Day 9 and 10: Departure for Niagara Falls

Day 9 was raining and supposedly we have to leave for Niagara, instead we left the following day. We went shopping again in Victoria secret and Macy's…I bought gifts for my friends and my supervisors in the university.

Day 10, we left 2:30pm from Durham. We had different route coming back to Buffalo using the new GPS gadget of my cousin's husband. It was a long way but the motorways were easier to follow without any deep curves in West Virginia area. We arrived Buffalo at two in the morning and stayed Summit Inn along Niagara Falls Blvd. We went shopping at Target and went to the Fatima Shrine.

We went to Niagara Falls and roamed around… After that, we exited the US border. Fortunately, we were not inspected of the items bought in the US. There is a maximum amount of products to be brought in to Canada and it is dependent to the number of days spent in the US. I was worried since I bought my Olympus camera and a complete set of Series 1 of Heroes which amounted to 350 dollars, excluding other items that I bought from Abercrombie. Niagara Falls at the side of Ontario was a busy area compare to the US side.

On the same day, we arrived Toronto and back to my cousin's house in Mississauga. It was a tiring day and unpacking of our gifts and some other belongings. I slept early after I uploaded some of my photos taken during my 5 nights stay in the US territory.

Day 8: Boxing Day

It was raining! We suppose to leave North Carolina for Toronto but my friend advised us to stay one more day due to the bad weather. As soon as I took my breakfast, my cousin's husband drove to the shopping centre where we went the other day and I finally bought the latest camera model of Olympus, the Stylus 790SW! I got this orange gadget from Best Buy for $349.99+tax. I tested it and frankly, it is worth having it as my back-up camera. The camera is designed for extreme temperature, and for underwater use up to 5 feet depth. When I checked my credit card billing, I found out that I only paid £180 pounds which is £20 more if I bought in the UK. From the Best Buy store, I also grabbed the Season 1 of Heroes which was also for 50% sale. I was desperate to buy it back in Belfast at £39.99, but I was optimistic that I can have it at a lower price. Well, I got it for only $24.99+tax, almost £13 only!

We went home and had our lunch. In the afternoon we visited the Museum of life and Science where kids enjoyed the exhibits – from spacecrafts to live insects!

Day 7: Christmas Day

It was a sunny but chilly day. After a late night celebration, we were not able to wake up early for the first mass in the church near my friend's house. Instead, we travel few miles away and went to St Tomas More church at Chapel Hill near Uni of North Carolina campus.

The homily revolved in the importance of Xmas and the priest emphasised the word, "kindness". Reflecting the priest's sermon, I am glad that my parents instilled in my mind the importance of being kind to others. Extending help not only to relatives but also to strangers is a virtue and always brings joy to our hearts. Pure kindness does not require something in return or a favour from others in exchange of whatever help being extended. It is something that purely coming from our hearts and it is not an "obligation" or an responsibility to offer for everyone. Sometimes, it is ironic that kindness is over-used and abused by others. To some extent we become "opportunists" and dependents from others' generosity. Well, being generous to others needs open mind and don’t expect much from the people who need help. And at the same way, with people who are fortunate to receive assistance, help or favour, have to be patient and be humble to acknowledge any generosity from others.

We went home after the mass and my friend prepared some food for the guests coming in the late afternoon. I stayed home and did some updates of my travel blog. It was quiet day and not much things to do since shopping malls and outlets were closed! Later part of the evening, the guests arrived with their families; all of them were Pinoys who have already migrated in the US. We did karaoke as well using the popular magic mic from the Philippines.

Days 5, 6 and 7: Shopping and Xmas Eve Celebration

We arrived Durham past 6am after we lost our way for almost an hour. We were really tired and we had a quick breakfast and went for a nap.

My friend is my former primary teacher's daughter and she is now married with 2 wonderful kids. She is a nurse and her husband as well. It was a reunion as well and meeting her and the family, including her youngest sister who also works as a nurse was a delight. We talked alot and shared stories about simple things that happened in our lives during the past years, even our high school days.

As usual, we went shopping in the Southpoint mall, 20 minutes away from my friend's house. I immediately proceeded to Abercrombie for sale times. I was lucky to get a polo shirt at $12.90+tax at boys section of the store! I also grabbed an X-large jogging pants at $34+tax which is less 50% from the adults pants. Sometimes it is cheaper to have a slimmer built to shop in boys/teens store. I cant find a XX-large in the boys section, I went to the older sizes and grabbed 3 shirts (£25+tax), including 2 pairs of discounted slippers at £13+tax. Abercrombie is always my fav store every time I visit the US.

Later on, we went to another outlet and we bought some toys for the kids at the Toys R Us store. The shop is really a joy for kids where you could different shapes, sizes, bright colours of toys! More shopping bags when we left the outlet!

On the 24th Dec, we attended the mass in the morning and we had short trip in some part of the town, including the popular Duke University. I joined my friend's sister to pick-up her husband from the airport in the early evening. Santa Claus was there to distribute the gifts for the kids! Unknowingly, after the kids were requested to stay inside their bedrooms, the parents were busy sorting out the gifts and placed it outside the main door of the house, pretending that Santa Claus dropped it for the kids... As usual, after the kids opened their presence, the older ones also exchanged gifts. Eventually, we had our group pictures and of course the Noche Buena - full of Pinoy delicacies on the table!

It was a busy day but full of fun and merry making...

Day 4: Departure for North Carolina (USA)

I was still busy wrapping gifts last night prior to our departure for the US. We left the house at noon and it was still freezing with piles of snow along the roads. This is my second time to experience a long drive, but this time I will be the human "tom tom" (gps)navigator.

My cousin's husband loves to drive and for him driving down to the US is another exciting task. Based from the quest map's calculation, the total distance is almost 800 miles and approximately it will take more than 10 hours to reach our destination, Durham (North Carolina). Unfortunately, as our trip progresses, we can not meet quest map's set time due to unavoidable weather condition and other circumstances that we encountered along the way.

The landscape of Ontario is not really impressive except when we reached the boundary of the US (Buffalo), near the Niagara Falls, including the Ontario Lake which provides a natural scenic attraction in the area. We thought it was not a busy day in the border for the inspection of our passports. But when we stepped down from the van, we proceeded to immigration office and from there the people were squeezed inside a double walled glass room waiting to be called. It took us 2.5 hours to wait for the interview. It is the same procedure being done at the airport where finger printing and photograph taking are required for every traveller, except for the $6 dollars fee.

It was almost dark when we left the immigration office and we are now heading to the eastern side of the US. Everybody is hungry especially my cousin's kids, so we decided to proceed first to Denny's restaurant for a quick dinner! I enjoyed the meal and everybody is ready to continue the journey.

There was not much scenery along the way since it was dark and I could barely see the surroundings. From Buffalo, down to West Virginia, then from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, it was a smooth journey with few stops to fill the gasoline tank. When we reached West Virginia, the van was travelling slowly because of the fog, unending road curves and the rain. Finally, when we reached the boundary of North Carolina, we were lost and my cousin's husband was disoriented to go back again to the motorway. After so many attempts contacting our host, we finally got the right track to reach our final destination safe, sleepy and exhausted. It took us 12 hours to finally step inside our host's house in Durham.




I was so sleepy despite of having quick naps during the travel. My eyes were really tired and I could hardly open them which tend my head to fall down forward. After a hot sip of coffee, our host guided us to our rooms and immediately changed my clothes and my back touched the smooth bouncy bed and I don’t know when I my eyes finally surrendered.