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.