air show

The Wings Over Gillespie air show was today in El Cajon (I'm learning new Spanish words every day!). I took the trolley to the airport this morning, rather than drive, since I'm making the most of that expensive trolley card I waited an hour in line for. It's got to be cheaper than $4.25 gas though, right? The trolley stop is at one end of the 1.5 mile runway, which meant I ended up walking two more miles to get to the actual spectator area. I did not know this at first. The aerial view on Google maps always makes things look much simpler.

Lucky for me, I found an old veteran man on the trolley who was also walking to watch the planes, so I ended up listening to two miles worth of war stories along the way. He told me all about the importance of the multiple buddy system, and then about how he had been married to a pilot for 13 years before she died in a crash in the mountains-- so sad.

The airshow itself was entertaining, but not as exciting as others I have been to. There were no jets, no aerobatics, no formation flying. Ah well. There's always Kansas City's air show when I get home in August.

At least the weather was beautiful, as it has been since I've been here. It's a lot warmer the farther you get from the coast. Since the maritime museum is on a ferry boat, the space is mostly open to the outside, so there is always a cool (cold?) breeze from the water. I'm usually freezing because of this and so for lunch I walk three blocks inland to Little Italy. There, on one of the street corners, is a nice fountain with black metal benches. These are my heat source, and I feel just as a lizard does as I eat lunch there and watch the tourists roll by on the historical trolley tours and gawk.

corner of Little Italy

just look at them go!

it's the end of an era: no more free pancakes

I've left the hostel! I was really quite used to staying there, and I even miss it a little. Especially the free pancakes in the morning. And meeting so many different people. It makes me want to go on a trip far, far away. Today's acquaintance was an older lady from Victoria, Australia who is finishing up a 10-week "holiday" on the west coast. She was a lot of fun to talk to and eat pancakes with.

I'm somewhat moved into my new place with four other roommates, and I feel at home-- probably because I spent the last week sharing one room with up to 9 other girls, so it's nice to have my own space again. Little did I know that at this new place I'm actually sharing a bathroom with two guys. I thought just one. I also thought no one had been using the bathroom when I walked in to unpack because there was nothing to be seen except for some shampoo in the shower. I opened one medicine cabinet and nothing. I opened another and found toothpaste and a razor. It must be nice to be a guy.

I'd say I packed rather efficiently, wouldn't you?

My tiny Ikea mattress. There's just something nice about being able to cram it into the back of a Subaru and it's just as comfortable as any other bed. I had to buy an extra wool blanket (from Ikea...) because it has been COLD here.

New bracelets, plus a not-so-new favorite.

"big fun"

There are about fifteen of us sitting in the hostel kitchen eating, computering, chatting, me enjoying my museli, etc. It seems everyone had as long of a day as I did. Since the hostel is located downtown in the Gaslamp Quarter where all the restaurants, clubs, and bars are, there is plenty of activity. It's also plenty noisy all night, especially since we keep the windows open for the nice breeze.

Outside just now we heard some fast car with an incredibly loud muffler speed down the street and it scared all of us. Not two seconds later we then heard a police car start up its siren and then everyone in the street started cheering. All of us inside ran to the window to watch the police car work its magic. And that was our "big fun" for the night (according to the Italian girl).

I spent today exploring the city some more. I found Ikea (yay!) and some other stores, although it seems like I spent the majority of my time either sitting on the bus or trolley or walking. I did a lot of walking, which I do enjoy. I'd take that sort of activity over driving any day here.

These plants are everywhere, and I love them. Anyone know what kind they are?

sorry Zen Zero

I just had the best Thai food ever, and it didn't come from my beloved restaurant Zen Zero in my beloved city of Lawrence. But that's alright. I've come to the conclusion that San Diego has some of the best restaurants I've been to, and surprisingly there are places even college students can afford.

Today was a work day. I started it off with more free pancakes at the hostel, and I noticed the Kazakhs I taught how to make pancakes yesterday had not progressed much past another 3-lb pile of a mixture of burned crispies and sloppy batter. At the museum, I did more of the same at work in terms of collection cataloging. Not much to mention in that department.

The trolley adventure today was just that-- an adventure. At least I managed to get on trolleys all going in the desired directions, even though I missed one thinking it was going opposite where I wanted when in fact it was the exact one I wanted.

I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but I got lost this evening. If you know me, you know I never get lost. Even so, I wasn't really lost because I knew I was on the right street the entire time-- I just happened to walk right past my hostel and kept on going, thinking I would see it. All the people out enjoying their Friday nights were distracting, as was this fellow:

And he was good! Good enough I gave him $1. I've got a three day weekend, so that means I'll finally spend some time sightseeing. I've seen lots of sights from the boat I sit on every day, which mostly consists of this type:

On the inside of the boat, the upper deck of the museum is where the ferry seating is. The boat was built in 1898 and took 1700 people at a time from Oakland to San Francisco. It's got beautiful stained glass windows (except they aren't stained, they are some other thing that I can't remember that is better than stained, but still colored). Anyway, it's gorgeous. People use it for their wedding receptions. Not a bad idea...

Today was windy ("windy" at about 15 mph), and the water choppy. The museum (boat) was rocking, which I was unsure whether it could do or not until today. I'm amazed at how consistent the weather is here. It's cool in the evenings (60 F), and mostly sunny throughout the day (70 F). And that's the 10-day forecast from weather.com!

a few minutes and some decent internet

After an afternoon of stress, I'm finally in a place where I can relax for a bit and give an update on my little adventure so far. I've started my work at the San Diego Maritime Museum which consists mostly of cataloging objects. That means I go through and look at each item, noting damage or other issues, and take photos. I then put all the information, including an accession number, into the database on the computer. It's a little tiring for an all-day activity, but at least the objects are interesting. Today I worked on sailing sketches (some very good ones in ink), some Pacific Island boat models and art by Gauguin, which are part of a new exhibit on Captain Cook, Gauguin, and Herman Melville:

http://www.sdmaritime.org/three-voyages

After work today, I was frantically trying to find a Starbucks, as it is the only place pretty much guaranteed to have free internet (which I have decided I am too reliant on).  Anyway, I ended up at one of those Starbucks stands inside a grocery store, which as it turns out, did not have internet. I then made a fool out of myself trying to make my way through a rotating gates that would not rotate in the direction I intended to walk. Who puts up one of those in a grocery store anyway?? It looked like they had installed cattle panels in there...

I'm now biding my time in a hostel in downtown San Diego until I can move into the apartment I am renting next week. The friendly girl in the bunk below me is from Denmark, but she lived in San Diego for 4 years while in school and is back for a visit, so she's been very helpful with information about this place. Thank goodness.

And because no blog post is complete without a picture...

This is right outside of San Diego. If it wasn't all Indian Reservation, I'd love to live here, away from the city.

we're on our way!

My dad and I have passed through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and
most of New Mexico so far on our drive to San Diego. It was a long drive today, and we have the same thing on the agenda for tomorrow.

The only thing I have to say is that eastern Kansas looks like a rainforest compared to Oklahoma and Texas and a lot of New Mexico. There's not much green around here! Only brown grass and dust, and no trees-- only super-sized shrubs. In some areas, it looks like it never recovered from the Dust Bowl.
Either that, or it's starting all over again.

 

Needless to say, a lot of our drive was quite boring.  That is until we got to Albuquerque and saw some hill-mountains.

Now we are at a hotel in Grants, New Mexico. It's a small place, where the Subway closes at 8:30 (literally as we were walking to the door), and the only other two choices for dinner are Asian Super Buffet and Taco Bell. Well, I just finished my chalupa, and I've decided I'd like to go swimming, so that's all for now!

farm party!

Ah, the end of the semester. Only a week left of classes, but I'm already finished with work-- at least work in the classroom. The students take their proficiency test tomorrow, so I'll spend my Saturday morning as a proctor in the silent monotony that is that final test. Today, however, was our Level 1 party, and what a wonderful day it was! We went to the family farm of one of our teacher's and spent the afternoon outside enjoying the perfect weather. We also do "awards" at the end of the semester for students, teachers, and student assistants (like me). Mine was "Best at Paying Attention to Students". Earlier this morning, we taught a few students the song "Down By The Bay" and so did a performance for everyone, which included our own lyrics. It was quite fun!

We played frisbee!

We roasted marshmallows! (And you should have seen the look on one student's face after I scooped up my half-burned marshmallow after it had fallen off into the fire and ate it)

Some people played soccer. (And you can see what one teacher described: "the monk has monk shorts")

What a fantastic group!