South Africa

Despite all the political nonsense that's going on in SA at the moment (the story made page 3 of the LA times today) and the fact that I think the Rand will crash spectacularly in the morning I still miss South Africa. A friend sent me this youtube video yesterday which didn't help because even though I don't drink beer and I doubt I ever will I can still identify with it!

I'm also quietly hopeful that dear ol' JZ will be able to set things on the right track in SA in the next few years...

Mission Valley Rotary Annual Golf Tournament

On Friday was the Mission Valley Rotary Club's Charity golf tournament - their major fundraiser for the year. As I am a hopeless golfer, actually I'm not a golfer at all, I volunteered to help and so spent the day driving around in a beverage cart which was great fun!

The beautiful Carlton Oaks golf course in Santee (just east of San Diego) where the golf tournament was held.

Bill Ashman and Dale Bailey, two wonderful Rotarians, out on the course.

My artwork in the pristine bunker. It was just too tempting!


Driving the golf cart. Initially Mark, the Rotarian I was delivering beverages with, was driving. He drove like an absolute maniac! I spent a good portion of the time firmly gripping the side of the cart so I didn't fall out! After he had sampled a fair number of the beverages we had on board I decided that I should drive.

In the evening after the golfers were done there was a wonderful dinner, prize giving and raffle. Although I didn't win the$1000 grand prize I did win two tickets to the San Diego Zoo which I was really happy about because I want to go and see their new tiger cubs!

Mary-Ellen (co organiser of the golf day), the lucky grand prize winner and Walt (President of the Mission valley Rotary club).

One dollar a day diet project

Something really interesting I found while browsing the web - the one dollar a day diet project. The guy has been selected to go on a Rotary Group Study Exchange.

At last - a new post!

Apologies! I'm not slipping back into my old ways I promise. Or at least I'm making a definite effort not to. There's quite a bit to report in the world of Kate. For starters I have moved and am happily ensconced in my new abode. You can have a look at some pics here. If you don't remember much about where I was moving to have a look at this post. I really like links (in case you can't tell!) My new roommates are great. We pretty much all just do our own thing and chat in passing so it's a very comfortable living situation. To date there have been no issues with sharing the bathroom either which is the one thing I was a little apprehensive about.

The big news is that I have an internship! I went for an interview at the Port on Monday which was very successful and I'm going in tomorrow to sign paperwork and fun stuff like that. Fun stuff being going for a medical and a drug test.... glorious stuff. I can't start working until I get my visa stuff sorted out but that hopefully wont take too long. Ooh, and I'm getting paid the princely sum of $12.24 an hour. Sure it's not the best pay in the world but as Dad always says 'It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick'. I said this to my lecturer the other day who just about fell off his chair laughing! At least this means I'll be able to pay rent and other lovely stuff like that and save some money for when Andrew and I go traveling at the end of the year. I'm going to be working for the Communications department which as far as I understand is kind of like PR. I'm going to be doing research and writing stuff for them which should be interesting! It's only for 20hours a week so that will probably be all day Monday and Wednesday and half day either Tuesday or Thursday.

Varsity is going well. I just have lots and lots of papers to write! Including one on the Economics of Love Songs or something along those lines. I'm not 100% clear what it involves at this stage - Prof Grossbard handed me this huge file of papers today that I need to work through and sort out so hopefully I'll have a bit of a clearer idea once I've done that. As can be expected much of the conversation in the Econ department over the last couple of days has revolved around the stock market and exactly what is going to happen to the US economy. I pity the people in y class who are lecturing 1st year macroeconomics - they have to explain the role of the Federal Reserve bank to their students and now the textbook is wrong! Because apparently the role of the Fed includes buying massive international insurance companies too.

On Saturday morning was the Rotary Foundation (TRF) Seminar. As for what TRF is "The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world." (shamelessly swiped from www.rotary.org because they explained it so nicely and succinctly!). The seminar introduces Rotarians to the TRF and what it does, highlights TRF projects that the San Diego district is involved in and shows Rotarians how they can get involved.

I am in San Diego because of TRF. One of the ways that they acieve the advancement of international understanding is by funding the largest private scholarship program in the world. Approximately 1500 Ambassadorial scholars are sent around the world each year. If you're interested in the other programs of TRF have a look here (yes, I know, another link!) San Diego is involved with just about all of them. We (the Ambassadorial Scholars) spoke briefly. Seeing that the Rotary theme this year is 'Make Dreams Real' we all mentioned how we hoped that our scholarship would help to make our dreams real. The keynote presentation for the day was made by Sister Ethel Normoyle, a tiny Irish nun who has spent the last 36 years (if I remember correctly) in South Africa and 2 decades ago established the Missionvale Care Centre in Missionvale, Port Elizabeth. She was inspiring - it's amazing what she's created from her start under a tree and how many people she helps every day. I think it was quite an eye opener for a lot of the people in the audience too.

Kate update

I only woke up an hour ago. Yes that would be at 2pm. Note to self: set alarm even on weekends! I didn't go to bed that late but obviously I didn't feel like waking up or something! I went downtown with my friend Bella last night. We went to a place called Cafe Seville which had excellent mojitos and guys playing Spanish music. It was a good evening.

At the moment I'm trying to coordinate my move. I was had wanted to move this weekend but I think the other guy is still in the process of moving out so I'm only going to get to move tomorrow which totally sucks! Who moves on a Monday? I'm hoping I can move my big stuff (mattress, bookshelf etc) this evening because I don't think I'll be able to find anyone to help me with it tomorrow and unfortunately they're all a bit too large to fit into my little car!

Otherwise I don't have much to report. I'm slowly getting back into varsity mode. I still haven't heard from the Port about an internship so on Thursday I made a couple of calls to Rotary people and 'mobilised the Rotary connection' so to speak. So hopefully I'll hear something soon.

Back to school.

So as I mentioned yesterday was the first day of classes (or of 'school' as varsity gets called here). I only have one class I have to go to lectures for - that's the research class and is on Tuesday and Thursday from 18:30 to 19:45. Otherwise I'm going to be doing a lot of work on my own.

Instead of doing an elective as none of the ones on offer appealed I'm doing a special study in the are of Household Economics/ the Economics of Marriage with Prof Shoshanna Grossbard who's area of speciality this is. I discovered something really cool yesterday! I'm currently reading A Treatise on the Family by Gary Becker who was one of the founders of this area of Economics and he won a Nobel Prize for his work in 1992. He was Prof Grossbard's supervisor at the University of Chicago and she's thanked in the 1st section of the acknowledgements in the book. I thought that was pretty awesome!

Aside from those 2 classes I'm still in the process of trying to organise an internship at the Port. Things are going much slower than I'd like so today I got hold of a couple of people in Rotary who know people in the Port so we'll see what happens.

Eek! Spider!

I hate spiders. Most other things I can deal with but not spiders. Why is this an issue now? Because tonight there was a spider in the shower! I'm not talking about one of those piddly squashable/flickable ones either, this one was large! It was at least 5cm in diameter and it was fat and black with big thick legs. Ugh! I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. Had I been in SA (which I quite obviously am not) I would have probably gone and woke Dad up and got him to sort it out. That was obviously not an option so I had to deal with it on my own.

Luckily, seeing that the spider was in the bath and the shower head is not fixed I could aim it at the spider and blast it with hot water until it stopped coming back to life. My issue then was that it didn't go nicely down the plughole to goldfish (and spider) heaven as Marge has a little plastic thing in there to catch hair. I didn't want to reach down and pull out the little holder thing which fits quite snugly into the plughole in case the spider was just faking being dead so I was a little stumped. Then I remembered the scissors that Marge keeps by the phone just outside the bathroom (pliers... tongs... scissors... EUREKA! - you can see the train of thought) and those were quite effective at getting the holder thing out. After that it was relatively easy to pick up the holder with the scissors and bash it on the toilet seat until the spider fell in. It was promptly flushed!

Thus ends my spider saga. I think it provides a perfectly reasonable explanation for why I'm still awake at 3:30am (all the adrenaline). Thankfully I have no classes tomorrow so I can still get my seven hours of sleep! Oh, it was the 1st day of classes today but I'll tell you about that later because the adrenaline is definitely starting to wear off and I'm going to bed.

Beach and Bicycle.

I think I'm doing rather well! This is my 22nd post for August! Those 22 account for almost a third of my total posts so now I just need to keep it up :-) Keep your fingers crossed!

Today I met most of the new Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars for 2008/09. Maureen Eberle organised a great picnic at La Jolla Cove which is one of the prettiest areas of San Diego. We are a rather diverse bunch! Aside from Aadila and I there was Giovanni from Italy, Robert from Germany, Wadri from Uganda, Julie and Rebecca from South Korea and Qiuwan from China. There's also going to be another scholar arriving from Japan in the next few weeks. Here are some pics of the day.

I got my birthday present from Mom and Dad early this year. That probably has something to do with the fact that I chose and bought it. It's a wonderful bicycle (and helmet of course)! The Trek 7.2 FX WSD to be exact. If you're interested in the technical specifications here's the link. Otherwise if (like me) you don't speak 'bicycle' then it's what's called a hybrid bicycle where it has the majority of features like a road bike but you have straight handlebars and sit more upright like a mountain bike. It's also a very pretty light blue! I went for a ride on Friday and it's really comfortable and easy to ride. I'm just working on getting my foot back into the pedal straps after stopping and trying to put my water bottle back into the cage without wobbling! We'll get there. Thank you so much Mom and Dad for my wonderful present! Here are a couple of pics for you to see.

Don't you just love the sexy cycling shorts? ;-)

Close up of my bike!

and of my helmet! (Safety 1st don't you know?)

Other updates - my computer is fixed! I'm very happy! I'm still not too sure exactly what they did but it works and all my software is there so that's ok by me. Unless anything changes in the next few days I'll be moving to Crown Point on 8 Sept. Seeing that that's a Monday I hope it's actually the weekend before but we'll see.

Photos.

I'm tired (it's 2:20am) so I'll update you on my computer and bicycle etc tomorrow. In the mean time here are some links to some of my other facebook photo albums which I put up recently-ish.

Rotary Photos (including the LA convention)
Ambassadorial Scholars at the Corvette Diner (a classic 50's style diner with great burgers!)
My best friend Katherine's wedding in Durban in July #1 and #2

Wild Animal Park

Today Nicky and I went off to the Wild Animal Park because I had free tickets that expire tomorrow so we decided we should use them! The Wild Animal Park is the breeding grounds for the Zoo and a tourist attraction in it's own right.

Some of the park is very similar to the Zoo where you just walk around and see the different types of animals individually in their (sometimes very large) enclosures while in another areas they have habitats that simulate the plains of Southern Africa or the deserts or North Africa and a bunch more. Unfortunately most of these aren't accessible unless you arrange one of the (expensive) photo safaris or something along those lines which sucks because there were some really cool animals that we missed out on! We went on a tram tour which took you past the South African savannah mostly.

The savannah is pretty much as close as you can get to going on a real safari without leaving America (which no doubt is good enough for some). They have all your major herbivores in a large enclosure together and so you get to see the animals interacting 'naturally'. Well natural is entirely relative if you consider the fact that there are no predators in sight, only a couple of each type of animal and the grass is super green. We did see some cool stuff though - like a 3 week old baby black rhino and the northern white rhino which is the most endangered rhino in the world - there are only 7 left and 2 are in San Diego which is pretty cool. Aside from that we saw some interesting Californian animals (the Californian condor and big horn sheep among others).

Here's the link to my facebook album. I put the pictures at the end of the Zoo and Seaworld album so you may have to scroll through to get to them.

A Kate Update (I quite like this as a title for general posts).

I hope for America's sake that Obama wins the election and that he does something to reform America's healthcare system. I spent 8 hours in a hospital Emergency Room yesterday. Before you ask, I'm fine! My friend Nicky had chest pains and so went to the SDSU health centre who did a bunch of tests and then sent her to the emergency room. They did the all the exact same tests that SDSU had just done plus a CT scan and couldn't find anything wrong so that was that. It was a very long and boring experience. I was productive however! I took my cellphone apart completely and cleaned it with the disinfectant wipes kindly provided by the hospital. I have also discovered that you can fit a purple rubber glove over your head and then you look quite similar to a chicken. I have photos to prove it but I don't think I'm going to post them on here.

Otherwise life's been all about getting everything sorted out for starting classes next week. Luckily I logged onto the SDSU system this evening because I discovered that it was the last day for registration! I registered very quickly so that's all sorted out now. I'm also in the process of organising my internship. I have one more elective to do and none of the ones on offer appealed in the slightest so instead I've organised a to do a special study on household economics and the economics of marriage. It's my Professor's area of speciality and she's done some really interesting work so I'm really pleased.

Aside from that my time has been taken up with looking for a bike! Yup, I know, not something you'd ever expect to here from me! But I'm moving to Pacific Beach which is a very pedestrian/bike friendly area so I plan on riding to the shops and the gym etc. There are also a whole lot of bike trails around the bay area so it's a great place to start cycling a bit more seriously without having to be on the road with all the scary cars! As I typed this it seemed rather familiar so if I put it all in a previous post then I do apologise. This hunt is proving to be a bit more tricky than I'd like because I seem to have hit the 'black hole' of the bike buying year. Most of the old models are all sold out (especially since the oil price went up apparently so have bike sales) and the new ones are just starting to trickle in. But I will persevere!

New driving licenses, blue toenails and dead laptops.

Today when the post arrived I was really excited because my California drivers license arrived! It's so cool!

The highlight of the week's post for me is usually my Time Magazine which now gets delivered to Marge's house after Sarah decided they were junk mail and started throwing them out (I was not impressed). This weeks Time is a special edition on the Democrats *groan* which means that no doubt we'll be receiving another special edition on the Republicans in the weeks to come. I can hardly contain myself I'm so excited. Not. This whole election thing is really starting to bug me. I don't care that it's the most exciting race in decades - the actual election is months away! When the story of the week is Obama pouncing on McCain for not remembering how many houses he owns (7 by the way) it really gets a bit much.

Onto brighter news (literally) my toenails are bright blue! With pretty white flowers and sparkles. I took Marge for a surprise manicure and pedicure to say thank you for having me at her house while I've been apartment hunting. While she was being pampered I had a basic pedicure and decided to get interesting nail polish. I contemplated taking a picture to show you but I figured that could be a bit odd.

I have some sad news to report - my laptop is dead. It died last night after Windows installed some updates and then told me I had to restart it for them to take effect. Well it never restarted. Luckily I had backed it up just before but still. This is one case when a 9 hour time difference is very convenient because this all happened around midnight which is 9am in SA so I could phone Warren for help and advice. Unfortunately the prognosis is not good - I took it in this morning (to the Geek Squad at Best Buy - nice name huh?) and we'll see. I should know something in a week or so. Luckily I'm can just use Marge's computer otherwise I think I may be suffering from serious withdrawal symptoms! Technology is a wonderful thing... until something goes wrong!

I am feeling exceptionally pleased with myself. Today I found a Twilight T-shirt. You really can get anything in America!

Google Maps is awesome!

I've just discovered something super duper cool! Google maps will give you directions. No, not driving directions - public transport directions! For example, to get from my new place to SDSU this is what I'd have to do.... click here

My new home!

Two bits of random info just to start this post off nicely. KFC in San Diego does not hold a candle to KFC in South Africa. I was actually really disappointed with their attempt at a Rounder. So that's an experience I will not be repeating.

Gwen Stefani has just had a son. She's called him Zuma! Seriously?!! His full name's Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale - poor kid. Not matter how famous his parents are he's still going to get beaten up at school.

Anyway, onto more exciting matters namely my new apartment! Well it's actually not an apartment, it's a house. The lady who owns it got married and instead of selling her house and all her stuff decided to rent out the rooms. You can have a look at where it is here. It's in an area called Crown Point which is exactly where I wanted to move to. It's a nice residential area just below Pacific Beach which is one of the 'party areas' of San Diego. What's great is that everything is close - I'll be able to walk or ride my bike to the shops or the gym or anywhere else I want to go around there. It's also a great area for being outdoors as there are cycling/jogging paths all around the bay areas.

Back to the house. There will be 3 other guys living there. One is the owner's son and he has the outside room and bathroom then there's a German guy and a Brazilian guy who will be living in the house with me. I've met them both and they seem really nice. The only thing is that the three of us are going to be sharing one bathroom which is not ideal but it's something I can definitely live with. Especially when I consider the fact that my rent is only going to be $625 including utilities. When I was living with Sarah my rent and utilities were about $200 more than that! The house also has a nice kitchen which the guys apparently hardly ever use and then a lounge/dining area.

Other very cool things include the fact that there is a washing machine and tumble dryer and we don't have to pay for them so I can stop saving quarters! Chris (the guy who lives outside) has a cat so I plan on making friends with it. My bedroom is furnished so I'll be sleeping on a proper bed again (which luckily is the exact same size as my bed so I'm going to use my mattress).

I'm not too sure when I'm going to be able to move in yet - it'll either be 1 September or on the 8th. I'm very, very happy though! I'm so glad that the right place finally turned up.

The hunt continues.

I wish hunting for an apartment was like hunting for Easter eggs (yes we used to do this when we were little). At least then you know you have a defined area to search in, a certain number of eggs to find, the eggs belong to whoever finds then first and then once they're all found it's over! Apartment hunting on the other hand seems to stretch to infinity! There's a preferred area but it's not strictly defined, there's no actual guarantee that you'll find anything in that area and then if you do someone who finds it after you may end up getting it. Then of course it doesn't seem to end! (Well in my case at least).


I've seen 5 apartments in the last 2 days. The first one was perfect and I would love to live there - but of course the girl had organised with a bunch of other people for them to come and see the place so she'll let me know later in the week. The second place was nice but the guy who's living there worked from home. So half the living room is taken up by his desk and where the kitchen/dining room table should be there's a Foosball table. So it felt like I'd just be renting the room and not actually be sharing the apartment. Which is technically fine but with that being the case I thought the rent was far too expensive for what he was offering so as Dad would suggest, I sent him a cheeky email. (Americans don't use the word cheeky by the way). He was asking rent and then utilities (water, electricity, internet etc) were extra on top of that which added about $100 to the bill. I suggested that we make the rent he was asking for include utilities as well. I was impressed to get a reply from him saying that he was showing the place to a couple of other people this week and would see how that went then would consider my offer. So we'll see. As Dad always says - if you don't ask, you don't get.

I've been getting a little stressed out about not being able to find anything despite having looked since the beginning of the month so yesterday I decided to broaden my search. I went to see one place that wasn't in any area I'd thought about looking in primarily because the rent was so cheap! The place was nice enough but the dude renting out the room was seriously dodgy! I also went to see a place that is in the area that's my second option if I can't move to the beach. It's an area called Hillcrest which is sort of like Florida road - lots of restaurants and bars. It's also very close to Balboa Park (San Diego's answer to Central Park). The place was really nice and you got a lot more bang for your buck. But it's not the beach which is where I really, really want to live! I was chatting to Nicky about it and as she said, if I'm only in San Diego for 5 more months (assuming that I move somewhere else to work next year) then I should live where I want to because who knows if I'll ever get the chance to live there again.

I saw another possibility in Pacific Beach last night. It's a small, old house but in a great location. The guy who lives there seemed really cool (he's a golf pro at a local course) but once again he's showing the place to a couple more people so we'll see later in the week.

Wrt the places I was waiting to hear about - I emailed the one girl who actually responded and told me that they had been concerned about the fact that I could only guarantee staying there for 5 months even though I want to stay in San Diego and work next year too so they had found someone else. I can't get hold of the other girl - she never answers her phone and her voicemail box is full. So that's that for those two possibilities I guess!

I really need to work out what to call my posts when they're just full of random bits of this and that!

Yay! Michael Phelps won his 8 gold medals. Kudos and all that now can we please watch something other than swimming? I miss DSTV and being able to watch multiple channels of random Olympic sport at all hours of the day. What is quite amusing here though is the way they’re reporting the medal count - I only ever see the total medal count because then America’s winning. Meanwhile it’s the gold medals that count and then the Chinese are kicking the USA’s butt!

On Saturday night I went to see A Chorus Line. It’s a musical that tells the story of all these dancers trying out for a show on Broadway. I got a super cheap ticket (I’m a poor student remember) so I was sitting high up in the rafters. For some unknown reasons the entire front section if the upper balcony was empty so just before the show started we all started to move down. The poor usher got all twitchy so all we did was wait until they switched the lights off and then moved! I ended up with an awesome seat and could see everything on stage really well.

I have to tell you about an incredible moment of brilliance on my part! After I got my car back from being detailed last week I was trying to remember if I had had mats in it or not. I eventually decided that I must not have had mats because I was sure they would have put them back in the car. So this weekend when Nicky and I went to do some shopping at Costco I opened the boot to but our shopping in an lo and behold - there were my mats! They had been sitting in the boot the whole time. Now my car has a little bit of a 'wet' smell that I need to sort out because the mats weren't completely dry and they've been sitting in the closed boot in the sun all week.

Talking about grocery shopping - last week I was so excited! I went to a different Von's to the one I normally do and they had peppadews! They were in the little deli section along with all the olives etc. They've made a welcome addition to my salads.

And in other food news (the newsreader voice is back) I had my first smor on Friday night! What is a smor you may ask? Well it's the quintessential American camp food made by taking a marshmellow, toasting it over the fire and then squishing it between two graham crackers along with some chocolate! Quite delicious! Although I do think toasting Beacon marshmellow Easter eggs is still the best!

The apartment hunt continues. I saw one place this weekend which was a bit too close to party central for my liking and I'm seeing another place tonight. And surprise surprise - the rude Americans strike again! Despite being faithfully assured that they would let me know about the two apartments I was waiting to hear about this weekend.... guess what? They didn't.

YAAAAAAAY!

I passed my driving test! I had my appointment at 11:45am and when I arrived at the DMV it was packed! I definitely gloated a bit as I strolled right past the ridiculous line of people that headed all the way out the door and around the corner as I went to check in. While I was waiting to do my test I had a sudden flashback to my SA driving test and what I had to do then. I promptly made a quick call to my friend Nicky to ask about hand turn signals (which I'd completely forgotten in the week since I did my theory test - oops). It's a good thing I did because they asked that! So after the nice little drive during which I did not drive on the wrong side of the road, mount any curbs or do anything else daft the examiner told me that I'd passed! I struggled to contain my joy as he mentioned that I must make sure I come to a complete stop before turning right at a red light. According to Jeremy Clarkson that's America's only contribution to driving. I of course nodded very seriously and then skipped inside (no, not literally) to get my license. Only to be told that they'll post it to me so I just got a crappy piece of paper instead.

Cherry Coke

At the moment I'm sitting and drinking a Cherry Coke Zero and I can't decide if I like it or not! On one hand the fake cherry flavour is not totally unpleasant but I don't think it does much for me in this form. Coke Zero is comparable to SA's Coke Light. You also get Diet Coke here which is revolting! It's got so much artificial sweetener in it that that's pretty much all you can taste and it gives me a headache. So I drink Coke Zero (which is aimed at guys apparently because it doesn't have all the 'diet' connotations). But back to the cherry aspect - I really don't think it adds much to the drink at all. But then again I think I could quite happily give up Coke altogether and not miss it at all so maybe I'm not the right person to be talking about this!

I bought my Cherry Coke when I was out shopping for headphones this evening because my headphones died! I was at gym earlier today and when I switched my ipod on I only got sound in my one ear. So I had to spend my entire time at gym swapping the working headphone from ear to ear depending on which side the loudest noise was coming from. Even though I had the non-working earphone in my ear as well I could still hear from that ear which is a definite problem. I listen to my ipod at gym because I play really fast music and it keeps me going on the cardio machines. The other reason I like listening to music is because it blocks out all other sounds - including the sound of me breathing so I don't notice how tired I'm getting and I push myself to carry on going. Needless to say today's was not the best workout ever. However, I am pleased to announce that I eventually managed to find a really nice pair of Sony headphones so hopefully the next time I go to gym I'll be much happier! I got them at Walmart of all places. Shopping at Walmart is a very scary experience! My only excuse is that I'd already been to 2 other electronic stores without any success and Walmart was on the way to get groceries at Vons.

Updates:
#1 - Driving test tomorrow morning - wish me luck!
#2 - No new apartment hunting news.
#3 - The name 'Michael Phelps' is really starting to grate my cheese! Apparently he has assumed demi-God status so it is imperative that everyone mention his name at least 47 times a day.

One year in the USA

One year ago today I arrived in San Diego (give or take a couple of hours seeing that it's almost 2am here). It's definitely been an interesting year. I contemplated reminiscing about it on here but it's way too late and I'm far too tired so it'll have to be another time - maybe!

In the latest Kate update (said in my best pompous newsreader voice) I finally have an appointment with the DMV for my driving test! It's on Friday at 11:40ish so wish me luck! As Andrew pointed out it would be highly embarrassing if I failed so tomorrow I'm going to check up online to see what they actually want you to do and make sure I know how to do it.

And in other news (back to the pompous voice) apartment hunting has hit a bit of a lull. I'm still waiting to hear from 2 of the places I liked. I phoned the 3rd today and she's found another roommate. I thought she was actually incredibly rude seeing as she promised to call and let me know and then never bothered to. That seems to be a general trend here though. South Africans definitely have better manners than the majority of Americans! I'm not sure if it's because of the British influence/heritage or what but it's definitely noticeable and rather annoying. Another thing that bugs me is that when you say 'Thank you' to an American they don't reply with 'it's a pleasure' or 'sure' or 'no problem' or any words for that matter. They just say 'uh-huh'.

After that little venting effort I am off to bed!

I kid you not...

While watching the Olympics opening ceremony the other day, during the parade of nations one of the American commentators said "Here's the Central African Republic which is in central Africa". I could not actually believe it!

And another thing....

Incidentally, my car is now sparkling! It looks like a totally different car. In honour of this fact (and the fact that it's actually clean for a change) I decided to add some decorations. I hope you approve.

I'm off to the Rotary District Council meeting this evening and am taking some people up with me - we're all going to be sitting on plastic so we don't get damp bums!

South Africa sick.

I am feeling horribly homesick. Or maybe South Africa sick is more appropriate. I’m sitting at Starbucks waiting for my car to be detailed (valeted (sp?) in SA speak – basically a complete interior and exterior clean etc) and I was planning on using the internet but I can’t connect to the silly hotspot for some odd reason. So instead I’m sorting out all my music on iTunes and listening to the Soweto Gospel Choir. I think that what has just struck a chord is the way they pronounce some of the words, in the typical ‘African’ South African accent and switch from English to Zulu/Xhosa at a moment’s notice (or whichever of the 9 official African languages it is. I was never very good at differentiating between them). At times while I’ve been in San Diego I’m very aware of being different – of thinking differently and having a different perspective on life and what’s important. It’s really difficult to explain. I suppose the best way to do so is to say that the Soweto Gospel Choir’s music is absolutely beautiful and I can imagine that anyone with half an ear can appreciate the magnificent voices and exquisite harmonies even if they don’t know the songs or understand the words. But for me they’re also beautiful because the songs are familiar and because they just sound like home.

Updates on this and that.

I'm still not having any luck with the DMV. Every time I have called in the last few days the system has been down. Not that they tell you this at the beginning of the call though. Instead they wait until you've given all your piles of information (via an annoying voice recognition system which doesn't always understand my accent) and then they say they're offline. Grr! So I will persist.

On the apartment front I saw another really nice place tonight. I also saw another two I liked on Saturday morning so now I just need to wait to hear from all three. It's a bit frustrating but I'd rather spend a bit more time and find the right place rather than rushing and ending up with an icky place/wierd roommates!

America is all about the Olympics at the moment. I watched the whole opening ceremony on Friday and I was really impressed! Except for the fact that the SA team marched on just before the USA team so they cut to a commercial here to be ready for the USA team. I've been watching bits and pieces including the mens 100m freestyle relay last night. I was sad America won because it's really funny when they lose! Their commentators get all indignant! They always expect to win (in fact they are worse than the Aussie rugby commentators) but I must admit the relay team were definitely impressive.

The DMV drama continues...

I passed the written portion of my California Drivers license test! This morning I went to the DMV (again) and the line was ridiculous so I was really glad I had an appointment because that meant I got to skip the queue! It didn't mean that I didn't have to wait however - I got to do a fair amount of that inside the DMV. Anyway I eventually wrote my test and passed which is awesome! So now I just need to pass the driving portion which I'm not overly concerned about seeing I've been driving for almost 7 years! (Oops, I'm giving away my age here!). The problem is that I need to make an appointment to do my test and there aren't any available for the next 30 days at any of the 4 DMV offices in San Diego! It's really frustrating. So I basically have to keep on phoning every day to see if anything changes.

I have no new news on the apartment front either - I just need to keep looking there as well.

On a brighter note I've finished posting the pictures from my trip so here are the links.
New York photos
Boston photos

I also got my laptop and hard drive back from Jen (as well as my ipod, jewellery, documents and everything else I didn't want to leave at the apartment with Sarah) so I should have some more pictures from SA and the Rotary International convention up soon.

It's now 2am and I'm off to bed! Marge is back home so I had to wait to use the computer tonight as none of her neighbours are nice enough to have left their wireless connections un-password protected.

Growl! (and some photos finally!)

So today I was very well behaved. Sure I woke up a bit late but then I sat in the sun and studied the silly California Driver's Handbook (which for me means I read through it once). I then went off to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and got there just after 3pm. When I was registering my car I discovered that this is quite a good time to go as the people who've gone on their lunch break have finished and the after work crowd hasn't arrived yet. However, today I discovered that due to budget cuts (thanks a bunch Arnie) you have to have an appointment to go to the DMV after 3pm. So so much for that. instead I stood in line and made an appointment for 9:40am tomorrow morning. What a waste of time! So I went home and started posting pictures of my travels on Facebook.

Here's the link to the 2 albums of Washington DC pictures.
#1 - General Washington Pictures
#2 - Washington Monuments and Memorials

New York and Boston will follow shortly (hopefully tomorrow).

In the meantime here are some pictures from when Nick stayed with me in San Diego. We went to the zoo (where I fell in love with the meerkats) and Seaworld. Seaworld is awesome! It's the first time I'd been to the one here and I really enjoyed it. We were there from about 11am until 10pm and saw all the shows and animals including Shamu (the star Killer Whale). The have some seriously cool animals there including gorgeous sea otters, the only 2 performing pilot whales in the world, beluga whales, walruses (walrusi?), puffins, emperor penguins etc etc. The list just goes on. The shows are really slick and well done and there's a huge variety - we even went to see the pets show where they had trained cats and ducks! It was really cute.

So here are some of the pictures from those excursions. There aren't that many because I didn't feel the need to record every single thing I saw - I only took pics of what interested me.

Seaworld and the Zoo

Chicken, Apartments and Dentists.

I think American farmers must feed their chickens steroids. Seriously, the size of the chicken breasts I grilled for dinner this evening were just plain ridiculous. They could be sliced up and feed a family of four quite easily with enough left over for seconds! Having been here for almost a year now I suppose I should have gotten used to the size of things but as far as I'm concerned it's just not normal!

Aside from that apartment hunting is going ok. It's quite a pain really but I guess it is an evil that must be endured because I'm sure Marge will kick me out sooner or later. Although I haven't managed to kill/permanently disable/damage anything while she's been away. Aside from a box of parmesan crackers which had an unfortunate meeting with the floor and are now both more numerous and smaller than before.

But back to apartments. I've seen 3 so far this week. One was really nice but with utilities was going to end up being too expensive (I'm slowly reconciling myself to the fact that I am a poor student). One was amazing and I would move in there tomorrow if I didn't have to sigh a year lease which is a bit of an issue seeing that I finish my degree in December and I have no clue where I'm going to be after that. I'd quite like to stay in San Diego but that all depends on getting a ... *gulp* ... job! The last place I saw was a bit run down and the carpet was a bit manky but it's the place I could very well end up in as it's definitely in my price range (remembering the poor student bit). So we'll see. I'm going to carry on looking for a while anyway.

Otherwise I still haven't managed to do my California drivers license. That's now tentatively on the cards for tomorrow. Everything's just been taking much longer than anticipated so I'm falling a bit behind schedule. Like today - I volunteered to take my friend Nicky to the dentist because she doesn't have a car. She was supposed to take an hour and a half but it ended up being 3 hours! By which stage the majority of the afternoon had flown by. I couldn't be too grumpy when she was eventually done though because after having a crown and some fillings she definitely had a worse afternoon than me.

A bit of this and a bit of that

I am finished moving! Well, for the next couple of weeks at least. All my stuff is in storage (I've acquired a surprisingly large amount since I've been here) and my room and bathroom are sparkly clean. I even have my deposit back and I got it back with relative ease which is fairly astounding. So now I am happily ensconced at Marge's. In fact the only thing I'm not too happy about is that my friend Jen is up in Santa Barbara so I have no hope of getting my laptop, portable hard drive, GPS or ipod shuffle back for at least another week. The GPS is the most serious of the lot! Have you got any idea how tricky it is to drive around the maze of San Diego freeways without one?

Another thing I'm not too happy about is that I've finished 'Breaking Dawn'. I was very well behaved yesterday and only went out and bought it after all my moving and cleaning were done. Once I got home I didn't put it down until I finished it and as a result I went to bed at some odd hour this morning. It was totally worth it though! 'Breaking Dawn' was excellent! It was on a par with 'Twilight' which is the 1st book (and until yesterday the best book) in the series. But now it's over *sigh*. I'll just have to content myself with reading the books over and over again. Until the Twilight movie comes out that is!

I was even more distraught earlier today when I discovered that the new series of 'Gossip Girl' (a tv show I watch) is not starting until September 1st! I was under the misguided impression that it was starting in the 1st week of August and I was quite excited about it. So now I will have to sit through all the titillating commercials and sneak-peaks for another whole month! It's just not fair.

On a slightly better note - I've finally done some washing so I'll have clean clothes to wear tomorrow and I'm going to look at an apartment tonight so we'll see how that works out.

How to dismantle an atomic bomb

Well - not really. It's more like how to dismantle and ikea desk. I'm very proud of the fact that I managed to take my desk apart! Especially since ikea gives you instructions on how to put it together initially but doing it in reverse sans the instructions is much trickier than it sounds! It was quite a complicated puzzle and took nearly an hour but my perseverance paid off and it's now it pieces on my floor. Which is a very good thing because it's big and heavy and doesn't fit in the lift otherwise. Now I'm just going to have to put it back together which could be interesting!

Aside from that I'm largely moved out! It's taken 2 trips to the storage place, one to Marge's and every box I had but it's almost all done! Then of course I'll have to repeat it in reverse in a few weeks when I find a new place to live but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Tomorrow all that remains is for me to move the big stuff (like my bed etc) and clean (ugh). Then I will be free of my nutty roommate which is an endless exciting thought!

Oh and FYI... I'm officially staying at Marge's now which means I have a computer again! So when the moving is completed I'll get on to sorting out travel pics. That could be minorly delayed however by the release of 'Breaking Dawn' tomorrow - the 4th book in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Actually it's today now! If I wasn't already in my PJ's I'd be tempted to go and see if I could find a 24hr bookstore.

Back in San Diego!

I'm back in San Diego! I flew in this afternoon after getting to the airport in New York very very early this morning! Well it wasn't actually that early it was just quite a while before my flight actually left. But when you consider that last time I went to NY I managed to miss my flight that's probably a good thing.

I'm half asleep and typing this at the moment because it's about 4:30am NY time and I'm still awake, sort of! The reason for this is that I need to move tomorrow. Technically my lease ended today but Sarah hasn't organised a new roomie yet so I have a couple of days grace (that I have to pay for of course). I haven't found a new place yet so I've rented a storage locker for my stuff and am moving it all in there tomorrow and I'm moving in with Marge.

As I'm moving I need boxes to put all my stuff into. In the year I've been here I've accumulated a lot of stuff! If you don't want to pay for boxes (which I don't) then you need to go to the grocery store when they're restocking shelves and they just give them to you. Vons closes at 1am so that means you need to get there around 12:30ish. It's also a great time to go grocery shopping! In fact, I fell asleep on my bed earlier and woke up just after midnight. I contemplated getting up to go and get boxes but that wasn't really enough of a motivator. What did get me out of bed was the thought that if I didn't go to Vons then I wouldn't have any milk for the morning and then I couldn't have cereal. That would have been a tragedy! So now I have milk and boxes and my bed is calling me!

Boston

We left for Boston at 8:30 am on 28 July - so a slightly more reasonable time than our bus trip from Washington to NY! Even so I still slept for most of the way. Nick booked all our bus trips and managed to get them for the exorbitant amount of $1 each! (Yay Megabus and booking early!) Once in Boston we made our way to the hostel and as it was already fairly late by the time we got there we decided against doing anything touristy. So we just went to Mc Dondalds (again) for lunch/supper and later went out to a bar for a couple of drinks where we got to watch all the fanatical Red Sox fans getting all excited!

Yesterday (our only full day in Boston) we decided to do the Freedom Trail which is a historic trail that runs all through Boston and goes past places specific to American Independence and the Civil War (like Paul Revere's house, the Old State house, graves etc ). We were going to do it on our own but when we got to the information centre there was a costumed guide who could take you on a tour so we decided to do that. He was hilarious! And really interesting and he did it all in character. While he was showing us maps of what original Boston looked like I got to be his 'cane holder' while he decided that Nick looked like someone who wouldn't forget the name of a pub (what a good guess) so Nick had to remember the 'Green Dragon' which was a pub where all sorts of meetings were held and plots were hatched etc. We got about half way down the freedom trail with him in the morning and then signed on for his afternoon tour as well. They were both about 2 hours. It was a great way to do the freedom trail! It was really interesting and fun and we learnt a whole lot more American history!

Once we were done we went and had clam chowder for lunch/supper (lupper) at the Union Oyster House - the oldest continually operating restaurant in America. It was really yummy! Then we walked through Boston Common (where Nick went wading through the kiddies frog pond) and Boston Public Gardens (where there were statues of some very cool ducks) and went to find the Cheers Bar! Of course we had a drink there. I had a Cocktail that had something to do with Frasier and I got to keep the glass. I'm still debating whether I'm going to be able to get it back to San Diego in one piece. Then we walked along the Charles river back to our hostel for a well earned sleep.

This morning Nick and I went for a cruise around Boston's inner and outer harbours. It was really pretty! It was also nice to see the city from a different perspective. The commentary was very good (although the old guy sitting next to me kept grumbling about it) so you always knew what you were looking at. I'm glad we got out and did something - Nick was all for just staying at the hostel which I thought was very boring. We cut it a bit fine getting to the bus station for our trip back to NY but everything worked out. On the bus today I did a fair amount of sleeping and then looking out the window as we drove through the NY traffic. I realised that I was a complete and total idiot though - I should just have flown out of Boston instead of bussing back to NY, spending a night here and then flying out tomorrow. Oh well!

Nick is now on his way to Toronto to continue with the next leg of his awesome travelling adventure and I fly back to San Diego tomorrow to look for an apartment and move. What fun. It's been a great two weeks though! I've thoroughly enjoyed myself.

A Day of Culture - the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the theatre

On my last full day in NY I went off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a fairly gloomy day and actually ended up raining a number of times and so it was a perfect day to spend indoors. I was on my own again as I don't think spending the whole day in a museum appealed to Nick in the slightest! Plus I was up too early for him (again!)

The Met is Amazing! Incredible! Wonderful! Splendiferous! Awe-inspiring! *insert more adjectives here* etc etc. For starters it's huge. I could have spent at least 2 whole days there because I didn't even get to see half of the exhibits that I wanted to. My guidebook mentioned a couple of things to see in the Met and one of them was the Met's collection of Tiffany glass so I wondered through the Egyptian section to see that. As well as a variety of mummies, statues and other relics they have an entire Egyptian Temple - the Temple of Dendur! Unfortunately most of the American wing was closed for renovations so I didn't get to see all of the Tiffany glass. So instead I went off to see one of the special exhibitions on superheroes of all things! It was called Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy. (The link goes to the museum's page on the exhibition). They had the original costumes worn in some of the movies on display as well as example of haute couture and fashion that have been inspired by them. It was very cool!

Then I went up to see the collection of impressionist paintings and spent ages there! They have the most enormous collection of Monets! I discovered that in his later life he was rather prolific and created these series of paintings with the same subject but different lighting/emphasis. Apparently there are multiple versions of waterlillies. I also saw Renoir, Van Gogh and Georges Seurat (sp?). The Met has a very impressive collection. I've also discovered that I quite like Pissaro too. In an adjoining gallery they had a very large collection of Rhodin's sculptures which I decided I quite liked.


After my impressionist immersion it was definitely time for a bit of a break and some lunch while I gave by feet a rest! Afterwards I went to see Korean, Chinese and Japanese art. One of the things I liked the most was the recreation the interior and garden of what a Chinese Scholars house would have looked like. It was such a pleasant surprise to stumble upon something like that after looking at lots and lots of art and objects! Then I went to find the 2 Dali paintings that they had on display. They were odd! To put it mildly. I know Dali is normally odd but these were extra odd! I also went and saw the armour and weapons exhibit which was very cool. They had all sorts and styles of armour as well as pretty swords and other exciting things.

At the end of the afternoon I stumbled upon a special exhibit on Pietre Dure which was awesome! It was definitely the highlight of my day. (Click the link to go to the Museum's page on the exhibit and look at the pretty pictures!) Pietre Dure essentially involves making pictures and designs using precisely cut pieces of different coloured marbles and semi-precious stones, almost like a mosaic. It's unbelievably intricate and beautiful. The designs are then inlaid into tables, cabinets or anything you can think of! I was still looking at all the beautiful objects when the museum closed and they herded us all out.

On my way home I decided to go past the TKTS booth (they sell half price seats for some of the shows the day of) in Times square to see if they had any tickets for shows that evening. Luckily they did so I went to see Spamalot! It was hilarious! I was constantly laughing. It's a rip off off Monty Python's the Holy Grail which is a rip off of King Arthur and Camelot so it was quite crazy at times. But very very clever.

A day of queuing in New York...

Today Nick and I split up. He wanted to go to the Empire State building (and I was not standing in those queues again!) among other places while I wanted to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (he was quite happy to see them from the free Staten Island ferry).

It was Saturday and they were doing work on some of the sections of the subway lines so it took forever to get down to South Ferry. By the time I eventually got there I was much later than I wanted to be but the queues for tickets weren’t that bad so I was quite relieved. I became a bit more concerned when they announced that there were no more tickets left for getting into the statue of Liberty museum then I went to stand in the line for the actual ferry and I realized why! It was one of the longest lines I’ve ever seen. It took us an hour and a half before we got to go through security and board the ferry. Craziness! Coincidentally the lady standing behind me in the line was originally from South Africa although she’s lived in the USA for the past 20 years.

Eventually we headed off for Liberty Island. Lady Liberty is really impressive up close – she’s huge! In some ways I was really glad I couldn’t go into the museum – the line for that on the island was also nuts! So I was quite happy to admire the statue, read about her history and construction, admire the views of Manhattan and then head off to Ellis Island.

Ellis Island is where the majority of immigrants to the USA were processed before being allowed in. They've restored it and turned it into a museum where you can see the long and fairly arduous process that people had to go through before being admitted to the US. It was all very interesting although I think it's probably more relevant and moving for Americans with immigrant ancestors. What I found very interesting was the fac that they said this was the largest human migration ever in History!

I then had to queue again to get a ferry back to NY and by this stage I was exhausted! Everything had also taken much longer than I had anticipated (it was already 5pm) and I was sick of standing in queues so I just went back to the hostel and had a quiet night in reading Shantaram (by Gregory David Roberts - I highly recommend it if you haven't read it)

Day 2 in NY!

Nick is a pain in the butt to get out of bed in the morning if he doesn’t want to wake up! This was one of those mornings. Eventually we got going and went off to the Cathedral of St John the Divine. I think it's America's largest Gothic Cathedral or something along those lines. Whatever it is, it was very impressive! It’s huge and there are such beautiful stained glass windows. It looks like it belongs in Europe to be perfectly honest – not on the upper west side of NY! We couldn't see the whole thing because they had a fire in 2001 and half the cathedral was shut off because they were replacing the organ. So next time I go to NY I’m definitely going to have a look at it again. Unfortunately when I got there I realised that I didn't have my camera battery so I couldn’t take any pictures which was quite irritating! I was not about to spend the whole day sightseeing without my camera so we went back to the hostel to fetch it before carrying on to Central Park.

Central Park is huge and very confusing. I wasn’t always sure where we were even though I had a map. Inside the park the first thing we went to see was the Strawberry Fields which is the John Lennon Memorial. There’s a very pretty garden around it and in the middle of the walkway is a mosaic with the word ‘Imagine’ in it. Someone had decorated it with flowers and petals. I’m not sure if it’s always like that but it looked really pretty. We then wondered down through the park to the classic carousel to have a look and then got lost on our way to the mall which is the main, tree-lined walkway through the park.

On the advice of my guidebook we headed off to Barney Greengrass the Sturgeon King for smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels which were divine. In true American style they were definitely not stingy with the salmon either. He (or his father or whoever owned the store before him) is credited with creating the smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel. I think he deserves a culinary Oscar – it’s a fabulous invention!

We then headed off to Central Park again to see another section of it (I said it was huge!). First stop was Belvedere Castle. I’m not to sure why it’s in the middle of the park but you got a really good view from it! Plus I call Andrew (my brother) Belvedere sometimes so I decided I had to have a look. On our way down to the road there was an old guy on a bench who was also feeding the squirrels. After last time I decided against that idea and just settled for watching them instead. There’s a really cool statue of Alice in Wonderland in Central park as well as one of Hans Christian Anderson. They were both by a pretty pond that people were sailing little remote control sailing boats on – very picturesque! By the Alice in Wonderland statue there was a group of Jazz musicians who were really good! They had pulled in quite a crowd so we stayed and listened to them for a while.

Central Park is bordered by 5th Avenue on one side so we strolled down there and had a look at all the fancy apartments and expensive shops! The only one we bought stuff in was the Lindt store and they also give you a free sample when you walk in! I dragged Nick into the Ferragamo store to have a look. I think some of the prices shocked him! He said that the handbags price tags should have SQ on them!

Our last stop for the day was Times Square where we watched the Dark Knight in the most ridiculously huge cinema complex. I thought it was fantastic! The audience was entertaining too – cheering during certain parts of the movie and then clapping at the end. After the movie we headed out into the chaos that is Times Square at night so Nick could take some pictures. I was very glad when we got out of there and onto the train back to the hostel.

Thoughts on Hostels... particularly the NY one!

The reason I haven’t posted much on NY yet is that the silly hostel we were staying at in NY only had one computer! Needless to say it was difficult enough to get time on it to check my email let alone find the time required to update my blog. So I didn’t. Now we’re in Boston and back in a Hostelling International hostel so there are way more computers! Hostelling International may be more expensive than the independent hostels but at least you know what you’re getting – there seems to be a reasonable standard.


That said you really can’t beat $27 per night for a bed in NY so I wont complain too much. Even though the phrase ‘not enough room to swing a cat’ instantly comes to mind. The bathrooms were seriously tiny. For example, if you wanted to get out of the toilet stall and go to the sink you actually had to walk out the door into the corridor because there wasn’t enough room to get round the toilet door with the door to the bathroom closed. It was an experience! Keep in mind that these were shared bathrooms – one female one for the whole floor! You could fit a max of 2 people in there at one time.

Our Hostel in NY was in Harlem. It was called the 5th Ave Spot which sounded promising until you realise that 5th ave goes all the way up Manhattan Island! It’s definitely and ‘interesting’ part of NY! It’s older and the part we were in was definitely quite run down but everyone was really friendly especially the lady in Starbucks (I was suffering from tea withdrawal). Last time I posted I mentioned that Nick and I were going out for proper NY pizza. Well the one place that my guide book suggested was not far from us in Harlem so we headed off there. It was quite funny! I think Nick was way more nervous than I was walking there and back. We got some odd looks from people because we were definitely out of place there but it was 6pm and light and not too bad! I felt much safer there than I do walking around town in Durban.

The restaurant was very unpretentious to put it mildly! There were plastic cups and plates (metal cutlery though) and paper on top of the tablecloths. When we walked in we could tell it would be good though because the clientele were definitely not your Harlem locals! And it was - the pizza was awesome! It was huge (16”) but with a very thin base. They served it on the metal trays it was baked on and when it arrived it was piping hot. I just had a basic Margarita with garlic and fresh basil and I can honestly say it was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had.

And in case you were wondering – no I didn’t finish it!

New York, New York!

Last night when we left the hostel it was raining! So by the time we got to the bus stop both Nick and I were rather wet - and wearing white t-shirts! The bus ride was ok -not the most comfortable trip ever but at least I had 2 seats to myself. We were both asleep when we arrived in NY this morning at 5am so the bus driver had to come and wake us up! The rest of the bus was deserted.

We went straight through to our hostel which is in Harlem on 5th Ave... it's an interesting neighbourhood! Initially they couldn't find our reservation which was annoying. We ended up waiting for ages for them to get sorted out which they eventually did (after about 45mins). We weren't in as bad a position as another poor guy who was there though - he came in when we did only to find there was someone sleeping in his bed! Then the next bed they gave him also had someone sleeping in it. Eventually we were checked in and there was no one sleeping in our room so we got to go up (even though we were technically only supposed to check in at 1pm). I was soooo happy! I promptly went to sleep for the next 2.5 hours and woke up feeling much better.

Today Nick wanted to 'get a feel for the city' so we went wondering around. Our first stop was Times Square (which was a bit tricky to find - I was having issues orientating myself!). We then wet off to find Ground Zero. There's just this huge space left in the middle of the city which is quite wierd. It's all a massive construction site now - the posters say the new tower will be finished by 2012. We then walked down to Wall St and the NYSE. I'm still amazed how tiny Wall Street actually is! I've always pictured it as much bigger and grander. We got half way down Wall St when I decided I wanted to find the bull. I've always thought it was on Wall St and that I'd missed it! But we got directions from a friendly dude in a shoe repair store and he pointed us in the right direction. Around the bull was tourist central - everyone was taking pictures with it!

On the way to catch the subway Nick had proper NY hotdogs for lunch which he said were excellent! We caught the subway to Brooklyn and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge which was so pretty! I figured it makes far more sense to walk across the bridge looking at Manhattan than the other way around. After our stroll across the bridge we had come to the end of my 'plan' so we sat in a park and regrouped and worked out what to do next. Nick wanted to see the Flatiron building so we went to find that and then had a look at Grand Central Station which is awesome!

That completed our 'getting a feel for the city'. Now Nick and I need to sit down and work out what he wants to do that I don't (like waiting in the line for the Empire State building again), what I want to do that he doesn't (like museums...) and what we both want to do. Then I think we're going to go and have some proper NY pizza later tonight.

Washington day 4

This morning we had to pack and check out before we could go so we nearly ended up missing the walking tour of the DC Monuments that the hostel arranges (for free!!). Luckily we caught up with them just down the road from the hostel. The guide was awesome - he was super knowledgeable and full of interesting facts but wow - he walked fast! I like staying near the front of a tour group so when I turned around a couple of times all I could see was this long line of people strung out behind me!

The major stops (not including the random statues and buildings) were the White House (Washington was the only President not to live in it), the Washington monument (which you can actually go up in), the Jefferson Memorial (which was designed to resemble the Pantheon), the FDR memorial (more later...), the Lincoln Memorial (modelled on the Parthenon), the Korean War Memorial (one of the most interesting) and the Vietnam Memorial (which has the names of all 58000 people who died in Vietnam. Our guide was a Vietnam veteran). Our guide spoke a lot about all the men and what they did. I particularly liked the FDR memorial and I was really impressed with everything he accomplished that is until I learned that he was the one who denied Jews entrance to America in WWII.

After the tour my feet were dying (again) so we parked off on a bench in the park area between the memorials and watched the world go by. There were lots of squirrels around us and our guide had mentioned that they were really tame and would eat out of your hand. So off I went to buy something to feed the squirrels with (trail mix). I was feeding them peanuts and they were really cute until one of them grabbed the peanut and then bit my finger - hard! So I was bleeding all over the show and Nick was shaking his head with an 'I-told-you-so' expression on his face. I maintain that it's not my fault my finger looked like a peanut and the squirrels were really cute!

After getting that little situation under control we headed off for the WWII memorial and just relaxed with our feet in the fountain. I figured we weren't doing anything wrong because the sign said no coins and no wading but nothing about feet! We then headed off to the Holocaust Museum which was excellent. I think Nick got a bit bored because he disappeared ahead of me and I found him waiting on the steps at the end for me looking a little exasperated. But really! What did he expect? - I wasn't about to motor through a place like that. I really liked that it focused on so many of the facts and told the whole story as well as showing elements of the horror - like piles of shoes from Aushwitz and photos of all the human hair that was shaved off before they sent people to the ovens and then sold (gross!)

We're leaving for NY at 11pm tonight and arrive at some ungodly hour in the very early morning.

Day 3 in Washington DC

Please note that my title rhymes! I'm a poet who didn't even know it :-D

Yesterday morning we got up bright and early and made our way over to Mount Vernon - the home of George Washington. We nearly didn't get there quite so bright and early because I forgot that day passes could only be used after 9:30am. Considering we were at the Metro station at 8:30am that was a bit of an issue! Nick was just going to wait until 9:30 but I got over this idea quite quickly and just bought a 1-way ticket for both of us.

At Mount Vernon we watched an introductory video on Mount Vernon and George Washington. Considering that I knew almost absolutely nothing about him before yesterday I was a bit confused during it but I got the general idea! We then went up to have a look at his house which is beautiful and has an awesome view! We had to go on a bit of a round about route because there was quite a storm while we were watching the video and apparently some trees had come down on the normal path. I found this really odd because it was sunny when we went in! After eavesdropping on the National Treasure tour (Mount Vernon's where the President's birthday party was filmed in the second movie. We didn't do the tour because Nick hasn't seen it) we wandered down past the stables to the wharf on the Potomac River and then up to his tomb. What was more impressive was the memorial to all the slaves that are buried on the property. I really liked the museum and education centre because it told you all about the life of Washington in exhibits and short films. They even had his dentures on display! I was impressed that he set his slaves free in his will but hearing the thoughts of descendants of his slaves makes you think about why he didn't do it during his lifetime and why he never fought for the abolition of slavery.

We spent a good part of the day at Mount Vernon and on the Metro on the way back to DC Nick decided that he'd done enough for the day and went off for beers with a Swiss guy, Sam, who we'd met at the hostel. I went off to the National Gallery of Art which was awesome! I saw the only Da Vinci that's in the Western Hemisphere (it's double sided which I found odd) but the highlight was definitely the Impressionists section. There were five Van Gogh's on display including his self portrait. My favourite was one called 'white roses'. They also had an awesome collection of Monet's and I have found a new appreciation for Renoir. The Gallery only had one Dali on display so I went off and found that. It's one I hadn't seen any mention of before (it was called the Crucifixion I think).

The Gallery closed at 5pm so then I went off to the Art and Space museum (which closes at 7:30) to see the rest of the exhibits that I had missed the day before. I'm really glad I did! My favourite exhibit was definitely the exhibit on the Wrights and how they solved the problem of flight - it was fascinating! It was also very cool to see the first plane ever and I was surprised to see how insubstantial it actually was.

I got back to the hostel fairly exhausted but felt revived after my shower so Nick and I decided to go for a walk to see all the monuments lit up at night. It's so nice to be able to walk around a city in the dark and not have to worry. We saw the Washington monument although to be perfectly honest it's quite hard to miss, the Jefferson memorial which was quite spectacular all lit up, the WWII memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. By this stage I was totally finished so we caught a taxi home - the best $12 I spent all day!

I'm in Washington DC!

I know my blogging has been terribly slack as of late but my new-school-year-back-in-San-Diego resolution is to keep it more up to date. So here goes!

At the moment I'm travelling with Nick Westbrook - a friend of mine from SA who now lives in New Zealand (and owns an All Black's shirt - the traitor!). He stayed with me in San Diego for a few days and now we're in Washington DC. I have to add the 'DC' bit because Washington's a state too all the way over on the west coast and if you just say 'Washington' then Americans assume you're talking about the state not the city. We're also going to New York and Boston!

We arrived in Washington bright and early (at about 6am) but then only got into the city a bit later because we had to wait for the bus which only starts at 8am on Sundays. Washington is revoltingly hot. It's humid and sticky and walking around Arlington yesterday I thought I was going to die! literally. We went to the tomb of the unknown soldier which is really impressive - we saw the changing of the watch. Then went to the Kennedy's graves. Nick then wanted to see the Iwo Jima memorial but I passed. I just couldn't handle the heat. Before Arlington we went to the Pentagon which was totally boring. It's just a building with lots of security. We couldn't even take pics of the 911 memorial because there was a security guard arresting some other tourists for taking pictures.

By that stage I was exhausted. I blame it on a lack of sleep and food and extreme heat! All I wanted to do was go back to the hostel and shower! Thankfully that's what we did. I felt soo good afterwards. Later in the evening we met up with Nick's friend, David, from SA at an Irish pub in Chinatown... go figure! It was fun though! As we were leaving I couldn't believe my eyes - across the street there was a Nando's! In Washington! I have pictures to prove it but will have to add them later when I can upload them.

Today was another busy day. We left late because Nick was being lazy this morning so we got going at about 10:30. Thankfully it didn't seem as hot as yesterday although it was still really hot and humid! We went up the tower in the old Post building first and got some very cool views of Washington. Then we went off to the Air and Space Museum. I really liked it! There were so many interesting exhibits. The hostel has a file of things to do in the area and they recommended the museum and the show 'Cosmic Collisions' in the Einstein planetarium there. It was absolutely fascinating! They showed a theory on how the moon was formed (a big meteorite smashes into a young earth and all the matter that's dislodged orbits the earth until it coalesces to form the moon!), how the dinosaurs were wiped out, the predicted future of the Milky Way (combining with Andromeda to form an even bigger galaxy) etc. It was also really good to sit down for a while! Afterwards we went back and looked at some more of the exhibits but then Nick decided he was over the Museum so we went and got some McDonalds for lunch and then went walking!

First stop was Capitol Hill and the Capitol - very impressive - followed by the Supreme Court (which let us in to have a look). There were some protesters outside. We're still not too sure what they were protesting but they all had red tape over their mouths with the word 'life' on it. We the walked back down the National Mall to the National Archives. We queued to get in but it moved fairly quickly so it wasn't so bad. Then we had to queue to see the Declaration of Independence in the Rotunda and that took forever! But at least it was airconditioned. The Rotunda houses the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Constitution is in really good condition and still looks very impressive but the Declaration and Bill of Rights are both so faded from being displayed over the years that there's hardly anything to see! I asked the one security guard if what was in 'National Treasure' was true and the Declaration of Independence gets lowered into a vault below the Rotunda each night but my answer was 'I don't know nothing about no National Treasure' which was really funny! She obviously was avoiding the question entirely. Then we walked along to see Georgie's house. I was not impressed! The Americans are so paranoid about security that you can only see it from really far away and you have to look across the gardens so you only see the centre section. Buckingham Palace is much cooler!

On our way home we stopped for some dinner at... McDonalds - again! It's quite a record for me. I think I've only eaten McDonalds twice the whole time I've been in San Diego and now it was twice in one day! But it was cheap :-) While we were eating we saw a secret service motorcade go past then when we were walking back they were all parked just down the street on the corner by a restaurant. I'm not too sure who the dude was who was being escourted but he must have been pretty important! He cracked 2 police cars and 4 secret service SUV's and then there were 2 normal black sedans. So we stopped and took pictures of course!

It was sooo good to get back to the hostel - my feet were officially dead by that stage. Tomorrow I think we're going to see Mount Vernon (George Washinton's home) and then museums in the afternoon. I want to go back to the Air and Space Museum and then I just discovered that the National Gallery of Art has a couple of Van Gogh's so I want to see those too!

Craziness!

The craziest thing happened this evening. Sarah and I were in our bathrooms getting ready to head out to PB at about 5pm when we heard this giant crash! We ran through to the living room and our glass sliding door was in pieces and there was a couch in the middle of it! Oh, and we live on the 3rd floor. The stupid boys who live on the floor above us were moving out and decided it would be a good idea to lower the couch over the balcony. The only issue was that once it cleared their balcony it swung into ours. What's freakier is that Sarah's desk is right by the door and she was there 2 mins earlier. If she'd still been there she would probably have been killed. She was really freaked out. Silly boys!

So that was my great excitement/story for the day. I'm off to Camp Pendleton (a big US Marine Corps base) tomorrow evening to give a presentation at their Rotary Club. I'm so not looking forward to the San Diego rush hour traffic!

An unexpected hello

I'm currently in Charlotte, North Carolina waiting for my new flight to Nashville. It's Spring Break so I'm going to visit my friend Lisa Glenn for the week. Lisa was a Rotary Ambassadorial scholar to SA last year and she and I met at our orientation in Cape Town and later came up to the Berg for a weekend with us.

So why am I writing to you from Charlotte airport.... how's this for an explanation? We stopped in Dallas, Texas in the middle of the night for a medical emergency! There was a 17 year old girl who was having inner ear problems. I'm not too sure what or why but it must have been serious because there was only about 2hrs left of the flight. Right at the beginning of the flight they paged for any doctors on board and then again a bit later for medicines. Anyway, paramedics came on board and took her off I guess. Then we had to wait on the runway for ages (prob an hour tot) for fuel because Dallas is not a 24 hour airport so it was dead! Ok, it was also 3am or so which probably helped! We then landed just as my connecting flight to Nashville was leaving so I missed that and was a bit stressed. But the yanks are super organised! - as we came off the plane there were ticketing agents waiting for us with new boarding passes for a later flight so my flight now leaves at 9:30 ish. I had about an hour and a half or so to kill so I'm in the Business centre using one of their computers. Luckily I also managed to get hold of Lisa before she left her house so she didn't have to wait for me.

At this stage the Spring Break itinerary involves driving to Gatlinberg which is in the Smokey Mountains when I get to Tennessee and then later in the week spending some time with Lisa's parents who live about 45mins outside of Nashville. It's definitely not your typical Spring Break. Normally that involves lying on a beach somewhere during the day and then partying all night! I'm really looking forward to it though! I'll post more details and pics when I'm home again.

By the way... I just saw the dat and I assure you that this is not an April fool's hoax!