Weekend in Monterey

Last weekend I went on a road trip with 3 of my close friends from exchange, Carmen, Lena and Victoria, and also met up with another friend, Ilene, and her boyfriend Jairo. We started in San Francisco and I finally got to see the scrapbook that Lena had made of Milan. It was incredible, she'd gone to a lot of trouble and it both beautifully decorated and thoughtful, with lots of photos and some text too. I wish I had something like that from my trip, but I guess I have the stacks of emails that I sent, as well as all the great photos and videos with so many memories.

We drove down to Monterey along Highway 101 (the non-scenic route as we were rushing to get there) and listened to Italian songs that Lena had on her Ipod and it brought back many of the exchange life memories. It was strange to constantly be flashing back to my life 2-2.5 years ago and constantly re-living everything but knowing that I'm here in the now and my whole life is different. But the friendships that I had are kind of the same, we're still essentially the same people that we were around each other, even if we aren't exactly the same people that we were two years ago. If that makes sense at all. We've all progressed down the road of life, but the bonds that we created feel the same. So it's this sense of familiarity and yet not at the same time. A very odd feeling. But really wonderful to still have that bond.

I can't say Monterey was particularly inspiring. It was full of very old people and was a bit hokey. You know the term one-horse town? This is a one-horse town and it's an old horse that's been put out to pasture. Service in restaurants was slow, food was mediocre and there was nothing to do after 10pm, not really. Our hotel was quite nice (and fairly cheap!) and we got to drive down Big Sur (coastline between Monterey and LA) which was gorgeously rugged and was a nice scenic drive and then we lazed on a beach.

On our way back to San Francisco we went through Santa Cruz which was much more alive and happening and we went on a roller coaster (I screamed) and we ate organic food (which I liked, but not everyone did) which was kind of vegan and had lots of raw food options. Very hippy-dippy but seemed kind of California. Also good to detox a bit and get some healthy food into our systems after all that eating out.

Today I just relaxed, mooched around online trying to plan things and generally did not get much done. Tanzila is joining me very soon! :o)

What's with the weather?

The weather in San Francisco is a little crazy - global warming strikes again!

I'm too lazy for a full post but the past few days have been very busy. I've been to:
1. Wednesday - Golden Gate Bridge - where I walked across it and then down to Sausalito. Very pretty view (amazing actually but I'm too tired to find good words to describe it - pictures will help!) but I'm really not fit enough for this as my back was pretty sore for days after this. Definitely worth it though... I had my first American hamburger there, not very good but the view from the window of the cafe was exquisite.
For dinner we had a nice feast at home that Carmen made. Chicken, salad and a pasta thing, really delicious!

2. Thursday - tour of the gay area called "the Castro" - interested and informative about some history of the area, but I came away thinking how strange it is how strong the sense of community, belonging and labelling everything is here.
I also checked out the San Fran Museum of Modern Art and was lucky enough to be here for the Frida Kahlo exhibition. Very intense but fascinating.

3. Thursday night - Sunday - road trip with girls from exchange! More on this soon, I'm too tired right now.