I should be logging more often though, it's been a week since I got here and this is my first!
16 hour flight was surprisingly fast. Finished 5 films and had about a 5 hour sleep, still severely jet lagged though.
Mom, Dad and I spent a week hanging out with my cousins Connie and Bonnie, Uncle Duan and Auntie Mimi. We stayed in their house in Buena Park, just outside Los Angeles.
The first thing I noticed was how much the scenery resembles all those American neighborhoods in the movies! Oh wait, its the other way around. But its tad cool to see all these views that one could only witness in films and youtube.
Check it out:
Big Bang Theory enthusiasts. I saw Pasadena and Fresno on the highway signs and went...I know that place. Culture. Hehe.
Its amazing how Thai TV makes you feel at home all of a sudden! Uncle Duan and Auntie Mimi have Thai TV direct from Thailand. It's crazy how much that makes you feel at home, it was like we only our house in Bangkok to come over for a visit at their place.
The large Thai community in California also makes Thai ingredients readily available for cooking at home. When Auntie Mimi makes dinner, it's hard to imagine that I've actually left Thailand and an now experiencing a 12 hour difference. There is even a Thai temple in the same area (we went there for Mother's Day, 12th August)...when you step into the temple area, you'd think you're in Nakhon something in the North of Thailand. Actually, there are 54 Thai Temples across the US!
CALIFORNIA WEATHER IS FANTASTIC!!! It's like having the Thailand sun but with the aircon turned on. Or to put it another way, it feels like being in the South of France. Even the architecture of the houses and the way the concrete is done reminds me of Nice, France.
I walk around in boar shorts and a tee-shirt and feels great! Kind of regretting not staying in California...boo Stanford! Now I understand why people fuss so much about the weather.
I usually eat and chill out in the garden. Pictured here:
The other day, I was cleaning the dirty tables in the garden when some Mexican gardeners came into the house. They gave me the "are-you-here-to-take-my-job-you-cheap-chinese-labourer" look. LOL.
Speaking of eating, it is very very easy to get fat in the US. I find myself eating oreos, cookies, soda, Hawaiian Punch, hamburgers (pictured below at the famous California-only In-N-Out Burgers) and cheese fries all day. Not surprisingly my waist is getting a bit larger...hehe.
Look at all that meat n' cheese!!!
Electronics are so cheap that its better getting the genuine product than the MBK equivalant! Brand name items are as much as 50% of the price in Thailand. I got Logitech Clip On speakers for 1200 baht as opposed to 3000 baht. My new Macbook Pro battery was 3000 baht instead of 8000 baht (to save getting a new one completely)...CRAZY! It was worth saving the electronic buying for the US!
Clothes are also cheap! Lee pants were 30$ and reduced to 12$ and then 6$ at Kohl's, which is 180 baht. No way you can get that kind of bargain at Paragon!
The suburbs are really quiet. I was walking around the area and it feels so sparsely populated. There are no skyscrapers and every building is only about 2 or 3 floors high. No pictures of these, forgot to bring my camera with me.
You need a car to get around South California...the car is your leg. There the public transportation system doesn't form any sort of network that makes it easy to get around...Uncle Duan was driving us everywhere by car. North California is supposedly much better, towards San Francisco. Oh, and there are loads of freeways in LA + palm trees
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