"I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and my cardigan," sings Miley Cyrus. The song kept replaying inside my head during our 15-hour flight.

When it comes to traveling to the United States, if you’re a Filipino and you have relatives living in America, there’s a big fat chance you’ll be spending quite some time in California. In our case, it’s Los Angeles.

What makes this vacation different from when you visit other countries is that you don’t need to worry about itinerary - your relatives mostly do that for you. And if you surpassed the two-hour long queue at the immigration in LAX (and the interrogation of why you’re in the Land of the Free and if you’re bringing in chicharon or balut), congratulations – you’ve finally come to America.