The Shopper Supreme, even Richie Rich reincarnated

That's me. As you can see, everyone in the crowd is absolutely awestruck by my inspiring presence. Or not. The dude in that green shirt is my buddy Trever by the way.


It's been a moment since the last time I posted, though I cannot say it has been because there hasn't been anything worth mentioning. My hair is still the same as well, your quintessential Beatle-looking Beach Boy is going to continue his Cali-conquest despite some protests.

I'll start with last Friday, since the days before that I was concentrating on reviving my tan again, with success naturally. Yes, with Friday came also great expenditures. Perttu's girlfriend had arrived on Thursday so we decided to go to San Ysidro, to do some shopping, what else.

So off we went, with Battlecat's engine roaring like a dragon, as is expected. I was thinking that I needed a pair of flip flops as well new shorts. Sounds good on paper right, not much spending for me huh? Well guess again. I endend up spending around 300 bucks on that day, and I did not even find any decent shorts. I did Reef find flip flops that had a bottle-opener at the bottom (thanks to my buddy Trever for the clue)! I also found a beach towel (at last), a polo shirt (polo is pikee in English), some sports equipment, some t-shirts and a sweater, and finally a Calvin Klein leather jacket. Most of the other stuff are brand items as well, they're just that cheap. CK leather jacket for a mere $200! How am I supposed to resist that? It's not like I need it here in San Diego where it's sunny and warm all the time, but imagine the chedda I'll be saving in the long term, not having to buy a jacket in ever so expensive Finland! Plus, I saved myself from the hideous task of actually finding a decent jacket.

My expensive weekend did not end there. Trever told me about this SDSU Aztecs game on Saturday, after which was this supposedly off the hook fireworks show arranged by this radio station KGB. Before the event itself was this tailgate event, which featured free food and BEER. Of course I said wanted to go, sounded like a lot of fun! And it was, for the most part. The tailgate thing was awesome, and I got to taste American Heineken for the first time. I say American, because it actually tastes like poop. It is nothing like the Heineken they sell in Europe. It does have a fancy can and all that, but it tastes like Karjala which is the worst beer I've tasted to date. Absolutely horrible, stay away from that excuse of a beer, I beseech you!

The game itself was the only sucky part of the evening. The Aztecs sucked ass and dick, bigtime, again! Oh my God it was BOOORING! They deserved every bit of the asswhooping they got from Utah. But the fireworks after the game, HOT DAMN! I thought I saw spectacular fireworks last summer on Naxos, but this was something else indeed! The show was so amazing I found myself constantly collecting my eyes from the floor! I gotta show a few pics, words just don't do any justice. Well, they might if I was some pulitzer and nobel-prized author/journalist but hey, you can't have everything, right?


After the fireworks we headed downtown, me, Trever and his girlfriend and some others, to this club Visions again. For cheap drinks of course. I drank this huge shot (1dl) of Jagermeister, and downed some vodka-redbulls as well as some other stuff, in less than 3o minutes. Then we went to Stingarees which like the place to be in San Diego at the moment. That showed in the prices. Admission alone was 20 bucks, and I ended up spending like 160 bucks. And I got absolutely HAMMERED! No Stingarees for me in a while. It was a lot of fun though, a rooftop bar with a lot of people, and I even met yet another Finn who's living in San Diego! My memories are a bit blurry towards the end of the evening, but I did hog a meatball sub before going to Trever's place, maybe supposedly for an after-party but I think we went to sleep almost immediately after we arrived there. Ahh, I must tip my hat for Trev for having a futon, that's what I call hospitality. I slept well, probably better than on my sorry ass "bed" in the rat's nest that still is my room. Not for long though!

Sunday was my eat-healthy-stay-fresh day of the week. I had this gigantic hamburger for breakfast/brunch, aptly named "Heart Stopper", and an enormous carnitas burrito at our local mexican joint for dinner. That burger was all I needed to kill off my hangover before it had even begun but the burrito nearly took my life. Seriously, that was way too much at that point. I'm telling you, a pork meat -filled burrito that weighs around 800g is bad for your health when you're hung over.

Last, my seventh week here started off like a dream, as it was confirmed that I will be accommodating an extremely welcome visitor at the end of October. A very special shoutout to that very special lady, for having the resolution to break that newly started university routine for a while and join me in California! 2,5 weeks of heaven in San Diego await, and only 3 weeks away! My life is so good.

Ringo Starr

PS. Here's some more pics from our SF trip! In the following order: Golden Gate, Pier 39 & Alcatraz, Golden Gate, Downtown, Downtown from Little Italy, Chinatown, Yosemite

It doesn't take much to impress me, now does it?

My trip to San Francisco is over now and it's that normal life again. You know, a few hours of classes here and there, chillin at the pool, maybe a bit of running. I like these types of routines.

But by the beard of Zeus, San Francisco is one magnificent city! I can't even begin to describe what it was like to stroll along the streets of 'Frisco...it was like living a movie. You know, all your life you've seen those structures on TV and all that, and suddenly you're in the middle of it. I walked on Golden Gate, I strolled the streets of Chinatown, wandered around the Financial District, explored the bustling harbor area known as Fisherman's Wharf and paced the shadowy corridors of the Rock, better known as Alcatraz. Needless to say I had a lot of fun in San Francisco. No, for all you who are curious, I did not drink my face off there. Nothing like that, but I did experience a city that is totally different from anything I've seen before. So American, yet so European. It really did combine both; the skyscrapers this country is so well known for, and the beautiful Victorian/British style apartments. Oh, I just can't forget all the street artists at Fisherman's Wharf...what a wonderful city, really.
Oh so touristy.


Yet even the most wonderful sights of San Francisco could not topple Yosemite national park. In Yosemite, I got to witness without doubt the most breathtaking landscape I have ever seen. The rock formations there, were simply amazing. I was literally breathless for a moment, while I concentrated on my surroundings and on the incredible vista at Glacier Point. I will never forget. Oh, we saw some giant redwoods as well...you know, those trees that compete with skyscrapers in height? Yes, they were awesome.

San Francisco was not all positive though. First, I must say that I have to tip my hat to this nation. They have reasons to be proud of themselves and the country they have built. All the ambitious, seemingly impossible projects such as settling the wild west or building all the enormous bridges and sky-reaching buildings, all of this have these people aspired to achieve, and have succeeded extraordinarily. However, at some point some things must have gone wrong somehow. How come the world's richest country has somewhere around 3 million people who are homeless? It was truly saddening to see how many homeless persons wandered the streets of San Francisco. It hasn't always been like this; only after president Reagan and his extreme right wing politics. And despite this growing problem, the Bush administration keeps cutting all social benefits...I can only hope things will get better at some point. Things tend to reach balance at one point or another, so we'll just have to wait and see.


Ahh, there is not much else going on at the moment. I had a full day of classes today, and one short class tomorrow as well. On the weekend I'm prolly gonna go see another Aztecs games, likely with Trever and hopefully Anssi will join the fray. Maybe head for downtown afterwards? Don't really know yet. My ethics class is highly interesting at least, just what I had hoped for. Sales Management is proving to be an educating class as well, and might prove to be my salvation as it does have a significant international aspect, which might spare me from spending another 3 weeks in Mikkeli when I return to Finland. Those three weeks I would like to avoid, I have no desire to go back to Mikkeli then; I have more urgent matters to tend to.

Oh, one more thing. I bought my first non-hip hop records in at least 8 years. Bruce Springsteen's "the Rising" and what a great record it is. I may have to get another record by the Boss..."the Rising" fits perfectly into my present mindset, reminds me of someone. However, it is not the only great record I've bought here so far. 4 others, all them great. Special mention goes to "Wild Style" soundtrack which is off the hook! Anyway, until next time!

Jugi

San Francisco!

Today has been an exhausting, but rewarding day. Leaving our beloved San Diego behind for a few days, we drove all the way to San Francisco. The trip was long, tiring and full of wonders. I saw many different, memorable things on the way to SF...like LA in the morning, like a million cows on on a single farm, hundreds of wind energy generators, Golden Gate bridge and so on. It has been an incredible day.

Our hotel is very, very good here in San Francisco. And we've got WLAN in our room! Me without the Internet is like a Corona with no Lime. Thanks to our trustworthy son, Mercedes Benz, we did not need to book a hotel from downtown SF which would have been expensive or a rat's nest, depending on your preferences. I must admit that I absolutely love driving that MB, it has a lot more power than I would have expected...when you put the petal to the metal, you can hear and feel the power, and the car actually moves! Quite different from my mom's tiny Citroen C3!

Our plans for the trip are to see Golden Gate in full daylight, to explore downtown, to go see Alcatraz and to visit Yosemite national park. We'll be going back on tuesday (wednesday in Finland) so we'll have time to do all of that. The climate here isn't as friendly as in SD; it's probably much like Finland at the moment. But it's ok, it's not raining or anything, and I hear it's getting warmer towards the weekend.

Well, I gotta get up early tomorrow, so I'll leave something for tomorrow or some other day as well! I must apologise for the lack of photos, they will be coming in the near future, more precisely after I get back.

Oh yeah, I'm not cutting my hair for a while, I'm gonna keep on growing it at least until mid november. I made a promise, and I am a man of my word. It's not pretty, but it is honorable. Plus it is something new. Like everything else here. Until next time.

And there was Mercedes...

Yes, yes, yes! Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make: CANNONBALL! We finally got our Mercedes-Benz! It's an 86 E300 with 178,000 miles driven so far, automatic transmission naturally, leather interior, a very good air conditioning, skyroof, electric windows...oh yes. And oh, so 80's; the color is CREAM :D The 3-liter V6 under the hood isn't a bad engine at all, so far the car is like a dream.

Yes, you guessed right: I'm trying not to look handsome. It's hard, but it can be done with some serious effort. Groceries in the background.


We are actually now planning to take the MB for a serious test drive: we might be going to San Francisco on the weekend, it's a long drive...hopefully our friend can take it! 178,000 miles isn't that much for an MB from that era though, especially in this Cali climate. You know, no rain, sun all year long. I don't think I have to elaborate on how much I like the climate here? Whenever it's raining wherever you are, just think about me sitting in the sun. I don't know if it'll make you feel better, but you'll know I'm most likely feeling better ;)

Not much has happened lately though, we did invite some friends over on friday and opened our half-gallon smirnoff bottle. Not much drinking but fun anyway. Oh, now that we've got the car, we went and bought some groceries. Like 30 cans of beer. Cost: 15 bucks, not bad at all! Oh, and some smart salesperson at Rubio's asked for my name; I promptly handed her my Finnish driver's licence and she mistook my name for Ajokortti. The receipt actually said "Thank you, Guest Ajokortti!". And I felt offended! Should have dragged their asses to court. Se on JUGI eikä mikään vitun JUKI!

In fact, the only thing that spared the poor girl from 10 years in prison was that I actually had my first fish tacos that day and actually liked them. I've been getting into this fish-thing lately, for some reason. I don't know, something must be having a good influence on me.

School stuff...well, the German for beginners didn't quite work out, but I got the third course of German instead (I have an exam on Thursday, I'm laughing already!). It's very easy as well, though the book is painfully expensive: 150 bucks! Other than that, school is going well, all the projects and that stuff, the little I have. Most of the time I spend on campus are at a table at East Commons, the place to hang out at campus. The conversation there spans from piss-poo to high level transcendental philosophy so I feel at home there. My philosophical side is showing some signs of life again. Anyway, there's lots of people passing by and stopping at our table, I could easily hang out all day at that spot. I'll be there tomorrow as well, between classes. Off to bed now.

PS. That blue-white shorts-and-t-shirt outfit is my running gear, I don't walk around in that attire!

Svinhufvud

Well, today was an absurd day. First, I sorta found out that I still HAVE to get one more course, or they'll kick me outta the country cause I wouldn't be eligible for my visa. Or I'd have to show some proof that I'm mentally retarded...how hard could that be? I'm not going to find out. However, I will have to take one extra course. Now, I'm still working on crashing the HRM course but I really doubt that's gonna work out. So I came up with a devious plan indeed. I'm going to take German for beginners. And I'm gonna breeze through, and party all the way like it was year 2000! I am so clever.

So what actually happened today? I had to go to the local post office to get the Sales Management book. I did go there, and noticed it was right next to Vien Dong, the infamous "Super Food Supermarket", a vietnamese one! I went inside and to my displeasure noticed the gutter was fixed. The fish were still there, but I didn't dare take a picture as some animal rights organization would probably get mad and the store's owners wouldn't have liked that. And, that wasn't the only reason; I found something much more interesting. A whole pig's head. A svinhufvud for all my adorable Swedish-speaking brothers. Yes, I took some pictures of it as well; it is a sight to behold.
Looks tempting doesn't it? I bet there's a dozen ways to cook it!


Other than that, I went to campus to buy some books and a calendar to keep up with my stuff. I am busy man after all, with three different credit cards and all that. And a Visa Electron. After having lunch at Rubio's Mexican Grill, I ran into some friends, Tavo from Mexico and some others. This chap Mike (a Swede) was having his birthday so I joined them and we went to Chau's house eventually, to hang out and chat. Another nice night which is unfortunately turning towards end. But fear not, dear fellows, for I will be writing another entry in the near future. Until then!

Jugi

For the love of guns

It's been a few days since the last update. That's not to say nothing has happened though. Last friday was pretty normal, except that at like 10.30 pm this dude Chao (who knows everyone) called me and invited us to this get together at Victor's house. Victor is this French exchange student who lives with a couple of other fellas at University Heights, which is actually not close to our school. Anyhow, me and Perttu decided to go but Tuija decided to pass...you know how girls are when it comes to taking off quickly. And FYI, I can get on the move quickly when I so desire. So we went there, spent some time there, getting a bit intoxicated and chatting, it was a fun night, got to know a lot of people from many countries.



Saturday was an exciting day, even though it started off slow. We went to Pacific Beach once again, but my local friend, and an old army buddy of mine, Anssi, called me at some point and said he was in the neighborhood and he could pick us up. So, we got into his BMW and took off, heading for a real American gun store! Via our apartment of course, to change some clother and to drop Tuija off. And yes, the gun store was a sight in its own right. A pity they wouldn't let me shoot as I did not have an American ID, but man they had some weird stuff there.

The regular stuff like Glocks, Berettas, Pythons and Desert Eagles were on display naturally, as well as some rifles and stuff. Now, of course they had to have some automatic rifles as well, such as M-16 and an AK-47. Nice. Also, the salesperson loaded a Colt 500 handgun with live ammo and pointed it at a wall...most likely illegal, but the police officer standing next to us didn't mind.
They also had some practice targets which featured a muslim, as well as a rapist. How very politically correct. Oh, they also had a DVD that I almost decided to buy, seeing as it was such a useful DVD. "Headshot Targets" was the name. Did I mention that along came 50 printable practice headshot targets? Viva America!




Anyhow, after that we went to Trever's place, and from there we went to the Gaslamp Quarter which is in downtown San Diego. We were supposed to go this bar called Shout! which features two piano players on opposite sides of the bar, battling each other and the crowd wishes songs, throws stuff at them (including panties, hopefully by women mostly). We were gonna get Anssi to play there, as he's quite nice with the piano, but the place was PACKED since it was Labour Day (think Vappu) weekend. So, we went to this club Visions instead, which was nice enough. Drinks here are a bit more potent than back in Finland; half of the drink is always liquor. I'm down with that! Eventually we went back to Trever's place for an afterparty, but Trever passed out. Well, it was a lot of fun anyway! Oh, bars here close at 2am, and they literally drive people out at 1.30am, with policemen in the doorway ushering people outside. And I thought Finland was bad.

When I woke up on Sunday,hung over, on Trever's huge couch, I wasn't planning on going anywhere anytime soon, except to the pool perhaps. Well, once again it turned out that life has surprises in store for those moments. Anssi informed me and Trever that he was going to his family friend Jake for sauna, and me and Trever were invited. So we went downtown to get Anssi's car, which I drove back to Trever's. I wasn't exactly in the mood for driving but Trever was still wasted so I had no choice.

So, eventually we started for Jake's house and stopped at In & Out for breakfast on the way. Odin's Great Raven, that fast food joint must be the best hangover killer ever! They have three different hamburgers: hamburger, cheeseburger and double-double. I picked double-double, animal style and all that stuff, which means that they put cheese, tomatoes, pickles, mayonaise and whatnot in it, as well as in the fries. Got a week's worth of calories there, but it definitely paid off. In & Out has the best burgers. You can also customize the burgers as much as you want; you can e.g. get a four-layer double-double if you want, animal style etc.

Finally we got to Jake's house. Jake is this 87-year old American guy who has lived in Finland many summers since his wife had been Finnish. He had also at least visited most countries in the world, and everything in his house was from some exotic country...he had egyptian tapestries, OLD european naval maps etc. on walls, the wooden floor in his living room was from Ethiopia and so on. And he had a sauna, which made the day even better. After sauna we got on Jake's top of the line BMW 765, and it was definitely the most comfortable car I've ever traveled in. And it doesn't stop, we went to have lunch in a French-style restaurant with Jake, and the food was naturally really good.

After lunch we took Jake home and went to pick up Perttu and continued to Pacific Beach once again, where Anssi's friend Justin has an apartment. We got some 90 beers and went to the beach to enjoy them (you can drink at the beach until 8pm). Justin's parents had prepared dinner for us; they barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs as much as we could eat, along with some salad and then some. They also had Jack Daniels -mustard! We got somewhat tipsy at some point, but ended up going home sometime after midnight; it had been long 3 days after all.
After weekend it has been relatively slow. My newly found enthusiasm for running and exercising hasn't faded yet, and I have been running every day now. On another note, it seems that we're finally getting a car this weekend! Anssi's friend got this nice -88 Mercedes E???, which we're probably buying. It has been fully restored a few days ago, so it will be an easy sell in December when we'll have to get rid of it.

Oh, my life is good at the moment. Living in California with a nice apartment, a pool in the yard, a Mercedes...what is there to complain? Well, now that I think, it would be even better if I had my muse here to share all this joy. Life is good, life is good.

Oh boy, do we feel safe or what...this is right around the corner from our apartment.

Touchdown!

Yes indeed, I was at a football game today, for the first time in my life! Even though it was just university level football, it was like from the movies. It wasn't just a football game, it was like some sort of special event with all kinds of activities before the game, during breaks etc. The cheerleaders were simply amazing! Now I'm not talking about the looks as I couldn't discern their features, even with my eagle eyes (well I could discern enough to tell that you can find more beautiful girls at Kauniainen city library). But they were like professional athletes. I had to collect my eyeballs from the floor after witnessing some of the more complex routines they performed! And there was even a real orchestra playing for the home team, our beloved SDSU Aztecs. Who lost, by the way, and sucked ass for the first two and a half quarters.


What about the venue then? Well, Qualcomm Stadium has some 70,000 seats, of which around 35,000 were occupied tonight. Not bad for a university match! And the parking lot! It's easily the biggest I've ever seen! Finding seats was an adventure in its own right; with some typically stubborn French girls as our company, me and Tuija had to change seats twice. And the French left after the second quarter. Typical :D Well, it was all good and fun. All in all, football definitely left a positive impression on me; even though there wasn't really anything going on for the most part, it was still entertaining in some bizarre fashion. Probably because of all the glamour and hype that was going on. I'm definitely going again, and I've GOTTA see the San Diego Chargers play some time.
A hot dog something you gotta have at a football game. And I'm not talking about myself. Hahaha I'm so funny! Hahahahahahaah!


Other than that, well, I'm most likely staying in San Diego for the weekend. Gotta start planning my trips though, there's really not too many weekends left, honestly. I'm already set for Vegas in mid-September if everything goes according to plans, but I'm also determined to see San Francisco before fall hits there. LA, yes yes...and what would a west coast tour be without a visit to Hawaii? Maui sounds like the most interesting island for me.

School was pretty interesting on wednesday. Sales management was good, and the new class, Ethical Issues in Business was interesting as well, especially with a republican court judge as the professor. Honestly. The Networking and data communications course...I may have to go through it after all. Well, easy credits if nothing else. I'm considering taking some sailing/kayaking etc courses on tuesdays but I'm not sure if I wanna do that. Tomorrow, I'm gonna visit campus cause I gotta get a trolley pass and there's also some sorta international coffee hour at 1.30 pm, which features a whole lot of Persian stuff this week. There's supposed to be like a free lunch and all sorts of nice stuff. I heard it's worth checking so why not. Now, however, this one's going to bed.

SDSU Campus


PS. Check out the Roots' "Game Theory" if you haven't already!