun though.

one week down

my uncle is getting deployed to iraq next month!! how scary. he came home early from work wearing his army uniform (that thing would be hot if it wasn't my uncle who was wearing it) coz all of a sudden he's flying to fresno tonight for something and nobody told him till this morning. and then he announced that he was going to iraq. my cousin said last time he was deployed (to the desert storm.. what was that?) he was gone for a YEAR. imagine how long he'll be gone for this time. i may like to dance with marines in hawaiian clubs but there is no way i'm ever marrying anyone in the military. i couldn't live like that. no way. haha i'm kinda glad australians aren't as patriotic as americans coz i'd hate if my dad or boyfriend or whatever was getting deployed to the war. the word 'deployed' is just scary on its own (and kinda reminds me of jose and freddy haha).

anyway.. so we had 4th of july celebrations the day after the wedding. i ate goat!! the family i'm staying with is ilocano and apparently ilocanos treat goat as a delicacy. my cousins who were watching me take my first forkful to my mouth said my hands were shaking. ilocanos are crazy coz that shit was disgusting. it tasted like chewy bits of pork fat but worse. yuck. apart from that it was fun. we had fireworks right in the street with all the neighbours. felt like i was in the philippines on new years eve or something. it was real pretty though. very romantic. we had the opening of the wedding presents and everyone applauded when they opened "the gifts from australia" haha how embarrassing. there was this palm reader there.. one of the groom's uncles i think. my cousin anna and i so badly wanted to get our palms read but we didn't have time. oh yeh, sleaze boy was there too. at the end of the night when we kissed goodbye i said "see ya" and he replied "i really do hope so" =/

oops gotta go! will write more soon!

terror in london

times like this, i don't WANT to be 10,000 miles away from my family and friends and everyone i love in the world. and it doesn't help that ignorant americans have taken this bombing as a new excuse to crap on about their war on iraq and how many new allies they can get because of it.

the most ignorant american thing that's been said to me thus far happened the day after the wedding at the 4th of july bbq.
groom's aunt from NYC: so when you guys watch american movies, they gotta put subtitles on there for you huh?
me: ... no?
groom's aunt from NYC: but.. you can't understand us, can you?

argh. sometimes i hate this place. i'm homesick. i'll blog about vegas some other time.

grace <3 brent

by far, THE best wedding i've ever been to in my life! i don't even think weddings are meant to be that fun. i was tearing and i don't even know these people. it was sweet. the ceremony was simply but pretty. and the reception was so fun! i did the twist and boogied down with geriatric great uncles i've never met before, watched as my aunties wooped and shook their asses to drop it like its hot and freek-a-leek, and took photos of my uncles dancing with girls i SWEAR i've seen in those "ghetto prom" forwards. it was awesome!

you'd think with the groom being part black part south american (hi) that there'd be some talent in there huh? haha hmm.. but there was a guy, a mixture of puerto rican, native american and two other nationalities (hey nix he sounds like he'd fit right in at red lion).. who i chatted to and danced with for a while. he was cool at first, but then when he was telling my uncle how a lot of his cousins back in NY have thicker NY accents than his, he looked over at me, smirked and said all sleaze-like "yeh she likes that, the new yawk accent. i can tell." - in front of my uncle yo. sorry. its over. goodbye. oh well, at least i didn't sit there all night feeling like a lonely single girl at a wedding. and i hadn't slow danced with someone in a while. that was nice. when we left he was chatting up one of the bridesmaids.

when it was time to catch the bouquet i stayed seated. suddenly my auntie gets up and yells across the room "ALISA!! GET UP THERE!! YOU'RE SINGLE!!" oh geez. then sleaze boy leans over and whispers "you're single right?!". anyway, luckly i didn't go up there coz the MC (he was so crazy! i wanna fly him out to australia for my own wedding one day) made all the single girls do this wierd crazy stuff before he let grace throw the bouquet.

i was talking to my cousin eugene about clubbing in california, and he goes "you know, you should really talk to geoff about that. coz me.. " he rubs his girlfriend's thigh ".. i'm pretty settled." FOR REAL?! okay, sure, clubbing is probably more fun when you're single, but don't tell me you're too settled to take your cousin from australia out one night. this boy has hair up to his ass, cornrows, earrings all in his ear. and he's sitting there in his durag, being settled. duuuude.

aaanyway it was a very fun night.. probably the best time i've had here.

oh say can you see..

first the flight before mine had to circle for an hour before it landed because of the weather, which delayed my flight for an hour and a half. then they found "technical difficulties" with the audio/visual on the plane and we had to do the 10 hour flight entertainment-less. then the girl next to me decided to leave her reading light on ALL freeking NIGHT, plus there was super extra cold airconditioning pointed at my seat, so i couldn't sleep. then i missed my connecting flight to LA from hawai'i so I had to rebook onto a later flight. then, after walking to the end of the earth to get to my gate (i hate hawai'i airport) they announced they were in an "overbooked situation" and were looking for 15 volunteers to give up their seats for a later flight. heyell naw, not after that trouble i'd already had. i just had to laugh at that point, not caring if i looked like an idiot. my holidays never run smoothly.. i was just waiting for the next thing to go wrong.

but everything from there went okay. i met this awesome lady on the plane. we spent the first part of the flight talking about california (she gave me tips on where to go), work, politics, family...everything! she was originally from NY (envyyyy) and moved to california to persue her dream of acting, and now she lives on melrose. haha how many tv shows is that rolled into one? she was cool.

so now i'm at my cousins' house in orange, orange county. the neighbourhood is pretty nice but its not THAT "The OC"ish. still very pretty though. i'm staying in my 10 year old cousin's room. yo its like hawai'i exploded in there. everywhere i look - the shelf, my bedsheets, even the curtains - all i see is hula girls and the words aloha, hawaii and waikiki. its.. funny.

i've done a lot (tourist-wise) while i've been here - downtown LA (talk about ghetto. i thought i was in mexico for a second there.. and no, that did not excite me. shut up), sunset blvd, mann's chinese theatre, the kodak theatre (Idol central! haha), the hollywood sign, beverly hills, and the santa monica pier. its funny, my cousins were acting more star struck than i was haha. oh and i went to newport beach - apparently where The OC is filmed. nice beach, got me a tan (and a little sunburn).

this afternoon i've got my cousin's wedding. i get to meet the whole family including my cousin geoff who millie says is "fully sik" lol. i've been told they're karaoke fans. i spotted a magic sing earlier. i'm excited. haha. but that will come tomorrow at the 4th of july bbq. for now i gotta go get ready for the wedding.

don't know when i'll be able to blog next but email me, sms me, comment on here, whatever. i miss australia so any form of contact will make me happy. byeeee!

ps. i've been here 3 days, but already i feel myself turning american. oh no!!