Animals, some more animals & double-double animal style!

A week has gone by again, without me even noticing it. A lot has happened though, not surprisingly. First of all, we had our first rainy days here in San Diego. It's not nice, though it's not even nearly as awful as in Finland. A few drops of water here and there, nothing serious...though it has been considerably colder than usual...well, today was a lot better.

It may be that my brother brought the rain with him from Finland. Yes, he's been here since last Thursday and will be departing on Saturday. When he first arrived, of course I had to take him to San Ysidro. I suppose his arrival was just an excuse for me to get there again since I ended up buying sneakers, soccer shoes and a bath robe plus some other stuff. I was happy after the day, however, so it probably was a successful day. I also took the girls and Joanna with me, and they liked San Ysidro as well! My brother only got a mere pair of sneakers and a towel. Shows how typically cheap he is, for a Finn...more on that later. However, I felt kinda girlish, having bought more stuff than the girls and Joanna combined. Oh well, shows how good I'm getting at spotting good deals.
That's Chau sitting on the ground, and Peter on the right.


On Saturday we went to Miramar Air Show, starring the world-famous Blue Angels, the US Navy flight demonstration squadron. I have to admit, the show was really impressive. Those guys can fly, no question. The show also boasted all sorts of military airplanes, and even the Harrier, the famous vertical take-off and landing fighter. Got to see it take off and perform some tricks as well, very nice! Probably the weirdest sight at the show, however, was not a plane, even though we got to witness some stealth fighters in flight as well. The weirdest vehicle there was a huge truck with 3200 horse powers. In other words, it had a jet engine attached to it. I wish I had a video of that thing speeding down the airstrip at like 400km/h! Other than that, we went to In-n-Out with my brother, Joanna, Orbitz and Mike. Me, my bro and Mike had a double-double combo animal style, and oh my God that place is heaven on earth! Mike and my bro Matti definitely agree, those burgers and fries are just off the hook! Seriously, anyone going to west coast must try In-n-Out. Remember to order your burger animal style, and the fries as well. Don't forget the fries! You can't go wrong with some dressing, pickels and melted cheddar on the fries. You just can't go wrong with that combination. And that's coming from me; I usually don't even eat fries at fast food joints.
Animal style.


It's been a good week since Sunday was extremely fun as well! I went to San Diego Zoo with Matti, and it was absolutely amazing, for a zoo! They had all sorts of exotic animals over there, and the whole zoo was basically one big jungle! Though I saw the pandas and the koalas, my favorites were nevertheless the orangutans. Damn, those apes actually have incredibly wise-looking eyes. Many scientists suspect that the orangutans are the smartest apes on the planet; whereas chimps learn things by trial and error, orangutans have been witnessed to have learned how to use a wooden river ferry just by looking at people use it. Funny looking creatures, those hairy orange apes. Incredibly powerful too, wouldn't wanna wrestle one. Had some churros with my brother. Churro is a Mexican (I think) pastry, and it tastes absolutely delicious!


Monday, I took Matti to downtown San Diego, after my German exam which went ok I guess. Matti was pretty much awestruck by the downtown area, which is very nice, I must admit. Got some hand made chocolate for my mom and dad, but that's about everything we bought, for once. Oh, I did buy a poem from a street poet. He had a good sales speech and I was actually impressed by the poem he read to me. It was about smiling no matter what since life is essentially beautiful and a showing a little smile doesn't hurt anyone; in fact it heals.

Today was the best day during the last week or so. My brother, I and Tuija went to Disneyland! I've been craving to get to Disneyland since I was like 3, and finally I got to go there! Of course I wasn't as excited as I would have been back then, but I was pretty hyped nonetheless. And by the hammer of Thor, what an amazing theme park it is! Everything is so beautifully built, and so very impressive. Very American, but in the best possible way. Everything was easily accessible, everyone was friendly, and everything just went smoothly altogether. Got to see Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Pluto and all those. The best part was the milieu itself, the park is simply breathtaking. The different themes there, from the future to wild west to cartoons, felt just amazingly authentic, in a Disney-esque way. They had some nice rides there as well; Space Mountain was probably the most fun ride I've ever been in. It was basically a roller coaster in almost total darkness, sort of like in deep space. The sensation of velocity was incredible but at the same time I had no idea of my direction. I just couldn't stop laughing and that's something that does not happen often in an amusement park ride. The Indiana Jones -ride was awesome as well, though not quite as wild as Space Mountain. I have one complaint though: where the f*ck was Donald Duck? I mean there was tons of Mickey Mouse merchandise but almost no Donald Duck stuff anywhere! And I do not wanna have a Mickey Mouse coffee cup.

Overall, it has been a great week. However, it keeps getting better. My dear beautiful goldilocks is coming here on Thursday! I'll pick her up from Los Angeles International at around 4pm on Thursday. That is hands down the date I've been looking forward to the most. 2 and a half weeks of euphoria ahead...does not sound bad at all. Life is so good.

I actually made an observation a while ago. Finnish people are cheap, and that is annoying. Now, I'm not saying all are, but in general Finnish people are cheap. Americans are not. Well, what would you expect of a society that runs on consumerism? It is still fun to be out with these guys when people are not counting any penny and might be buying stuff just out of impulse. I find myself doing that more and more. I'm not talking about spending 150 bucks in a bar, but just overall purchasing behaviour. Plus, people here actually give some alms for the poor...however, the reason for that is most likely the non-existent social support, not altruism. The question, however, is always: whom to give the alms? I can't afford giving everyone...just gotta trust my intuition and give bucks for those who appear most sincere.

Oh, I actually made a couple more observations. These guys here are awful drivers. Not only do most of them behave completely irrationally behind the wheel, they have no clue how to handle the car when it rains. It's not that hard you know? But oh, it seems to be nigh impossible to San Diegans. I saw a few drops of water and already people were spinning like it was destruction derby. Bleh, what can I say...just gotta keep my middle-finger ready in the traffic since there's no shortage of assholes. Yes, they have big cars and big egos but apparently those exist just to cover some other deficiencies. Well, I'll try to keep you posted.

Jugi
It's big. It's American.

City of Angels

A week has gone by again. Fortunately this week brought some new experiences as well. I finally visited the fabled city of angels, Los Angeles. When approaching LA, you can't help but to wonder the size of that city. You always see the sky-striving financial district, but you never seem to get any closer to it, and the endless suburbia just goes on and on. In fact, when you travel from San Diego to LA, you don't even know when you're actually in LA, since the suburban areas never end. However, on this trip we did not focus on the financial district. We didn't go to Beverly Hills or Hollywood either. Neither did we go to Compton or Crenshaw (though I gotta visit Compton even if just for a moment!). Since the weather is slowly getting a bit cooler, and more so in LA than SD, we decided to check the beaches this time.

The trip to San Francisco was relatively trouble-free. Since we went to LA just for a day as it's only a two-hour drive from SD, I didn't think there was going to be any problems this time around either. Little did I know. Let me clear something first. I did not go with Perttu and Tuija this time around since they wanted to spend a night in LA, so instead I went with Steffi, Lena, Orbitz and Joanna. And since I had agreed with Perttu and Tuija that they can take Battlecat, we went with Steffi and Lena's BMW. Well, apparently the BMW did not want to live anymore so it attempted a suicide near Santa Monica beach! Indeed, the girls' car broke down, but luckily in an area with plenty of car services, including one of BMW. Turned out that one cylinder was broken and yadda yadda, so the car is pretty much useless. We did manage to drive back to SD in the evening though since there was no traffic, which meant that the engine wasn't in serious danger of overheating.
Stuck at Santa Monica, for a moment.


Getting around with the car was something of an adventure but we managed to catch both Santa Monica beach and Venice Beach! Even though a lot of people loathe LA, I gotta admit those guys got some serious beaches. I wish we had something like that in Helsinki, instead of that lame Hietsu (I never really understood why people bother going there, maybe because it's so close). Santa Monica was quite calm, though there was more than enough sand for all the people in LA and the surrounding areas. Venice Beach however, was something else! Even though we got there a bit late due to the problems with that blasted BMW, there was still plenty to see there. Street artists, body-builders, vendors, beggars, everything. It was almost hypnotizing. And the apartments there...damn, I really could live in one of those. Oh, I got to experience some serious nostalgia as well. If anyone has been a computer geek as long as I have, you might remember a game called California Games, from like 1989 or something. One of the sports in that game was rollerskating, in which you controlled a rollerblading girl on a pavement at a Los Angeles beach. I walked that very same pavement on Saturday! It was a surreal feeling, I can tell you. I was like 6 years old when I first played that game.
Soap bubbles at Santa Monica...how cool is that?


Sunday, and I was back in San Diego again. We have this soccer tournament at SDSU each semester, and I am actually in playing in a team. We're gonna get jerseys and all that, but it's not that serious; I don't play in the competitive team, just for fun. I'll leave the competitive tournament for those who can actually play soccer, I just wanna have fun. Anyway, we had a sort of a practice session on Sunday, and it was a lot of fun! We played 2 on 2 matches and practiced some drills for better than 2 hours, and I honestly was quite exhausted, but happy, after that. FYI, I'm gonna play centre back or full back or the combination of the two, since I actually got commended for my defensive abilities! My number is 17, which is Pierre van Hooijdonk's national team number, and my nickname is Yogi, for obvious reasons. No, I don't resemble that wimpy bear one bit if that's what you're thinking. However, my name does.

After the practice we went to have dinner at Popeye's, which is a fast food place dedicated to chicken, much like KFC. And it was goooood...very sinful, yes, but oh so delicious. I could probably gain like 40 kilos during my exchange if I dined there every day. I will eat there again, nevertheless. Pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet corn, biscuits, some honey and hot sauce. I'm really beginning to like America. Truth to be told, this is kind of starting to feel like home to me. I have acquired some really good friends. Chau, Mike, Tavo, Steffi, Joanna, Orbitz and Sunshine are the ones I hang out with most frequently. Usually just chilling at the table, talking about everything. It is very educating, and very entertaining at the same time. Rarely have I had such a good time with people just by conversing. Chau is the only local, but one would do great unjustice to him by calling him an average American. Well, he is Asian descent, but the opposite of your stereotype dumb American. I have an immense respect for him already.
Me, Joanna and Steffi at Venice Beach


Well, I guess it's time for me to go to bed. Just a few more things. Last week was really a black week for cars. First, Orbitz' car stopped working. Then, Mike's dear little Geo Metro, Hellboy, decided to end its life: its engine literally blew up on the freeway. And then the girls' BMW. Battlecat's radio died as well, but I count myself fortunate. Bis bald folks!

Jugi

PS. My days of superstardom are long gone; I received 58 from my Networking exam. That's what you get when you skip half of the classes and study 20 minutes for the exam. Ah well, I need to get a 62 from the next exam to be at 60, which is a pass.

God bless Scandinavian education system!

I suppose we're now experiencing the autumn of San Diego. 25-30C during daytime and occasionally cloudy. I know, it is not nice when it's totally overcast, but usually it's not too bad over here. But we've had some of those days now.

This weekend has been a bit more laid back than the last one, thankfully. In fact, I finally got my gym membership: I joined the Mission Valley YMCA gym! It's not too bad, not too expensive, includes all sorts of facilities and stuff, and it's right around the corner from our apartment. I naturally tried it right away, and got my insanely fit, enormous muscles somewhat sore actually. I prolly should work out more. Anyway, it's fun to stay at the YMCA.

Oh yeah, exams here seem to be somewhat easy. The other option is that I've suddenly become insanely gifted, as I received 94 from my first German exam practically without studying at all, and 90 from my Sales Management exam, with the average being approximately 75. I studied a bit more than an hour for that. The modest man that I am, I am content believing that my success here is because of our superior education system in Finland. Quite honestly, it is surprising how inefficient most of these guys are at their studies. See, I am not the only Finn who is doing extremely well without studying. Tuija has had some impressive results as well. Ah well, I don't mind getting good grades without working, I am on a vacation after all. However, I believe my Networking exam went straight to hell. If it didn't, then lady luck must have had her spoon in the soup.
That's what I think of the local tap water. You don't actually get ill or anything, the taste is just disgusting.



A funny thing happened today: we got fined. Yes, a letter from San Francisco arrived, claiming that we had sped through a bridge toll without paying. The bastards even had our license plate photographed! Well, if you creeps at the cursed town of San Francisco are reading this: we're not paying, not without a fight! Indeed, we did naught wrong! We did cross the bridge without paying, westbound, while the toll was only for those travelling EASTBOUND. Therefore, we are innocent. Well, I'm sure they'll wanna argue with us over 25 bucks, especially since we're just three exchange students with absolutely horrible english. We are issuing an official complaint first though, we'll see how it goes.

Otherwise, well, not much has happened lately. I'll be going to LA next weekend, I'm thinking it'll be an interesting experience. This weekend I visited Coronado Island, a very wealthy neighborhood here in San Diego, and home to Hotel Del Coronado, one of the most famous sights of San Diego. It has been featured in various films, although not lately. Stars such as Marilyn Monroe have stayed in the hotel, and it was quite luxurious indeed. I'll have to pay another visit with my own Marilyn as well. I must say though, the apartment prices on Coronado Island weren't the cheapest: a one bedroom house costs around $1,250,000. The area actually resembled our beloved Grankulla more than a little.
Hotel Del Coronado.


That's all for now, I'll be posting more in the near future, hopefully. Unless the long arm of law catches up with me.
Here's something I tried for the first time: a hookah. It's an oriental pipe of sorts...you smoke tobacco usually, which we did as well. The taste is actually quite pleasant, unlike with cigarettes. Arnold is the one holding it now.
Some overly romantic flyboy decided to show off a little bit. I bet "Ashley" was ready for anything in the evening!