Roxanne and Alexie Manila Ocean Park

Manila Ocean Park
Alexie just got face painted
November 2008

March 19, 2006. My day started early today. I woke up 6 am and fixed my self. Today's the day that we are going to meet up with the client and go into series of meetings.

I knocked at Dindo's room, which was upstairs and he was still getting ready so I decided to smoke outside for a while coz it was freezing! Well I guess smoking didn't helped that much, I still felt cold.

When Dindo got ready we went to Mike's room and he was already fixed so we headed to his car so we can look for PRG's office. We looked for the address using mike gadget on his car and was surprised that it was just actually beside the hotel and was verymuch walkable. lolz.

Now that we found the building we tried to locate the which space was the office at. Mike and Dindo headed towards the main door and found out that the door they went through was for a cosmetic surgery! Mike was laughing when I caught up with them going out of the door. Mike said that Dindo was planning to get a nose job thats why he went to that door! lolz :D Okay door number one wasn't that promising so we looked at the suite number and found that it was actually upstairs on the second floor.

We walked to the courtyard entrance of the building and went up the stairs we saw this girl from outside the window and I was thinking "hmmmm.... may be she is Michelle"...... and I was right! as we got to the hallway we looked for the suite number and knocked at the door. Together with my heart beating faster and faster we waited for a response. Then there she is! the girl that I saw from the window opened the door and yes she is Michelle.

As we got inside, she immediately took us to our working place with our own computers and table and everything. It was really nice to have an office there even just for a while (or a sec! lolz)

We started to meet up and talked about the account, how we can improve it and handle calls better.

It was really nice that we were able to meet up the people in costa mesa. They let me feel that we have to work as one, as if I was really working there to be able to function correctly.

By the way lunch was really great! we had pizza and as Chris and Kathy said "Give them the All American Pizza" :D.

so the meetings are all over and were done with the tasks that we needed to do, but the day is still so long. So Mike decided to take us to the mall and see what we can buy.

We looked around the mall and see what we could buy, but we kept on converting the prices into pesos. So at the end of the day, we weren't able to buy anything.

we got tired of walking around the mall we decided to eat. we looked for the food court and Dindo instantly craved for rice. I was hesitant that we would find a store that serves rice then again I proved my self wrong! there are chinese foodshops at the mall that serves rice!

The food looked okay and the serving was really big, but dindo didn't mind the serving and ate it all! lol. He ordered chopsuey which is one of my top favorite foods of all time! it was really bad it didn't even came close to the chopsuey that I know. I know some of you would say that may be its the authentic taste of chopsuey, but hey! I know what tastes good and bad and sadly its really bad. But then again Dindo was starving and he didn't mind the taste as well.

Now that we are done touring the Mall we met up with Mike and went back to the hotel to rest after a couple of hours he took us to New Port Beach about 5 minutes from our hotel.

Unlike the tropical Philippines it was freaking cold at the beach. No one was actually swimming, no one could! Anyways after taking a walk at the pier we went to the nearby stores to see if there's anything that we could buy. But there really isn't any worth buying. there were just some shirts and things i don't think would remind me that much about the trip, so I decided not to buy.

On our way back to the hotel we saw another hooters restaurant. Mike had been joking around that resto coz it seems like there's a Hooter's resto anywhere we go!

Later that night we met up again with Kathy, Michelle and her friend and Chris. We went to this, If I may say... "all Amercan Bar"... It was like how i pictured it to be... just like in the movies. Nice....

So that night we drank (a few mugs of beer for me coz i really cant handle a lot of liquor) and talked about things like work but more than that we bonded...

After gettingn drunk we went for food to this japanese restaurant just across the street.... the problem is that "I dont EAT RICE".... so again they forced me to do something..... the night went and they had some more drinking in the restaurant while watching baseball.

After that we decided to go back to the hotel and take some rest...... It was really a nice day..... I feel so blessed that God has let me into it.

I'm Officially A Foreigner!!!! Lolz March 18, 2006 (1800 hrs PST)

At last we have landed at the LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) I'm so excited to explore the land the last thing that we have to do now is pass through the immigration officer that will be checking our papers if they are authentic. The officer asked us what is the purpose of our visit and took a look at our pasports and then checked our finger prints for immigration purposes. after that he let us pass through.

We are now Officially in America!!!!! whoa, after all the paperworks we are finally here. we then proceeded to the arrival area where our boss, Mike Noble would be picking us up. we also met a filipino who was there for a couple of months to visit her father, too bad i lost my phone when i got back here in the philippines so I wont be able to have coffee with her like we talked about.

In the arrival area there was a lot people and I, for a moment got nervous because I cant see Mike in the vicinity. we waited for a while and looked around for him and found that he as well just came from Oxnard (Ventura County). what a relief, I didn't have to call the Philippines and ask for help coz its going to expensive.

Mike then took us to the parking lot where he parked his car. He pointed at an old car parked right next to where I was and told us that it is his. I was thinking if he is serious about it, then he broke that it was just a joke. But I would not mind riding that kind of car coz i like old cars as well.

We got to Mike's car, which is a Dodge Hemi and is extremely awesome. It is loaded with lots of toys for the big boys such as GPS, Muti CD changer, MP3 recordable player and the sound was great.

At the parking lot's exit we saw the one of the most famous land marks of Los Angeles, The LAX tower. Mike told that Bill, one of our big bosses, interviewed him there for his job.

Everything was just beautiful (coz it is clean... unlike here in Manila... hehehehe). The weather was freezing. We even thought that it's going to be warm, because inside the airport it was okay. But when we got out, I thought wrong.

Since that we were staying in L.A. for just a couple of days, a week to be exact Mike immeadiately asked us if where do we want to go since it still is a bit early. so he took us around the city but there were really nothing much to see since most of the establishments were already closed, so I asked if we can just grab a cup of coffee at a starbucks.

I ordered a Grande Hot White Chocolate so that it wont keep me up all night(I tried to stay awake in the plane so i wont get jet lagged) Dindo on the other hand ordered a Mocha Frappe!!! So when i asked him for us to take our coffee outside he was freezing!

After we finished our coffee we decided to find our hotel which was a travel lodge that was near PRG (our US office).

We checked in and settled in our own rooms. The rooms were nice but it was a no smoking room too bad for me :(

AIR BORNE Somewhere between March 18, 2006 (2200 hrs Mla) & March 18, 2006 (0800 hrs PST)

I was thinking of including this portion of the trip with the first part but what the heck, Its 12 hours of non-stop flying there must be something that I could write! Anyways!

So we were the last ones to board since we were flying economy, plus we were seated second from the last seat at the back. The seat was okay since there's only the two of us traveling and the best thing is that even though we got to check-in late we still managed to get a window seat. How? I begged the check in officer to reserve us the seats because we still need to get our ticket outside the terminal and there's a big chance of somebody taking it.

Since I was the one who begged for the window seat I was the one who got it though Don actually was the one who got the assignment.

As the plane took off, my heart was pounding as hard as it could. It was a mixture of nervousness because I dont know how it would go and excited since it is the first time that I would ever ride a plane.

I can now feel the plane is moving slowly towards the run way from the taxi way as the plane got into the runway and had clearance to take off, it started moving faster and faster and so is my heart as it beats! then suddenly when the plane started to go up nose first and I cant describe the feeling!

Finally we are air borne the first few minutes was like something I could not describe! I saw the lights of manila 10,000 feet above the ground and it was sooooo BEAUTIFUL!

As soon as I got back to the normal me, I realized that it was like riding a patok jeepney in Cubao actually it felt safer than riding the later!

The funny thing is that I got more nervous when we were on mid air. Things got into my mind like are we going to crash yet? because the plane was like not moving inside so I had to look out through the window and actually see that we are moving. But most of the time, looking outside the window was futile since I can see nothing. Just dark clouds, that's all!

The inflight entertainment was terrible they had to repeat Harry Potter The Soccerer Stone!!!! for three times! When it comes to the food well I think it was okay since we were in fiesta (economy) Class. Its a good thing that they have food that does not have any rice : ) . But when they served some food that looked like rice, I asked the stewart what was the food made from. She didn't knew so she had to ask her co-workers first. however when she got back at me, I have finished the whole serving already!!!! From that point on me and Don had an agreement that whenever they would serve food we'll switch, since he likes rice and I dont. :)

wish that I was able to see the break of light and darkness. That was like the event of the year that I was waiting for. Because since we were traveling from the west of the eastern part to the eastern part of the west of the world via a transpacific plane the timezone got a little confusing.

We left Manila at 10:00 PM and was on the skies of California 6 PM the same day!

Thought the trip was terribly long.... it was all worth it! From the plane I can see snow capped mountains as white as it could be. Wide rivers running to the ocean! I can believe it I am in the United States!

P.S. Too bad I cant scream I LOVE NEW YORK! :D

THE AIRPORT March 18, 2006 (2200 hrs Manila)

This the day! I'm on my way to the airport, at centennial terminal of the Manila Airport to be specific. we had to be there for at least two hours earlier to make sure that we can board the plane on time.

I'm late.... actually I arrived an hour earlier but this is the first time that I'm gonna ride a plane and I dont actually know how to check in. I saw my companion, Dindo, who is also my manager inside the check in area already.

The terminal is a little small so the guards had to check for my passport to see if I'm the one who's going to board and they won't let any guest come in.

So there we were at the check in counter we asked the information counter where do we go so we could get our seats and have our Luguage checked. Ooppps! there is something wrong, as i can clearly see the impression on the officers face, then the officer said "do you have your tickets with you?". All along I thought what the US office faxed us was enough for us to get into the plane but instead we needed to go to the ticketing office and secure our electronic tickets!

Thank God that there's a ticketing office inside the airport since the terminal was dedicated for PAL. As we rushed to the office and secure our tickets. The ticketing officer said that we should have secured the ticket days before just to make sure! Thank God the system was up so we had our tickets secured!

Just an hour left before the plane leave we were able to check-in. At this point I was thinking that my lugauge was much fortunate than me because it doesn't have to get through all of the security checks before getting to the boarding area.

I had to pass through how many body search and everything before I got through and at the end of the procedure, I felt that I was harassed. I even lost my belt during the process. I was right thinking that I should have worn flipflops instead of shoes so I didn't need to take them off.

so there we were at the boarding area I called up my girlfriend because we wont be able to talk that much for about a week or so. It was kind of a mixed emotion I was telling my baby, "This is the first time that I would ever ride a plane and the worst part is that it is for about 12 hours! I don't Understand the way that I am feeling right now" I said.