Jason's Daily Notes

I got up around 10:30am and took my mom and uncle to Brick Lane. We took the tube to Liverpool Street and walked over. My mom and I each had Ethiopian food, whereas my uncle went with Vietnamese pho. It was good. We strolled along Brick Lane.

We then took the bus to St. Pauls. Walked inside; there was a service going on.

Then we headed to the British Museum. Along the way, we bought a large (wall-size) London street map, so that my mom and uncle could get their bearings over where they were in London.

Met Tita Aida at Tottenham Court Road station; we were slightly late, since we decided to walk over to Oxford Street and see the Christmas lights. It was too cold for uncle especially, as he was ducking into stores and cafes just to be out of the cold. (It was really only like 7°C.)

Dinner was at a touristy but good fish and chips place near Covent Garden. After dinner, I walked over to Philomena's (formerly the O'Neill's) to meet Mike and his friend Rory. (I played "tough love" and left my mom and uncle to find their own way home. But Tita Aida decided to accompany them home. She ended up sleeping over! So much for my plan!)

A couple drinks with Mike and Rory. Rory shared tales of his iPhone being stolen and the difficulties of getting properly reimbursed for it. He still works at a restaurant, as some sort of coffee genius who manages to get paid more than store managers. Mike was tired but in a satisfied way :) However, Monday morning lurked around the corner, and we needed to get home. The 59 bus was it.

Trying to adjust to the time difference, I woke up around 11am, and then I spent the rest of the day with my mom and uncle. We took the bus to Brixton and went from there to Green Park. We saw Buckingham Palace, then walked around St. James's Park. To get lunch, I wanted to take them to a nice pub nearby. We checked out a couple pubs but they weren't saving food. So we ended up at Walkers of St. James, where we ordered some pies and I got bangers and mash. I also had a pint to keep me happy.

We then were right by Fortnum & Mason, so we walked in and explored it. We then walked down Piccadilly, hopping on a quick bus to Hyde Park Corner, where we walked into Hyde Park. Winter Wonderland was still going on, and it was really crowded, so instead we walked through Hyde Park. We crossed all the way to Kensington Palace. By the time we got there, though, it was completely dark. I did learn to play with the shutter speed on my camera to increase the exposure and take some really cool-looking photos.

We took the bus back to Green Park and tubed back to Brixton. We were tired and hungry, so we bought some food from Tesco and took it back to the apartment. We cooked some pasta and had some salad with it for dinner. Watched some TV.

I said bye to my family, then I went to the Swan at 10:30pm to meet Amanda, Asia, and Craig. It smelled bad - like countless sweaty nights had gone into the walls of the place. Mike joined us there! (He had been having dinner with Bernadette). We had a couple beers, I paying for Mike since he had no cash. The place started filling up and the band finished playing, so we moved to the dance floor. Mike left for home, and soon Asia also disappeared. I was pretty tired. I took the bus home, even though I could have easily walked. Asia was there in the flat.

We flew into London Heathrow. Our flight arrived at 3:55pm local time. The day was already turning to night. My mom and uncle walked slowly through the crowd to immigration. The queue was long, unfortunately, but our immigration officer was really friendly! She had relatives in Riverside and was glad to chat with us.

We got our bags, bought a snack at the airport, then took the tube into central London. I was excited to introduce Uncle Ben to London. We took some pictures on my new camera on the tube. My SIM card wasn't working (I had to configure the iPhone's profile using wifi, which I couldn't find until somewhere around South Kensington).

I took my mom and uncle directly to the apartment near my place in Brixton. It was difficult, mainly because my mom and uncle weren't as capable of carrying their bags (especially up and down the stairs) as I was. We somehow managed to get ourselves onto the crowded bus and to the apartment next to Jaam. Mary was there to meet us and get us settled in. The apartment was nice and clean. But its location was particularly good - just a block away from my apartment.

I showed my mom and uncle my apartment too, but it had too many stairs for them to want to stop by again! They had a very hard time getting oriented (which would take many days).

We walked all the way to Oval Tandoori for dinner. The waiter recognized me! We then took the bus to central London and walked around from Parliament to Trafalgar Square. Again, mainly to introduce uncle Ben to London. We were tired so decided to go home.

Mike was at his office's Christmas celebration, which involved lots of drinking at several nice bars and lounges around central London. But they were tired and finished early, so he tried to meet up with us. But right when he got to Trafalgar, we were already on the bus home! So he got on the bus right behind us, and we raced all the way home! Haha!

Today was the day. My mom, uncle, and I were flying together to London. Our flight was in the evening, so we still had the whole day at home and around town.

We had done most of our packing last night. My mom decided that she needed a new camera, and she offered to buy me the camera I wanted too - a DSLR!!! I felt really spoiled, but time was short, so I arranged to meet Justin and Chris at Best Buy. Chris came over to our house and we all drove together!

Along the way, I spontaneously decided that I needed to gas the car up, and there at the Chevron, i found $5 laying on the ground! I gave it to Chris to buy a lotto ticket.

My mom and uncle had a lot of questions, and it took the sales guy some time to get everything set up and rung up, but I ended up with a nice new Canon DSLR :)

I then went off with Chris and Justin. We ended up at the Glendale Galleria; since I had mentioned that I wanted a beanie, we made it our mission to buy me one. But I wasn't really satisfied with what we found. So we drove over to the Fashion Center, where I found a cool beanie at Ross. There, Justin and Chris also decided to collect sports jerseys of athletes who had already retired.

Anyway, time was running short, and I needed to go back home to get to the airport. Justin dropped us off, since Chris had left his car at my place. Chris stuck around for a few minutes and left just as Ate Aileen arrived to drive us to the airport.

Actually, I drove us to the airport. Traffic at 6pm, as you could imagine, was horrendous. We got off the 110 somewhere around Vernon and I bought some food from Jack in the Box for my final meal. We got to LAX by 7:30pm, checked in (our bags' weights were fine - but we had to drop them off at the scanning terminal yourself! WTF). Terminal 2 was bad and had a depressing atmosphere, like an old hospital that hadn't been thoroughly cleaned because everyone there had just given up all hope. Wow, I hate LAX. I sat on the floor in the corner of the waiting room, next to a girl who was also on the floor, because that's the only place that had an electrical outlet. SERIOUSLY.

While waiting for my flight, I opened my new camera and started to play with it! :) Boarded the flight, sat in the back of the plane, and we were on our way to London!

My last full day in California.

My mom and I met Auntie Nancy for lunch at El Toreo, a cozy restaurant in Old Town Pasadena. I felt very loved again :) After that, my mom continued her search for the perfect outfit for my graduation, so we drove to Macy's. Then, we stopped by Target and Vroman's to buy some LA souvenirs, with limited success.

Back home, and it was time to start packing!

My days in LA are counting down. I had to prepare for our departure on Thursday. But I also needed to soak up as much sun and SoCal culture as I could. So I left the house somewhat early to go for a small hike at Runyon Canyon.

The air was cool and the sun was shining brightly as I walked up from my car. Around me, there were several young women walking toward the park with yoga mats (how LA!). It was a good climb; I wend up the side with the stairs and was sweating heavily by the top, so I went topless :)

Returned to my car, and I drove west along Sunset into Beverly HIlls, where I spontaneously decided to stop by Sprinkles cupcakes. Then, I continued driving west, passing Century City and West LA (depositing some cash at the ATM). I headed to Santa Monica, parking the car and having some fish tacos at Wahoo's. Then, I moved the car to the beach, where I had my mission: To fill up some bottles :) I rushed down, taking a moment to soak up the warm midday sun, and rushed back because I didn't feed the parking meter enough money!

I returned to home, only to get a call from my mom and uncle. They were out near Vermont, dropping off some balikbayan, so I went out to meet them and grab some lunch. We went to Kan Hodong Baekjeong, a real Korean restaurant (not very English-speaking) in Koreatown. The Korean bbq was amazing, slightly pricey, but totally worth it!

My uncle drove the BMW back home, while my mom and I proceeded to Glendale to do some shopping. At Nordstrom Rack I bought a new pair of shoes/boots. Then, we went to the Americana, where my mom wanted to buy a new outfit for my graduation.

We had dinner plans with Tita Fanny and Tito Noel, which was a very pleasant dinner. We chatted, largely about England and the like. Patrick returned from work and shared in our conversation as well.

I spent the morning at home. Still had some stuff to clear out from my room.

Had a dentist's appointment in the afternoon. Good to have my teeth clean :)

Then, went to the Santa Anita Westfield mall with my mom and uncle. We did some shopping. I wanted to find a beanie and possibly some new shoes for myself. I shopped around, and almost bought a pair of Vans (the girl working at Vans, btw, looked half Asian and was very cute). But I didn't get anything - until we were about to walk out the door at Macy's. I ended up buying a $50 vest, which was on clearance, and which was also subject to a check-in discount on Foursquare, which meant that I ended up getting it for only $17.  Awesome!

We then went to Trader Joe's to buy a few things, and then drove home as nighttime fell.

I slept in, obviously. Didn't go to church (partial victory for me there?). When my mom and uncle returned from church, having bought some vegetables to cook, I got the car and headed to Echo Park, where I had scheduled to meet Jenn and Les for lunch!

We ate at Masa, which wasn't too crowded, where we shared an amazing deep dish pizza! We caught up, telling stories about our respective lives, and then we walked off our heavy meal. The walk took us to the Echo Park Time Travel Store (related to the pirate store in San Francisco), which was randomly cool. The clerk there said that they have been there "since the beginning of time." I got a few things from the store as gifts :)

We then walked around Echo park, and we ended up at Sage Organic, where we got vegan ice cream for each of us. We chatted and caught up. It was great.

In the evening, I had dinner with family - Lisa and Ferd, and Aileen and Jim. We got sushi in Pasadena. It was nice. Ferd tried to explain to me how to drive a stick shift. :)