Return of the Bogi

Ahh finally got some time to write a little bit. Yes, as the headline suggests, a lot has happened over the past few weeks. First, let me recount the past week or so. Tuesday was a great day for us San Diegans: our Briton-turned-Finn arrived in San Diego safe and sound. Of course the first thing we did was take him to In-n-Out for a late night dinner. Animal style, needless to say. Oh, before you read further, be advised that there's some vivid descriptions foul language and inappropriate behavior.
Like that.


The next day is what I refer to as "Black Wednesday". Yes, the day when John Bogi returned with a vengeance! Me, Sebu and Perttu got absolutely smashed after shopping a little bit (!) and whatnot. We had a our fridge full of different beers, 2,5l of red wine, around 1l of whisky and around 1l of vodka. Well, we really got ourselves started with that amount. No, we didn't exactly drink all of it at once but ended completely hammered nevertheless. We decided to go skinnydipping with Sebu for some odd reason, after waking Perttu up of course. See, Perttu had sneaked into his room to pass out at some point. It is rather self-explanatory that we got him back up to shoot a video of us jumping into the pool in the middle of the night. Other activities of the night included some nostalgia filled moments at retrojunk.com, watching some old M.A.S.K, He-Man and whatever intros we could come up with. Classic shit! Why don't they make cartoons like they did way back when?
Hung over and ready for Vegas!


Thursday was another day and I swore I wouldn't drink a drop since we were going sin city Las Vegas on Friday morning. Well, after seeing some local sights like the beaches and downtown we got back to our place and for some reason I ate my words and started another beer. No, wait. Now I remember: it was Sebu who came up to me as I was watching a M.A.S.K episode on my laptop and asked if I wanted a beer. I replied "No perkele!" but being half British he misinterpreted it and brought me a Sam Adams. That's how it started and we decided to invite our buddy Mike and his brother to our crib in order to have a traditional Scandinavian dryckfest. FYI, Mike and his brother Joije are Swedish. Well, me and Joije decided to get totally wasted, much worse than last night. All of us partied at the pool at midnight making a lot of noise but fortunately no one called the cops, and everyone of us found themselves in the pool since Joije started pushing people there. I wrestled with Joije a little bit and tore my elbow and knee a bit as we fell. It was nothing really, and the whole evening was a lot of fun as far I remember. Which is not far at all. The last thing Sebu remember is me trying to Skype but not knowing how, I heard I couldn't even use the mouse properly. I had to ask him to help me use Skype. Almost sober, huh? One sure sign of Johnny was seen: I was mixing those half and half drinks again, meaning half vodka, half juice. Don't remember that part but they say I thoroughly enjoyed my drinks.


The next morning: Las Vegas! Thanks to me being still drunk when we woke up, we got to Las Vegas at like 8 pm. Our trusty car felt a bit moldy that day for some reason. But my oh my, Las Vegas is the most bizarre city I've ever seen in my whole life. A big city in the middle of nowhere; it's literally in the middle of desert! And the lights, it was an exhilarating feeling to see the lights from far away, especially the ray of light that shot towards the sky from Luxor's black pyramid.
Wynn lobby!


I was a bit grumpy when we got there since I was a bit hung over and VERY tired (and I had forgotten most of my stuff to SD thanks to my mental state), but thanks to Sebu I managed to gather myself and we actually had a really good time. Well, it should come as no surprise; it is Vegas after all! Our friend Ching-yi was already waiting for us at the hotel and we tried to get on the move asap. We had dinner after midnight and after that we went touring around a little bit, visiting some casinos/hotels and their lounges. Now, our hotel Sahara wasn't anything special really but it did have its own rollercoaster. That night we visited Circus, which had its own indoor amusement park; Wynn, one of the most expensive hotels ever built and finally Venetian, a real behemoth of a hotel that was actually a really nice replica of Venice. That's what the whole city is about: replicas. The whole city screams FAKE FAKE FAKE! They got Manhattan, Luxor, Paris, Venice and Caesar's Palace to mention a few. And everything is so superficial, and in a way very dualistic: everything is very fine and all, but seems a bit corrupt and trashy at the same time. Take Wynn for example: an extremely posh, luxurious hotel/casino with a really nice lounge and everything was done in good taste. Except the waitresses: beautiful girls in extremely short, revealing dresses that showed their panties and so on. Also, the people at the casino really did not look like upper class customers. And there were prostitutes everywhere after like 4 pm. That was actually the only sign that time was actually passing. We ended up walking around until 6 am, and there was a lot of people everywhere all the time.
Venice...or is it?


The next day I slept late and so did Ching-yi, so we headed for the Strip with him as the others had already left in the morning. We checked some of the local malls and some of the casinos as well, finally settling in one of the smaller casinos since it happened to have 20-hour happy hour which included $1 beers which we naturally took advantage of as we played some of the machines there. Later that night we got ourselves a limousine and went touring around the Sin City. Our driver was a bit better than Lloyd from Dumb & Dumber and he showed us some really cool spots, like the old Vegas which features the only laser show of its kind: a whole street covered with a dazzling show of dancing lights! And we also saw the biggest single gold piece ever found, which weighed around 30kg. I wish I would have found that! Throughout our tour we sipped some sparkling wine, which was perfect for the mood. Someone might say champagne would have been better but it was Vegas and all about faking stuff so why go with the real stuff? That's another way of saying we couldn't afford champagne if someone didn't quite get it.
Wynn in the background

The limo dropped us at MGM Grand which hosts the famous nightclub Studio 54. Wait, wasn't Studio 54 supposed to have been in New York and not even exist anymore? Nah, this is Vegas and in Vegas anything is possible. So inside we went and enjoyed a couple of drinks, the others dancing and me just enjoying the atmosphere. They actually played some really good music at one point which meant that I had to step on the floor which has happened in ages. What kind of music? Warren G & Nate Dogg - Regulate and Biggie - Hypnotize just to mention a few. Oh that was heaven and it lasted for like half an hour! It is such a rare occasion to actually hear good music in a big club. After that the other guys went to this club called Pure in the Caesar's Palace but me and Tuija decided to go for some pizza instead, and I had a couple of those $1 beers as happy hour was still on at O'Shea's! I'm glad we went for that pizza since it cost like $30 to get inside Pure and drinks were around $18...talk about highway robbery.
Posing at Caesar's Palace


On the day we left Vegas behind, Sunday, we visited this tower that offers an awesome view over all of Las Vegas, and even has a small amusement park on top of it! Me and Sebu dared our hangovers and tried this ride called X-Scream which was basically a cart that slid off the edge of the tower and when we were sitting on it, it felt like dropping down all the way to the ground. Easily the most thrilling and frightening ride I've ever tried! Well, at least most frightening, in a good way. After that we had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and everyone had a 10 ounce burger which was filling, and after that we took the road back to San Diego, at around 4 pm. We arrived in San Diego at 2 pm. Why? Because of the bitchiest traffic I've ever experienced, hands down. During that trip I really hated America and the American attitude. All the lanes were packed, the whole 2 of them, and some cars were trying to overtake traffic off the road, from the right side. And of course try to squeeze into some spot ahead which would jam the traffic even more. But they couldn't see it, couldn't comprehend it...that kind of showcased just how well the average American can understand the big picture, and the very short-sided thinking that is prevalent here. Well, one guy made our day by blocking everyone who tried overtake him from the right side, off the road. We had a lot of fun watching that guy blocking those idiots and we even congratulated him when we overtook him (the velocity wasn't too high for some pretty obvious reason). Also had to use the middle finger quite a bit during the drive. Oh, one additional observation concerning the traffic around here: the worst and most senseless drivers are usually the pick-up drivers. Wonder why.God forbid pick-up trucks!
Chillin' with Ching-yi


The next day, Monday, Sebu had to leave and we resumed our regular school duties. I actually had my biggest project yet, a sales presentation plan. I spent 2 whole hours and one half with it, and we didn't really even prepare for the presentation but it turned out to be awesome. I had a good team, naturally. Other than that, my school motivation is at an all time low. Gotta do something fun on the weekend, not including alcohol.
See the roof? That's where the laser show would be.


Oh yeah, on the week before Sebu came we went to Tijuana again, for dinner. This time I decided to go for some even more exotic foods than last time, by having worms (or maggots I'm not sure) for starters. They were actually pretty decent, and me and Mike had em with some tacos and salsa. They would have had crocodile as well but we decided not to have that as crocodile is an endangered species and we did not want to support poaching. As for other stuff, we lost the quarter final in our tournament, and our competitive team lost on the second round, unfortunately. So no more soccer. It was fun while it lasted, big ups to everyone who played!


The last few days...well nothing much has happened. Except that I finally got my New York accomodation set. I'm staying in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. It's close to Brooklyn Bridge and next to Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Jay-Z is from Bed-Stuy, and more importantly, Big Daddy Kane is from there. Bed-Stuy isn't such a friendly neighborhood ("Bed-Stuy do or die") but I should be fine at Fort Greene. I'm going there with Arno, and our lodging is $35 per person per night. Not bad for the place we've got. Oh, I was also surfing today, for the first time! It's not easy but it's FUN! But it was pretty cold...me and Chau were the only ones without a wet suit! We managed fine enough without them though.

Well, I suppose that's it for now. Oh, there is a couple more things concerning my future here. I'm going to Hawaii on 14 December for a week, and to New York City on 26 December, so I'll be spending Christmas in San Diego. And the big news for me at least is that I decided to return to Finland on 4 January. Well, the flight departs on the 4th so I'll be arriving in Finland on the 5th. I decided my comeback is way overdue as it is, and more than traveling alone for a while, I feel like spending time with people close to me and traveling some more later next year. Until next time!