LA Trip : Second Attempt… Victory!

I interrupt my digressions on past, culture, and self, to bring you this special report.

I was finally able to make it down to LA this past Thursday. I drove down on Wednesday afternoon after my classes, and came back on Thursday evening after eating a quick fajita dinner. It was my first time driving down there myself and I’ll admit, I was a little nervous. What if one of my tires went flat? What if my radiator overheated? Etc, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.

It was a trip full of “firsts.” I have been to LA many times, but I have never experienced the nightlife in Hollywood. We were hoping to meet up a friend of mine in K-town (the Korean district), but she proved hard to get a hold of. So we decided to brave the long lines and shallow hipsters and go out to Club Moscow in Hollywood. Luckily, a friend got there much earlier than us and held a place in line, so we didn’t have to wait as long. The club was worth the wait. The music was a vibrant mix of techno and electronica, and the decor was very dark and plush. There was a great array of fashion sense among the clubgoers and an exciting, but laid back atmosphere. We only were inside for about an hour before closing, but it was enough time to have a couple drinks, dance a little bit, and take pictures as well. I highly recommend Wednesdays at Club Moscow to any LA- goers who want to experience a club where fashion meets techno, and attractive people.

More After This Commercial Break…

Filipino Culture : Via YouTube

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http://www.youtube.com/v/Ourx95ng5uk&hl=en&rel=0

“LA Travel Log” : An Inadvertant History

Unfortunately, or fortunately, my weekend trip to LA was canceled. Due to this, I cannot regale you with any amusing stories of that sea of asphalt and neon. Instead, I’ll be taking you on a journey back in time, to my recent travels through Asia.

TO.BE.CONTINUED…

[im putting this entry on hiatus now, to let my boyfriend use the computer for work stuff. i'll be going through my trip notes and i'll be back to write more later.]

After rummaging through the myriad of receipts and scraps of paper that I wrote my vacation notes on, I didn’t know where to start. A while later, in the shower, I realized that the true beginning is my present situation. So here it is.

People often find me culturally disappointing. When someone of another ethnicity finds out that I am Filipino and French, they invariably attempt to speak to me in whatever bits of French or Filipino that they know. Unfortunately, I usually can’t understand them. I speak four languages in varying levels of fluency; English, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese, none of which are related to my ethnicity. The plain explanation for this is that although I love languages, neither French nor Tagalog (now techically known as Filipino) was accessible to me. Neither of my parents speak a language other than English, and I have no other relatives in the United States except my aunt, who lives in LA and only speaks English, and an uncle who is institutionalized in another part of the country. My father and his immediate family came alone to Redwood City from the Philippines, and my mother hitch-hiked to California from Canada. I believe that family is an undeniable factor in the creation and understanding of one’s identity, and my lack of relatives or culture to identify with has contributed to the identity crisis that is now plaguing me. Part of my reason for traveling to Asia this past year was to discover more about my heritage on my father’s side, and hopefully to get closer to finding my own identity.