Half Way to Town

I mentioned on Thursday that I went to lunch in the lab, but I didn't mention that I ate lunch with this German girl from the lab. She's really great. She's cool and friendly and really nice to chat with. Yesterday, on Friday, she invited me to have lunch with her and her friends and I was happy to join. It turned out to be a group of really fun German people. We had a very long lunch and once it was ending, they started making Friday evening pub plans. They asked me if I wanted to join and I said, "if you don't mind that I can't really drink, I'm a little pregnant.". They were very excited for me and asked how far along I am and said I don't have to drink alcohol.

Cold and fresh yummyness. Surprisingly good for non-alcoholic beer!

Ok, actually I knew they wouldn't force alcohol on me and I knew they wouldn't mind that I don't drink in case I have a good reason. I also knew that if I accepted the invite and at the last moment ordered non-alcoholic drinks, it would somewhat disappoint them. Hell, I would be disappointed if I went drinking with someone and suddenly it turned out that they don't even drink! It doesn't matter what the reason, it would be good to know early rather than later. And if you're gonna go drinking with someone, who better to go with, if not the Germans! So at 8 pm I took a bus to Pacific Beach region and met up with them. We started out at a pub and finished in a Mexican style dancing place. I had a great time and I got home late.

Real American pub!

I planned to go to downtown today, and if I had time, also to old town. HEHE, yeah, they're claiming to have "old town". I just HAVE TO see that. Bus nr 30 is on my free bus list (I got a bus sticker from UCSD), and both downtown and old town are on bus nr 30 route. Before I went, I looked up cross stitching stores on google maps and found one that that really close to nr 30 bus route. Actually, it was in the same region where we went drinking (non-alcoholic) yesterday. I decided to visit that first. Well, unfortunately I didn't get on the bus that I wanted! I took my time swimming in the pool outside. Water felt warmer than air.

People in bus stops wait in a line. Before you just go there, make sure you know where the line ends.

And when I finally went out, I missed the bus because I couldn't get across the street. I am not going to go nine lanes with a red light! I'm not suicidal! Well the light was broken so about 10 min later some local decided to cross with red light. I joined him. Still alive!

The cross stitch store was fun, but somewhat a disappointment. They didn't have much for extreme cross stitchers like me. Also, there was a selection of everything but a small selection of specific things. It was a really nice store, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I still had a good time looking around.

Noobie-oriented selection of tiny cross-stitch patterns and stuff like that.

I tried out Taco Bell and got a meal which included a medium sized drink. When I went to pick up the food, there was this really really big drink among other things. I just stared at it the first moment thinking, "Did they misunderstand me? Did I get a mega giant size drink?". It looked really big, 700 ml to a liter. And if that's their "medium" drink, then WHO gets the large one? And I'm not sure if I saw correctly, but I think there were 4 sizes - small, medium, large, and ummm... lets call it Extra Large.

HUUUUGGGGEEEE medium.

The food was okay. Actually I'm not sure I like Mexican food after all. It's too gooey. Don't think I'm just basing this on Taco Bell. I also ate at a small Mexican place one afternoon and had a burrito. It was run by Mexicans and many Mexicans ate there. One thing those places had in common: flour products were really nice - the outside of the burrito was just ideal - but the inside was full of unidentifiable goo. There were the good stuff like meat and veggies, and there was guacamole, some orange goo, some yellow goo, and a some other goo that was eventually all mixed. Some was warm, some was cold. I don't regret eating those, but I might actually prefer a McDonald's salad where I can see all the components. mmmmmm.... I want a milkshake now!

This picture speaks for itself.

Then I had a walk in the beach. That was very relaxing. I enjoyed the feeling of warm sand under my bare feet.

By the time I started to move on, it was already 4:30, so I decided to see the sunset. And now I get to mention this: the sun sets at 5 p.m. At the end of the work day people go home in complete darkness. Only streetlights help. So then I watched the sunset from the pier and eventually took the bus home.

Sunsets are quite bland when there's no clouds. I like the ones in Estonia WAAAYYY more.

Overall, another very nice day!