Pea announces she's leaving Dumaguete after three years to embark on a major adventure: her first-ever trip to the United States. She documents her arrival at JFK International Airport, shares her first impressions of America through Filipino eyes, samples iconic American candy, and teases a full "Pea Does America" tour series to come.
Pea opens with a dramatic fake-out, implying she might be leaving Dumaguete permanently due to "drama," then reveals she's actually heading to the U.S. on a tourist visa (B1/B2) for the adventure of a lifetime
- She's standing on American soil for the first time ever and is visibly excited
Getting out of the Philippines as a Filipina is harder than getting into America
- U.S. immigration at JFK asked only two questions: where she's going and how long she's staying — she was through in under two minutes
- Leaving the Philippines required a huge stack of documents: financial papers, proof she can support herself, proof she won't be a liability, return tickets, and hotel bookings
- The Philippine government essentially makes you prove you're coming back and won't overstay
- She describes this as the average Filipina experience — you can't just leave the country without jumping through hoops
First impressions of New York / JFK Airport
Arrived at 4:30 a.m. and couldn't exchange pesos yet because the currency booth wasn't open until 6:30
A stranger in the coffee line offered to buy her a $5 cup of coffee when she realized she had no dollars yet — she says this has never happened to her in the Philippines or anywhere else, and she didn't think he was hitting on her
The airport was surprisingly quiet — even in a sea of people, just soft chatter, no yelling, no loud music, which is the opposite of what she's used to
JFK was much cleaner than people had warned her — "sparkly clean" with trash cans everywhere, so no excuse for littering
Everything was efficiently laid out to get from point A to point B — "the exact opposite of the airport in Manila"
She was struck by the racial diversity — used to seeing "99 Filipinos and 1 foreigner," but here people are Black, white, brown, Asian — "truly a melting pot"
Noticed Americans are "a little on the heavy side" and after seeing the food options, thinks she knows why
The average age of people seemed a decade or more older than in the Philippines
Biggest difference: no armed guards in every corner, and nobody asked for her papers — in the Philippines you show ID eight or nine times just to get through a terminal; at JFK she wandered around freely without anyone asking for a passport or boarding pass
She felt safe enough to sleep on the airport floor overnight while waiting for her connecting flight, wrapping her arms around her purse "just in case"
She spots a 50s-style American diner in the airport that reminds her of the Drumlin Diner from Fallout 4
A fan recognizes her at JFK
- A man named Stephen approaches her and says he watches her YouTube channel all the time, sometimes falling asleep to entire playlists
- He's never been to the Philippines but wants to go; Pea invites him to contact her on Facebook so she can interview him if he ever visits
- She's clearly delighted to be recognized in New York City
What her America trip will cover
- She's not doing the typical tourist stuff (Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge) because you can just Google that
- She wants to show "the real America from the eyes of a Filipina" — eating food, talking to people from all walks of life, visiting out-of-the-way places on the East Coast
- The goal is to experience how Americans actually live, not just the landmarks
American candy taste test
- Raisinets: Thumbs up — she doesn't normally like raisins but the chocolate pairing works
- Good & Plenty: Immediate disgust — it's licorice, which she hates; "holy shmokes" reaction
- Junior Mints: Thumbs up — not a lot of chocolate but good for freshening breath "after eating dried fish or balut"
- Nerds: Neutral — colorful and fun but "an explosion of flavor" she can't quite pin down; sweet, tangy, sandy in texture, nothing special
- Warheads: Okay/positive — the extreme sourness shocks her ("no wonder it's called Warheads because it'll make your head explode"); she jokes they should send these to Ukraine
- Snow Caps: Her favorite — calls them "heaven in a box" but the appearance reminds her of cleaning her cat's litter box; says she's glad they're not available in Dumaguete because it would be "a constant battle between what I want and what my waistline needs"
- Milk Duds: Dangerous — so chewy it nearly breaks her jaw, sticks to her braces, and she warns anyone with fillings to avoid them entirely