The October 2017 West Coast Jaunt: San Francisco/Los Angeles/Las Vegas

January 01, 2018

The October 2017 West Coast Jaunt: San Francisco/Los Angeles/Las Vegas

San Francisco, CA. View from the hotel window.

I never thought I'd ever travel to the United States. Tickets cost at least PhP50K (to put this into perspective, this is more than a manager's monthly salary, at least in my industry), getting a tourist visa is a pain (I got mine rather painlessly [by which I mean I was asked only a few questions and didn't get denied] but it is painfully expensive; visa applications cost PhP7.5K, nonrefundable even if you get denied), and buying a dollar will cost you around PhP50. (So if you want pocket money of $1K, you need to shell out PhP50K. Ouch.)

Then I got invited to this book festival, and the organizers' generosity allowed me to fly to the US and stay in a hotel in San Francisco for free. I was also able to travel with J! This is a good thing because I have a shit sense of direction and the fear of getting lost (and spending more dollars) would have confined me to my hotel room. (Really.)

The Philippines was a colony of the US for 50 years, we learn English early in life (hell, I write in English), and we consume American media--but the United States, at least the parts of the country we visited, still felt, at times, surprising and unfamiliar.

San Francisco

When I think "California" I automatically think "Silicon Valley" or "Palo Alto" (as if California is that small), so Civic Center depressed me a little. There were a lot of homeless people on the streets, especially at night, and the Carl's Jr. we visited had police tape on its broken window. (Something to read and chew on: "San Francisco’s anti-homeless design is also anti-human, says NYT op-ed")
Also, I've heard a lot of jokes about American beverage sizes, but my goodness, this Medium-sized drink still surprised me.

This Medium drink survived the night.

It's cold! This was the first time ever in my life that I begged to walk on the sunny side of the sidewalk so I can have sunlight on my face. (In Manila, I walk everywhere with an umbrella.)
That said, the cold makes even long walks fun.

J and I outside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

One of my favorite pieces at SF MOMA.

Pinoy Pro Tip: May area sa SF MOMA na maganda ang ilaw. Perfect for selfies! O alam niyo na ha.

Seven floors of art! Overwhelming and awesome.

Elda Rotor of Penguin Random House. Read more about her here. At one of the panels, she talked about the need to intellectually "massage" fellow editors at PRH whenever they are presented with Filipino manuscripts. "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, etc. You know this culture!" I found that quite revealing.

My favorite past time while we were there was to watch American TV commercials. Compared to our commercials, theirs are sillier, more conversational. I think?
But their pharmaceutical/prescription drug commercials blew my mind. (There's so many of them! And they're so long!) Relevant link: "What 20 years of drug commercials are doing to Americans’ health".

Special thanks to J for figuring out the BART and for bringing me to Taquerias El Farolito! (Their burrito servings are hUgE)

We love American diners, but for the life of me I can never finish their single serving of hash browns. Ang laki, beh.

The Festival Closing Reception at the historic Manilatown I-Hotel Gallery. Thank you!

Las Vegas

Lesson number 1: Las Vegas does not just equal The Strip.

Breakfast with family.

Why so serious hotel minibar??

CVS Pharmacy is your friend.
Costco is like S&R on steroids.
The Strip is super sparkly but sometimes it can be too much? ("Vegas, baby!")

J and his sisters at the end of the Blue Man Group show.

A Short Detour to Los Angeles

Ang init!
Compared to Vegas, LA has some pretty bad drivers no?
Amazing how you can just drive from one state to another. If you convert the time it took us to drive from Vegas to LA to the time it usually takes to drive out of Makati (where I work), I'd be in...Quezon City.