flight to LA
i’m finally in LA. flight to LA was uneventful but i thought i’d still write something about it. so here goes…
i was seated beside an indonesian woman who i think is in her 60s. she didn’t speak much english, not that we tried to talk or anything. when the plane was nearing LA, we had to fill out forms that we had to give to the immigration officer. she was asking help from the flight attendants and when there was no flight attendant to help her, she’d ask me. it was hard understanding her. i really couldn’t hear an english word coming from her. anyway, on my other side were two american guys who were in their late teen years. they slept most of the flight and i envied them. i didn’t have a long sleep during the flight. i’d wake up from time to time and when i wanted to go back to sleep, i couldn’t. so sometimes, i’d read or watch whatever was showing. it was hard for me to watch because i was 4 or 5 rows away from the screen and i’m not exactly a tall person. plus, the quality of the picture on the screen was not that good. blades of glory was shown twice during the flight and i didn’t watch it. i’m not exactly a fan of the actors in the movie.
food was first served at 12 midnight, philippine time. i really wondered why they would serve food just two hours after take off. i was thinking people just wanted to get some sleep first. anyway, it was a choice between prawns with noodles and beef with rice. because i’m not eating rice these days, i went with the prawns with noodles. it was the usual plane food but there was a generous serving of the prawns. i liked the dessert also. it was cake but i don’t really know what it’s called. i liked the flight attendant serving my aisle. he was very nice. after he gave me my food, he asked what i wanted to drink and i asked for some orange juice. after which, he asked if i wanted some water also and i noticed that he didn’t ask the others if they wanted water also. the flight attendant serving the other aisle was not as friendly as my flight attendant. she really had this serious face on her.
when the plane arrived at the airport, it was a very long walk from the gate to the immigration counters. lines were also very long because there were other flights that arrived the same time as ours. when the counters for US citizens were almost done with the residents, visitors were allowed to line up to those counters. there were three officers who would get people from my line. finally, it was my turn. the officer who asked me questions was also the officer who asked questions to the indonesian woman beside me during the flight. there was a problem with her forms so the officer told her to go back. when it was my turn, the officer asked me if i’d like to help the indonesian woman and i said i already helped her in the plane. he was also having a difficult time entertaining her because she didn’t speak english. anyway, the procedure right now is that they’d scan your left and right index finger and take a picture. the officer asked me to smile on the picture, because he said i have a great smile on my passport. haha. i didn’t smile at first because i noticed that the people who went ahead of me just had their serious face for the camera. anyway, the officer was really friendly to me and even offered me an advice when he learned that i didn’t have a husband or a boyfriend. he said i have to be careful because there are seamen out there trying to look for wife.
i was finally off to get my luggage. i had to wait for my luggage for a very long time. at some point, i became nervous about my luggage being lost somewhere or being picked up by some other people by mistake. there was a filipino mom beside me waiting for her luggage also so that helped me to not be nervous. our luggage were the last ones to arrive. it was amazing that i was able to carry the luggage from the carousel to my cart. it was the biggest worry of my mom because i’m really not allowed to carry anything heavy because of my scoliosis. i was finally going to the exit. when i got to the exit, i immediately saw my sister, and then my tito, and then my lola, and lastly, my tita and my cousin. in the car, they were arguing about who i saw first. my lola and my tito insisted that they were the first one i saw but it was really my sister. haha. my sister and i were just laughing about it inside the car.
so there goes my adventure from traveling alone the first time. i really thought it was going to be hard to be alone but it wasn’t. people are really helpful and friendly.
