One Day's Experiences, Observations and Deals

Yesterday morning, I went shopping by myself. I needed to buy a present for someone's birthday, (Jessica is turning 23 at the end of the month). I was so proud of myself that I was able to communicate with the salesladies of the sizes I needed, needless to say, I had a buyers remorse afterwards because I bought something I didn't need and Jesse said just keep it when all I wanted to do is return them. I did buy something for the birthday girl and I hope she likes it. I went for a treat at Dunkin' Donuts afterwards and had Iced coffee. It sure get me going all day and evening, poor Jesse he went to bed before me, that coffee got me going.

I've noticed that every piece of land or property is used for planting something. They have them in planters ( 2 to 5 planters) in front off their doors or houses, they have them on the rooftops. In fact there's a couple of tomato's in the corner of the building where the decorative bushes are. Inside the Base, they have gardens. They've planted on the side of the road, next to the railroad tracks. There's all kinds of vegetables. They don't uproot the lettuces, they just take the leaves one by one and stack it up and sell it. There's chili peppers, corn, garlic galore and green onion, not little onions big ones, just a little smaller than leeks that we have at home, there's a lot of other vegetables that I am not familiar with. Of course there's the flowering kinds and herbs too, I bought several houseplants and herbs yesterday and the lady gave me an extra pot of mint just for buying I guess. That's the thing they are so giving. On my way home buying the houseplants, I passed by these beautiful tomato's (they look like heirlooms) and I wanted to buy just one and the lady said no, from her gestures I have to buy a kilo and I said no, not kilo i wanted just one, she picked one from the basket and gave me one and I asked her how much and she gestured nothing, then her daughter came and she made a circle with her fingers telling me zero. Free! I felt really bad, I know its their way to make a living, and I didn't want mom to feel bad so I gave her daughter a quarter and it made her happy, she ran all the way inside and showed her friends. That made me happy and made my day.

After my happy moment, I went to meet Jesse at the Base afterwork and we took a taxi downtown just to look around and I saw a purse that is cute and Jesse was looking at wallets and I asked how much and the man told me how much and I told him I buy both if he gives me 5.00 of and he agreed. There was also a cute shoes but I talked myself out of it. How about that....I didn't know until yesterday I can "barter" in the market. I've been paying full price for all the kitchen stuff we got. Oh well, I learned something. Dinner was funny, we went to a sushi restaurant where there's a conveyer going around and you pick what you want Jesse tells me it will be expensive and I said, just once I want to try. We also ordered Udon (fat noodles) soup. lol, I couldn't use the chopstick to get the noodles out of the bowl, it went everywhere, the server (waitress) came to my rescue and gave me fork instead. The term came to mind and I told Jesse, "stupid filipino's (american) ha ha ha. It was really funny, and it wasn't expensive at all, less than $15.00 including tips, we give tips even though it is not necessary.

Driving......don't get me started. Lol, it is insane how people drive here. There are stop lights and lanes, only for suggestions to follow I think. You think L.A. drivers are crazy, come and experience it here and you feel that heaven is so close, you are at the gate. I mean they drive inches away from each other and they cut off each other all the time, I guess that's normal. I told Jesse we are not getting a car. Oh yeah, they have moped drivers...if the light is red, they go on the sidewalk and bypass the light, imagine that. They toot their horn at each other all the time.

Except when they're driving, they are very polite people.

This is only one day's experiences, I will post today's later on which is the opposite of yesterday, so stay tune...