San Diego travelogue

Time to Wrap It Up

2008-12-29T23:21:00.000-08:00

It's been over a week since I got back and I'm still terribly jet lagged. Usually at 7 pm I feel like my body weighs a ton and my eyelids are half of that weight. I have been having evening naps just because I am would otherwise fall asleep at my computer or in front of the TV. That's what being old must feel like. :D

Ever since I got back, I have seen the world a little differently. Cars look older here, I notice old buses that no one would voluntarily get into in San Diego, some buildings have crumbling walls. But also, buildings have character, each street looks unique, most of the trees look like people built the houses between the trees not the other way around. It's cold here but I don't really mind. I have all my winter coats and things here.

Sand belongs on the slippery ice not in the pile with tunnels inside!

Besides, I can get a warm mug of Glögg whenever I want. People drink obviously more in Estonia. I'm mostly sad that cider has alcohol in it. All casual events are with alcohol. I didn't really notice alcohol at all in San Diego anymore but here I often have thoughts like, "Wine DOES sound good right now. oh wait. I'm pregnant. Never mind...". It doesn't cause stress, but it's just one of the differences.

One thing has definitely changed - I don't avoid grocery shopping so desperately. I used to be happy to leave this task to my husband. In exchange I stayed at home and washed the dishes ... that I had made. No but really. When I wasn't at home, the apartment was constantly clean and there was no mess anywhere. When I got home, it was all messy again. Well, it's not horribly bad, but I seem to be a true dish-generator. I have been washing all the dishes once or twice each day, but there's still a few plates lying around. I wish we had room for a dishwasher.

But I was talking about grocery shopping. I used to avoid it as if the store clerks had the plague. They're really unfriendly and I don't like to be in a store. Now I almost volunteer to get groceries. If I go shopping myself, I get to buy all the things I have been craving. Also, I get to leave all the things I've started to dislike since pregnancy. I was pretty much bored with our menu anyway. The only problem is that even when pregnant I am less picky about food than my husband so I always have to get something that he would definitely eat. And don't think, "pffff, everyone knows pregnant women eat all the time and anything they get their hands on!". That's not true. Pregnant women eat ridiculous amounts of certain things but they're really picky about food in general. "This smells funny. This has a weird color. This feels different."

Now I'm very pregnant already. I have a huge round belly. Each time I walk past a mirror I stop. Then I try to adjust my shirt so it doesn't show my stomach as disproportionally huge. Hopeless. I even try to adjust my posture. Then I call out to my husband, "Erkki! Honey, it's been growing AGAIN!".

I still eat oranges and these really ARE different. Oranges in Estonia are mostly imported from Spain. When it comes to quality, most places sell the best oranges you could get in San Diego. No one bothers to transport ugly green oranges. The difference between Spanish and Californian oranges is the texture. Spanish oranges have really thin membranes between slices so they're really messy to peal and pull apart. The fastest and least messy way to eat them is to peal them and then cut up into bite-size pieces. This generates 1 knife, one cutting board, and one bowl worth of dirty dishes but it's worth it.

Spanish oranges also look like there's tiny oranges inside

Yap yap yap... I'm totally getting side tracked here. What I really wanted to say with this blog post is that I'm already back in my routine life of messing up the apartment, being paranoid about how loosely my clothes fit and eating lots of Spanish oranges. My trip to San Diego is over, hence, this blog is over. It is time to wrap it up.

Thank you everyone who's been reading the blog. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have written it. I have to admit I've had a really fun time blogging and making pictures I otherwise wouldn't have made - like a picture of a cereal box or a picture of Oreo cookies. I'm really glad I wrote all those blog posts.

Blogging seems to be something that suits me. Now that this blog has ended, I have started another blog: Being A Parent With a Life. That blog is about pregnancy and about preserving my life after I have a kid. It will hardly have posts like, "AWWWW IT DROOLED ALL OVER THE PLACE! HOW CUTE!". Like, ewwwww! No! It will be about NOT changing into a typical mother who can't do anything but talk about the stupid things their kids do. The new blog will be weekly and probably a bit more feminine because pregnancy and taking care of a baby tends to be! No icky stuff, but I don't want really vague talk either. I'll find a balance. I don't think it will gross guys out, but I suppose women are more likely to actually look for such information on the Internet, so I assume the average reader will eventually be around 25 yo female planning to have kids or just comparing with their own experiences. No point in planning ahead too much though. I'll start blogging and I'll see where it ends up.

Anyway, BEEN FUN! FAREWELL!

Ah, Home At Last

2008-12-26T14:22:00.000-08:00

I spent three nights at my parents home. They live pretty close to the airport and it was Christmas! There was a lot of stuff going on, a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while, and a lot of food that I hadn't eaten in a while. It's not like I was starving in US! I just hadn't eaten boiled potatoes sprinkled with dill, pork seasoned and well cooked in an oven, blood sausages with cranberry jam (not odd cranberry jello stuff), mottled dog cake (kirjukoerakook! ) and this year's addition: marinated home-made lamper eels.

It wouldn't be OUR Christmas tree without the clashing colors

There was only a little bit of snow in Tallinn and Viimsi (peninsula near Tallinn) but when I finally saw Tartu, my current home town, I saw thick white snow covering all the lawns and sideroads. The streets here looked SO SMALL! There seemed barely enough room for two cars side by side. I think my perception is skewed after all those 8-lane roads.

Barely any snow in Viimsi at Christmas

Me and Erkki (dearest husband) got some late evening food from a gas station. So what is the first thing to buy after such a long time? YOGURT! Good fresh Estonian yogurt with bits of fruit and 2,5% fat. Well, fresh only in the sense that it's fresh-tasting, as yogurt is by definition sour milk created after specific fermentation process. But it was so good. I casually drank almost an entire liter of it.

I have to admit I'm very glad to be home. It was nice in the sunny California but it just wasn't Estonia there. It's the small things. When we were at the gas station I noticed that they sell only one kind of milk and it's simple 1-liter carton of 2,5% milk. It wasn't 1-gallon (3,8 liters) A and D vitamin added fat free "milk" buy two get third for free. I also discovered that my home looks much better than I remembered. I knew it looked good even earlier but when I walked in, I noticed the comfortable-looking (nice illusion) couch, wide screen monitors, all that open space, large windows, Xbox, MY COMPUTER!!!! I'm home! Nice feeling.

Thirty Four after Three

2008-12-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

So basically yesterday was a LONG day. And I don't mean it as a simple typical exaggeration that you would constanty hear from girls. I mean I had a REALLY LONG DAY! Well, it started with me sleeping 3 hours and getting up at 3.40 am to make sure I don't miss my flight. And it ended a few timezones away and 34 hours later. Yes you got it - I was up 34 hours straight.

My flights were horribly planned by the travel agent with as small time gaps as she could find. "Disaster," I said when I saw the flight schedule the first time. "How does she expect me to catch a flight Within 1 hour 10 minutes on 23rd of December in one of the biggest airports in Europe, in Stockholm Arlanda airport?". As a flight planner she should have known that the second and the third flight were by companies who don't have any contract together. So she should have known that I would aslo have to take out my luggage, check it back in and go throught the security gate. Should have, but didn't, because she was a moron.

Ah why bash someone with no context... As I told you guys yesterday, my first flight with Continental was delayed one full hour. But as Continental is by far the coolest airplane company, they arrived to the next airport with very little delay. Then I got on the second Continental airplane and they took off also with a huge delay, I think even more than an hour. And again, they arrived with very little delay, only about 20 minutes. I went to get my luggage. I was standing and waiting, looking at all those people pulling their suitcase off the luggage conveyer belt and mine just wouldn't come. Some of the luggage that was from our plane did almost ten rounds there. Time was ticking and by the time my suitcase finally appeared it was obvious I wouldn't make it. My plane was already departing.

Some parts of the airport looked abandoned

I missed my plane, bought a new ticket for $400 and waited 8 hours for the plane. I couldn't just sleep there because I didn't want to leave my stuff unguarded. That wasn't what bothered me. Usually airplane companies take responsibility for getting the passenger on the next plane, but not when the different flights are by different companies with no contract. I basically had two different reservations made - first from San Diego to Stockholm via two planes and like a totally seperate trip from Stockholm to Tallinn. If I don't get on the next flight it's my own responsibility. Fortunately I had travel insurance so they will refund me for the ticket because Continental plane was 20 minutes late. I feel bad for that - I would really blame it all on the lady who thought 1 hour 10 minutes was enough to get off the plane, get luggage, check in luggage, go through security check and go through the right gate. And unless I learn to teleport, I would also have to walk to all of those places. Sorry lady, no superpowers yet!

8 hours is a long time. It was freezing cold outside so I couldn't stay there more than 10 minutes. Indoors was nice as well. Finally the plane came and I got home. Altogether 29 hours of travel and 34 hours of being awake. It was good to finally be reunited with my husband. I missed him. I could finally show how much my stomach had grown. I could finally hug him.

Candle light lunch with my husband in Olde Hansa restaurant in Tallinn

And so I don't forget... Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Fun of Flying

2008-12-22T07:14:00.000-08:00

"Oh if I look as pregnant as I am, everyone will just happily escort me through the security!" Oh and THEY DID! "Excuse me mam, please follow me for extra security check." :D Hehe, fortunately it wasn't too bad. They just skanned everything I had and they had a cool weird cotton swab that the security lady put into a cool machine that detected explosives. I hadn't seen that one yet.

My flights are extremely tightly packed! The first gap is 1 hour 24 minutes and the second gap is 1 hour 10 minutes. Basically, if I miss a flight, I'm in trouble! Or actually not in trouble - I have full travel insurance for missed flights and as I've never been stranded in a foreign airport, I bet it will be a lot of fun. Especially because it's so close to Chrismas and the airport is full!

And fun it might be since the first flight was 40 minutes delayed. I am very happy that most of my flights are with the same company and also because that company is Continental. I have a very good opinion about them already because I really enjoyed their customer service on my way to San Diego. They checked my luggage all the way to Stockholm and they announced that they have checked and everyone will make their connecting flight. This might mean that once I get off the plane I will be escorted to the next plane by Continental workers but we'll see. I'm quite curious as to how I'll get home at the planned time.

Last Day in Paradise

2008-12-21T23:22:00.000-08:00

I'm all packed and ready to go to sleep. I'm not sure if I'm sleepy but I'm waking up at 3.40 and the airport shuttle will pick me up at 5 am. I'd rather sleep 30 minutes less than be in a hurry in the morning. If I have to leave in a hurry I will start to make mistakes. I might forget something here or lock a suitcase in the apartment or something stupid like that.

So how to spend the last day in a place like this... I deliberately slept in to get rest before my long travel. Then I had breakfast - I will miss the vanilla-almond granola with natural dried strawberries and Lucern's milk. Then I looked outside and saw that it's a beautiful sunny day. It was supposed to be cloudy and 16 degrees, but the sun was so warm, so I went out sunbathing. Nice excuse to read my book as well! When I was all warm and getting red two and a half hours later, I went for a walk and got myself a morning coffee - peppermint mocha twist at Starbucks. It's one of their holiday specials that I tried once before and really enjoyed.

But then I got busy and active. I packed, I did laundry, I vacuumed the carpets, I cleaned my sink, I organized what I'm leaving behind for the roommate. Quite a lot of stuff, but it would have been stupid to try to consume everything before I go. There's toothpaste, macaroni, my precious sandwich bags, peppermint tea, a couple of cans of vegetables (e.g. crushed tomatoes), etc.

Then I packed some more and saw that I have a lot of room left over in my luggage and I'm no where near the weight limit. I RULE for accomplishing that! I thought I'd have trouble fitting everything in my one suitcase! I'm leaving behind a pair of heavy $6 sandals that hurt my feet and I'm leaving with less cosmetic stuff than I came with. I'm taking the valuable stuff, but I have no reason to take the half-empty bottles that I brought here all the way from Estonia.

Seeing all that extra space in my suitcase gave me a good healthy grin - CANDY! I can fill all that space with American sweets! So I went shopping for the last time and I bought just about as much candy as I could possibly fit in the suitcase. Now I really hope that the airport doesn't lose the luggage and I can bring all those sweets home to share with my brothers and sisters. Foreign candy might taste just as good as all other candy, but it's foreign so it's special! I'm sure they'll be delighted.

Will Miss vs. Not Gonna Miss

Will Miss: Friendly people. I was surprised that people actually hold the door open if you're right behind them - in Estonia they often just smack the door in your face if you're not paying attention. Here they say "have a good day" with a smile that looks like they actually mean it. In Estonia, they say it very casually because they know, and you know, that they are just being polite.

Sleep time. :) Good night - long journey ahead.

Zorro Land

2008-12-20T22:26:00.000-08:00

I finally made it to Old Town today. It wasn't at all what I expected. I thought it would look like something out of a horror movie - you know - cool old American houses with carved windowsills and decorative balconies. What I saw was VERY different from this vision. Basically, it was like old Mexico!

I bet they didn't warn people that smoking kills

I should have known! When I was in LA, Rachel showed me the place where Zorro had been active. It looked exactly like the town from Zorro series and movies. Oh, I can't remember if it was a historic fact or maybe she said "character Zorro"... It would be extremely simple to check it up on Google. Right now I just prefer to think that OF COURSE Zorro was real! Of course he was really saving Mexicans from the evil American culture. I'm kinda glad he failed, otherwise there would just be one giant Tijuana where San Diego is (Tijuana is the Mexican city across the border just south of San Diego) and LA would also be part of Mexico. That would mean all of Hollywood would either not exist or ALL of our favourite blockbusters would be in Spanish!!!!! So YAY to Zorro, real or not, for failing!

Old Town - designed especially for souvenir shoppers

I'm so cold right now. Last few nights I haven't slept that well and today I spent as much time as possible being outside. Quite a bad timing really. Yesterday I felt a bit under the weather, so today I should have stayed in and rested a lot. But I can't just sleep in the apartment when there's still stuff I want to do. And it really is cold here - today it was 14 degrees. During noon I was walking around in short sleeves but later I wished there was any place that would sell me a warm glass of Glögg.

Will Miss vs. Not Gonna Miss

Will Miss: Sandwich bags. Simple small zip lock bags (15x17cm) that fit one sandwich or half of a huge onion or cut-up chicken good for one meal. It's just such a convenient small thing and here they have a big selection of them. I'm really debating if I should fit a couple of boxes in my luggage but it's just plastic bags, right?

Will Miss: Apple cider. Just simple non-alcoholic natural cider. It's not even expensive. As it turns out, drinking is cheap when it's all non-alcoholic. Well, except for fruit smoothies of course.

Will Miss: using the trip as an excuse to eat junk food. "But I'm in USA and we don't have IHOP (International House of Pancakes) in Estonia! And if I really visit IHOP only once in my life, I have to get something really good.

It tasted as good as it looks or maybe even better!

Not Gonna Miss: local pizza! They just don't know what a pizza is! It's a thin layer of dough and a lot of topping. They have it all wrong here - a REALLY thick crust and some topping on it. You get full from all the white bread and the cheese is for flavor. In Estonia, in any pizza-place worth visiting, pizza is thin crust with lots of toppings and a LOT of cheese. You get full from all that cheese and meat not from pointless white bread.

Will Miss: local burgers: healthier and a lot tastier than the ones in Estonia. More meat, less bread, and NO CABBAGE!!!

Not Gonna Miss: mixed selection supermarkets. I don't like seeing sweets sold everywhere throughout the supermarket. It's too easy to put something unhealthy in the shopping cart.

No More Beer

2008-12-20T01:26:00.000-08:00

Said good-bye to everyone in the lab today. It was kinda sad to go knowing I will never come back. Many cool people here I will definitely miss. In the evening we went out drinking beer for the last time with the rest of the Germans - "the rest" because one went back to Germany and two are traveling to see other parts of USA. Actually it's no longer fair to say I was out with Germans because it was me (Estonian), Katrin who is German and one guy who is Dutch. Three people from three different countries - basically this time I was out with the international group. Was fun like always but unfortunately this was the last time I'll see them in San Diego.

Nice Mexican style place

I tried eggnog. It usually has alcohol in it but I got the non-alcoholic kind. It tastes like warm egg-vanilla cream (keedukreem) commonly used in Estonia with certain sweet pastries. I suppose it's like a cross between that cream and regular cream liqueur (eg. Bailey's). I kinda liked it. I understand why people would drink that but it will be a while before I actually try making that in Estonia.

I found a new book! Third now. After I finished the first book, I went to the bookstore and carefully selecting something else. I then bought the second book. After 2 pages I was feeling hesitant, after 20 pages I was rolling my eyes and after 100 pages I decided that staring out the window playing with my hair would preserve more of my brain cells. I talked with my husband about it and he has read it. It's only the second book in a 7-book series and that's why the main character is such a pointless whimpering wussy. I would have started with 6th book had I known that sooner. The book got 4.5 from 5.0 max points and I hated it.

Cover reminded me of Assassin's Creed which I liked to play on Xbox

Well, I went back to the bookstore and took A LOT of time to find a book I would actually enjoy and I found one - The Way of Shadows! The 11 year-old main character who is mostly scared and helpless is more of a man than the 20 year-old main character in the previous book. I've read 30 pages and I'm hooked! If I can't get the remaining two books of the trilogy here I'll order them from Amazon the next time my husband is ordering books online.

Will Miss vs. Not Gonna Miss

Will Miss: The amount and selection of fast food restaurants. There's ones for those who want meat and beer (FuddRuckers. PS! If you initially read it wrong, you're not the only one! ), there's the ones that serve pancakes (IHOP), then there's Chinese fast food (Panda Express), Mexican fast food (Taco Bell), decent quality burgers (Carl's Jr) and the really bad cheap burgers (McDonald's). If you think it's the entire list, you're mistaken. The real list goes on and on.

Many good random restaurants that I visited later turned out to be a part of some fast food chain. Remember my really cool burger experience in down town during my first or second week - well that was FuddRuckers. Wednesday me and Rachel seeked rain shelter there and I had a buffalo burger. "What's in it?" - "Buffalo meat" - I thought those were on the verge of extinction and strictly protected by law. Oh wow, they actually sell buffalo burgers here. "Yes! That's what I want to eat!". Tasty stuff. Tasted similar to beef.

Not Gonna Miss: people assuming I will eat things with my hands. I mean, I'd love to follow the local table manners but if they bring a huge burger that will collapse just after looking at it then why should I also try to lift the entire thing. My mouth isn't big enough to take a good bite. Oh I did get some weird looks for eating a burger with a fork and knife. Some eyes just said, "Weird European!".

Will Miss: Palm trees and flowers. Ah, the smell of fresh nature! Real nature, not the thing hidden under snow or cold mud. Walking in an Eucalyptus grove always makes me take deep breaths of sheer enjoyment. Some of the decorative flowers in random gardens have a sweet fragrance when you walk by. Here everything smells almost like late spring in Estonia - everything's blooming and oh so sweet!

Not Gonna Miss: Megastreets. Here it's 6 lanes minimum, usually more like 10. And the streets are so empty! Seems like there's about the same amount of cars as in Tallinn or Tartu, but the cars have more room. Honestly, I think I'd love to drive on a street where I can choose between 7 lanes all going in the same direction but being a pedestrian crossing that street is not half as nice. Especially with the other direction also having 7 lanes.

Second Christmas

2008-12-18T22:51:00.000-08:00

Wow, only a few days left. Time has gone by pretty fast here. In some ways I wish I had been able to do more but I was active the entire time - quite the busy bee - so perhaps this is the best that could have been done. Tomorrow is my last day in the lab and it will be nice to say good bye to people before I go.

Computer is now fixed. Yesterday it was crashing because one of the RAM chips was loose. It wasn't malfunctioning, it just needed a little jiggle and push. But all the memory is now working and everything is perfect. Life is good.

I went to another Christmas party today. This time it was the official Christmas party with the lab group. It was at the professor's home and I quite liked it. Food was good and cats were cute. Besides, he and his family has nice style when it comes to decorating the house. It was quite different from the unofficial party with some people from the lab a couple of weeks ago and I liked it for different reasons. The atmosphere was so warm in the other one and people were laughing a lot. During this one, there was a lot of odd tension where people tried to feel like it was a party and not just a lab meeting. But it was still nice to see the same people in a completely different scenario.

Today, only a few days before the trip ends, I'll start a new section in my blog called Will Miss vs. Good Riddance. It's to name as many small things as possible that haven't deserved their own little rant yet. It's a way to mention things I overlooked when I had too many other things to talk about.

Will Miss vs. Not Gonna Miss

Will Miss: Sun. You'd think it's the same huge burning globe wherever you look at it but it's not! Here it really is warmer. A cold chilly day turns into warm summer as soon as the sun comes out. In Estonia, people shiver when it's 17 degrees and sunny, here people shiver until the sun comes out. The difference between direct sunlight and shade really can be a difference between warm sunny day with a scorching sun and cold depressing winter day.

Not Gonna Miss: Prices for many objects. $5 for 2 pineapples! Yeah, but how much for one? $2.50? Yep, you guessed correctly. They just give the price of two objects to motivate you to buy more than one.

Not Gonna Miss: Prices without tax included. If you have two dollars and you want a drink that costs $1.99, you probably don't have enough money! I like counting the right amount of money before I actually start paying because then there's no rush. Here it's not advisable because you also need to calculate and add the tax. What's even worse - many things don't have price tags. Seems it's not obligatory here.

Will Miss: Things that are not quite real. I think I've already mentioned there's a product called "Can't Believe It's Not Butter". Also, there are such things as non-dairy milk and non-dairy cheese.

Can't Believe It's Not a Chrismas Tree

Will miss: seeing temperature-resistant people. When it gets cold here, Europeans in San Diego take out their warm sweaters and jackets, push their cold hands deeper into their pockets, sit in a very energy-conserving way with their head between their shoulders and look at crazy locals walk past them with care-free pace wearing shorts, flip-flops and thin little jackets. Locals don't even realize they should be shivering and jumping up and down to produce a little heat not to die of low body temperature. Amazing! This phenomenon should be reported to Discovery channel.

Will Miss: DISHWASHER!!!! Hint! Hint! (husband, take notes!)

Been a While

2008-12-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

I have my computer again, but it's in very bad state. There's only Windows and some really basic programs. Keyboard is in English. This means I can't write special Estonian letters - I'm okay with that! I mostly type in English anyway. I'm even okay with guessing where the symbols are. I've spent enough time on USA computers that I just look away and I type without thinking about the symbols or keys and I end up with \ or ' or _ or whatever I need. But that's not the entire story. My computer currently has RAM problem and it crashes every 10-60 min, usually with no warning. When I use Skype I can be sure it's closer to 10 minutes. Maybe I can get it fixed tomorrow. The computer repairs group in the university is the REALLY GOOD and I'd like to use this chance to say UCSD computer desk RULEEESSSS!!!!!!

It's been a long time since I last wrote a real blog post and I won't even try to write everything in my usual detail. But the computer issue came at quite a bad time because those were really active days and there would have been a lot to write about. In stead of trying to generalize Friday to Tuesday into a really general comment, "It was FUN TIMES" I'll try to sum each day into a couple of sentences.

Friday
Computer crashed in the morning so I decided it was the best time to either get totally wasted or to start smoking again! That's a time very inconvenient for being pregnant! We spent the evening with Germans in Pacific Beach pubs and clubs. It was so much fun that I barely even thought about the computer there.

The last thing you want to see as the first thing in the morning

Saturday
Really chilly during the day. I bought some maternity clothing and then I got home - no computer, nothing on TV, cold, tired from turning in so late. I had nothing other to do than read my new book slouching on my bed. Within 15 minutes I was asleep. So basically - without a computer the best other option is to sleep to just pass time. Spent the evening partying with the Germans in Pacific Beach again. Even with the 1-hour bus ride, it was time well spent.

A pub where even water burns

Sunday
CORONADO!!!! There's an island in San Diego, connected by a bridge and ferry transportation from downtown. Sebastian, the guy who I drove to LA with, was spending his last day in San Diego before going back home. He had been to Coronado and totally loved it. This time we went there together as a group of four. It was possibly the most fun day during my entire stay here in San Diego. I was laughing so much I started to feel it in my abs. We ate at a really cute American breakfast place with a long round counter and a jukebox. Waitress was wearing an old-fashioned pink uniform and they were selling pies. Rachel arrived in the evening just as we were arriving in downtown San Diego on a ferry back from Coronado. I met her at the train station.

From Coronado - one of the prettiest islands I've ever seen

Monday
All ready for three fun days with Rachel, we got up early and looked out the window. RAIN, rain and more rain. No umbrellas or rain coats. We had planned to do quite a lot of walking, so we started our journey with a trip to Vons to get umbrellas. How nice that their umbrella order had just been delayed and they were not selling any umbrellas. Then we walked to my ATM - I needed more cash to get a new hard drive. We got even more wet and now my socks were totally soaked.

Before!

I bought a hard drive from the all-purpose bookstore and took it to the computer help desk. 15 minutes later they gave me a call and let me know that the hard drive wasn't what I had bought. The box just said 80GB EIDE ($59.99) and contained 60GB Toshiba - kind of hard drive they don't even sell there! I got a full refund and they remembered that the hard drive was especially ordered and later returned. Unfortunately the jerk brought back his old hard drive with some of his old data still on it! They had no idea what to do with it so I suggested posting his data on the Internet just for fun. No luck with getting the computer fixed. The evening was lots of fun. We baked a pumpkin pie with Rachel and made cookies from ready-made dough. We cook really well!

After!

Tuesday
Hunt for a hard drive. We took a 1-hour bus ride to an unknown place to visit a BestBuy store. I got a 250 GB EIDE for $99.99 and took it to the computer help desk at the very last moment - they put it in and installed Win XP on it. One guy even stayed a little overtime so I could get the computer the same day. I feel guilty about that, but really happy that I could finally have a conversation with my husband in the evening. That was long overdue. Me and Rachel had Chinese food and a stay-in movie night after another rainy day. After two days of being soaked, my shoes finally dried.

Rain tends to be wet

Wednesday - I mean TODAY!
Me and Rachel took a morning bus to down town. Our initial plan was to walk around down town until her train departs so we see as much of daytime down town as possible. Our perfect plan was kinda ruined by the rain that was pouring down very heavily the entire night and still not getting lighter before noon. 10 minutes outdoors and my shoes were already squishy wet. We walked around as long as we endured the rainy weather and then went to the train station.

Walking on the boat costs $14 which is a bit too much for walking on slippery wet wood

Semi Miracle

2008-12-15T15:32:00.000-08:00

They have rescued my pictures. Now I have a hard time relaxing before I have uploaded the pictures. I tried Frickr, but seems they have a limit how much I can upload. And it seems it will take forever to upload them all. I don't think I can do that on the office computer unless I stay here after dark and just do it when no one else won't be using the computer. But amazing that they saved the pictures. They're good!

Bought a hard drive for the laptop. They only had a 80GB hard drive that fits the Dell and has IDE connection. That's ok. However, when I got it to the computer repair workshop, they said that the bookstore made a mistake and it's actually 60GB used hard drive in the box. Now I'm gonna return it and try to get another hard drive tomorrow. This sucks.

Rachel arrived here. And it's been raining A LOT. I'm starting to think Rachel is jinxed - whenever we meet, it ends up pouring rain down from the sky. She didn't bring her laptop, so I still only have the computer in the lab. Anyway, I had a fun weekend and I hope to get my computer fixed soon.

Blue Screen of DEATH

2008-12-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

Important announcement!!!
My computer has DIED in its SLEEP. So basically, I woke up and went to my computer. I opened the screen and waited for it to wake up. And then I saw it - DISASTER - I got the blue screen of Death saying it was unable to start up.

When I say "my computer" I actually mean the laptop that belongs to my Estonian advisor and I have borrowed this for my stay here in San Diego. It's 3 years old and starts up slowly but when it's working it's quite okay.

Oh, I know what's causing it, I thought. Yesterday it was asking for a restart because it had just installed Windows Updates. It's okay, I'll take it to the lab and I'll have someone start it in Safe Mode so I can do a system restore. That should do the trick. I got it to the lab and it was started in safe mode and for a moment everything seemed to go by plan but then it showed the blue screen of death again. Apparently, it was missing a file, something like hsfp or something like that. It said I need my Windows XP disc to recover my computer. Do I have that here - NO!

I went to the UCSD computer help desk and showed them the warning message I got. The guy there looked at me and looked at the message and said, "this is the file that the computer uses to read data from your hard drive. If the hard drive fries, this is the first file that it can't read because it is the most commonly used file. I can install XP on it, but 9 times out of 10, the computer is still unable to work and even then it can crash again at any moment - lasting anywhere from 2 days to 6 months."

Noooooooooo.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! MY COMPUTER!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!

So here's the real story - my hard drive is dead and I'm gonna buy a new one. I will also get an external hard drive box for it so I can later just use it as an external hard drive. I just want to have a working computer during my last week here. I can have Win XP reinstalled on it at the technical desk, but with everything else, I'm on my own. I just hope that all the hardware will work properly. I won't have my programs, but I can check my email and continue my blog at least.

Lost data - fortunately not too much of it. I don't usually use this laptop and most of what I had here is backed up in Estonia and I simply burned on CDs to take with me to San Diego. However, I haven't made any back-ups with this computer in San Diego. The data generated during my stay is lost. This includes about 700 images taken with my camera and some files I used as tools when I was working on a website from my computer. Fortunately, I made some updates there yesterday evening and uploaded all the updates immediately.

Right now my fried hard drive is still in the technical workshop - they got the images from my hard drive but they're all corrupt. They're running some repair software on it to see if they can fix them. I'm not too hopeful. The pictures I made in LA are backed up - I copied them on my USB memory stick and Rachel copied them on her computer. And I have been uploading my fave pictures on this blog (thank God for the blog!!!!).

I shall not update the blog during the weekend and even after that it will be tricky. I will do what I can. I will have no computer access for two whole days. I already have withdrawal symptoms just thinking about it. I already bought a book. I shall have so much more time now. I shall live like a caveman for a while - no Internet and no computer. I feel like something is really missing from my life. I shall use this chance to be outside more and spend time just relaxing and watching at the ceiling.

Actively Bored

2008-12-11T22:02:00.000-08:00

I am soooo running out of time here. As I've mentioned, I came here to San Diego because of a lab group here. I had a whole list of things I wanted to learn from that lab group and I have been constantly reviewing that list in my mind to make sure I'm getting stuff done. I've been scratching out items from the list one by one and - well - the thing is that I did everything already. Oh, okay, one thing completely failed and we should try that again, but I saw technically how it's done. But now I still have time left over and I feel I should put it to good use in the lab.

So, I still feel I should go to the lab and do THINGS but basically I don't have much to do there. I could practice STUFF or something. I'm sure I'll think of something to do. Well, I should make sure I'm able to make a perfect leaf epidermis sample for the microscope. I need a table and the microscope for that. Plus a bunch of tools and a plant. Most of these things are easy to find, but the microscope has been busy for a few days already. I've been going to the lab, yet there isn't much to do except laugh at how horrible the Internet is and chat with people. But although that might sounds like a perfect workday to some people it has actually started to get me down. Even thinking about going to the lab where I can't even work on my computer properly gives me goosebumps.

LAB SWIIIRRRL!

Today I went to the lab with a clear plan to do SOMETHING useful. I checked the microscope and ...well... of course it was busy. Christmas break is coming up and some people want to finish up their experiments before that. And since I'm mostly just playing around, I don't want to do it at the expense of their experiments. But I had a moment of energy so I decided to practice something else in stead - I took a pot full of plants, took some solution and forceps - and I started to butcher plants.

SKY SWIIIRRRL!

Sounds like I've finally lost my mind entirely, right? Well, I actually had a goal there - I was trying to peel off the epidermis (skin of the leaf) using a more difficult but arguably a better method. I knew it was going to be hard but practice makes perfect (theory is all good). I took hold of the leaf and pulled away a piece trying to have some epidermis dangling in the end. I did that for half an hour, used up the entire pot full of plants and ended up with a whole pile of pieces of failed attempts. After that I also played around with the microscope a little. All that goofing around made me feel a little better about my activity in the lab.

It's pretty here even after dark

Unfortunately that's about the only thing on my mind right now. I'm hoping tomorrow will give me something else to think about - I'm getting together with the Germans for lunch and in the evening we're also going out pubbing. That will be fun.

Happy Pipi

2008-12-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

I HAVE FRECKLES!!!! Oooooh I have waited for this day for over a month! heh, I think I ought to explain myself - I am somewhat blond by birth and when I get very tanned I get freckles. Not huge ugly looks-like-skin-disease freckles. I get these nice ones that are mostly only on my cheeks so they make me look even more tanned. Unfortunately, with our Estonian "summers" , I see them every other year. But now it seems I'm tanned enough to actually have freckles!

All this due to bad Internet and illness. Yesterday in the lab I did some checking and as it turned out, the microscope is booked at the beginning of the day today. And when I sat down at my computer, I got a new kind of error message for Internet - my username and password were only good for a month so now I have to get new ones. Basically for now, I don't even have really awful Internet there. Then I got the illness as well and suddenly it made no sense to go to the lab before noon. I deliberately slept in to get some rest and when I woke up, sun was happily shining outside! SUNBATHING WEATHER! ...but I'm ill. I checked the weather forecast and today was possibly the very last sunny day before I leave because it will gradually go down to 17C by Saturday. So I just changed into my bikini and used the opportunity. I don't regret it as I feel a bit better than I felt yesterday. Today I made chicken soup from scratch and I know it's THE sick person food in USA so that should also help. Yumm.

The REAL cookie

Being ill really made me hungry for sweet things. I've been snacking on a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I found Hershey's Cookies & Creme chocolate in the pharmacy where I got the nifty thermometer (yes, chocolate's by the cash register in a pharmacy). I've been keeping an eye out for this exact thing ever since I arrived in USA. They were trying to market Hershey's chocolates in Estonia a few years ago but apparently they failed because I haven't seen any of their stuff in Estonian stores since then. I loved their Cookies & Creme which is white chocolate with dark cookies. Now I finally got to try it again and ... well... memory plays tricks on people. Estonian white Kalev chocolate is much nicer and creamier.

Creamy, but not creamy enough.

Another thing I tried again - Oreo cookies. These are the classic "cookies" in USA. If anyone says "cookie", this is what they think about, even though the selection of different cookies is HUGE. This can often be seen in fast food restaurants and such. If they have "Ice cream - with cookie" and this means it's got pieces of dark Oreo cookies. Frozen Yogurt with cookies has actual chopped Oreo cookies on it. Many -MANY- years ago I actually tried them. Rachel had just got back from US and she gave me one Oreo cookie. It seemed a bit like licorice-dark on the outside and very creamy on the inside. Now I tried it again and I remembered wrong. It tastes almost exactly like the popular Finnish Domino cookies by Lu, but the color contrast makes Oreo cookies a bit more appealing and the dark cookie has better texture and is more crispy.

I bet they taste like blueberries

I keep walking past huge berry bushes. Entire hedges of these berry bushes. The berries look a lot like blueberries, but no one's eating them so I assume they're poisonous. I'm still tempted to have a taste each time I walk past them.

Always a Scientist

2008-12-09T17:52:00.000-08:00

I think I'm ill. I don't have any reliable proof, but everything is pointing to that. My eyes are very watery. I constantly look like I just sneezed. Actually I think I did sneeze in the morning. My nose is watery, but well, it always is. I'm feeling lightheaded - it could be from not sleeping so well, but then why am I feeling it now if I felt perfectly okay in the morning. Some of my muscles are sore and the rest of them are just weak today. It feels like I had an intense workout yesterday and now I'm recuperating, but that makes no sense.

Cute painting

There seems to be less oxygen in air or somehow air feels warm and thin when I inhale it. You know, like warm water feels less fulfilling to drink than cold water, warm air feels like it has less oxygen in it even if that's not really true. (or actually it is, as air expands when it's warmed up and one liter of air has less oxygen molecules.)

And my final reason for thinking I'm ill - I think I have a fever! I bought a first-aid thermometer. It's one of those really cool things - I hold a thin piece of plastic against my forehead and the temperature changes the colors in different boxes there. I can see how 36.8C would also make "37C" box colorful, but mine also showed very clear color in "38C" box. Fortunately my fever never goes very high and a simple cold usually just slows me down.

Over 37C then?

haha. I just realized. It's probably ridiculous to even list all the reasons why I think I'm ill. Most people just think, "I don't feel okay. I think I'm ill." and here I am trying to prove it to myself. I suppose that's one of the scientist features in me.

A friend in Estonia contacted me in the morning and asked me about some plane. I was like, "what plane?" "The plane that crashed down in San Diego." And I was like, "wow, really? When?". As it turns out, yesterday at noon an F-18 crashed into residential houses just 5 miles from where I live. The pilot catapulted and was practically unharmed, but the family - 4 people - in the house with a plane inside died.

A is where I live and B is where the plane crashed

I talked about the plane crash with some people here in San Diego and I definitely wasnt's the only one who heard the news from across the world. But yeah, yesterday I did wonder why there were so many helicopters flying past our house and when I closed the veranda door in the afternoon I thought I smelled smoke. Anyway, I'm okay. I'm just sad I don't have a picture of the plane going down or anything like that.

Twilight Zone

2008-12-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

When I woke up in the morning and went to the living room, I saw the weirdies sight - one table leg had just fallen off. One of the cats must have ran against it, there's no other (earthly) explanation. I'm just glad the table didn't fall on the cat. That would have been bad. But I love how the other side of the table just disappears on the picture.

ZOMG! - table on 2 legs fades away

Maybe it has something to do with the WEIRDEST thing that happened yesterday - I was sitting here talking with my husband on Skype and listening to Christmas Carols on Internet radio. I wanted to check my email but apparently there was a problem with my cookies because it didn't redirect me straight into my Inbox folder. Then I decided to post my blog and the same thing happened - it just didn't connect. Now also other sites on the Internet. And let me remind you - I was talking on Skype as it happened and listening to Internet radio (in case you read "Christmas Carols" and it made you go "WHY WOULD YOU LISTEN TO THOSE?!" and then you forget all I said before that). And nothing helped - Internet was half-gone. My computer didn't even ping any websites. Fortunately it was back the next day.

Cold-cold-cold-cold! Brrrrr... Surely evil is at work here!

Clouds in Paradise

And definitely something worth mentioning - I have found real milk! Sure it has A and D vitamin added, but it tastes like the real thing! I bought a gallon of it and I've been really drinking it - I mean cold and with nothing added. Other milk was good only for hot chocolate and even then it wasn't very good. I have also been buying all sorts of other products from the same company. When I looked around my food stock, this is what I could gather! I haven't been on the lookout for their products. They're just the best!

My new best friend

Dancing Kicker

2008-12-07T14:37:00.000-08:00

I was frying diced chicken for lunch and I was just eagerly waiting for the rest of the liquid to evaporate when suddenly there was a VERY LOUD NOISE!!!! I freaked and reacted by covering my ears. Fire alarm? But this isn't the first time I was frying meat here and it wasn't even getting brown, let alone burned. Then I realized I had closed the balcony door earlier because it was too cold in the apartment. So it must be the fire alarm! I turned off the stove. I was home alone, my roommate is visiting her family for a couple of days. I quickly looked around for the fire alarm.

I noticed the water sprinkler in the ceiling. NOOOOoooooo!!!!! I ran and opened the balcony door!

Such a small thing making such a horrible sound!

Then I took a chair and got up to look at the fire alarm thingy in the ceiling. "<-ON - Twist - OFF->" so I turned it off, but it still didn't shut up. I was running back and forth, tried to call my roommate and got voice-mail... But then it got quiet. Ah, what a relief.

A couple of days ago I thought I actually felt the baby move. I'm not sure, but it felt like someone tapping very softly with a finger from the inside. Initially felt like something digestion-related, but then I felt the exact same thing the next day twice in the exact same place and once again one day later. I was going to wait a few days to confirm if it happens again and more frequently, but I haven't felt it so clearly anymore. I'm assuming that it actually was the real thing, but now the baby found a more comfortable position and now dances around inside, without desperately stretching out with claustrophobia and lack of space. Good for her, I guess. Actually I should start feeling the baby three weeks from now because I'm in my 17th week and even second pregnancy mothers often don't feel the baby as early as 17 weeks. My friend felt the first baby at 16 weeks, so there's no rule really.

I spent the day in. Mostly tried to write an essay for Tartu University. If I finish this, then I will rest easier at night. It would be ideal to finish it by Monday morning in Estonia. I'm also getting a bit stressed. Only two weeks left. I feel like I'm running out of time.

Book about Geralt the Witcher

And on other news... YAY! giggle...giggle! I wish someone was online so I could enthusiastically tell them, oh I'm so satisfied right now! Basically I finished my book and was a bit sad that it's all over now, but then I saw that the last page was an advertisement: "The Witcher. For PC". A game?! About this book? I made a google search and it's got very good reviews and in fall 2009 they're releasing it for Xbox 360! YAY! I have this odd sense like I've actually seen the game before. It would be funny if my husband has played that on PC.

Serving size

2008-12-06T20:10:00.000-08:00

Serving size is a total joke! I can not stand it. As in Europe, the manufacturers in US have to write nutrition data on their edible products. In Europe, it's all nice and easy to read/compare - everything is given according to 100 grams. Nutrition data lists the amount of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in 100 grams. Sometimes it also lists those things for the serving and then the serving is usually the entire content of the package.

8 servings per pack

In USA, the nutrition data presenting way is, to put it mildly, horribly idiotic. All the products have nutrition data written on them, but it's given according to "1 serving". Oh that's so convenient and wise. This makes it so much more simple, you think! Well, let me elaborate how this works. I went to the store to find good granola (processed muesli) for breakfast. I am quite interested in nutrition so I wasn't only comparing package and price, I was also trying to see what's inside it. I really want to avoid low-fat "healthy" stuff so I have to be very careful what I buy. So I compared - "so many grams of fat, so many grams of protein - oooh, more protein here! ... Oh wait, serving size! 40g vs 48g... How do I calculate this... ummm..." I tried for 10 seconds and then picked the granola with prettier picture.

Another time, I was trying to buy a snack. Just something simple but I don't know any of the products so I had to somehow make sure what I pick is not 50% fat or anything like that. I read the label. "5g of fat per serving, altogether 120kcal. Ah that's not much. Oh wait, how many servings are in this package - 2.5?! What?! Who the hell would split this small thing for two and a HALF people?! And now...2.5 times 120kcal...". Next time I didn't even bother to read the label.

Tiny macaroni.

Today I was going to cook a tiny pack of macaroni. I think it should last me two meals, because it's 200g of uncooked pasta, and usually at home we shared 400g pack for three people and that was a good amount for dinner. We also had at least 100g of meat plus some sauce with it. Well, take a wild guess how many portions 200g of pasta really is. Think how many plates, how many meals could you get from one 200g pack of macaroni. And the real answer is *drums* 4.5 portions! That means that if you have 9 people coming over, cook one 400g pack of pasta and some side-dishes and you're done! And pasta is quite healthy as well - only 160 kcal per serving!

Anyway, change of topic.

Today was a very sunny day. I spent 3 and a half hours of prime noon time sunbathing by the pool. I am almost starting to look like I have a tan. For a while I thought my skin is absolutely sun-resistant. First time in the sun it usually burns and then I can spend hours in the sun without my skin even realizing it's being brutally radiated. Days of sunbathing can have no visible effect at all.

I spent that entire time reading my book. The main character is the coolest book character ever! He kicks ass! Kills baddies and gets the girls. Without my speed reading husband around, I don't feel so horrible about being such a terribly slow reader. And yes, it's been a month and I'm still reading the SAME book.

First Christmas

2008-12-05T23:56:00.000-08:00

First of all, the gift I bought was a big hit. The person who got it liked it very much and other people were also excited about it. There was joking about using the cocktail recipe book to make a cocktail into the thermos mug and pretend it's coffee. I never doubted I made the right choice with my gift and I was right.

So anyway, we found out that the party was like a 3-minute walk from my home. Katrin, however, lives 1 hour bus ride away and she would have had time to go home, stay there for half an hour and then turn back for the party. So I just invited her to my place. We sat and watched TV. It was nice.

Then we went to the party. Like wow, so many people from the lab. That's cool! There was some Wii playing, but I didn't play. There was a lot of interesting small-talk with people I had never talked with before. Fun! Pizza, ice cream, fresh baked gingerbread cookies from home-made dough. Mmmmmm...

Real cookies! Real Christmas cookies!!!

And then we distributed the gifts. We wrote numbers on all the gifts and then numbers on pieces of paper. Everyone took a piece of paper and the matching gift. We opened them one at a time so the group commented on all the gifts. One gift card, one monopoly game, cool cookie-cutters and so on. And now to the gift that I got.

The gift I got.

It's kitchen stuff! Yay! One is a cupcake decorator and the other is a set of angel food cake pans. My first question (after the happy reaction), "What's angel food cake?". Something very soft and fluffy. I'm gonna have to eat it at least once in USA so I can make it from recipe later. And the cupcake decorator - I don't really make cupcakes but I really like the tool itself. I can decorate cakes or do whatever like that. I will definitely use it.

Cupcake decorator or a pipette?

I opened it up, looked at it, smirked and said, "looks like a pipette!". People laughed and agreed. Then Katrin started laughing again and said, "You think about lab too much! Yesterday I asked if you have plans for the weekend and you asked me, 'plants?'". That did happen. 30 minutes later I admitted I was kinda sleepy because I slept only 4 hours during the night. I went to sleep at 12:30 and I woke up three times during the night until I woke up at 4:30 and started thinking about the things I wished I had done the earlier day. I didn't fall asleep for an hour and then just took out my laptop and did the things I had wanted to do. People were like, " I would have just watched TV" and " working would be the last thing I'd do when I wake up in the middle of the night." I laughed, then paused, thought for a moment and told them, "I'M NOT A WORKAHOLIC! REALLY! "

Did anyone say "chicken"?

2008-12-04T22:55:00.000-08:00

I bought a gift today! I needed the impossible: $20, never met the person receiving it. Fortunately, I had a gift idea - I decided to get a really nice fancy notebook, something like an idea diary but very cool and black and a matching high-quality black and metal fancy pen. Coupled with some nice note saying "...so none of the best ideas are forgotten.", it would make a great gift for almost anyone. And it's stylish and asexual.

And if that fails I'll just get a chemistry cocktail set that I once saw in the same store, so I'm all covered. The cocktail set was a bit silly but can be used and seemed like it would make a great gift. So today I went to the bookstore and looked at the prices. The kind of notebooks that I was looking for cost $30-40 and the chemistry cocktail set costs $43. Like OH MY GOD - the prices! Oh well, have to find something else.

Dull red of fall.

I looked around the store and got another idea! I bought a thermos cup - people love those here! They're almost as popular as flip-flops! Every morning on the bus there's at least 3 people with a thermos cup and at least 3 more with coffee cups from some coffee place like Starbucks. I don't like take-out coffee but even I would find a use for a good thermos cup if I got it as a gift. Just a thermos cup alone would, however, be boring. So I also got a small book that lists all the cocktail recipes that you could possibly imagine! And the best part - together, they were only a little over $20 and the store has free gift-wrapping with the store receipt. I've done the impossible!

Bright red of fall.

I ate so much fruit today. I ate apple and 2/3 of a big watermelon, half of the reddest pomegranate I'd ever seen and I also ate some oranges. And I feel great! Ah, fruits just rule!

I also eat a lot of meat too as it turns out! On Monday I bought 2 pounds (1kg) of ground beef and 4 chicken legs. All for myself! This is a good amount for a whole family, enough for 3 or 4 meals. Well, I'm eating all I buy, so I thought that amount would last me for a while. I initially decided to freeze some of it. Well, it's all gone now! That was good for 6 meals! But I'm very proud of myself - with all that fruit and meat, I haven't bought any pastries or chocolate.

Costco's shopping warehouse.

My roommate told me she's going to Costco's today and asked if I wanted to come. Sure! My entire San Diego trip is about saying "yes" to anything that I haven't done before (except for things I just wouldn't ever do). Costco's looks like a plane hangar on the outside and like a huge warehouse on the inside. This is the real American warehouse store with some shelves up to the ceiling. Only people with a member card can get in and fortunately also people who go there with someone with a member card. They sell things for a small price in large quantities. I was hoping to find really nice oranges, but in stead, I bought 4lbs of chicken. That should last me awhile, right?

Anyway, it seems I keep impressing people with how much I eat. First I impressed Rachel with the amount of popcorn I ate in the movie theatre in LA and now I impressed my roommate with the amount of chicken I won't even freeze because I know it will be long gone by the time I get to the expiration date!

Giftshopping

2008-12-03T21:45:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to bed early. That will be nice to get some sleep as a change. Today I already tried to sleep in on purpose but woke up at 6:30 and couldn't fall asleep again.

Katrin (the German girl) came to me today and said that there will be a smaller Christmas party on Friday. Everyone will buy a $20 gift and the gifts get randomly shuffled. People will bake cookies and have fun. Katrin asked if I wanted to come as well. Of course! It sounds like a lot of fun!

We went out looking for the gifts. We went to a big shopping center area which was quite close to where I live. Wow, so many stores. Among other things, I saw a maternity clothing store with many sales. We didn't have time to go clothing shopping but if I continue to grow out of my clothes with this rate then I'll have no other choice but to go shopping. I might as well pack some of my clothes because they barely fit me now.

Statues in the open air mall.

Katrin already had a gift idea and we were looking around to see if we get anything for me. We didn't. I'm not worried though. I got two ideas that both work and I know where to get them. Tomorrow I'll go to the right store. Fortunately it's in a convenient place in campus.

Like a stomach without a bellybutton.

I got some fruits today - and I had been circling watermelons in almost every store I visited for a week already, and I always assumed they're too big for one person, but today I decided to buy one. I love watermelons! I know I'm gonna eat it all, have no doubt! I noticed it said "seedless" but I ignored it. I thought it would just have really small seeds and holes inside. When I cut it open I saw that it really is SEEDLESS! Cool! I had never seen such a thing before. Oh I know my husband would love that! He loves watermelons but hates picking out seeds from them.

Boiled Alive

2008-12-02T23:41:00.000-08:00

I was just about finished with the blog post when Dreamweaver program crashed and it all disappeared. One other day I lost a part of my post due to Internet problems, so blogger couldn't autosave it anymore. Well, today I lost more of my post than that other time, so from now on, I won't use any external programs to write blog posts, no matter how much simpler they might seem.

Today I had a very long day in lab and when I finally got home, I also had a lot of work on the computer. I decided I didn't want the entire day to be about that, so I got an idea!

I wish the luring soft steam would have been caught in picture

In the cold and pitch dark outside, there was something nice and warm - a hot tub by the pool. I once tried it during a moderately warm day and the water seemed REALLY HOT! So during a cold and dark evening after a long cool day, it should be perfect! Khmm, right?! ... WROOOONG!

I went outside with my swimming suite and easy-to-remove clothing and sandals. I dipped my toe in the water and I realized I had made a huge miscalculation in my theory! As it turns out, when you dip your freezing purple toes in "really uncomfortably hot" water, the water feels REALLY BLOODY BOILING!

So in stead I swam a couple of laps in the previously "uncomfortably cold" but now "really nice and warmer than air" pool and decided it was okay to go back inside.

Sugar Wanted

2008-12-02T00:49:00.000-08:00

Today has been totally about food! I didn't realize it last week, but I got hooked on sugar. This is one thing I feared quite a lot when I came to USA. A few months ago I didn't eat anything sweet. It's not that I didn't like sweets - I just never bought them. My husband was secretly eating candy when I wasn't around. I was just glad he rarely did it near me. My avoidance of carbohydrates didn't seem so extreme then, but actually I didn't eat anything with sugar or excess carbohydrates. I didn't even eat pasta or rice or potatoes. When someone offered such food, I gladly accepted, but I acknowledged it as a sugary treat. I also limited fruits and rarely ever drank sugary drinks. When I got pregnant, I reintroduced pasta into my diet.

Gained 1,2 kg in 8 days. Seems all of it on my belly.

Soon after I got arrived in USA I started making exceptions for things that I "had to try once". Then I started making exceptions for other things, thinking it wasn't good to limit myself too much when pregnant. I still kept to my regular diet of three meals per day, very regular breakfast, diverse lunch and a healthy dinner. I did eat snacks, but I still ate at the right time.

In LA, it changed. I tried to keep to my regular diet. I made sure I have basic breakfast material - granola (semi-processed version of muesli) and yogurt. But then most of the time my lunch wasn't at 12 o'clock like usually and it was always different food. My dinners also varied a lot, most extreme case was of course Thanksgiving, but I think it wasn't so bad that the big meal was so huge, I think it was much worse that I skipped lunch that day. After a few days of this kind of eating I stopped needing breakfast and I didn't even notice when it was 12 o'clock and I was supposed to eat lunch. I was snacking on different tasty things and I didn't feel hungry but I wasn't keeping to my eating schedule. And as easy as that, I was hooked on sugar.

Pretty. I wish it was something natural like fireflies.

Anyway, I came back to continue with my regular life rhythm. And things weren't bad, but I constantly felt like eating something sweet. I couldn't stop thinking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which I still haven't tried yet. I kept imagining how good all the pastries are that I passed by in the morning when I was buying myself lunch. I was thinking about various kinds of sugary sweets and I did that even when I wasn't really hungry. I ate two apples after my lunch although I always eat just one. It sounds pretty stupid but I REALLY wanted a sugar-covered pastry even though I had eaten lunch 3 hours earlier.

Haven't seen a spider yet, but I won't walk through here.

So yeah, now it all starts from the beginning. No eating out for a few days because then I have better control over what I eat. I restocked on healthy food today - bought vegetables, fruits and meat. You can only imagine how many times I had to use pure willpower to walk past cookies or cakes... The following few days will be like a tasty diet. According to plan, everything I eat will be very appealing, but it will be low in sugar. No snacking between meals. No sugary drinks. The only allowed sugar is fruits - oranges and apples. And of course my sugary breakfast granola and I'm not allowed to snack on it at any other time. I will eat pasta and other non-sweet carbs during a proper meal, but only if the majority or calories is still coming from proteins/fats and I'm not overeating. And once I stop dreaming about bagels, I will buy bread again.

Home Sweet Home

2008-11-30T23:31:00.000-08:00

I'm back in San Diego and I'm very happy about it. I loved LA, but I actually felt very happy when I saw "my own bed". I know - I know, San Diego isn't REALLY my home, but I'm set up pretty well here and just being here relaxes me, which is exactly like being at home would feel. I know my way around and I have most of my stuff here.

Walked past practicing firemen in the morning.

When I got home the cats were really sleepy - they hadn't expected anyone to turn on the lights at that time. But once they realized who it was, one of them was really happy to see me and the other one is just shy and never approaches me unless she's absolutely convinced I won't attack her. You see, both of the cats were taken from the shelter when they were already grown-ups. Both have their own reasons why they ended up in the shelter even though the owner doesn't know about their past in detail.

I'm glad Rachel took me to the train station since it looked scary big.

Shayann is the furry cat that has been in a couple of pictures in my blog before. She's very affectionate. She just loves being petted. Actually it only took her minutes to get all cute and affectionate with me when she first saw me. By now she likes me enough to run in my room when I get home. The other cat, Maria, is really shy. She's afraid of people and won't let anyone walk towards her. The owner thinks her previous owner must have stepped on her or kicked her, which is why Maria always gets spooked by people walking close to her, even if it's the owner whom she totally loves. Maria is also really suspicious of new people and it takes her weeks and sometimes months to get used to someone she hadn't met before. You can imagine how privileged I felt when she carefully came close to me after only one and a half weeks.

It barely wasn't dark when I arrived in San Diego.

Why am I telling you all this now? Because as it turns out, the shy cat Maria has got herself a new hobby when I was in LA. Lately she has been started to sleep on my pillow. AWWWWWwwwwwwwww......

Pillow is covered in cat hair, but it's sooo cute!

Less is More

2008-11-29T21:48:00.000-08:00

Spent the day in. I have been running around so much lately that I needed time to rest and relax. Also, I actually wanted to do some work on my laptop. It's stuff I know how to do and it is actually fun to do and these things need to be done a.s.a.p. but I have just been so busy that there has barely been any progress in the past few days. But this is where the title of today's blog comes from - I had less plans and less running around, but I got more stuff done.

Sushi - the cat who maims people for fun.

Rachel's cat is insane. Like really. She's just violent! She likes attention so she'll come and let me pet her, but she can't be petted unless she can claw me at the same time, so she'll just point her claws at me and rhythmically torture me. Well I'm not really into that stuff, so I lift her paws off me. Then she rests them on my arm and continues the torture. I decide I'm not gonna pet her if she's like that, so she keeps purring and bites me! Literally. She's like that all the time. Even when I just walk past her, she won't get out of the way and sometimes just hits me with her claw just for the heck of it. But I'm pretty serious about not getting any open wounds for no good reason, so I just ignore her sometimes or push her off my bed or just put a high pillow between us. She doesn't like it much, but she still keeps coming back for the petting and torturing.

Display of cool old stuff.

But today I watched three movies at Rachel's place: Hard Candy, D.E.B.S., and Imagine Me And You. It was lots of fun. She has a projector and HUGE speakers. Good quality movie watching. Rachel lives in this cool old house that used to be a hotel. Now all the rooms are just rented out as apartments. There's some really cool old furniture in the lobby. Plus there's a really old looking church quite close to the building.

Coolest looking church I've seen in USA.

In the evening, my friend Rachel invited a bunch of her closest friends together. We spent the evening in a bar that has an extra entrance straight from the "hotel" lobby. So I never even stepped outside to go to the bar. I got my non-alcoholic beer again.

Sailor theme pub/restaurant downstairs.

We were ordering one thing after another, but eventually we had got like a meal and on average 3 drinks per person. And we got the check and it was 167 dollars. Well, that seems like a lot. It's 2000 EEK. But actually I wouldn't be surprised if I was out with 9 friends in Estonia and the bill ended up being 2000 kroons. Everyone would get maybe 4 or 5 drinks, but the bill would be the same. Especially considering that they add the tip to the bill as an obligatory extra when there's more than 4 people in the table. That rule can vary in different places, but it is something that you should definitely be aware of when you pay the bill in USA.

Tip included in the bill.

Hollywood Day

2008-11-28T22:48:00.000-08:00

We saw a lot of LA today. I've seen more LA during two days of sightseeing than I have seen of San Diego within my 2 whole weeks there. I have decided to make a tour of San Diego as well. I have to get a day pass and just see as much as I can. Won't be as easy without a guide, but I'm hoping to make it work somehow.

I like tall glass buildings. They look so neat and shiny. And they look really expensive. The house would collapse if builders didn't pay attention to details, so big houses always have the best quality windows and the most exact symmetry. It's not like new small houses that might as well be made out of cardboard (and often almost are!) and half the windows look glued on and a little crooked.

Nicer parts of down town LA are really worth seeing.

I keep seeing these wet floor signs everywhere, but the floor is never really wet. Like really. Those signs are never to be trusted. If you were actually looking for a wet floor, never use those things as indicators of how wet the floor is. Ok, one time there was a water fountain and wind splattered tjeand the floor was really wet, but it wasn't even the sort of stone that would get slippery when wet and the stone just got really dark when wet, so even then it was just stating the obvious.

Perhaps an USA interpretation of "wet floor".

My friend took me to this huge building and said that we have reached Hollywood now. Didn't seem all that familiar , but it had a good view of the Hollywood sign and a ton of tourists.

"Now this is Hollywood!" - "...but... I haven't seen it in any movies!"

Obviously today was just a really good day for making pictures, since I ended up with 85 new images on my camera!

Kid jumping in the water fountain.

Heh, according to the hand- and footprint thing, it would seem that I have the same size legs as Sylvester Stallone, but actually the cement shrinks over time, so the oldest movie stars had really tiny feet and hands.

One of the very few modern celebrities there.

And even the more regular stars on streets - I was surprised I only recognized like up to 10 names.

Streets are paved with these stars.

And that wasn't all today - we also got me a train ticket for Sunday to San Diego, we went eating to a sushi place (I ate cooked stuff) and we saw an indie gay zombie movie and I had lots of pop corn. And we visited many mexican shops with cool mexican jewellery.

AND, last but not least! I had a celebrity-sighting! I saw one of the Olsen twins in a movie theatre. She wasn't at the odd indie movie cinema. She was meeting up with friends at one huge movie theatre which looked really nice! No idea which Olsen twin and we (me and my friend Rachel) didn't stalk. Actally Rachel was the one who spotted her. We just discreetly confirmed it was her and then left.

Yay to Gayfest!

2008-11-27T23:43:00.000-08:00

...And no one is allowed to get offended by the title, because I mean it in the best possible way!

Today was Thanksgiving! A true feast holiday. You know how Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ and there's all the angels and stuff, New year's eve is about a new start and new year's resolutions... Well, Thanksgiving is about turkey and pumpkin pie! With Christmas in Estonia, people often comment about overeating on different holiday dishes, but it's really not what it's about. But whenever I had the conversation about celebrating my first thanksgiving here, people's reaction was - "there will be SOOOO MUCH FOOD! You'll love it!". I actually did a 1-minute background check because I thought Thanksgiving must have had another theme when it first started, but no, not really. Thanksgiving is a harvest celebration. So basically it's "We give our thanks for having so much food. Now lets overeat!"

Rachel covered with scary dough!

The first half of the day was spent watching the Macy's Day Parade and cooking. That's the tradition. Macy's is a chain of general stores. They sell anything from electronics to pianos. And every year they spend a ton of money funding a parade that's filmed right in front of their store in New York city. It's like a cheerful parade with many orchestras, but also HUUUUGE helium cartoon characters and people doing saltos and stuff. I loved the smurf balloon. The commentator said that "The size of this smurf is so big, that it could fit 30 000 smurfs inside, since a smurf is supposed to be 3 apples tall." And we cooked a traditional Estonian Apple-Farmer's Cheese Crumble cake (õuna-kohupiima purukook) with plenty of cinnamon. Plus we made sour kraut with pork and banana corn bread.

We finished the cake! Success!

We spent Thanksgiving dinner with my friend's gay friends and it was really fun. They were, like, soooo gay! There were more guys than girls there and I'm pretty sure none of them were straight. They were great though. They had this nice gay body language. The apartment was decorated with good style and there were nice paintings on the walls. The gay guy who lived there had some of the coolest kitchenware! Like he had this cheese grinder and he made the best cheese biscuits I've ever had.

Rachel's friends were really nice relaxed people. I loved the jokes with bananas and nuts. I had actually expected it to be quite awkward because I hadn't met any of those people before, but it was a very easygoing event and very accepting group of people. Lovely. I wasn't really used to seeing guys casually leaning over each other in a semi-flirty way or anything like that, but it's not like I minded any of that. It was actually a refreshingly different sight from what I'm used to.

Food!

MOUNTAINS OF FOOD! People were just bringing more and more of it and we ate until we were stuffed and then people were reminding each other, "leave room for dessert!" and then we watched a movie and waited a little and then had so much dessert that people were groaning again. But I actually can't eat so much at a time, so about an hour after dessert I had my eye on the turkey. And soon afterwards, when I thought that people will start drinking now, we gathered some leftovers, packed our things and went home. A surprisingly big amount of our apple cheese cake was eaten and we were complimented because they liked it. Sour kraut seemed less of a hit, probably because it was too salty (we only added salt to the pork), and everyone loved Rachel's tasty banana corn bread.

Best turkey ever!

Weird thing - what they call cranberry sauce is actually round slices of cranberry juice jello things that look like slices of beetroot. Taste was okay though. Nothing like "pohlamoos", which is our traditional holiday feast mountain cranberry (or cowberry) jam with actual berries inside!

All Over LA

2008-11-26T22:19:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow will be a true eating fest. We will start at about 3 or 4 pm and there will be so much food that we won't be able to move afterwards. So how should I go about food today? Perhaps eat extra healthy food? Or maybe eat a little less and make sure I eat lots of good nutrients? Well, maybe I SHOULD have, but I sure as hell didn't.

Wow, could it be so?! Is that really the finger of God? It's sure big enough...

The day started with a "quick" getting ready session which took no less than one and a half hours. Me and my friend showered (SEPARATELY!!!), ate, and went out for coffee and shop-browsing. Rachel declared she was taking me out for horrible American coffee, but I have to admit that the hazelnut latte was REALLY good!

I would have taken the picture from up there, but I was too busy holding on to the railing.

We took the metro, which is basically an underground train, and during the day, we rode 5 different buses and walked A LOT. We were out from 10:30 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening and saw a lot of Los Angeles.

My socks got wet within half an hour after leaving the apartment.

We started with the Grove. I had never heard of it. Well it's a market sort of shopping center kind of thing. That should describe it. And it's Christmasy! There are many stores there - from indoors glimmering stuff stores and a huge bookstore to outdoors fruit stands and open air restaurants. One thing that the Grove is known for is fake snow. Since it never really snows in LA and people are constantly taught that it's not real Christmas if there's no snow, the Grove is actually spending money each year to get fake snow there. People from different parts of LA visit the Grove to play with fake snow.

Christmas Wonderland Grove.

They didn't have fake snow out yet because it's still November! But the Christmas decorations are out and the entire thing looks like Christmas Wonderland. But they actually sold fake snow there and they also had a demonstration. Some guy poured a little white powder on my had and then poured water on it and it turned almost 10 times bigger and really weird soft white brittle stuff. It was light and felt really nice against the skin. However, it was nothing like real snow. Real snow is cold and nasty and usually sticks together. But that's why we love it. It's so temptingly tasty white looking, but it feels sharply cold against the skin. This warm white thing just fell apart. It was almost like the white plastic stuff they put into boxes when they pack something really delicate, only the "flakes" were really about 1 mm diameter and really light. It would be really disappointing if LA kids actually thought that snow really is like that. They probably do.

Fake snow - soft and light. Feels much nicer than the real stuff.

Then we went to the Russian quarter to get some "kohupiim", which, as it turns out, is called "farmer's cheese" here. We are going to make farmer's cheese-apple-cinnamon cake tomorrow. We visited this weird store that looked exactly like the worst stereotypical village stores in Estonia. It was crowded and people were speaking a lot of Russian. They sold Russian caviar, Latvian and Lithuanian chocolate and desserts and nothing from Estonia. A bit disappointing. But the atmosphere felt really horrible there. I just felt so suffocated. My friend didn't seem to mind, but after 20 minutes in the Russian quarter I really needed to get back into the real world.

A store in the Russian quarter - doesn't look like USA at all.

We walked down Melrose and visited many stores. We would have eaten at Pinks but we felt too full from fatty Mexican food and a cappuccino. Pinks is a famous Hot Dog place here. Usually the lines are about 1 hour long. And then finally we also stopped by at Target's store in West Hollywood. People toldd me that Target is like Wallmart, except it is a bit more expensive and the stuff is nicer. It looked very cheerful and there was a lot of space there. Me likey! Gonna have to visit it before I come back to Estonia. They had really cool stuff there.

Look what I saw!

Finally it was getting late and my friend was going to a concert. She had bought the ticket before I even knew I was coming here on Tuesday already. It gave me a chance to do some work on my computer, which was very convenient for me. However we didn't cook, so ate some more fast food. Altogether, I ate as much as an athletic woman should eat. I hope the pregnancy and the hours of walking make up for it, because tomorrow I have to be as starved as I can be!

Rainy Beaches

2008-11-26T00:34:00.000-08:00

Before noon I got on a rental car with this cool guy from Germany and we headed out to Los Angeles. No funny thoughts here, okay? He's got a girlfriend in Germany and things aren't flirty or anything. It's rather nice that all the pressure is off because it's a clear platonic relationship and there's no constant hinting of our intentions (or lack thereof).

Their scenery reminds me of Egypt too!

His plan was to see the Los Angeles beaches, mostly Santa Monica and Venice beach close by. My plan was to get to LA to see as much as I can here. So I joined him on the beach tour and went to those beaches with him. And you've all seen it on TV - all those beaches so full of people that you barely have a place to stand... Today there was no one! It was calm, quiet and void. Just empty abandoned sand as far as the eye could tell. It was a nice walk and we had a nice conversation. A very pleasant way to spend my day. The wind in my hair and cool sand under my feet. Somehow very relaxing. Usually such cloudy weather can leave a bad feeling with everything, but the nice gray sky was almost pretty to look at.

Empty Baywatch beach.

Finally it was time to split up - I was going to find my friend Rachel in Los Angeles and he was going to get back to San Diego. I called Rachel and she said that the car ride to her place is 20 minutes so maybe the German guy could just drive me there. Seemed simple. We got on freeway 5 and it was HELL! We could barely move. So much traffic. After 20 minutes, we got off freeway 5 and took a regular road. That seemed faster, but driving was still too slow. We drove for a long time and called my friend again. "Perhaps a bus...". So she directed me to the closest place to get a bus ride to her place. Wasn't too far, but the traffic, oh the traffic. Finally we had been stuck in traffic for 2 hours and we had gone 6,2 miles!

A long beach street with small stores Can you say, Egypt.

We reached the right road and got on the outer lane, so I could get off the car at first opportunity. And again, seems simple! We drove 2 km under the sign "NO STOPPING at ANY time." And there was so much traffic that we were driving slower than I usually walk! So eventually I just got off the car under the "no stopping" sign and just walked back those 2 km in the middle of no where, next to the cemetery. Well, fortunately the German guy would have went the same way if he would have just gone straight to San Diego because we didn't get far enough to get too far from his route. And once I was out of the car, it was pretty easy and fast to get to the right bus stop on foot.

Would look sooo much more dramatic if I wasn't laughing.

Bus made me nervous. I can barely recognize nickels and dimes because they don't have any currency markings on them. Dime is smaller and is 10 cents and nickel is bigger and is 5 cents. Otherwise they look pretty much the same. Bus ticket costs $1.25. I thought I'd just calmly figure them out as I was waiting for the bus, but the bus came right away, so I quickly started comparing the silver coins and calculating for 25 cents. If only I hadn't spent my quarters at a vending machine to buy a pack of Cracker Jack's (caramel covered popcorn and peanuts. Tasty.). So anyway, I just showed my coins to the bus driver, "is that the right amount?" and he said, "yes" so I put them in the ticket machine in the bus. Worked. And then I started looking out for the right streets, but then there was another bus blocking my view, so I just asked someone. And they helped me figure out where my stop is.

So I finally met up with Rachel, my friend since early puberty. She's American, but she used to live in Estonia near me for 3 years. It was very nice to see her after a long time. The last time I saw her was at my wedding 1,5 years ago. I saw where she lives and found out that she also has a cat. She doesn't have a kitchen, but her neighbour has a kitchen and is away from town since Sunday and has given Rachel the key, so we actually have access to TV and a kitchen if we feel like it. We'll be kooking Estonian apple-cheesecake and sour kraut with pork for the big Thanksgiving dinner at her friend's place, so we'll put that kitchen to good use.

Pouring down rain in Los Angeles.

So anyway, now I'm comfortable and nicely set up in her place. We got dinner and we got caught in heavy rain and then we got groceries with her friend who has a car. Rain! Like really heavy rain in Los Angeles. Rare stuff here. And I was here just in time. I don't mind - I was in London when they were having their (almost) only sunny days of the year. :) It's only fair to see some rain here. Lots of plans for the next few days, gonna have lots of fun.

And I'm almost starting to feel like California is just like New-Egypt or something. I'm looking forward to stumbling on the pyramids!

All Powerful

2008-11-24T23:53:00.000-08:00

I woke up and found my husband lying in the bed and cuddling me. I asked, "Honey, what are... What?!". And he looked at me all calm and relaxed, "I wanted to surprise you and now here I am!". I got out of the bed, "but you have work! and you HATE flying! I don't get it. I don't BELIEVE it." And he stepped a little closer looking almost disappointed, "well you should believe it because I'm really here." I was really confused. How could he get climb into bed without me noticing? How did he even get into the apartment? Does he even know my address here?! He reached out his hand, "touch me, I'm REALLY here." I took his hand and it really felt real. And then I woke up again and I was alone in the room. I do miss him, but I wasn't sad it had been a dream - I was way more happy that I was sane and I knew my husband well enough to know what is true and what isn't.

Almost looks like a rain forest on a cloudy day.

Went to the lab as usual, although I didn't think much was going to happen there. The real big day marked in my calendar was tomorrow - that's when one girl will show me a very important cell isolation method. I sat down and got out my laptop when that girl walked in and told me that we can't use the plants that we were planning to use, but the other plants are too small now, so we will postpone the method learning to next week.

Then it hit me - I could go to Los Angeles early! I had planned to go on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, but I hadn't figured out what train ticket to book. The train ticket costs $39, that's what I had managed to find out. However, this one German guy mentioned on the weekend that he'll be going to Los Angeles on Tuesday. He'll get a rental car and just spend one day there. We even talked about me not being able to travel to LA with him, because I have lab plans on Tuesday. But now I don't!

I called my friend in LA and she said it would be totally okay if I came on Tuesday already. Then I called the German guy and confirmed with him. And Tomorrow morning I shall be on my way to LA!

Ah, I love the evening sky!

I should also mention that I am an all powerful being! I went to my fave ATM to get money for LA. I put my card in, just like always, and the machine said, "please wait, terminal not functional at the moment." At first I got spooked! What?! no more money for LA? Do I have enough cash? Probably not. But then the text changed into "Please wait, ATM terminal computer is restarting" or something like that. And then the screen went white and weird text started running over the screen. Stuff like, "Initiating program ....., verifying data...." etc. I waited about five minutes until it was fully functional again and I got cash.

I should probably explain how that makes me all powerful. I bet you're all dying to see the connection here. Well, I am a master at making computers crash. They work just fine until I give an order, then impatiently give a different one, then a third one, that conflicts with the first one... "Oh okay! If you can't minimize, then close!". And as I keep slave-driving my computers, it rarely surprises me when programs stop responding and finally the computer crashes. Well, apparently I have gotten so amazingly good at making computers crash, that it's enough to walk to an ATM and put my card inside and then pull it out (like instruction says!). After so little effort even an ATM terminal will freak out and do a restart! That's how all powerful I am!

"Chriistina" - this must be the most incorrect spelling of Kristiina that I have ever seen.

Down Town

2008-11-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

Lets just start with - my evening plans were cancelled. We were supposed to go out to celebrate a birthday, but the birthday boy has been ill since the middle of the week. He was hoping to be better by Sunday evening, but he was complaining about feeling very cold on Saturday evening already. He didn't get better at all. In fact, he was feeling even worse today and the weather was also worse, so he decided to take a rain check.

Something green within that gloomy down town.

I made many mistakes today, all of which can be said with one word - procrastination. I was going to go to down town at 10 am to get an early start. I ate breakfast at 9:30 and I just chilled out by the computer until it was 12 o'clock. I felt I won't be home until about 1 am so I wanted to spend more time at home. Before I knew it, it was 2 pm and I was still at home. "Okay, enough!", I told myself, got myself ready and went out. And now we get to the real mistakes. At 3:30 o'clock in the afternoon I was in a bus. I had missed my lunch and I had forgot to make coffee in the morning. I felt horrible - agitated and slightly lightheaded.

Almost looks like London.

I reached down town and thought of only one thing - food! I thought I'd step into the first place that sells cheap food because I didn't want a culinary treat. I just wanted FOOD. This turned out to be more difficult than I would have thought. Most places looked either really expensive or horribly icky and abandoned. It took me 20 minutes to find a good real American burger place, which was amazingly delicious! I have to visit that place again before I leave San Diego.

Busy streets and colorful lights.

Unfortunately it was pretty late by the time I felt like a human again and it got dark almost immediately after. The houses looked tall and the atmosphere felt uncomfortable, especially alone in a dark down town of a 1,3 million people city. There were many homeless people begging. They had got quite comfortable sitting there like it's something they've done for years every day.

Cute glass froggy!

I walked around and made a wrong turn. There were less and less people around, I was alone and got a bit scared. I took out my map and made my way back to the main road. Each time I took out my map I felt like I was an obvious lost tourist, even worse, lost young female tourist. I tried to keep it hidden as much as possible and I kept walking with my usual sure and steady fast pace. Before long I found the right place and things felt safer again. It felt even better when I finally got home.

A huge pile of coupons came with mail. My roommate never uses them, so she gave them to me in case I'm interested in any of the offers. I picked out a handful and threw away the rest.

Coupons! I picked out a few just in case!

The cat loves canned pumpkin puree. It's cute to see the cat ask for a bite of that. Odd choice of food for a cat!

Cute paw move.

Not from North Pole

2008-11-23T01:21:00.000-08:00

I really want to do some more sunbathing, but the weather hasn't been all that great. During the best sunbathing time I'm usually in the lab, so I should try to get the most out of the weekend. So I looked at the weather broadcast and it said 23 degrees for today and 21 degrees for tomorrow. Both days partially cloudy. Out of two bad choices, today was a better one. I but on my bikini, took my book, and went to lie by the pool. Half the time light clouds were hiding the sun and at one point it even got quite chilly. I was the ONLY one there. People were walking past doing their own things. They didn't look at all like they would even consider sunbathing at such a cold cloudy winter day. I really felt I come from a colder place - not North Pole, but as far as I'm concerned, close enough!

I'd look for gold in those juice packages.

Apparently, whenever I go to the store, I buy oranges. I was there just to get some yogurt and also minced meat if I like the price and quality. ($8 packages are not really what I need. They were all too big.) I also wanted orange juice but changed my mind. As I walked through fresh foods sections I saw these really tasty ripe looking oranges, at least 4-pound package. I have oranges at home, but mmmmmmmm... Could not leave these ripe oranges at the store. I know I will eat them! I used to suspect, but now I'm pretty sure it's a craving. Good thing I'm pregnant during orange season!

I did something really stupid - I forgot my passport at home when I went out with the Germans. In Estonia, that hasn't been an issue since I finished high school. I know it hasn't been that long since then, but I barely remember it. In Estonian clubs they do ask for ID, but in my case, it's my ID-card, which is better than a passport in Estonia. Passport is just for traveling and actually not always needed inside EU. Here, it's just a piece of plastic. At the door of every pub, bar and pub, there is a bouncer asking for a passport. One guy who is over 30 years old and has spent two years in San Diego, said that without a passport, it's impossible to get into any place. You probably see the problem with forgetting my passport at home.

Going back for the passport would take more than two hours. If I'm extremely unlucky with catching a bus, it might even take over 3 hours. I apologized and said that I'll just hang out for a little while (It had taken me an hour to get there), but then I'll go home. Even I don't want to just stand outside or sit at some fast food place. They said we'll look around just in case - maybe we find some place where we can get in. First place was very strict. "No exceptions, sorry." The second place looked the same. Two tough-looking body guards were guarding the door and chatting. We approached, and they were still not paying attention to us. We entered, and they STILL didn't pay attention to us. And we were in!

Had to take that picture, just like a true tourist!

When we got enough of that place and decided to move on, I said that I'll go home and wished them a good time partying. They were really sweet and waited for the bus with me, even though I said I'll be okay and they should move on. I promised to take my passport tomorrow. I already put it in my bag so I don't forget.

Ah, one odd thing that I saw - there was a burger place which never has any customers at all. I've walked past it many times and it's always empty, but I've never paid much attention to it. Then I saw that they had a sign that looked like it actually said "Fatburber". Haha, no wonder they're no visitors. But really there was only one line missing and it was supposed to be "Eatburger", so it wasn't really their fault. Or is that really so? When I was riding past it later on the bus, I saw the name of the place. The burger place is really called "Fatburger"!!! They definitely should change the name in the modern health food California!

"Eatbuger"? Nooooo. It's definitely "Fatburger".

PS! I just heard that there's almost 2 meters of snow in Estonia. Like, WHOA! I guess I shouldn't complain about "only" 23 degrees and partially cloudy.

Oh, and it seems the post isn't very picture-heavy. I do have a bunch of pictures on my camera, but I don't want to post pictures of other people here because I like to distribute the blog link very freely and I don't want them to think that my photo camera is a dangerous machine where any of the pictures might be published somewhere online.

Eeeek! So heavy?!

2008-11-22T00:11:00.000-08:00

When I packed for my trip, I was commenting all the clothing, "ah, this will fit me another couple of weeks. This one should fit better toward the end of the trip" etc. I didn't take anything that was already quite tight. Some things I was pretty sad to leave behind. My pregnancy is 14 to 20 weeks during the trip, which is exactly when pregnancy really starts showing. Well, it has! My tummy is all round-looking already and I already have problems fitting into some clothing. I was absolutely convinced that some people would look at me and think, "OMG, such a waste. She has really taken up snacking and fast food in USA. Look how fat she's got!", so I haven't kept my pregnancy a secret at all. However, I actually HAVE taken up snacking and fast food here. I feel heavy and my stomach is so hard to pull in, but the rest of my body is still the same as before so the heaviness is just the pregnancy. I'm sure of it... I think, maybe... please be so!

Old and abandoned looking scale.

The girl who's room I've occupied has a scale. It looked like it would never work, but I decided to try nonetheless. So I tapped the scale and stepped on it, involuntarily holding my breath. I was about 64 kg in Estonia, and pounds are about twice that, so I should be like, roughly 120-130 pounds. I looked at the scale and it said 143.5 pounds. I mean, that's like 70 kg, right? That's HEAVY! I got my computer running and used a weight converter. As it turns out, 143.5 pounds is 65 kg, which is perfectly normal and pretty much exactly what I would expect with such a round tummy. Relieved!

Is that a tummy there?

Spent the friday night behind the computer doing programming. It got quite frustrating at one moment, because I had really weird bugs that no one else seemed to be complaining about. Eventually I was completely at a loss. I decided to do everything from scratch using someone else's recommended code. And suddenly it worked. I have no idea what was wrong before, but now it's all okay! Normally this would be a good time to take a celebrating glass of something sweet and alcoholic, sherry would be nice, but I guess hot chocolate will have to do!

Seems Estonians are not the only ones who add dish washing liquid to water fountains.

Don't think I don't have a life here. I have plans for Saturday AND Sunday evening. I went to lunch with the cool German group and they invited me to meet with them on the weekend. I also have ideas what I will do Saturday and Sunday during the day. I doubt I'll have much time to sit behind the computer, though. But I think I should have a lot to show you guys and very little time to write it, so probably it means picture-heavy posts for the weekend.

Pretty light show. I just stopped and stared for a minute.

Proudly Geeky

2008-11-20T20:12:00.000-08:00

Today was an excellent day. I barely got bored or anything. Remember I mentioned I got something to do from the lab in Estonia. Well it's all about web page programming. I got a picture and started to turn that into a working web page. At first I thought, "Daaaamn! could the image be any more difficult?". It was pretty though, so it was definitely worth making into a web page. Perhaps people who design web pages should never learn about the actual code, because otherwise they wouldn't add half the things that are difficult to program into html but look really pretty. That's a thought to remember.

San Diego university is full of harmless geeks. This is the first police car I've seen anywhere near campus.

So I woke up and started looking where I should start. Then I went to the lab and started doing programming. I had lunch in the sun with two girls and I volunteered to helped with some tedious lab task that even a monkey could do. Wasn't that bad. And then some more programming. In the afternoon, Internet disappeared so I packed up and went home where I continued. Well, it's 8 o'clock in the evening and a moment ago I was still doing that. Perhaps it's enough for today. Lets see if I manage to stop. It's not slave-labour or anything like that! It's just so much fun! Extremely addictive. Like Sudoku but something actually gets done so there's satisfaction from that as well.

Fog hasn't cleared yet.

Sometimes I just walk on the same home-university road like I've walked many times already and just see something that makes me stop and take a picture. Currently it's winter here, and although it's summer for me, some plants actually seem to be losing their leaves. At first I thought that the ground is always covered with leaves, but some trees just simply remind me of fall in Estonia!

Pretty red leaves. (Picture taken yesterday. Sky was more clear.)

America is very car-friendly, but it's not pedestrian-unfriendly. In some ways they even think about walking people more than in Estonia. They have all sorts of sections for walkers. Basically it's all because they just don't want us walking people in their way. Well, some things here I have never seen anywhere else - like Drive-Up ATM machines (PS! No, these don't accept my card either).

Pretty convenient for car drivers.

Creeping Clouds

2008-11-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

Things are certainly looking up! Well, not in San Diego lab - I didn't learn any new techniques today and the girl assigned to help me isn't taking any initiative at all. I mean, I go and rant all my plans and thoughts and she says, "ah, well, you can try...". I don't know, seems she's not narrowing down my ideas at all and she's not really giving enough of her expertise on how to do such experiments. Seems she'd just prefer if I could do it without any help from her at all. So here I am inventing the bicycle. I'm going to find a way to get her to do what I need of her! I extremely rarely deliberately try to find a new persona for myself when communicating with someone, but I really need her to show me how to do those experiments!

But that's not what I wanted to talk about! Things are looking up because I finally have something to do. The Estonian lab has some tasks that I can do on my computer here! And I thought I was actually going to resort to Solitaire! Oh the horror!

You can see the broken light on the road.

I forgot to tell you something yesterday! I was in a car accident! Well ok, it wasn't anything that bad. I was in a bus going to Pacific Beach and the bus was making a turn when it suddenly used the horn and abruptly stopped. Someone had tried to get ahead before it finishes the turn, but was apparently too slow, because the vehicles touched at the front corner of the bus. Fortunately there was another bus (same number!!!) just 100m down the road and everyone just got on the other bus. I'm not sure I would have even mentioned it, but today I saw that something similar had happened at my bus stop. This meant that the university shuttle had no where to stop and it just whooshed right past us. I almost would have been late for my lab safety training!

You can see the broken light on the road.

Actually I did do something useful in terms of San Diego lab - I finally got my lab safety training! Wasn't too bad. Actually pretty fun because they showed cool pictures of what you could do wrong in a lab. Anything from showing too full trash boxes with needles sticking out to the aftermath of working with acids when wearing only shorts. My roommate just laughed and said I must REALLY be bored if I actually enjoyed lab safety training.

Road to no where.

It was really odd weather here today. The temperature dropped from 29 to 20 overnight and this caused really cool fog. I could just see the clouds sinking to the ground. One moment it was very cloudy and this weird "smoke" sinking everywhere, the next moment the cloud was gone and it was all clear outside. Inside the cloud I could feel the humidity on my skin. And it was so dark for a while. Cool weather tricks.

The sinking cloud.

Watching Grass Grow

2008-11-18T21:08:00.000-08:00

As time passes, I'm less and less motivated to keep myself busy in the lab. Today I spent most of the day having literally nothing to do. Even reading Estonian news wasn't an option after Internet started flickering on anf off like Christmas lights. Whenever I clicked somewhere, it all froze again and again there was no Internet. Another person was also having wireless Internet problems today, so I don't think it was just my computer's fault this time.

Well I had a choice - I either play around with the experiment on my own with no supervision and no one to ask questions from, or I keep sitting at the computer. I had already played around with the experiment, but I had supervision and someone to point out what I should do differently. Well now I could just make all the mistakes, waste all the equipment and get my faulty results and lots of faulty data to process. I was actually going to do that until I realized that the entire experiment plan was wrong and none of what I would do will matter in any way. Then it just became so pointless to risk braking expensive lab equipment playing around on my own.

Pretty blossoming wild flowers cheer me up.

In stead, I took the bus to Pacific Beach for the third time already. That made me feel like I had accomplished something - ANYTHING - today. But I have lab-related plans for Wednesday and Friday. Plus I'm gonna see if one person could teach me one thing on Thursday - that would be perfect. I wouldn't say that my lack of activity is due to lack of trying, but all that sitting around and doing nothing is getting to me. It's way worse than the plane ride because I'm not even supposed to be reading a book or anything when I'm in the lab. I'm not used to such inactivity.

Picture of the bus from inside.

"Americans all drive around in huge cars that use up SOOOOO much gas. They just think it's normal to have a huge American car!", said a bunch of people in Estonia and the rest of the Europe. That's the general consensus, so it must be true, right? Well I don't really think so. Most of the time, the cars here are exactly the same as gthe ones in Estonia. It's Hondas and BMWs and other regular cars that people use everywhere. Even the totally unknown probably American companies seem to be making just the regular small city cars that are easy to park and probably take very little gas. But every once in a while I see a car here that makes me go, "wow, that's one big-ass car!".

CARRRRRRRRS!

I saw a tree within a wall. I wonder if it's a rare plant. I wonder why they felt the need to preserve this tree when they built the road. The picture was made between two roads which did not seem that new. The plant doesn't look so healthy there. I hope it's okay.

Awwwwwww... poor little dusty tree being walled in.

I was in the mood for hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows ever since I saw the tiny marshmallows sold in a store the day after I arrived. I immediately remembered all the movies and cartoons where people put marshmallows in hot chocolate, but I also thought, "oh that's horrible, all that sugar and calories, no real nutritional value. I shouldn't eat stuff like that!". Some time has passed and every time I see marshmallows in a store, I think about this treat. Well now I realized that I have to try that! Hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows is a totally American treat as far as I know. How can I live in USA for 6 whole weeks and not try that. Plus my HUGE milk has the expiration date coming up in a few days and there's no way I'd drink that pure. So anyway, ... there's no other choice!

I might have overdone it with the marshmallows.

The Horror of Shopping

2008-11-17T23:32:00.000-08:00

Today will be a tricky day. I don't have anything to eat at home. Well, okay, I have eggs and pasta and I swear I might actually eat that. The first reason for such an extreme dinner plan is that it's already 5 p.m. and I'm still in the lab. I can see the sun setting from the window. You're probably wondering that if I have time to write this, then I should probably just go home, right? Well that's not a good idea. One guy in the lab said that he will be doing the first half of a certain experiment today, and I REALLY wanna see that, but he'll be doing it at 6 or 6:30 p.m. Seeing it is definitely worth the wait! However, I will get home even later and to a grocery shop later yet.

The second reason is that I hate to spend money. Really I need to go grocery shopping but it's amazing how tedious that is! No wonder I always let my husband do that for me in Estonia! I feel guilty every time I break open a $20. And each time I go to the shop and buy only a few little things, I end up spending like 20-25 dollars. I'm not really much of a spender, but there are just things I want to get. Like for example, I wanted some mint tea. In Estonia, that would cost like 20 kroons for the cheapest, or maybe 25 kroons. That's about $2, but here all tea costs $3.80 to $5. Of course I got the cheapest and it didn't even look like any fancy tea. Or I don't know, there's barely a choice with the things I want to buy. 90% of what they call tea is some sweet powder they pour in a mug. Even Lipton is making that. I also wanted regular butter for frying stuff and I think I paid like $3 or $4 for that. They take so much bride in adding plant oils and other junk to their butter, that I found only one real butter and even that was imported! And even that was salted and not nearly as tasty as Estonian butter.

Not something you'll likely find being sold in Estonia.

I also bought some bread. I took the cheapest tasty looking bread, and it was half a bread so that was even cheaper. I paid like $2.50 for it. Can you imagine spending 30 kroons for half a bread? Another time when I went shopping, I got something a little cheaper - whole bread for ONLY $2.79. Fruit costs around 100 kr/kg - I paid $5.25 for four oranges. 230g pack of sliced cheese costs $3.99. My 340g of turkey ham costs $4.49 (that is 158 kr/kg). However, I got a really good deal of two for the price of one with my shop member card. And just to make this clear - I buy the cheapest edible stuff that I can find. I won't buy stuff I wouldn't even eat if someone paid me for it, but I try my best to keep keep my shopping basket simple and low-price.

Another cereal package just said, "Image is enlarged to show more detail."

I'm a really cheap person when it comes to money. I'm not exactly low-maintenance, but I almost never spend without even realizing it. Here, no matter how much I try, I constantly spend more than I planned. Everything just costs so much more and the the store bill builds up so fast. So far I have spent $380 and it's been 11 days. That doesn't include today's shopping. I'm just hoping that the grocery bill has just been somewhat bloated from the things I buy only once to get settled in and then it will stabilize at around $150 (per week). Also, I'm starting to get the hang of making lunch to go. This means I won't spend money on eating outside, but all the components are still so costly, so I don't think it will change my expenses so much. The only thing I can say for myself is that I barely waste any food. What I buy I eat.

And lets not forget that I had to get many one-time purchase things. The body lotion cost $6.80 and it was the pharmacy brand. I also went nuts and I bought a sweater and a tank top. The store selection looked a lot like the New Yorker store in Tartu and it was having a sale, so I got a really good sweater for $8 and the tank top was less than half of that. I didn't bring enough sweaters with me, so I happily bought it. I definitely didn't over pack after my husband said, "clothing in US is cheap, so if you need something that you didn't think of, you can always buy it there". I didn't buy any new clothing for my trip from Estonia.

Well spending money here is just so easy it's insane. Now I'm nervous because today I'm going to have to buy just about everything - bread, ham, cheese, salad mix, muesli, some basic fruits, and food for as long as I can possibly imagine. I wonder how much it will be this time...

I have food now!

...Update. I bought everything that I needed and a bit more, except I have to go to another store tomorrow to get some fresh salad. I only spent $29 for all the stuff I got today. That's half the amount I was afraid I would spend. Anyway, I have lots of food now. Yay!

Ghost resurrected

2008-11-16T19:04:00.000-08:00

I've had a nice Sunday of sleeping in, buying some essentials at the store (really can't do without a basic body lotion if you're in such weather), swimming in the pool and sunbathing. I almost look like human now. When I got here, I was so white that I could have been the basis of a brand new race. Like really! I was ghost-white. The German girl even commented on that after I was caught in a picture next to a bronze-skinned guy. I didn't take any offence because it was just so true. However, I thought that a little bit of a healthy tan wouldn't hurt, so I made plans to sunbathe for sure. Time to go from ghost complextion to a human one!

Mmmmm... Swimming...

The water in the pool was a bit too cold today. I didn't mind the couple of bees floating there. There's also a jacuzzi near the pool and the water there was waaaay too warm for me. I think I'm gonna have to try the jacuzzi some evening near midnight.

Hard to get used to the palm trees.

Since I hardly did anything worth documenting today, I wanted to talk about being a pedestrian in USA. Before I came here, I heard that it is impossible to walk here. I heard that the cities here are full of really dangerous areas where you lock your car doors, close the windows and step on the gas a little. And if you try to walk, you are just asking for trouble - you get mugged and depending on the circumstances, also raped and beaten up. Okay, I thought, I'll be careful but I'm still gonna see if walking is possible here. I kinda like walking. Now I'm here and I have to admit here I am less paranoid about my safety than I am in Tartu or Tallinn.

People said it's impossible to get from one place to another without a car because the public transportation is just so awful. I have not seen that at all. I was quite hesitant about taking the bus, but to my great surprise, it's much cleaner than it is in Estonia. Everyone buys a ticket because you don't even get into the bus without one. Most people have a sticker or a bus permit or a monthly pass, but you can also buy a single ticket and that costs $5. This means there are no homeless people on buses. In Estonia, the buses often stink REALLY bad because some homeless guy is in there. Especially in the winter because the bus is so nice and warm. In the summer they just use the bus to get from one place to another. So basically, in the winter they stay there long enough to fill the bus with the stink and in the summer the warmed up stink is horrible enough so that the bus fills up the moment they enter. Quite bad. Most people don't like to take the bus because of the smell. But here in San Diego the buses have air conditioning, they're clean and the inside of the bus smells fresh.

The buses also seem to be on time and they seem very reliable. However, I didn't say you can rely on the public transport here. The problem is that San Diego is just so big! The German girl said that one time she missed the last bus and tried walking home. It didn't seem so far on the map. So after two hours she had covered only one third of the way! Yeah, in Tartu when we miss the last bus, we have to walk home too but it's not gonna take us 6 hours to do so!

So all in all, the buses are great, but you can't get everywhere with a bus and then you need your car.

Scorching sun.

Walking is annoying for one reason though. The cars come first! ALWAYS! It's so annoying that every time I need to cross the street, I have to wait for a really long time for the light to turn green. The intersections are huge and I push the button - first one direction goes straight, then one direction turns left, then the other direction goes straight and then the other direction turns left. And I just stand and wait there, watching 50 cars going before I get to cross the street. I spend as much time waiting to cross than I do walking. Ah, so annoying. I really hate waiting.

Close enough to Mexico to see one of those things.

But I always imagine that at least I can get a tan if I wait in the sun. We'll see how tanned I've gotten when I'm back in Estonia.

BTW, they're already selling Christmas stuff in a few stores. Every time I see Christmas stuff I think of home, because that's my deadline. I'll be back in Estonia on the 23rd of December, so the countdown til Christmas is pretty much the countdown to going home.

Half Way to Town

2008-11-15T19:11:00.000-08:00

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!

Oh the dangers!

2008-11-15T02:00:00.000-08:00

This is a Friday evening quick post. Actually I went out and partied, and I got home after 1 am, so I will write about that tomorrow. But I still wanna post all the stuff that I had wrote before noon when I was bored.

I've been wondering something... They have these fire emergency water splashing systems in the ceilings. I do understand the need for those so close to desert, but... Well, you see, in Estonia it is not atypical to get a false fire alarm. Everyone's just sitting there, minding their own business when suddenly this horrid sound starts beeping everywhere - people try to hold their ears and keep shouting things like, "Who was the jerk that triggered it?!" or "Turn that bloody thing off!". Then you know that someone either smoked indoors or some material dust got into the alarm system, or maybe something was burned when cooking, the last thing you assume is actual fire! One false alarm after another. But here it would be different. People are just minding their own business when suddenly it starts to "rain" everywhere - the TV is fried, the stereo system is fried, DVD player, VCR (they actually still use those! ), microwave, refrigerator, etc. And then it's all wet and all the water is linked to all the electrical stuff and everyone is fried and they die . The end.

The deadly weapon lurking above our heads.

But people don't seem to be terrified for their life when they enter a room with one of those water splashing things. Don't they have false alarms? And even during a real alarm - is death by electricity somehow more merciful than death by fire so they prefer that in stead? Mhhh...

PS! Take it with a pinch of salt. I don't really think those things are lethal. But all the electrical appliances seem to be at risk here.

pretty big picture.

I think I figured out why I've been having problems with Internet! A couple of hours after I come to the lab, Internet starts disappearing every few minutes. I usually don't have that in the apartment, but yesterday evening I did - I had the laptop on the bed and I was playing with the cat and talking with my husband on Internet phone when suddenly Internet disappeared. I got it back, and then it disappeared again... Then I realized the computer was too warm. The stupid ventilation system is below the laptop, so when I put the laptop on my bed, the ventilation holes were covered. This caused overheating and the wireless device started malfunctioning temporarily.

All that sun has its downsides.

Now I realized the same is happening in the lab. My table is in the sun and the same with my laptop. A couple of hours after I come to the lab, near noon, my computer has been overheating from all the sun and the wireless starts to malfunction. When things get really bad and it doesn't even FIND any of the wireless connections nearby, I can usually flip the Bluetooth off and on and it seems to help. I have no idea why. I don't think Bluetooth is in any way responsible for my wireless Internet connection. I do think that I just proved my theory - I got the computer out of the sun and my Internet connection is stable again. I think I need a more permanent solution than just lifting my computer out of the sun - FOIL TO THE RESCUE!

Noisy activity putting it up there, but I did helluva good job at it.

Anyway, today was also pretty slow at the lab, but otherwise great.

I'm a club member now

2008-11-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

You get regular smileys today - the website where I usually get them from seems to be out of order. I might replace with cute smiley pictures tomorrow if I'm in the mood.

Today has been quite a dizzy day for me. Somehow I woke up a bit later, it took longer for me to get ready and it took longer to get out of the apartment. However, I got quite a lot done. Mostly stuff that are needed in the lab in Estonia. The only thing I did with the San Diego lab today is - well... umm - I sat there! And uhm.... I ate lunch there! :D I scheduled something for tomorrow though, so I have my hopes up about that.

I thought many of you might find this image interesting:

Up to date gas prices in USA.

$2,8 per gallon is the same as 8.8 kroons per liter. Gas price in Estonia is about 16 kroons/liter - that is $5 per gallon. For a while it was more like 22 kroons/liter, which would be $7 per gallon, but fortunately the price went down. It's not like I own a car, but it's one of those topics in Estonia - Americans thinking that their gas prices are high and Estonians wishfully talk about times when gas price was less than 10 kroons per liter. You know what, I'm glad I don't own a car in Estonia! :-p (okay, I admit that might change as soon as I get my driver's licence).

These "flowers" look good enough to eat!

I bought a Blistex chap stick today! I took two different chap sticks with me from Estonia, but you see, I have two bags. So if one chap stick is in one bag and the other one is in the other bag, then there are no chap sticks left for my bedside! :-o That is horrible! Can you image, I might actually forget my chap stick at home one morning because I but it beside the bed in the evening. :) Well, this Blistex is special - it's Raspberry Lemonade Blast, so it's the kind I have never seen sold in Estonia. And trust me when I say - I know all the kinds the sell in Estonia! :D

I thought these were supposed to be red!

I was walking along one of those sunny little roads and something MOVED in the leaves and all that other stuff under the trees. Of course I was convinced it was a HUGE spider waiting for the perfect moment to ATTACK. So I stopped to look and there were these two little birdies jumping and looking for food. It took some tome to spot the birdies so I made a picture of one of them.

Find the bird in the picture. :-p

I also joined the Vons Club today, in other words, I got myself the discount card at Vons supermarket. Joining the club and membership are free, I get discounts and I got a cute silvery card to go with it. :) So far the best shop I've seen. I mean - they actually have milk and shampoo in the same store! :-o Like, WOW! :)

Any excuse will do

2008-11-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

First of all, look what I saw on my way to school. Arrogant jerks!

HA-HA! Very funny!

Actually I had a really great day. I still like my breakfast, even though I've been eating the same thing each morning - muesli with yogurt and two fried eggs. I know it keeps me happy until lunch, and that's what I also ate in Estonia. I usually got my variety by changing muesli brands and yogurt flavors, but now I just have what I got from the store a few days ago - berry muesli with plain yogurt. And eggs are eggs. No variety there! And unexpected as it is, I think most milk products taste good here. My yogurt and cottage cheese are just like the kind that you'd get in Estonia. And by the way, cottage cheese is almost in between the two different products that we call kodujuust and kohupiim, but it's still a lot more like kodujuust (almost disappointing!). Cheese tastes great straight from the package, but after warming it up, it gets very rubbery and tasteless. I'm more used to cheese getting a stronger taste after being heated up.

Everything comes in bigger package than I'm used to. And all milk comes in plastic containers.

Milk is another story. It tastes funny. It's got this weird taste to it as if some of the washing liquid is still in the milk. I got the 2% milk because it was the closest to our average 2.5% milk. In Estonia, you get to choose between 2,5 % milk from many different companies and they all basically taste the same - creamy sweet milk taste. Some years ago came fat free milk. I don't know anyone who admits to drinking that, unless they're on a diet. I just tastes bad and it's see-through. Here it was REALLY hard to choose milk. I didn't find any milk with more than 2% fat. A lot of the milk was either A- and D-vitamin or A-vitamin, D-vitamin and Calcium fortified. I think I might have bought just Calcium fortified milk, but I already take vitamins every morning so I just got a regular milk.

Take a guess - is this the right side of the building or the back side.

Today I got lost. Well, not really, but I did do quite a lot of extra walking. I exited the apartment building from another side. I assumed it was the right side of the building, because I got straight to the street. I turned left and started walking. 20 min later I got suspicious. "I don't think that's the road I'm supposed to be crossing. Oh wait, what road am I on?!" I took out my map and saw that I could just keep walking and take another road to the campus. Easier said than done - I ended up walking extra two miles.

PS! I hate walking through parking lots. You never know what car will start up next. But by the time I come back to Estonia, I'll be quite used to it.

Shortcut to campus - notice the pedestrian road on the other side of the parking lot.

Today at the lab I saw such a cool thing. It was a totally new way to do something that I had only seen being done in another way. I won't get into any details, but I was really excited. And the person showing it was REALLY fun to hang out with. I had a great time.And now we finally get to where my post title came from - when I was in the lab, my Internet suddenly disappeared. My computer didn't even see any wireless networks existing anymore. I got really confused - it's also my first time trying to handle a laptop and I usually use an Internet wire, so I had no idea how to fix it. Well it was a great excuse to talk to the three people in the office room where I have my desk. They all laughed at my PC and pointed at their Apples. They said this alone explains the problem. It was funny. However, one guy helped me find a PC user, another person I had barely talked with. All in all, the wireless problem got fixed and it turned out to be a good excuse to talk with all those really cool people.

About time I am on one of these pictures.

Know the Local Holidays

2008-11-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

Today started out weird. I got up too early because the bank issue was making me nervous. I suppose that being 9330 km (5800 miles) from home with $25, running out of toothpaste and food, would make anyone nervous. I ate breakfast and had a Skype talk with my husband. However, I didn't get any coffee because my roommate was still sleeping when I left. I went outside and didn't put on a jacket. It really looked so warm! Well apparently no one else thought so since I was the only one in short sleeves. I ended up looking like I'm from some polar region if I consider THIS to be a short-sleeve weather. I have to admit it was chilly outside. There weren't many people around. I wondered if they all stayed in because of the cool weather. Then I got to the lab and the doors were locked. That was distressing - no coffee, feeling chilly, locked outside. I went to get some coffee and walked to the main campus pedestrian road.

This main campus road was full of people just yesterday!

Then I realized - it's not that there aren't many people walking around - in reality - there's no one here! Suddenly I got a weird memory flash of someone behind a desk telling me they won't be open the next day. AHA! I know what's going on! Need to get access to Internet NOW! So I sat down and opened my laptop - Google: "USA national holidays" - 11th of November is Veteran's Day! Back home for a coffee then!

Pretty exotic flowers.

This seemed a good chance to spend the day looking for the right ATM machine. Yesterday I called my bank to ask what I could do to get cash with my card. As it turns out Visa and Visa Electron are not the same thing. Actually I didn't think they were, but a stupid USA bank clerk said that Visa and Visa Electron are the same and if my card doesn't work in their machine, then I should contact my bank in Estonia. It seems I have bad luck with bank clerks. So now I knew that I had to find an ATM that says Visa Electron on it.

Our common Estonian weed. Impossible to kill and apparently grows EVERYWHERE. Including San Diego.

I checked on all the ATMs I saw, with no luck. Then I looked it up on the Internet and I marked all the Visa Electron accepting ATM machines on my map and went hunting! An hour later still nothing! I had seen six or seven ATMs. None of them really accepted Visa Electron. It was getting hopeless. Then I saw a random hotel nearby and remembered what my husband said in the morning. "Big hotels often have ATM machines that accept even the weird foreign cards that no one in USA uses.". It was worth a try. I went in there, looking like a mountain climber in a palace, and asked if they have an ATM that accepts Visa Electron. The person working there was really friendly and curiously asked what a Visa Electron is! Their ATM didn't have any markings on it at all. I put my card in, followed the instructions and IT GAVE ME MONEY!!!! YAY! Thank you, thank you!

The window of a BOOKstore.

You know what, you Americans have a weird understanding of stores. Yesterday I visited UCSD bookstore. At first I thought I was in the wrong place since I didn't see any books. Okay, that makes sense, they also sell UCSD stuff like UCSD mugs and pens, t-shirts and flip-flops... and uhm, Christmas decorations?! Okay, I'll accept that... Uhm, what are spatulas and whisks doing here? Now this is too weird! I also found my new notebook and a San Diego map.

Class of 2006, Class of 2007, Class of 2008, ..., ..., ....
Pretty optimistic, don't you think?

Today I also went to Vons supermarket and I also had my first burrito. Loved 'em both! Vons more than the burrito. Closest thing to Tartu supermarkets so far. They sold toothpaste there and all sorts of other ordinary stuff that everyone needs anyway. Prices were mostly similar to Estonian, except some weird things. Would you pay 40 kroons for a regular can of diced tomatoes? Or 50 kr/kg for apples that usually cost 20 kr/kg. I got really cheap apples - 3 pounds for $5. Almost nothing seemed cheaper than in Estonia.

Weird thing about it - the way things were organized. Toothpaste, "Extra chocolaty" cookies, paper tissues, "Buy 2 to get 1 free" cupcakes, paper plates, "All Natural" fruit juice! One side was always sweets and even between regular merchandise you'd find an odd cookie. I saw Oreo cookies in 4 different sections and after a while I almost bought some, but they all came is 1-pound-get-fat-fast packages. Also, by the time I reached dried fruits, I considered it a healthy choice to buy "Natural yogurt covered raisins". Stopped myself at the last moment. No wonder people get fat. (still haven't seen fat people though).

Oh wow! What a day!

2008-11-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

I was actually quite glad to sleep through most of the day yesterday because the future was looking grim. I don't think I've mentioned it in the blog yet, but I'm in San Diego for scientific reasons. I had decided to go to the local lab the first chance I got - on Monday morning. However, I didn't have a notebook, I didn't receive a reply from the person I was supposed to be working with, I wasn't quite sure where the lab was, I was supposed to make an appointment and then go to their office to get an ID card but I didn't quite understand where the office was, and I before I could even start work, I needed lab safety training, but the person I had contacted on the topic hadn't emailed me back either, so I had no idea when I would even get a permit to start my work in the lab. (not "work" as in the legal sense where I'd need a working permit too).

None of these small campus roads are marked on the map.

Being really unsure about my situation, I just went and walked to the lab. Yesterday I spent a fair amount of time finding out where it is exactly. It was pretty amazing how different this lab is from our lab in Estonia! In Estonia, we have this new lab with a lot of empty space and brand new equipment. Their lab looked like something that a chemistry dictionary spat out. Shelves up to the ceiling full of chemical bottles and abandoned equipment. Old desks with drawers with marking who it belongs to and piles of tubes with odd markings. Each table looked like it had their own system of clutter because each belonged to a different person. Actually most labs look like this. And it wasn't messy. It just didn't have enough storage space left, so people kept their things on the desks. I was just walking around introducing myself. So many Chinese people, BTW. And a map of Japan on the wall. Made me quite curious but I didn't ask. I asked about the person I was supposed to be working with. That was followed by a lot of really fast talk in Chinese and then they told me, "She's not coming in this week." Ummmm... Ooookay! And then I found out about the lab safety training - "You'll have that next Wednesday." Can things get any worse? Well of course they can! So then one person suggested a table where I should work. And the other person said I can't work there because 3 people are already working there and there are no free tables left!

UCSD mascot. Apparently with legs of a treant!

I hanged around a little while longer, saw some cool things... But I was still worried. Then I went out for a walk and went to the beach. It took me forever to get there. I knew there had to be a beach nearby, because I had seen a campus photo with a beach nearby and my map ended with La Jolla Shores Drive. So perhaps it will take me to the shore. I was right. It was all nice and fun walking to the ocean, but I kinda didn't realize that I'd have to walk all the way back uphill.

At least 50 surfers out on the ocean. The waves didn't quite invite to have a swim though.

I also found a place that sold me my first USA burger. Wasn't too bad. There was twice as much meat as I'd get from a typical Estonian diner food, and half the amount of carbs! And don't even get me started on typical Estonian burgers!

Real American burger. Very soft and squishy bread there.

And then it all went uphill. I got my ID card/bus pass (yay! ...and the picture didn't come out too bad.), then I went back to the lab for a signature and also got to talk with the group leader who suggested what I could do before I get the lab safety training. He also found me a desk and assigned me another person who I could turn to with questions and such. Ah, what a relief. A funny thing though - the group leader kept introducing me as "Kristiina from Finland." And I kept correcting him, "...Estonia!". It was slightly distressing the first time, but I found it really funny when he did it the fourth time! He also got it right a couple of times.

After my 2-hour walk to the beach and plenty of errands around campus, I walked back home. I bet I walked at least 5 hours today, or about 25 km. Not bad for a pregnant woman, right? Ah, it feels so good to just sit here. I also think I got some sun today. I'm sooooo sleepy now. I'm starting to feel like that's how I end ALL my blog posts. Seems like all I would do is sleep!

I think they got their Stonehenge wrong.

Almost forgot to mention... The bank situation had a twist ending - I put my card in an ATM machine and it was unable to read that I have any money on that account. Therefore I couldn't take out any money from the ATM! I'm gonna call my bank later today - I mean, at the start of office hours in Estonia. . The way I figure, it's their fault and they have to fix it. I specifically went to a bank in Estonia, showed my card and asked, "Will this work in USA? ... Might I encounter ANY problems with getting money with THIS card in USA?" No problems, she said. And then first my card doesn't work in any stores and second, it doesn't even work in ATM machines. I'm considering switching my bank. I have a about $25 cash.

I didn't mean to fall asleep

2008-11-09T22:01:00.000-08:00

It was quite cold outside today. I was planning to swim in the pool, but it was 17 degrees Celsius, and really windy. I didn't even want to go outside today. Weather forecast says it will get better. I'm hopeful.

I woke up at 6 AM because my body thought that it was 4 PM. I was doing anything I could think of, anything that didn't require much thinking because I was still sleepy. I was reading my book and I was.... ummm... that's about all I could think of. I didn't feel like watching TV, but I also didn't feel like going outside. I was pacing back and forth in the apartment, trying to "think active". I exercised a little, that felt good, but my back was tired from other stuff so I started to read my book lying in my bed. After about 3 hours I fell asleep. I slept from 4 PM to 9 PM. Ah, it felt good, but I shouldn't have slept. How am I ever going to fall asleep again in the evening.

She was cutely brushing against me right after I woke up, but now she's all sleepy herself. Awww...

I found out my new phone DOES have vibrate function. And it sounds a lot better now that I turned down key volume and picked a new ring tone.

I've been desperately trying to buy a notebook, looking for a bookstore or an office supply store nearby. I saw everything else - markets, diners, banks, a pharmacy... Well today I talked with my friend from Los Angeles and she told me they usually sell notebooks as well as other household items in pharmacies. Notebooks in a pharmacy?! Ummmm... Why? But I guess it makes sense as pharmacy items - food supplements - are sold in grocery stores.

Weird, I'm feeling sleepy again.

To Tap or Not to Tap

2008-11-08T18:20:00.000-08:00

When you go to a warmer country, you should never drink tap water. Never. Not under any circumstances, EXCEPT, as it turned out, when you're thirsty. Well I couldn't help it - my new roommate offered me a glass of refrigerator-cold filtered tap water and I was thirsty. I didn't have any water of my own because I had just arrived from the airport. Well maybe I could have boiled it and then waited for it to cool down, but I didn't wanna! I figured it's only bacteria anyway, it's not gonna kill me. The worst thing that could happen is indigestion and then my body should grow immune to it. This would mean I no longer have to worry about lettuce that is wet with tap water, or accidentally drinking water when in the shower, or telling waitresses not to add any ice cubes to my drink even though it's so hot outside, that I would kill for a couple of ice cubes. (disclaimer: the last part is not to be taken seriously. I don't really kill. ). Anyway, it's been 2 days since I first drank tap water and I'm perfectly okay. I shall continue to drink the cold tap water. Besides, bottled water is expensive! It's not over 3 dollars like in the airport, but I think it's still about twice as expensive as in Estonia.

It's not just me! Everyone here is so thirsty that apparently they'd drink just about anything.

Well I was out doing errands and shopping today. As I found out right after I arrived, my phone doesn't work here. I have the contract for it to work abroad as well, but there's just no reception. I'm assuming my phone company just hasn't negotiated with the local phone companies so that I could use their reception. Well, I fixed that problem. I bought a local phone card. I really doubted that my phone will accept any other sim cards, since my phone is bought through my phone company. Well, I also bought a $15 mobile phone. And you know what's the sad part - the new phone is almost as good as my phone, except it doesn't have vibrate function. I spent another $25 on the phone card and got $35 worth of phone time. Phone issue should be covered for this trip since I'll also use Skype.

The other problem is that my bank card doesn't work in any of the stores. Stupid bank clerk said it would. Foreign debit cards don't work. I was thinking of opening an account in USA. I know I get charged every time I take out money, so perhaps I can reduce that cost if I just make a single money transfer to a bank in USA. Or perhaps I'll make a credit card because more stores accept it. I talked it over with my husband and now I think that it's easier to just withdraw money. I shoulda made a credit card in Estonia. Damn.

Ah, so warm. Every water puddle looked so luring although I had a water bottle with me.

I walked around quite a bit to get acquainted with my surroundings here. I ate at McDonalds, but I ordered a salad which was extremely fresh and healthy. My meal was healthier than what I normally have for lunch. I really do like healthy food, but when I eat out in Estonia, it's impossible to find anything good. Their idea of healthy is 1/2 plate of potatoes, 1/4 of yesterday's salad and 1/4 plate of white sauce with little bits of meat in it. I wish I was exaggerating. Me and my husband have been quite exceptional eaters since we often don't eat any potatoes, bread, pasta, or rice with our meal. We just eat meat and veggies or sometimes meat, cottage cheese and veggies. People think we're nuts. When I came here, my new roommate (we share the kitchen, but I have my own room) offered me something to eat - to my greatest astonishment, she offered meat and broccoli! That's like, you know, HEALTHY! What the heck is going on? And now that I'm on the topic, I haven't seen any fat people so far! There are some overweight people, but almost fewer than in Estonia and I haven't seen anyone who is obese!

I was walking along an 8-lane road and before long I had to cross it. There were traffic lights everywhere, but I was the only person nearby. First I realized that the light will never go green unless I press the button. Actually green is not correct since there is no green there. Traffic lights for people have red and WHITE! First there is a red hand and then there is a white shape of a walking person (almost like the one on the picture). So anyway, I pressed the button and pretty soon the light went "green". I started walking across the street with my regular brisk pace. When I was barely in the middle of the road on a slightly higher ground that separated the different direction lanes, the light suddenly turned red and started blinking. I stopped in the middle of the road because in Estonia when the light is red, you're not supposed to walk on the street. The warning "hurry up" is usually a blinking green or sometimes yellow. Well then the red hand stopped blinking and cars started moving. It didn't take me long to realize that the blinking red is just a warning "hurry up". And now I was stuck in the middle of the road and the light would never turn "green" because I didn't have a button to push. Fortunately there weren't many cars at noon, so I just waited until it was safe to walk and crossed the rest of the street with the red light.

Would you walk across 8-lanes with a blinking red hand when cars are going 56 km/h (35 mph)?

I thought I went to two supermarkets today. I had heard that those are so big that I'll get lost and so high I won't reach at least five of the higher shelves. But really the supermarkets in Tartu are BIGGER than the stores I visited (now I have a problem calling them supermarkets)! Tartu is my home town with 100 000 people, and San Diego has 1,2 million people. I quite liked the stores I visited here. There are aisles with processed food, but there's also many aisles on fresh ready-made food. In Estonia you can find perhaps one small section with pickles, olives and stuff like that, plus there's a small selection of salads and unhealthy-looking warm food. What I saw in the store I visited was entirely another story. I saw at least three shelves with pickle/olive type stuff. I saw huge sections with fresh salads, chopped 5 different kinds of lettuce, chopped other stuff, washed and half-prepared vegetables, fruit, chopped fruit, fruit salads, vegetable mixes, etc. And I would think half of it looks very iffy, like it does in Estonian stores, but it didn't look iffy at all. Everything looked so fresh and clean. I wonder why anyone would not eat vegetables and fruit when your stores have sections like this. Pfffff, but later I found I had just visited an elite fresh food store! The second store was also an elite store, definitely not a supermarket. And even though it wasn't a real supermarket, I saw something odd - there was an entire aisle on all sorts of food supplements. Those would be sold in pharmacies in Estonia. In the evening my roommate took me to the grocery store she usually visits, so I have food now.

A whole aisle on vitamins and other supplements.

There aren't any of the cheap supermarkets nearby since I live too close to the rich district of La Jolla. However, there are a couple of regular classic supermarkets within walking distance, so I'll visit them as soon as I get the chance. For now I'll just enjoy the beauty of warm climate.

Water fountain in the middle of heaven.

I'm finally in San Diego!

2008-11-08T00:19:00.000-08:00

My travels have been long and tiring, but I have reached my destination - San Diego, Ca, USA. Don't get the wrong idea here - it's not like I moved here. I'll live here for 6 weeks and then I go back home to Estonia. Those 6 weeks are not enough to become an American, but certainly enough to start a blog about all the goofy American things I see.

My travels were long indeed. It's been 25 hours during which I had 15 hours in an airplane. Actually it was more fun than it sounds. I like flying. I just don't like the airport procedures. In Stockholm I got off the plane at 7:55, then I got my luggage and soon found the appropriate check-in booth. "mhhh... why are there no people waiting here?". I got confused for only a moment and already someone came and asked me if they can help me. "I need to check in to the 9-o'clock plane going to New York." and I showed her my ticket print-out. "This check-in has now closed. Weren't you informed that the check-in ends an hour before the flight time? It's 15 min past 8 o'clock. But it's okay, go over there and talk to that man behind the counter and you'll be rescheduled for tomorrow's or day after tomorrow's flight." Oh crap. Tomorrow?! I have to spend a night in Stockholm?! Where exactly? But that wasn't my fault - my plane landed 1 hour and 5 min before the next flight was due, so there was no way in hell that I could have got my luggage and got to the check-in within less than 5 minutes. So I went and talked to the guy behind the counter and showed him my ticket sheet. Suddenly he got very alarmed because I had two consecutive flights with Continental Airlines - first to New York and then to San Diego. But you see, the San Diego flight is impossible to reschedule because it's so full all the time. He called security and they - THANK GOD - made an exception for me and checked my luggage separately and got me on the plane.

Canada being threatened by a huge cloud. They'll never know what hit them - one moment there is sun and the next moment there isn't.

Getting into USA is not that easy even with a visa. There are different applications and security checks, which seem tedious. However, I don't think it was much more difficult than any of the standard airport security stuff. All went well because all the people were so friendly and nice and helpful.

Greenland - not much is green here.

Actually my flight wasn't to New York like I said earlier... So there I was, I had just got on the plane at the last minute and someone just glanced at my ticket and let me on the plane. I was making myself comfortable and suddenly the pilot said, "...will be landing in New Jersey." WTF?! Am I on the wrong plane?! Maybe they didn't check my ticket properly. Where is New Jersey anyway? Ah, where is google when you most need it... Ok, If they're gonna land in New Jersey, then let it be so. At least it shall be closer to San Diego than Stockholm is! It's in USA, I know that much. :) What I didn't know, was that New Jersey is right next to New York. The international New York airport - Newark airport - is located in Newark, New Jersey. I was on the right plane.

Rainbow from above - amazing, isn't it?

The flight was the best I've ever had. Food and drinks and movies... Not just a random movie on a big screen. I had my own screen and I watched 3 movies that I had picked out. Food was tasty and personnel wonderful. Yay to Continental Airlines.

I had a lot of time to kill in Newark airport. After my 8-hour flight over the ocean I couldn't just sit. I took all my hand luggage with me and just walked for as long as I still had energy. People must have thought I was crazy - I walked past some of them at least 6 times. But walking felt good. Those were my first moments in USA - I saw the airport stores and all that. I walked past so much food and eventually ordered a hot chocolate. In Estonia, those are usually 150-200ml. The one I got there was at least 300ml. I threw some of it away. Then I wanted to buy water. Just simple water. One bottle cost over $3 and it was more expensive than soda. How much could it possibly cost to put clean spring water into a clean bottle and seal it. Maybe it was just an airport thing though, they make you throw away all liquids, so you have to buy new one and you're willing to pay anything for it.

Looks so warm here and it is!

Well... Eventually I got to San Diego and I got to my new apartment. Ah I love it here. It reminds me of my favourite vacation to Egypt where we lived in a really cute hotel with a swimming pool outside and plants everywhere. There is a swimming pool outside in here as well, for people who live in this apartment complex. And palm trees and other warm climate plants... Ah, it's so nice here. Okay, off to bed now.

This bed is bigger than the one I have at home.