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we wake up at an insanely early time (6:30 AM) to go to the weekly swap meet at the nogales high school parking lot.
the reason we head to the swap meet this early is because there's this vendor who sells pricey name brand clothing items for a flat $5, $8, or $10, and she's attracted quite a following, so you have to get there as early as possible in order to get the best deals. when we arrive, there's already a swarm of women there, manically rifling through the racks.
the vendor is a middle aged filipino woman who calls us "sister" - i find that endearing.
here's my aunt lily trying to interest me in a sheer, frilly, flower print blouse.
after the swap meet, we go have breakfast somewhere in hacienda heights.
there's a long line of people already there. here are some of the food stuffs they had on display:
my aunts always order way too much food. we had, my favorite, this rice roll thing with dry shredded pork and egg inside, hot soymilk, and these fried cruller like things and some flat sesame bread things (sorry i don't know the proper names for any of these edibles!).
on the side, we have some seasoned pig ears and string beancurd.
after we eat, we go buy some fruit at vons. there's an unadvertised sale on organic apples - 2 lbs for $1 and my aunts go mad! they accost the produce guy and make him bring out not yet opened boxes of the sale apples and they practically buy up the whole lot of available apples.
at first they didn't want to let this woman passing by in on their find but she quickly descended upon the apples as well.
their shopping cart. my aunts can't pass up a good deal.
later that day, my cousin vickey and her husband andrew return to walnut with gideon for a banquet in celebration of gideon/vickey and andrew's marriage.
newborn babies are so strange! i got a great crash course in baby rearing. i even changed a poopy diaper. it was gross but i wasn't grossed out. i did a lot of swaddling, rocking, patting, feeding, and burping this week.
here's gideon trying to poop, i think. or fart. babies fart a lot! (this video is taking forever to load onto youtube, hopefully it works later today.)
my cousins ashley and vincent at the banquet.
my cousin benjamin and his mom, my aunt lily.
my cousin phoebe (isn't she cute like a cartoon character?) and her boyfriend john.
i don't know who the guy on the right is with vincent. you can sorta see some of andrew's family in the background.
it's been a long night for little gideon. here's gideon fast asleep in the car on the way home.
i leave for the airport at 5 PM for a flight at 8 PM back to portland. time to pack up the laptop. my mom and aunts are sending me home with an extra suitcase (from one of my aunts) of foodstuffs, including 10 frozen eels (unagi) from the japanese market and 6 steamed meat and rice bowls (taiwanese specialty). i hope there's no delay! i sure will miss everyone. i wish we all lived in the same place.