My WCOPA 2015 Journey (Part 2): The Arrival at LAX and The Westin at Long Beach

In my previous blog, I talked about how I got in to this competition and the highlights. But I also don't want to miss you out on the small but important things that happened in the competition week. For those who do not know, I am one of the Philippines' delegates for the WCOPA 2015 that was held in Long Beach, California from July 8-19, 2015 and I want to share to the whole world this wonderful experience. 

Took a selfie right before we landed LAX in my Team Philippines Jacket sponsored by Folded&Hung because why not? :p

THE ARRIVAL AT LAX 

As if the overwhelming feeling of touching the grounds of the American soil, passing through immigration and just being fascinated by how beautiful the Los Angeles International Airport were not enough, we were greeted with a very warm welcome by DOT to our delight. Amidst the jetlag and thanks to the food served by PAL during our flight, I found enough strength to pose and manage to smile for what seemed like eternity for the photo ops with Team Philippines, our National Director Mr. Gerry Mercado and Jed Madela himsef, a popular Filipino singer who is a World Champion Superstar. After the photo ops, two buses provided by DOT were already waiting for us. And God bless Mr. Henry Sanchez, one of Team Philippine's sponsors for years, for handing out sweet donuts for the trip to Long Beach. I don't know if you believe in signs, but those donuts were my divination that everything about that week is going to be S-W-E-E-T. 

Yas!

The whole of WCOPA 2015 Team Pilippines carrying the DOT banner

Mr. Henry Sanchez, handing out donuts to everyone

THE WESTIN HOTEL 

Our hotel was the PERFECT location for the delegates. Restaurants, Walmart, pharmacies, Starbucks, train stations and even the venue for our Finals night were just a walk away. And I must say, the staff were all courteous. From the front desk, to the bell boys, to the cleaning ladies, everything were well trained to treat their customers in a professional manner. In fact, when I called the lobby about the fridge that was not working, they immediately sent a new fridge. Same thing happened when I called about the lock in the bathtub. To date, that was the longest time I had ever been in a hotel (10 days) and I am so glad that I had a fantastic time while staying. 

with my roomate, Juliet Bahala, in our hotel room. :)

I feel like this is such a poorly written blog so I have to stop. LOL. It was an exhausting day. In fact, I thought about writing this tomorrow but I couldn't sleep so I did it anyway. I promise to be better on my writing for tomorrow's blog because it is all about what happened in the competition week and trust me, you wouldn't want to miss it! ;)