June 13, 2006
So… I made it to Monterey! The trip here wasnt so bad, I was in too much shock for even the 5 hours bus ride to seattle to bother me too much... I had some hassle at the border and was worried I wasn’t gunna make it thru, but obviously I did. The guy was a real dick but I guess that’s his job. Monterey is very quaint. Christopher met me at the airport, which was TINY! I even flew in on a propeller plane… and it was scary as hell. I can’t tell you all how happy he was to see me; he had the biggest smile ever! I’m sure we had matching ones. We just hugged and hugged right in the way of all the people getting off the plane (lol the whole 15 of them). Then we just hugged and hugged until everyone got their bags, except for the 2 people who had their luggage lost (thank god that wasn’t me). Then we grabbed a cab and came to my new place right away... dropped off my stuff and then we walked into downtown if you can call it that. It reminds me of gas town. All of downtown is probably smaller than gas town actually... but it’s really very quaint, and only like a 5-minute walk from my apartment. Overall the entire town is not too terribly small... it’s spread out – yay urban sprawl. The beach is beautiful!! I saw it as I flew in; there are these cool sand cliffs that people were parachuting off of. I guess it was like a cross between parachuting and Hang gliding. I told Christopher in the cab that I wanted to try it, and he promptly said he would get a motorcycle if I did; which we all know how thrilled I am about. On the main drag downtown they were having some sort of market in the street, with little vendors set up selling everything from fruits and veggies, to Bob Marley t-shirts and incense. It was very strange. Christopher and I walked thru the market, then down to the pier to look at the sea lions. The pier reminds me of some small town version of Coney Island with out rides. There were all these seafood restaurants, face painters, touristy stores, old-fashioned candy shops… it was neat. There is this look-out place at the end of the pier that overlooks this rocky part of earth that stretches out of the bay where the sea lions all lay out... a TON of em. They’re loud as hell too. Then we went for Chinese food. Not like Chinese in Vancouver that’s for sure…were talking American Chinese. I was surprised to see that Chinese people actually worked there. But, there were no chopsticks on the table, no hot chili sauce, they were playing classical music, and everyone else eating there was Mexican. It was very surreal, but nice, and we sat on the same side of the table and shared our dinners. You know its love if your willing to share your sweet and sour chicken. We walked the street market a bit again, which was completely packed and overwhelming and then opted to go to Safeway... I think I wanted something I was familiar with. Get this... in the produce section... you know how the water spray mist thing comes on to wet down the veggies? Well, in the Safeway here in Monterey... when it goes off… they play a thunder soundtrack, and they have a mini strobelight; its set up to mimic a thunderstorm. You can here it thru the whole place, but that’s not saying much – it’s the smallest Safeway I’ve ever seen in my life. Then we headed over to target to get me a towel and one of those "bed in a bag" things, as there are no sheets here for me to use. I guess Adama has stripped the bed so she has bedding for the couch, I asked her about it, and she just laughed. She does that a lot. She's African, but watches Spanish TV and laughs her ass off. French is her first language I think She speaks English fairly well, but I find that when we try to talk to one another more times than not she just giggles her ass off. It’s pretty comical – and I’m left wondering if she understands anything I’ve said. But she is incredibly nice, and I have a feeling Ive really lucked out here. She is leaving her computer behind, and has already said I can use it (and I’m sure you all know I jumped right on that opportunity). I have yet to meet the roommate that is actually gunna be here for the summer - Adama is the girl whose room I’m taking over -- she leaves on the 19th I think. She’s not even sure yet. Or maybe she has no clue what I'm saying when I ask her, who knows. So... that’s my day in a nutshell... spent way too much money, and I’m exhausted. I tried to unpack, but I decided to write this instead. Amazing the things you can do when you are trying to avoid doing a chore. Just like how my house would become spotless anytime I had an exam I needed to be studying for, or a paper that needed writing. Not much planned for tomorrow, Christopher and I have plans to pack a lunch and go somewhere. He gets 2 hours off for his lunches, and often gets released at around 3, with a 10 pm curfew. So, that’s pretty cool. It was hard saying good-bye tonight though. Just as it seems I am here now as well. I think I’ll be productive, and actually unpack so I can find everything I need in the morning.
Take care everyone. I miss you all!
2 comments:
oh, you got pictures up since I was last here. What an interesting old town, what there is of it. I thought Star City was small but give me a break.
ma
Well that picture is just the fishermans warf. The whole town doesnt actually look like that, although it really is very small. Like ive told some people the down town area is smaller than vancouver's gastown. Its really just one street, two blocks long. There are a bunch of little towns surrounding it though so, and we are determined to go find a place to play mini golf this weekend. Were also looking into taking a shuttle to santa cruz, i think its only about an hour away -- so that should be cool.
love ya
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