Thursday, September 13, 2007
Endlessly Amusing
On the ground floor of the building which houses the Economics Department at SDSU is an office that I walk past on most days. The bumper stickers and cartoons on the door never fail to amuse me so I decided to share some of them. I am the quintessential tourist - I always have my camera on me!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Rotary and the UN
I just found a bit more on the relationship between Rotary and the UN so decided to add it because I thought it was interesting. I had no clue there was any involvement between the two or that Rotary was involved with such big important entities... if you don't think it's interesting, please feel free to skip it - I promise I wont be offended :-)
"Rotary International's relationship with the United Nations dates back to 1945, when 49 Rotarians were members of the 29 delegations to the UN Charter Conference in San Francisco, California, USA. During the UN's first decade, Rotary actively participated in UN sessions by sending observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications.
"Rotary International's relationship with the United Nations dates back to 1945, when 49 Rotarians were members of the 29 delegations to the UN Charter Conference in San Francisco, California, USA. During the UN's first decade, Rotary actively participated in UN sessions by sending observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications.
In addition, Rotary has maintained relations with the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) — a principle organ of the United Nations that oversees many specialized UN agencies, commissions, and other bodies — since ECOSOC’s founding in 1945. Rotary currently holds the highest consultative status offered to a nongovernmental organization (NGO) by ECOSOC. This status is granted only to large, established international NGOs with a broad geographical reach whose area of work covers most of the issues on the agenda of ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies.
Rotary also has a special historical relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In fact, it was a 1943 London Rotary conference on international cultural and educational exchanges that provided a key impetus to establish UNESCO.
Rotary currently maintains and furthers its relationship with a number of UN bodies, programs, commissions, and agencies through Rotary's Representative Network."New York!
I'm going to New York! I've been invited to go to Rotary day at the UN by the San Diego Rotary District Governor! It's just for a weekend though from 2-4 November. The exact details have yet to be arranged (like flights, where I'm staying etc) but I will keep you posted. I copied this from the Rotary website - it just tells you a bit more about the day...
"Rotarians and their guests are invited to attend Rotary Day at the United Nations on 3 November in New York City.
The meeting, scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at UN Headquarters, will include presentations and panel discussions addressing key humanitarian issues such as water, health, literacy, and hunger.
Under the theme Rotary and the United Nations: Sharing, United Nations officials, representatives from key nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and Rotary International leaders will all address the group.The event is sponsored by the Rotary International representatives to the United Nations in New York."
How cool is that? The meeting is in the UN council chamber so if you get there early enough you can sit with 'Brazil' or something like that on the desk in front of you ie where the Brazilian rep to the UN would normally sit. The NGO's include all sorts of high profile organisations like the World Bank, WHO etc. As the Governor of out Rotary District put it - you literally have one Keynote speaker after the other. It's going to be so cool! I'm really excited.
Taco Bell and Starbucks
I've decided that it's easier to write more short blog posts more often because at the moment I'm sitting with the thought that I haven't written for over a week and now I don't know where to begin because there's so much I can write about. But as usual I have no intention of starting at any logical point. I should also probably let you know that at the moment I'm technically doing my 'office hours' which are the times that we have to set aside as Graduate Assistants so that students can come and ask us for help if they want. Seeing that the class I'm a GA for has no work due for the foreseeable future there's no one here. So I'm sitting on the computer (which has a very blurry screen) instead.
I've just had Taco Bell for the first time. Taco Bell is apparently one of those American fast food 'institutions' like Mc Donalds or Starbucks. We have a Taco Bell Express on campus which sells a limited variety of Americanised Mexican food. Now I have an issue with Mexican food in that I don't eat chilli, red meat or beans (except green beans) which are pretty much the base ingredeients of all Mexican food! Before you ask - Yes, I am fully aware of how fussy I sound and I'm ok with it. I did however manage to find something to eat and had Rancho chicken tacos. At least I think that's what they were called. They were basically taco shells stuffed with slightly spicy chicken pieces, lettuce, cheese and salsa and they were very yum!
I think everyone at the table with me had hysterics when I tried to eat them though. (That was after they'd died with laughter when I wasn't sure what a Taco was in the first place - I was getting them confused with natchos). They come all wrapped up and I managed to unwrap my first taco in such a way that half the contents fell out. The second one was better but not by much! Then a taco shell is hard - like Frito's chips really so when you bite it it goes crunch and falls apart. Well mine did anyway. My ecos friends managed to eat theirs quite elegantly. I think I need some lessons.
Starbucks is another American fast food place that totally confuses me. There are at least 3 on the campus and very possibly more! I walk past one on my way to my classes every day and it always smells so good. Ordering from them is another story - the menu is long to start with what with coffees, coffee alternatives, frappacinos, iced teas and more. Then you can add flavoured syrups to your coffee/tea, have it made with non-fat milk, have cream on it or not and a whole lot of other options! It shouldn't be too much of a problem for me seeing as I don't drink coffee anyway so I could just avoid it all together but then I taste other people's drinks that are really nice! Like today, I tasted a green tea frappacino which tasted like a milkshake and looked like guacamole in a glass. It was really good but I have no clue if that was a standard menu item or not. The other day I had a raspberry mocha which was definitely not on the menu but was also really nice. I think there should be a book - 'Starbucks for Dummies: your guide to ordering at Starbucks'. Then I wouldn't have to feel like such an idiot every time someone asks if I want to go get some Starbucks.
I've just had Taco Bell for the first time. Taco Bell is apparently one of those American fast food 'institutions' like Mc Donalds or Starbucks. We have a Taco Bell Express on campus which sells a limited variety of Americanised Mexican food. Now I have an issue with Mexican food in that I don't eat chilli, red meat or beans (except green beans) which are pretty much the base ingredeients of all Mexican food! Before you ask - Yes, I am fully aware of how fussy I sound and I'm ok with it. I did however manage to find something to eat and had Rancho chicken tacos. At least I think that's what they were called. They were basically taco shells stuffed with slightly spicy chicken pieces, lettuce, cheese and salsa and they were very yum!
I think everyone at the table with me had hysterics when I tried to eat them though. (That was after they'd died with laughter when I wasn't sure what a Taco was in the first place - I was getting them confused with natchos). They come all wrapped up and I managed to unwrap my first taco in such a way that half the contents fell out. The second one was better but not by much! Then a taco shell is hard - like Frito's chips really so when you bite it it goes crunch and falls apart. Well mine did anyway. My ecos friends managed to eat theirs quite elegantly. I think I need some lessons.
Starbucks is another American fast food place that totally confuses me. There are at least 3 on the campus and very possibly more! I walk past one on my way to my classes every day and it always smells so good. Ordering from them is another story - the menu is long to start with what with coffees, coffee alternatives, frappacinos, iced teas and more. Then you can add flavoured syrups to your coffee/tea, have it made with non-fat milk, have cream on it or not and a whole lot of other options! It shouldn't be too much of a problem for me seeing as I don't drink coffee anyway so I could just avoid it all together but then I taste other people's drinks that are really nice! Like today, I tasted a green tea frappacino which tasted like a milkshake and looked like guacamole in a glass. It was really good but I have no clue if that was a standard menu item or not. The other day I had a raspberry mocha which was definitely not on the menu but was also really nice. I think there should be a book - 'Starbucks for Dummies: your guide to ordering at Starbucks'. Then I wouldn't have to feel like such an idiot every time someone asks if I want to go get some Starbucks.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Lucky Packet
So this is just an assortment of random events/things that have amused me but I forgot to add into my other posts....
I went grocery shopping yesterday. It's the easiest way to entertain me at the moment. There's just such a huge variety of food and so much prepackaged stuff. Anyway, I was in the (enormous) fresh fruit and veg section when I heard thunder. I thought I was dreaming! Then I noticed that the light on top of the one open fridge thing of fresh veges was flashing. The next thing this Dad calls his two little girls and says "Girls - come quick, its going to rain!" And sure enough it did. Mini sprinklers between the vegetables started spraying out a fine mist of water (and all the while the thunder continued). I have never seen anything quite as entertaining in a supermarket before! Why that section of vegetables was special and deserved to be watered while the one right next to it did not - I have no idea!
Earlier this week Sarah and I went shopping for the final things we needed for our apartment - like everything you need in a kitchen! The basic idea when I moved in was that I only needed to get stuff for my bedroom - she said she had everything else. Then she discovered she'd left all her kitchen stuff at her ex-boyfriend's and hence the reason for the shopping trip. I'd already moved into my room and discovered that I had more space than anticipated to decided that I wanted to get a chair for the corner by the window. We were in Target (the most amazing store that literally sells everything! And it's cheap - just not as cheap as Walmart) and I saw a chair that looked really cool. The easiest way to describe it is as a half sphere on a metal frame. It was on special and looked comfy but there wasn't one set out that you could try (the whole chair folds up into a carry bag). So Sarah and I decided that it was rather daft to buy a chair you hadn't even sat in so we unpacked the chair and set it up in the isle in the store!
The good news is that the chair is really comfy and now resides in the corner of my room.
I went grocery shopping yesterday. It's the easiest way to entertain me at the moment. There's just such a huge variety of food and so much prepackaged stuff. Anyway, I was in the (enormous) fresh fruit and veg section when I heard thunder. I thought I was dreaming! Then I noticed that the light on top of the one open fridge thing of fresh veges was flashing. The next thing this Dad calls his two little girls and says "Girls - come quick, its going to rain!" And sure enough it did. Mini sprinklers between the vegetables started spraying out a fine mist of water (and all the while the thunder continued). I have never seen anything quite as entertaining in a supermarket before! Why that section of vegetables was special and deserved to be watered while the one right next to it did not - I have no idea!
Earlier this week Sarah and I went shopping for the final things we needed for our apartment - like everything you need in a kitchen! The basic idea when I moved in was that I only needed to get stuff for my bedroom - she said she had everything else. Then she discovered she'd left all her kitchen stuff at her ex-boyfriend's and hence the reason for the shopping trip. I'd already moved into my room and discovered that I had more space than anticipated to decided that I wanted to get a chair for the corner by the window. We were in Target (the most amazing store that literally sells everything! And it's cheap - just not as cheap as Walmart) and I saw a chair that looked really cool. The easiest way to describe it is as a half sphere on a metal frame. It was on special and looked comfy but there wasn't one set out that you could try (the whole chair folds up into a carry bag). So Sarah and I decided that it was rather daft to buy a chair you hadn't even sat in so we unpacked the chair and set it up in the isle in the store!
The good news is that the chair is really comfy and now resides in the corner of my room.
Life, the University and Everything
Apologies to Douglas Adams but I thought it was funny :-)
I've been meaning to write about the University for the past few days but haven't managed to get round to it. So seeing as today is a public holiday and I've got nothing better to do (besides some varsity work maybe) and I'm glued to my fan because it's so freakishly hot here, (think Durban weather in mid-summer when it's just hot and humid and gross) it seems like an ideal opportunity to tell you about it.
San Diego State University is huge! There are about 35000 students on the campus. It's by far the biggest university in San Diego and one of the biggest in the Western part of the USA (according to the SDSU website). There are just so many people on campus every day (except Fridays - it appears that the American College student's weekend begins on a Thursday evening). I also never get there that early as all my classes are in the afternoon so I haven't even seen peak times at the campus yet. Apparently it gets so bad that the university has 'congestion plans' in place for the roads around the campus.
The campus is rather enormous - check out the campus map if you don't believe me! All my classes are on the side closest to where I live so there's not too much walking involved every day. Although the other day I had to trek all the way over to the other side of campus to a copy centre by the residences. Ok - I'm being a wuss, the walk itself is not too bad but doing it at midday on a revoltingly hot day maybe wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had. The campus is really pretty - I walked around like a total tourist the other day taking some pictures for your viewing pleasure.
This is one of the oldest parts of the campus - it's the part you see on the university logo. There's a tower hidden by the palm trees on the left (palm trees grow so big here!) and I'm not sure if the bells I hear are from that tower or the little bells you can see in the picture (vaguely) above the arch.
The dome on the left is the entrance to the Love Library although the library itself is the white building you can see a bit of on the right of the picture. The library is amazing! It's enormous (and air conditioned - yay!). It also houses the student computing centre which has about 600 machines for you to use at any time I think.
I was went exploring the library one day when I had some time to kill and in one of the passages there was this guy sleeping! In the middle of the day! I was quite surprised until I went round the corner and saw lots of students sleeping or otherwise parking off on the chairs. Being a student is apparently very tiring - I should know I suppose, I used to have frequent afternoon naps.
The campus is huge! It literally goes on for as far as the eye can see in this picture!
The pretty pedestrian bridge which goes over on of the busy streets in the area from the campus to the main section of residence halls (which you can see on the right of the picture).
So that would conclude the 'mini campus tour'. I could put a whole lot more pics up but as far as I'm concerned pictures of buildings are generally boring. But let me know if you disagree and we'll see what we can do.
Now onto the reason I go to university (supposedly) - my courses (or classes as they are called here). I'm taking four classes at the moment, 3 are required and then one elective. Microeconomics looks quite interesting, it doesn't look too hectic at the moment which is a really good thing given my shocking lecturer last year! It does look quite mathematical but that should be ok. Econometrics, I'm sad to say, looks deathly boring. I think I've done pretty much everything before. The wierd thing is that we have theoretical classes (2 per week) and then our pracs are run by a completely different lecturer. So I think the course may be largely theory. I'm not too sure how that's going to work? So I might have to put in a fair amount of work after all. During the Econometrics Lab (as pracs are called here) we're learning SAS which I've never used before so that should be interesting.
Then my elective is international trade. I was a bit worried about this as I've never done any international economics courses before but it looks great. We're looking at trade purely from a microeconomics perspective. Undergrad students are allowed to take this course too so we have a really big class! Classes here have a size restriction - in the case of international trade, only 35 people are allowed to register. Unfortunately the class was already full when I registered so I spoke to the graduate advisor and she said not to worry, that as I was a graduate student in the economics program I would be allowed to 'crash' the course. I think that term is so funny! Essentially hat you do is you go to the class and ask the lecturer for an 'add code' which then lets you register for the class. So crashing isn't as exciting as it sounds.
I got a job! Yay! In the Economics department as a graduate assistant. So now I get to spend even more time on campus. I'm helping one of the lecturers who teaches micro 101 but in a class of 500! So we have to go to the lectures and help and will also have 2 hours of consultation times during the week. Then the big thing is helping 'grade' exams. They don't have tests here - I nearly died when they said I had 3 exams for some of my classes! But essentially they're 2 midterm tests in the lesson period (so just an hour or so) and then one 2hr exam as I know them at the end of the semester. So I'm employed for a total of 10 hours a week . Not sure what the rate of pay is but any extra spending money helps! Now I need to fill in forms and get a social security number etc - what fun, I love paperwork.
The only bad thing about this job is that I have to go to the one class which is on a Friday so I no longer have Fridays free :-( But when you consider the fact that because I'm on a student visa I'm only allowed to work on campus I think I can live with it. I'd much rather work as a graduate assistant than in the bookshop stacking shelves or for campus foods or something like that.
I've been meaning to write about the University for the past few days but haven't managed to get round to it. So seeing as today is a public holiday and I've got nothing better to do (besides some varsity work maybe) and I'm glued to my fan because it's so freakishly hot here, (think Durban weather in mid-summer when it's just hot and humid and gross) it seems like an ideal opportunity to tell you about it.
San Diego State University is huge! There are about 35000 students on the campus. It's by far the biggest university in San Diego and one of the biggest in the Western part of the USA (according to the SDSU website). There are just so many people on campus every day (except Fridays - it appears that the American College student's weekend begins on a Thursday evening). I also never get there that early as all my classes are in the afternoon so I haven't even seen peak times at the campus yet. Apparently it gets so bad that the university has 'congestion plans' in place for the roads around the campus.
The campus is rather enormous - check out the campus map if you don't believe me! All my classes are on the side closest to where I live so there's not too much walking involved every day. Although the other day I had to trek all the way over to the other side of campus to a copy centre by the residences. Ok - I'm being a wuss, the walk itself is not too bad but doing it at midday on a revoltingly hot day maybe wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had. The campus is really pretty - I walked around like a total tourist the other day taking some pictures for your viewing pleasure.
This is one of the oldest parts of the campus - it's the part you see on the university logo. There's a tower hidden by the palm trees on the left (palm trees grow so big here!) and I'm not sure if the bells I hear are from that tower or the little bells you can see in the picture (vaguely) above the arch.
The dome on the left is the entrance to the Love Library although the library itself is the white building you can see a bit of on the right of the picture. The library is amazing! It's enormous (and air conditioned - yay!). It also houses the student computing centre which has about 600 machines for you to use at any time I think.
I was went exploring the library one day when I had some time to kill and in one of the passages there was this guy sleeping! In the middle of the day! I was quite surprised until I went round the corner and saw lots of students sleeping or otherwise parking off on the chairs. Being a student is apparently very tiring - I should know I suppose, I used to have frequent afternoon naps.
The campus is huge! It literally goes on for as far as the eye can see in this picture!
The pretty pedestrian bridge which goes over on of the busy streets in the area from the campus to the main section of residence halls (which you can see on the right of the picture).So that would conclude the 'mini campus tour'. I could put a whole lot more pics up but as far as I'm concerned pictures of buildings are generally boring. But let me know if you disagree and we'll see what we can do.
Now onto the reason I go to university (supposedly) - my courses (or classes as they are called here). I'm taking four classes at the moment, 3 are required and then one elective. Microeconomics looks quite interesting, it doesn't look too hectic at the moment which is a really good thing given my shocking lecturer last year! It does look quite mathematical but that should be ok. Econometrics, I'm sad to say, looks deathly boring. I think I've done pretty much everything before. The wierd thing is that we have theoretical classes (2 per week) and then our pracs are run by a completely different lecturer. So I think the course may be largely theory. I'm not too sure how that's going to work? So I might have to put in a fair amount of work after all. During the Econometrics Lab (as pracs are called here) we're learning SAS which I've never used before so that should be interesting.
Then my elective is international trade. I was a bit worried about this as I've never done any international economics courses before but it looks great. We're looking at trade purely from a microeconomics perspective. Undergrad students are allowed to take this course too so we have a really big class! Classes here have a size restriction - in the case of international trade, only 35 people are allowed to register. Unfortunately the class was already full when I registered so I spoke to the graduate advisor and she said not to worry, that as I was a graduate student in the economics program I would be allowed to 'crash' the course. I think that term is so funny! Essentially hat you do is you go to the class and ask the lecturer for an 'add code' which then lets you register for the class. So crashing isn't as exciting as it sounds.
I got a job! Yay! In the Economics department as a graduate assistant. So now I get to spend even more time on campus. I'm helping one of the lecturers who teaches micro 101 but in a class of 500! So we have to go to the lectures and help and will also have 2 hours of consultation times during the week. Then the big thing is helping 'grade' exams. They don't have tests here - I nearly died when they said I had 3 exams for some of my classes! But essentially they're 2 midterm tests in the lesson period (so just an hour or so) and then one 2hr exam as I know them at the end of the semester. So I'm employed for a total of 10 hours a week . Not sure what the rate of pay is but any extra spending money helps! Now I need to fill in forms and get a social security number etc - what fun, I love paperwork.
The only bad thing about this job is that I have to go to the one class which is on a Friday so I no longer have Fridays free :-( But when you consider the fact that because I'm on a student visa I'm only allowed to work on campus I think I can live with it. I'd much rather work as a graduate assistant than in the bookshop stacking shelves or for campus foods or something like that.
Out and About
Tomorrow is a public holiday here - Labour Day (or Labor day in American-speak). Actually, it's Labour day already seeing as it's after midnight. I've had a rather hectic weekend so far. Technically today wasn't that hectic (seeing as I only got up at noon and then went shopping for the afternoon) but I think I was still suffering the after effects of Saturday night...morning - whatever!
Well to start at the beginning for a change, yesterday Sam Strong and his wife picked me up and took me out for lunch. Sam is the Rotarian who did a whole lot of work in helping me to get over to the States. I hadn't met him yet as he and his wife have a house up at Lake Tahoe (right by Heavenly where Andrew went skiing while he was at Keystone) and they've only just got back. We went down to the Bay where we caught the ferry across to Coronado Island which isn't really an island. To explain, it looks like an island in the middle of the bay but is actually a peninsula which joins to the mainland just above the border with Mexico. It was a revoltingly hot day - San Diego is in the midst of a serious heatwave. It's horribly hot and sticky and altogether rather unpleasant being outside. Once we got going the ferry trip was very nice though - we were in the shade and there was a gentle breeze blowing. The whole bay is just so beautiful that it's very easy to get distracted from the heat. I got to act like a total tourist and went from side to side of the ferry taking pictures!
Here you can see the dock we left from with the 'Downtown' area of the city in the background. Apparently the city has just sprung up in the last decade - if you came to San Diego before then the skyline would have looked vastly different.
A 'Californian Sea Lion' sunning itself on a buoy in the bay - this prompted a special announcement by the captain of the ferry!
One of the Aircraft Carriers moored in the bay by Coronado. They are ginormous! Notice the row of sausage-looking things in the water right by it - those are there since 9/11 and prevent anyone from getting right up to the carrier.
Aren't I a good photographer? I'm definitely a modest one :-) Here we have the yachts on the bay and the city. Now you can see why I said it's so beautiful!
There's also a very impressive bridge that stretched from the mainland to Coronado. A random fact about Coronado - there's a famous old hotel on the island - the Hotel del Coronado. Sometime I'll go there for high tea. Anyway, that's where Prince Edward met Wallis Simpson for the first time.
The ferry trip wasn't very long - about 15mins maybe and then we were on the island. We had lunch at a restaurant called Peohe's which was right on the waterfront close to the ferry landing. I think the food was suppose to be Hawaiian? Or Pacific island ish. It was very nice - I had a fish wrap with salsa and mango but the service was rather shocking! I think our waiter was a couple sandwiches sort of a picnic to put it mildly! But we had lots to talk about. Sam and his wife are coming out to South Africa in about 3 weeks time so I was asked all sorts of questions.
When the time came to catch the ferry back we had a minor drama in that Sam's wife couldn't find the tickets! Luckily she had the receipt though so they just let us on. Obviously we looked rather trustworthy. On the way back we sat on the deck in the sun and I got burnt again! Although I'm not entirely sure when exactly it happened (it could also have been waiting in line for the ferry, at lunch or even when I was playing tourist).
Sam, his wife and I on the ferry going back.
After they dropped me off at home I went to visit the guys in our building to see if any of them had after sun. I think they thought I was nuts - they had no idea what I was talking about! You can't get after sun here in fact - all you get is some aloe vera stuff. I now have that though.
On Saturday night it was on of Sarah's friend's birthday parties so we went to that. They had hired a party bus - essentially like a really cool, big, limo to take us to a club then bring us back. It was so much fun! Everyone was dancing and laughing and having a really good time - it's definitely one of the best ways to go to a club.
The party bus - complete with lights and speakers!
Sarah and I on the bus - note the nice pinkish tinge to my skin!
We ended up going to a club called Stingaree - apparently one of the coolest clubs in San Diego. I have no idea :-) it seemed really nice and one of the guys in the group had some connection so I got in for free which is always great. The evening was so much fun! I ended up getting home at about 4am and then proceeded to sleep until noon on Sunday.
Well to start at the beginning for a change, yesterday Sam Strong and his wife picked me up and took me out for lunch. Sam is the Rotarian who did a whole lot of work in helping me to get over to the States. I hadn't met him yet as he and his wife have a house up at Lake Tahoe (right by Heavenly where Andrew went skiing while he was at Keystone) and they've only just got back. We went down to the Bay where we caught the ferry across to Coronado Island which isn't really an island. To explain, it looks like an island in the middle of the bay but is actually a peninsula which joins to the mainland just above the border with Mexico. It was a revoltingly hot day - San Diego is in the midst of a serious heatwave. It's horribly hot and sticky and altogether rather unpleasant being outside. Once we got going the ferry trip was very nice though - we were in the shade and there was a gentle breeze blowing. The whole bay is just so beautiful that it's very easy to get distracted from the heat. I got to act like a total tourist and went from side to side of the ferry taking pictures!
Here you can see the dock we left from with the 'Downtown' area of the city in the background. Apparently the city has just sprung up in the last decade - if you came to San Diego before then the skyline would have looked vastly different.
A 'Californian Sea Lion' sunning itself on a buoy in the bay - this prompted a special announcement by the captain of the ferry!
One of the Aircraft Carriers moored in the bay by Coronado. They are ginormous! Notice the row of sausage-looking things in the water right by it - those are there since 9/11 and prevent anyone from getting right up to the carrier.
Aren't I a good photographer? I'm definitely a modest one :-) Here we have the yachts on the bay and the city. Now you can see why I said it's so beautiful!
There's also a very impressive bridge that stretched from the mainland to Coronado. A random fact about Coronado - there's a famous old hotel on the island - the Hotel del Coronado. Sometime I'll go there for high tea. Anyway, that's where Prince Edward met Wallis Simpson for the first time.The ferry trip wasn't very long - about 15mins maybe and then we were on the island. We had lunch at a restaurant called Peohe's which was right on the waterfront close to the ferry landing. I think the food was suppose to be Hawaiian? Or Pacific island ish. It was very nice - I had a fish wrap with salsa and mango but the service was rather shocking! I think our waiter was a couple sandwiches sort of a picnic to put it mildly! But we had lots to talk about. Sam and his wife are coming out to South Africa in about 3 weeks time so I was asked all sorts of questions.
When the time came to catch the ferry back we had a minor drama in that Sam's wife couldn't find the tickets! Luckily she had the receipt though so they just let us on. Obviously we looked rather trustworthy. On the way back we sat on the deck in the sun and I got burnt again! Although I'm not entirely sure when exactly it happened (it could also have been waiting in line for the ferry, at lunch or even when I was playing tourist).
Sam, his wife and I on the ferry going back.After they dropped me off at home I went to visit the guys in our building to see if any of them had after sun. I think they thought I was nuts - they had no idea what I was talking about! You can't get after sun here in fact - all you get is some aloe vera stuff. I now have that though.
On Saturday night it was on of Sarah's friend's birthday parties so we went to that. They had hired a party bus - essentially like a really cool, big, limo to take us to a club then bring us back. It was so much fun! Everyone was dancing and laughing and having a really good time - it's definitely one of the best ways to go to a club.
The party bus - complete with lights and speakers!
Sarah and I on the bus - note the nice pinkish tinge to my skin!We ended up going to a club called Stingaree - apparently one of the coolest clubs in San Diego. I have no idea :-) it seemed really nice and one of the guys in the group had some connection so I got in for free which is always great. The evening was so much fun! I ended up getting home at about 4am and then proceeded to sleep until noon on Sunday.
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