My husband was just reading some news on CNN online when he played this video with Anderson Cooper announcing the winner of CNN's Hero of the Year and it just made me cry when he announced Efren Penaflorida's name as the winner. I had been rooting for him to win this and yes, he really did! It feels so good when you know that another fellow filipino made such a great thing. I am so proud of what he had accomplished. From what he had done to the poor kids in the Philippines who, without him could've been involved to illegal things and had a terrible life. He is such an inspiration to so many people in the world who want to help out others especially the children since they are the hope of the future. Congratssss Efren!

That kid's got some sexiness going on there. I never thought he'd get that much fans because I didn't really think he was cute and I just didn't like him at all in twilight. At first, I was an Edward fan but now, he changed it. I guess all that working out in the gym really did worked out. When I was in the theater last night, almost all the girls there were just screaming for him especially everytime he takes off his shirt and show off his abs. I guess that guy deserves it than Rob. Rob, had been in almost all magazines lately so, now I guess it's Taylor's turn to step on the spotlight. He definitely did capture the hearts of everyone most especially his fans.

Anyways, what do I think about New Moon?  Well, I'm a fan of Kristen, Rob, Taylor and the entire New Moon casts but while watching the movie, I felt like something was lacking to it. There wasn't that much chemistry beween Rob and Kristen anymore and I felt the lack of good acting, too. I wonder if not having read the book made me feel that way because I really think that they could've done much better than that. It's not that I hate the movie. I love the movie and always will. It's just that, something was really missing to it and I feel bad about not getting satisfied because I am such a fan of the Twilight Saga.

Though, New Moon was a much-awaited movie of the year, it surprisingly got 4.5 rating on IMDB so far. I don't think it's that bad though. I think it's an ok movie. It's not the best but, it's good enough to watch especially when you're a fan.

Eclipse will be out in June 2010. Hopefully, they'll do a better job on that series so, I wouldn't feel sorry for my $9 worth of ticket and another $13 for a bucket of popcorn and a large dr. pepper,lol.

So, enough of that, my next stop is.....2012. I'm dying to see this movie and I hope and pray that it is as good as it's trailer.

Thank God this movie is  already out  here  in Columbia today but I have to wait till tomorrow to go see it because my husband's twin daughters will be here and they want to see it with us. I am actually one of those people who were anxiously waiting for this movie to be shown in theaters coz I am such a Twilight Saga fan . I did love twilight last year, though, I thought it was pretty predictable because I've read the book and there's just not much excitement anymore though it's undeniable that Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner were hot and with Kristen Stewart being Bella, I couldn't ask for more.

This time, I didn't read the book, New Moon, because I want to be there in the theater and get surprised with whatever's going to happen though I already know a little bit about the story but still, I'm pretty sure that it's going to be different than having read the book and just kind of know everything about the movie from the beginning to the end. We'll try to get the tickets today just in case it sells outs tomorrow coz then, it will be a disaster...

We've been pretty busy lately packing up our stuffs and loading them to the moving pods that we rented. We are actually trying to sell our stuffs because we can't take them with us to the place where we move. The moving pods are so expensive and instead of renting these expensive pods for our stuffs, we'd rather sell them and get new ones later. In fact, yesterday, we had a yard sale and we did sold a bunch of junks:) especially the furnitures and it was really fun. I enjoyed it a lot.

Anyways, Colorado is one of the places here in the US that I like and so, I'm glad that finally we're going to try and stay there as long as we want. If we like it, my husband said that we could try to get a house there. I'm also excited about having my baby grow up there. Firstly, he will get to hang out and know his brother who lives there and at the same time, I would love to see him doing outdoor stuffs and be active as he grows.

Also, I have never seen a snow in my entire life. It snowed here in South Carolina once but that was when I was in the hospital giving birth to my baby and unfortunately, I didn't see it. Doing outdoor   stuffs excites me as well and skiing is the first thing that I would like to do after we get settled there. They said it's fun so, I hope it really is...

I just finished reading this book and it's pretty interesting. The story is all about this Canadian guy who had been wanting to find a real love. Tired of having smart yet demanding liberated feminists in his life, he went looking for a traditional woman which he found in his filipina penpal from General Santos City, Philippines.

Like any other fairytale stories, the beginning of the story was exciting and fun but as you flip the pages of the book to the next chapters, you'll be sad to find out what really happened to the supposed to be happy ending. This book is interesting in a way that it proves how any relationship can go bad and fail no matter how much love both people have for each other as long as there's lack of passion to it and hardwork, it most likely will fail which is sad.

The book is a true story of the author, Henry Makow, 48 years old from Canada. He married Cecilia, an 18 years old girl he meet through a penpal service. Young, shy, cheerful, humorous, yet so unpredictable, immature and a type of girl who had behavioral problems. But, despite of some of her negative characteristics, she was the girl who by far, made Henry felt loved and sexually satisfied.

The ending of the story was somehow not so shocking because they both did something wrong to their relationship. He liked to get drunk and she was a cheater.

So, enough for that. Only thing I can say about it is that, it really takes two to tango you know. Relationships of any race and kind, need hard work and a whole lot of patience. Anybody who wants a successful and happy marriage needs to be mature enough to think that marriage is a gamble and you really need to put a lot of work to it in order to win.

It hasn't been long since my baby was born and now, he's already beginning to be a trouble to us. He crawls everywhere in the house and likes to open all the drawers. Last week, we bought him his new walker and now he is really getting so fast once we put him in it. He also makes this really annoying noise that keeps my husband awake every night.

Yesterday, he babbled a lot and even said the word "mama" and "dada" for the first time and it just melts my heart. Sometimes, his fuzziness is really a pain in the butt but I don't know what babies have that you just can't get mad at them. At certain point though, you'll get frustrated but then when they gave you that smile, your frustrations will vanish. Not so sure with the other moms but with me, that's exactly what I feel all the time.

I went through his dresser this morning and I found his little cute newborn clothes and wondered how they grew that fast. I even tried some of the cutest ones on him but they're not really worth keeping anymore. They're already too small. It made me miss my little newborn angel who now turned into a little devil:).

It's raining a lot here right now and I'm hungry.We have a lot of foods in the pantry but there's nothing there that I like.
I miss the filipino foods a lot. Everytime I think about it, it makes me hungry even more. Oh, the Mang Andok's lechon manok(roasted chicken) in Cebu, inasal(roasted pig) and the filipino style barbecue in a stick.

The last time I had inasal was last year, 2008, when we went to that Fil-Am Christmas Party in Sumter. The foods were ok but the inasal wasn't really that great. I mean, it was ok but it's just that Cebu inasal is always the best for me.

My husband and I were planning to have a wedding in Cebu one day and he wanted it to be like a simple provincial wedding and I think it would be fun. I can already picture the inasal as the main dish for the reception, hehe. But really I think the best thing about it is being able to share the foods and fun to the people in the neighborhood.

It was March 12, 2008, Wednesday when me and my husband, then fiance went to the embassy for my interview that was set for 6:30 A.M so, we woke up at around 4:00 and walked a few blocks to get a taxi cab that took us to the embassy.

$149 K1 Fiance Visa and $249 K3 Spousal Visa

We got there at around 4:30 a.m. and there were already 15 to 20 people sitting on the chairs outside the embassy. These chairs were actually owned by the vendors there who sell snacks and drinks and they pretty much made a good business with it because they rent it to anybody who wanted it since there's no seats on that area except those cement walls. We actually rented two chairs too because my butt was hurting already then, 30 seconds later, the guard started calling everybody who had appointments for 6-7 a.m. He asked for my appointment letter and I showed him my passport as my valid ID. He also checked my husband's passport then told us to sit on the benches in order. There's a strict rule for cutting in line there that's why we made sure that we would get there earlier than the others.

When the guard started letting everybody in one by one in order, we passed through this door that has a metal detector and put down our stuffs for x-ray just like when you go through security in the airports.

I was really nervous that time and I thought to myself "This is it!, The Moment of Truth".But, at the same time I was confident about it because my husband was there for me.

Later, the guard began taking us to the "Immigrant Visa Ticket Booth". There were two girls attending the booth and the girl on the left asked for two copies of my form DS-156, one copy of my DS-156K, and two copies of my DS-157.She also asked for the original copy of my appointment letter and printed two tickets that has my queuing number in it. She stapled one ticket to my paperworks and gave me the other one.

Around 7:30, the numbers began showing up on the boards. Our number came up at 8:15 for Pre-screening at window 14. The Pre-screener was a filipino guy and he was actually friendly. He asked for my Birth Certificate, CENOMAR, I-134 Affidavit of Support, NBI and my husband's 2007 Income Tax Return. He also asked me for our pictures together and I was gonna give him the Scrapbook I made but it wasn't small enough to fit in the hole so he just asked me to hold the scrapbook and flip though the pictures. He asked me few questions like when and where did we meet and have I travelled abroad. He also asked my husband about when did he arrived in the Philippines. After that, he told us to go to window 16 for finger scanning. When it was my turn, a girl took my hand and assisted me through the process.When it was done, we sat down and waited for 45 minutes until our number was called to room 29.
This time, the interview was already with an american consul. She was a pretty lady on her late 40's I guessed.

We greeted her good morning and she smiled to us. She then looked at our files in the computer and paperworks on her table. She made us swore that we we're telling the truth and not committing any immigration fraud. She asked me five questions and some of the questions were already being asked to us during the pre-screening. She only gave my husband 2 questions like his job and his previous residence. After that, she then congratulated us and said we were approved. We thanked her and asked for a visa pick-up but she said that they couldn't do it due to holy week and that they were closing Thursday and Friday next week after that. We told her that we already had airline tickets and that my husband wanted me to be with him when he goes back to US. She told us that she won't but would try her best to get our visa ready for delivery by Wednesday that next week. Then she told us to proceed to window 34 for our visa delivery arrangements and my husband tried asking the guy again about visa pick up but still no luck coz he said, the shedules were really tight due to holidays. The guy gave us back our original appointment letter and told us to go to the Delbros booth to pay for the visa delivery. We paid 250 pesos and gave them the hotel number and address for the deliver.

So pretty much it.The entire process that day took about 3 hours. My visa actually arrived one day earlier than the date the lady told us which was Wednesday. After having my visa, we then proceeded to that CFO seminar thing and had my passport stamped then, two days after that was my "America, Here I Come" Moment. And, here I am. All the waiting was over and now, a new journey has just begun...

It was March 4, 2008 when I flew to Manila for my medical and interview. My medical appointment was set for March 6, 2008 and my interview in March 12, 2008.

1st day
I went to St. Luke's Clinic for my medical on March 6, 2008 along with a friend, Gretchen, who also had her medical that same day and we got there around 8 o'clock in the morning.
When we got there, there's already a lot of people waiting in line outside.
I handed in an original and one photocopy of my appointment letter to the guard and he then gave me a queue number as well as forms that I filled out right away as I sat down.Black pen was really a requirement because they wouldn't accept forms filled out with red or blue pen.

$149 K1 Fiance Visa and $249 K3 Spousal Visa

I heared my number being called by the guard and along with the other numbers called, we fell in line to get our digital photos taken. After my picture was taken, the guy told me to go to the releasing counter and wait for my name to be called by a screener.

When it was already my turn, the lady asked me about my medical history. She then, stapled my 2x2 photos to the PDS form and she put the other two 2x2 photos to this small resealable plastic and again stapled it to that same form.
She told me to go to the 5th floor of the building to pay for the medical fees.

After paying for my medical fee, the lady on the 5th floor told me to go to the 4th floor.

On the 4th floor, I handed in my passport, photocopy of my appointment letter,receipt and the PDS form to the nurse at the reception. She gave me a form that I then filled out and returned to her.
A nurse called me and asked me about the last day of my period. I thought it was for a pregnancy test coz after that she told me to go to this room for blood extraction. Actually that was a pregnancy and HIV examination. She gave me back my papers after the blood extraction and pointed me this area for urine test. The nurse there gave me a vial and I gave it back to her after I put urine in it. I sat down and waited for my name to be called. Later, a guy called me and gave me back my passport along with my papers and told me to go to the 3rd floor for an x-ray exam.

On the third floor, a nurse took my papers and pointed me the changing room to put on a hospital gown. I went in there and change my clothes and put on the gown. The lady then showed me the room where they do the x-ray exam. A girl who was the technician that time was visayan and she was actually pretty nice to me. She told me to take off my necklace and tie my long hair so it wouldn't be in the way when she starts the exam. The exam was quick. She just asked me to inhale and hold my breath until she got a good picture of my lungs. After that, the nurse gave me back my papers and told me to go to the 5th floor.

On the 5th floor, I gave my papers to the guy at the US counter and he handed it over to the nurse who assisted me to the weighing station. She then checked my body height and weight and after that she told me to go to the eye exam room.

The nurse put me in this small room and asked me to wait for the nurse who was gonna do the exam. I heared other people taking the test in the other rooms. A nurse finally came in and asked me questions about any eye problems I have and I told him,no.He started off the test by showing me this board with letters of the alphabet in it with different sizes from biggest to smallest and asked me to read them all.
After the test, I sat down and my name was called for Vital Sign test. I gave my forms to the lady in the US counter and later my name was called and she gave me a number for my Physical Exam.

A lady called me and assisted me to this area where there were also girls there sitting and waiting for their turns. When it was already my turn, I sat down, greeted the doctor and she asked me few questions about my medical history.She asked me if I ever got pregnant or if I had an abortion or miscarriage.She also asked me if I ever had history in drugs and so on and so forth.The key for everybody to get more chances in getting approved is to be honest.Answer all the doctor's questions with all honesty because there had been stories about girls who lied to the doctors and they got denied.
If you have some infections or spots in your lungs, they make you clear it up first like giving you treatments and reschedule your interview but if you are using drugs, that's a different case scenario since there's a lifetime ban for drug users so usually if you have drug(cocaine) history, you will most likely get denied.

So, after that, the doctor had me sign that paper which said that I was telling the truth and following to that was, she asked me to take off my clothes and put on a hospital gown for my physical exam.She asked me to lay down and do whatever she asked me to do.She checked everything, like "EVERY" "THING",lol.

After the test, she told me to go to the US counter where I gave my forms to the guy there who also gave me back my forms with a slip in it and told me to go to the 2nd floor for the immunization interview.I gave my forms to the receptionist there and later on my name was called for an interview.

The doctor asked me about my previous vacccines, pregnancies and if I ever had chicken pox. When I told her that I had chicken pox, she asked me to show her the marks/scars left from it. She told me that they wouldn't give me any shots yet until they get my results from the exam.
After that, I went to the check out counter on the 2nd floor. The lady there told me to come back the next day for the results.My friend checked out too and was waiting for me outside the clinic.

$149 K1 Fiance Visa and $249 K3 Spousal Visa

2nd day

Me and my friend went back to SLEC for the results of our medical.I showed the receipt to the guard outside and he asked me to go inside and gave my receipt to the other guard inside.He then stamped my receipt with immunization and told me to go to the 2nd floor to get the vaccines that I was gonna get that day. I gave my receipt to the receptionist and waited for my name to be called.I was called to the check out counter and then somebody took my passport.

Later, my name was called for immunization. The nurse asked my name, birth, age and the date of my first and last period and if I am allergic to anything.She gave me three shots.One was for Measles/Rubella. The other one was for HPV and the last one was an Anti-Cervical Cancer shot.

Then, I went to the ground floor for the results.Immunization was the last part of the Medical.The shots kinda stings and I even got a fever that lasted for two days from those.

My name was called and the guy had me sign the PDS form and asked me for my passport.
I went back to my seat and my name was called again later and this girl handed me my X-ray result as well as the vaccine sheet.She told me that they would forward the results of my medical exam as well as my passport to the US Embassy which means I passed the exam and I just had to wait for the day of my interview at the US Embassy which I am going to write later for my next post coz I am tired typing now,lol. I have no idea how long this post already is, so, later.

That was when I finally got my appoinment letter from the embassy for my medical and interview in Manila.I was really excited that time coz finally I'm gonna get to ride in an airplane for the first time in my 20 years of life.

Most people in the province haven't really been in a plane because it's expensive that's why they just prefer getting in a ship for it's a lot cheaper.And, most of them are not really travellers.Their families live nearby where they can just even walk to their homes anytime they want to visit them.

I was really nervous standing in line to check in my luggage.I never had any idea what to do because I have never done it before.I didn't wanna mess up either coz then it would be so embarrassing.What I did was, I was being observant to what everybody was doing and I asked questions when i get confused where to go next.

When the plane took off, it felt like I was riding in a roller coaster.I didn't expect the turbulence so it scared me a little bit.I was sitting by the window and that was the first time I ever saw the clouds that close.I felt a lot peace while looking at the clouds.

An hour later, the plane landed and I can't believe that I was already in Manila.Everybody in Cebu wants to go to Manila because it is the Capital City of the Philippines.

After that, i thought, One day i'm going to take my family on their first airplane rides because being able to do one thing for the first time in your life is just so exciting and fun and you will always treasure these great memories forever.

I hate to bring this issue up but I am just so full of these people already. I am a friendly person and I am not a pushy type either. If you don't wanna treat me as a friend coz you don't like me then at least treat me as a person.

Today, we went to Belks and then there's this filipina girl who happened to be the cashier. I already knew that she was a filipina because a minute before she went back to her counter, she was talking to this other filipina girl in cebuano language and I am from cebu so I know that they speak the same language as I do.
So, fast forward to when I put my stuffs in the counter to pay for them.I was a little embarrassed and it felt so awkward when I smiled at her and said "kumusta" which means "how are you?" and she didn't even answered back and worst, she gave me this look with raised eyebrows from head to toe. It made me feel like a fish that was being scaled.

I have encountered a lot of people like that already. It is such a shame that your fellow filipinas will do that to you when we should be all nice to each other because we're all strangers to this country. When I first got here, I always thought about making as much filipina friends as i can because they are just like your family here in the US since most of our families were in the Philippines and we all get to relate to each other because we all grew up with the same culture in the same country and that's why in every state there's always a filipino community coz it makes you feel like home everytime you spend time in every gathering or party with your fellow filipinos.

In your first year of stay here in the US you can't help feeling homesick that's why you need friends that you can talk to because long distance calls to the Philippines are so expensive.

I don't know. It's just sad that some people are like that. They think they're better than you because they got a better job or something. Well, i just wish them luck in life. Nobody's happy if they're grumpy,lol.

I wasn't g0nna post anything today until I thought about writing about how different the US and the Philippines are in so many ways. It's been almost two years since I got here in the US and until now, I am still adjusting to everything especially the weather.
It was late winter when I first got here and it was really cold.While driving on our way home, I asked my husband about what happened to their trees because they looked lifeless to me.He then told me that trees die every winter and the leaves fall during the fall that's why they call it the fall season,hehe. Well, there's no cold winter and fall in the Philippines so of course i didn't know about it.At least now i kn0w and it's actually pretty cool I think.
Here in the US, when you go out and eat at McDonald's or any fast food chains, you get to clean up your own table and even get your own soft drinks but the thing is, if you like drinking soft drinks a lot, you can always refill it without even paying extra for it. You don't really see a lot of workers in these kind of chains here compared to fastfood chains in the Philippines where there are always workers fixing up the tables and bring your orders. I soon realized that labor here in the US is so expensive that's why they have limited workers.

Another thing is the neighborhood. When i first got here, I always get bored especially during daytime coz my husband's at work and I'm the only one left in the house. The neighborhood was so quiet though the houses are just close together. It's because most people here go to work or if they're in the house, they don't really go out as much and have some chitchats with the people in the neighborhood like most filipinos do.

There are still a lot of differences that every filipina will get to encounter in living here in the US but I will talk about it next time coz right now, I gotta get some sleep....