Abby's Blog

The drive through Yosemite today was absolutely stunning, and then we stopped at Mono Lake which I had studied a fair amount freshman year of college, so that was neat. The rest of the journey was a bit more monotonous. The Nevada equivalent of “corn on the left, soybeans on the right” appears to be “sand on the left, sand and shrubs on the right”, though there were still some pretty mountains and alluvial fans (see, I did learn something in college). I’m significantly less impressed by Las Vegas than I remember being as a child. I don’t know if I was just less aware then of how depressing and disgusting the city is, or if it’s gotten worse recently, but as someone who doesn’t like drinking, gambling, things that are overpriced or prostitution….not much to interest me here. I look forward to getting back to pretty scenery and fun hikes! And mostly I look forward to getting home.

Pictures here:

My brother’s 10 lb. black schnauzer, Snowy, wandered off yesterday morning (June 6, 2011) around 7:30 am from their backyard. She was last spotted by a resident at 9:30 am in front of Pat’s Liquor at West Park/Tamm, but ran away when approached. She is very timid around strangers. She is wearing a purple collar with a pink heart-shaped nametag and a raggedy pink bow. It’s very hot out there for a scared little dog. Please share this with anyone you know in the area and help us bring her home.

Posted from San Francisco, California, United States.

Well, I have made it through my first week in San Francisco. It’s weird to think that I was in Cyprus for longer than this just two months ago. I have already past the excited stage that comes with everything new and have moved on to the horribly homesick phase, which never quite seemed to hit me in Cyprus (except for the last few hours of the flight back). I suppose that the lack of homesickness there was because I had Neo with me  24/7 and I knew that I would be going home in two weeks. Here, I have three whole months looming in front of me. Three months is a very long time. Three months ago, I had just taken my first exams of the semester. That seems unfathomably long ago. But I know that it isn’t. And I know that I can’t spend there next three months just counting down the days until I’m back home with Neo and Achilles and Nate and Kelly and Linus and Snowy and Baba and Charley and Clay and Sabrina and Chewie and Mom and Dad (alright, and even that bitch cat Eliza). I miss them all so, SO much. But this is a great opportunity, both with regards to my internship and the chance to see the Bay Area.

Okay, enough sappy-homesicky-lameness (Nathan is, I’m sure, quite irritated already). After one week, I’m starting to get into a bit of a routine. I wake up at 6:00AM and call Neo on his drive into work, then get up and get ready for work and eat breakfast. By about 7:30, I get on the train to head to work. Phil and Helen say that I’m not supposed to call it a train — it’s the light rail. But it looks an awful lot like a train to me. The commute in to work takes about 20 minutes depending on how many lights we get stopped at, or if we hit any pedestrians. Just kidding, that hasn’t happened to me yet, though I’ve been told it does happen on occasion. Actually, maybe that’s why my train got stopped for 20 minutes the other day. After waiting a bit, I decided to get off and then a police car came screeching up and two officers boarded the train. Huh. Maybe I should have stayed on and found out. Oh well.

I get to work at 8:00 and then do work-ly things until 4:00, when I leave and do one of three things:

1) Take the train back to my apartment and either grab Subway/other cheap convenient place or make ramen noodles (which, by the way, are TOTALLY delicious!)/turkey sandwich/etc
2) Walk back to my apartment and either grab Subway/other cheap convenient place or make ramen noodles/turkey sandwich/etc
3)  Decide to be adventurous and go explore places in San Francisco. So far I’ve walked to Chinatown after work. It was very fun and I wish that I could have gone when I was actually hungry, cause there were some amazing looking pork dumplings.

Mostly, I’ve been doing 1) and 2), though I’m planning on trying to explore a bit more. Getting off at 4:00 and just going back and sitting in my apartment is a bit depressing and may not be helping with the whole home sickness thing…  If anyone has recommendations of places they think I absolutely need to see in San Francisco, please let me know! A good friend of our family, Nancy, gave me a really cool deck of cards that has 52 different things to do in San Francisco. I’ve picked out the ones that I definitely want to go and do and am keeping them in my purse in case I decide to get adventurous.

With the work week ending and a long weekend ahead, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Luckily, my brother and sister-in-law suggested I drive down to Sunnyvale and hang out with them for part of the weekend. The drive down to Sunnyvale (along 280, not 101) was absolutely stunning! Especially the part where I got lost trying to get gas and wound up at some park…picture below.

I beat Phil and Helen back to their apartment yesterday and decided to go to Frys Electronics. For anyone who doesn’t know what that is, it’s an Ikea sized electronics store, complete with cafe. It’s crazy, completely overwhelming and totally awesome. Then, we made fajitas and went to go see the new Pirates of the Carribean movie. I definitely enjoyed it and will always love those movies, but despite that, I can recognize that it was perhaps not the greatest cinematic experience of the century. Still, fun.

Today, Helen and I went to the farmers market in Sunnyvale. Two words — apple turnover. YUM! This afternoon, I went to a couple of thrift stores in Sunnyvale (some things location cannot change) while Phil and Helen were playing their regular volleyball game. And then tonight, we went go kart racing with Khang, Helen’s brother (my brother-in-law-in-law?) at Leman’s Karting, a fun indoor go kart place with super zippy go karts. I love not only being able to drive fast and recklessly, but being encouraged to do so! Phil claims that I broke the rules by not letting him pass me. I don’t think that it was me, though he pointed out that I was the only blonde on the course. Hmph. Regardless, it was a blast.

Tonight will be the most important part of my trip so far — BEARD PAPA’S!

If anyone has any recommendations for meals that can be made on the cheap side, I’m planning on trying to cook more starting this week. Recommendations would be appreciated!

And yes Frans, I will try to get you pictures of the “trolley buses” this week.

Now, pictures:

 

Posted from Sunnyvale, California, United States.

Phil and Helen left about four hours ago, and I have since been getting clothes hung and shoes sorted out and the bed made and technology plugged in, etc, etc. Once I ran out of things to do, I made myself a quick dinner (more on that below), and then sat around trying to figure out what to do for the next three hours (not to mention the next three months). I figured a good start would be finally posting this blog about my apartment that I’ve been promising. Without further ado: