Visiting my Relatives

I went to visit my family members in the Bay Area, San Leandro more specifically. I love going to the Bay Area because it’s much cooler over there than here in Patterson, where it’s still pretty warm despite already being fall. Because I got my license a few months ago, my parents make me drive whenever we always go out now, and being on the freeway can be pretty nerve wracking, especially when your parents get scared over the littlest things, and that stresses me out even more. I stopped by my cousin’s house, as it was a housewarming party, but also a celebratory for all the October birthdays. My family tends to celebrate our relatives birthdays within the same month, so that we each get our temporary special time while all of us are here. I enjoy hanging out with my cousins and aunts and uncles because they all live in the Bay Area, while I’m all the way out here, so I miss out on the fun stuff they’re doing. It’s alright though, because I actually get to see them pretty often, especially during holidays such as Christmas, New Years, Penafrancia, sometimes Halloween, and just lots of celebratory parties in general, basically like a get-together. Whenever I visit my family, I feel like I’m at home, and it’s great seeing all my aunts, uncles, and all the different generations of relatives coming together, and spending time with those who we’ll all get to grow up with, as well as new editions to the family.

Kids Helping Kids Club

During high school, I was in a club that helps underprivileged kids receive new clothes is a pretty cool experience. I’ve worked in a club called Kids Helping Kids, I get to help prepare for the big event that takes place at the end of the year, mainly December. Over the course of the semester, me and a bunch of other friends usually took recycling bottles, cans, and other junk from either across campus, to football games. The good part of going to football games was that we could get in for free since we we were on the list, #ClubPrivileges. Basically, I participated in jobs that helped raise money, or asking for donations around the neighborhoods, and just getting word out to help spread awareness for the club to get them involved. After months of preparation, and money going to our club, we were able to take about 60 kids, each with a budget of $120 per kid. It was a big day for both the kids, and our club, so we were pretty busy. I helped out two little brothers who I helped pick out what kinds of clothes they wanted, and helped them decide what looked pretty good. From there on out, we took all the kids to our high school’s cafeteria and got all the kids settled down, eat food, get presents from Santa, and basically have fun. It was pretty cool seeing all our work of raising money made these kids happy, and it was the season of giving, so making those kids happy was a nice way of giving back to the community.

Friend's Birthday Party

I’m not a big fan of movie theaters, in my opinion, because it’s super loud, plus you need to pay to get in, which I’m a person who likes to spend money wisely. It was my friend’s birthday party, celebrating it in September, and it was pretty lit to be honest. We had the squad going on, except one guy named Daniel, so we substituted him for another dude named Adrian so that we had 8 people. We stopped by a laser tag place in Modesto as they had reserved a spot in their. I made the mistake of wearing a white sweater that same day, meanwhile everyone was wearing dark clothes, so it made me stick out easily, and getting destroyed by literally everybody. After a few hours of no-scoping, we stopped by to eat pizza and then wait for our movie to start. At first I was expecting to watch some comedy, but NOPE we were gonna watch a scary movie. The movie was Resident Evil: Retribution, and I was honestly spooked because I didn’t know what to expect. For me it was scary, but for others, including birthday boy Jamiel, he said ‘it’s not that bad’. It was bad (the first time). Experiencing loud jump scares in a theater is not fun, especially when your friends mock you for it. There were like three jump scares, and I remember someone tried scaring me via grabbing me, but instead ended up poking me instead. After the movie ended, they gave me so much crap because I was scared, and I was kinda angry at them for mocking me, but at the same time I can see why, it was a pretty decent movie though. We then stopped by a nearby mini-mart, and just chilled back at his house, while waiting for our rides home, since it was almost midnight by then, and I was basically made fun of a majority of the time, but I guess it’s just what close friends do. We’re still friends today the, but the roasting still continues.

My Trip to the Philippines

Over summer vacation during middle school, my mom’s dad suddenly passed, so we were going to attend his funeral. I remember packing weeks before our actual trip, as well as packing supplies in these boxes that we could transport over to the Philippines, being filled with food and clothes. These were for my relatives, however, on my mom’s side, and she wanted to give them a taste of American the lifestyle. We were headed to San Francisco airport, making sure we dropped off our dog at my grandma’s house. We waited a few hours in the terminal before finally boarding, and the plane was pretty huge, seating 9 rows from side to side. I remember getting this interesting meal, like it was a mini dinner, and I thought all planes were like this. I was wrong. After landing, I was instantly struck with the difference in humidity, and I didn’t like it that much as it made me feel all sweaty when I wasn’t sweating yet. We then took a small plane that took us away from the airport, going past some rural places, and eventually landing at the landing site, which buses were there waiting. We finally land, and we stop by my dad’s old house first. It was a simple two-story house, but there was no carpet, so if you wore socks, you’d slip and nearly die. As we unpacked, we then headed out to my mom’s old house. All her relatives were there, siblings, aunts, uncles, and my grandma was sitting next to my grandpa’s casket. He looked very pale, like he was made of plastic, and it made me sad, but was also creeped out by being so close to a dead body. While we were there, we got to visit many places such as the Great Mall of Asia, which was super huge but I didn’t buy anything. I actually visited a lot of relatives’ houses, since my parents wanted me to meet them as well, but I was pretty awkward saying “Hi” since I didn’t know most of them. The day of my grandpa’s funeral, we first had to go to the church, and I remember carrying a rose, which we delivered down the aisle. Then they took the casket and put it in a wall, because they don’t actually bury them into the ground, and sealed the hole with cement. Afterwards, we went back to my mom’s home, and we had a party. This was culture because the body must still be intact for 40 days, and then finally we celebrated. I thought it was weird, but I didn’t question it because it was culture. Half my trip also sucked because I got sick the second week I was there, and this went on for a few days, so I didn’t get to go out much. While my visit to the Philippines was pretty fun, I can’t see myself adapting and being able to live there since I was born in the Bay Area, so I can’t relate to living over there. But overall, it was an interesting experience of both excitement, and sadness.

My Trip to Texas

Back during my summer vacation before I started my 10th grade year, my mom told me and my brother that we were going to visit her brother in Texas. It was just the us three while my dad and brother went to the Philippines at the same time due to there being a family reunion with his side of the family, and I was conflicted to go to both. I just did a quick coin flip to decide who to go with, heads for the Philippines, or tails for Texas. I got tails three times, maybe it was destiny? I also did visit the Philippines a few years prior to this story, so I’ll post it next time. The time comes and we leave for the airport, while my dad and brother stay because they were leaving a week after we left. It was a pretty warm night in San Francisco, I remember staying up at the airport and it was already past midnight, almost to 1 A.M., I felt like a super bad teen that didn’t give no hecks because it was past my curfew, but my parents weren’t too strict on me being up late anyway. We boarded the plane, with my brother and mom in the same aisle, so we were pretty close, rather than mixed seats. I remember these two kids had a DS with a game of Super Mario Bros., and I, too, had my DS with a game of Super Mario Bros., so I secretly joined them in a minigame where you connect via Nintendo Connect, similar to bluetooth I think. I never saw them again. We land, and then still had to drive to my uncle’s house, who picked us up with his daughter, Fay. The first thing I did when we got to his house was look at his backyard, not that it was super fancy, but because I was looking into a backyard of a different state, and I thought that was pretty interesting, plus all the small frogs just casually roaming around. We stayed there for about a week, and it was pretty fun. First, a family event party was being thrown, but it was my mom’s side of family, so I didn’t know any of the people there, because I’m used to being with my cousin’s on my dad’s side. The most crazy thing I remember, there was a magician that placed one of my cousin’s head onto this small guillotine, but the blade didn’t even appear in the hole when it dropped and I had a pretty confused reaction. I also went to visit this hangar, where there was a certain section of an airplane that was split, and we got to see all the components that make up the plane. One day, I woke up to the sound of thunder, and it was pretty loud. I was excited because in Patterson, it would occasionally be cloudy, and sometimes rain, but in Texas, they were more frequent. Since it was also pretty hot, there was a local pool park, and we went there three times out of the week we were there, so that was a pretty good way to cool down in the heat as well. Coming back, I thought about how fun it was spending time in Texas, and some places I got to see that are pretty interesting. Although I wish I got to see more, I’m not a fan of the heat, so maybe if we get to visit, I hope it’s sometime during the winter.