So two months eh?

Meh, it's been two months. I don't think I have quite lost any NZ habits, but I am starting to get into the American way of doing things. For instance freeway speeding (you have to otherwise everybody overtakes you and shakes their fist which is more dangerous), eating lots, not walking and taking the car.. well I guess I am not that bad, as I'm still cooking 90% of my meals :D

Well so far the lessons learnt here in America are:
- Never buy Hershey's milk chocolate, it's the worst tasting chocolate ever in the history of the entire world!!
- Chips are extra salty here, so chose carefully otherwise your lips will shrivel up, chap and break..
- Light beer doesn't mean low alcohol beer, it just has less energy (calories) in it.
- Give up on finding proper museli, it doesn't exist here.
- The variety of food on offer here completely eclipses what you can get in NZ.
- Traffic here can be horrible, if it's peak time or a popular destination you can expect to sit in your car for a while and not move very fast.

Oh and a thanks to all those people who have been writing emails/instant messaging me and keeping me up to date with what you are all doing. [sarcasm] To those that haven't been - go to hell! [/sarcasm] :P

I have transportation

So with the culmination of finally receiving all my due monies, I was able to purchase a set of wheels: :D a 1994 Honda Civic DX sedan _b It's done some mileage, but it's in good shape and the previous owner serviced it and fixed the things that needed to be fixed, so for the next year it should serve me well :] (fingers crossed)

I am currently taking submissions on the name I should christen it. So no lame suggestions please! :o)

Spring Break Lake Havasu 2007

Ah Spring Break, this is the time where College or University students go away to some destination for a week and live it up large, we were no different ;) We were staying at the London Bridge resort, it's called the London Bridge resort as it does look out over a London Bridge. Yes an actual bridge from London, England. "What?!?", I hear, "Has someone managed to control the fabric of the universe and opened up a warp hole to London, England?" you might say... Well, some guy bought a bridge they were going to demolish in London and shipped it all the way, brick by brick, to Lake Havasu in Arizona!


So back to living it up large, my cold that was getting me down, had luckily all but disappeared on the Saturday, so I was all good to go! Our first stop was to buy supplies and fill the chilly bin. You have to realise this was a large chilly bin, a very large chilly bin, but being young professionals it wasn't hard to manage.

Then it was off to get our pontoon boat which we had hired for the day. This was a pretty sweet water craft. It had a built in stereo, ample comfortable seating, and shade if you didn't want to be in the son. It had a bit of speed and was pretty much perfect for the lake. However we then went down like the channel that they built for the bridge, I have never ever seen so many extravagant boats in my life! So no, ours wasn't the best, as there must be some wealthy people here.. Thus there were some very attractive females out and about ;) Next it was off around the lake to find the party..

Lake Havasu is something like 15 miles in length and has several coves and beaches at which you can park-up and do what you like. Copper Canyon was the place for the spring breakers to congregate - haha. Everybody rafts together, has some relaxing beverages, listens to some sounds and pretty much parties. I have never seen anything like it :D

In the evening after returning the boat, we went to the Kokomo outdoor bar at our hotel. It apparently is the biggest outdoor bar out of California, Nevada and Arizona. It was pretty cool, I met some interesting people, took photos, got back to my room fine, and woke up without any problems :] Even though it was the night of my first real bender here...

Mini Detour

Well it was a long journey of about eleven hours in total. We were on our way to Lake Havasu in Arizona for Spring break (woop woop). The crew consisted of Blayne, Mike, myself and Stefan. Yes that is correct another Stefan - funnily enough his last name also starts with a K as well.. Anyway, we left San Jose almost two hours later than scheduled and were heading for a straight drive there, stopping at Barstow to pick up Stefan, as he had gone to LA to drop off his bike..


As things would turn out Stefan had managed to put himself in such a position that he wouldn't have been able to get from LA to Barstow to meet us as he initially planned. So this meant that we had to make a nice two hour detour via LA (luckily the outskirts only) to pick him up. Interestingly had we left on time from San Jose, we would have been at Barstow and it would have cost us a total of four hours to go pick him up D: - Yay for being late!

Uh oh :/

Seems like I might be coming down with a cold - hopefully only that >_< ! I am drinking quite a bit of water, so I'm optimistic that I will be able to get rid of it quickly, as I'm taking a trip to Lake Havasu in Arizona. It's a 'spring break' ;) trip with the guys, so I'm hoping it wont ruin the weekend for me!

TOGOs & Mc Donalds

As part of my culinary tour of the local eateries, I tried TOGO's the other day and Mc Donald's for lunch today. TOGO's is like a burger wisconsin subway style, i.e. a gourmet type sandwhich joint. I took the special of the day being the Pacific Cobb. Avocado, meat, cheese, salad + more .. Mmmm it was pretty good. It's served with a side of salad or chips, I chose chips, and it came in a cake like package. For about $6.00 it was acceptable for price and size and I will be returning there for their other types of sandwiches :]

Mc Donald's was chosen out of convenience, so I ordered a big mac value meal. Im sure the burgers have gotten smaller since I last ate Mc Donalds (must of been years ago) and I have to say that from memory it does seem to taste the same - so well done Mc Donald's your global taste goal seems to have been accomplished.. Needless to say I wont be going back, $5.00 worth of the meal didn't leave me no where near as full as TOGO's and it's left me with that classic McDonald's greasy after taste :s ..

Sunday Funday

After helping with some of the morning ranch chores, I helped setup the horses for the ride that we were going to take. The horses on offer were two being trained to be ridden and one old accomplished horse. Thankfully I was riding the mature Blacky, however in it was an interesting first thirty minutes as for some reason all the horses were a bit uneasy and not really cooperating. Well this had yours truly experiencing his first canter by accident and ducking to not get clothes lined by trees because I hadn't figured out how to properly give the horse directions.. :S Once I understood neck reining, rather than the traditional what you see on westerns way of controlling a horse, I was all good.

So the ride was around the ranch property. This is old mining land (like clay), so things are kind of bare, or are covered in some sort of brush and a couple of trees. This was still nice as the sun was out and it was quite tranquil. There was a geothermal like pond, but it wasn't geothermal, just coloured that was from the mining that took place.


After that it was helping immunize the goats. This meant that we had to catch them and hold them down. The kids were the worst as they would howl and scream for their mothers >:D so after that it was a quick clean up and then off home to catch the train.

Giant Redwoods

So on the Saturday about mid-morning we were joined by the Jones' friends from Australia who were coming along with us to Calaveras. The plan was to get up there, have lunch at the cabin with some of the Jones' relations and have a nice walk around.

My initial thoughts on 'having lunch at the cabin' were that we would arrive at the forest place and hike for a bit to a cabin/hut and make ourselves lunch. You know, like a tramping hut, something with bare essentials, but in a pleasant outdoor setting. This was incorrect, the cabin turned out to be a rather nice bach(!), which was situated in a very nice locality in among trees, especially with the snow that still hadn't melted it looked very picturesque.


Lunch was awesome, I ate a belly full and then it was a short drive to the Calaveras Big Trees State Park. This park is all about big giant Sequoiadendron giganteum, a.k.a. Sierra Redwood. These trees are truly massive! We had a personal guided tour around explaining the history of the park and the trees :D Did you know that the Sequoiadendron giganteum can survive forest fires? Its spongy bark absorbs enough water that it doesn't allow the tree to burn.

After that it was a trip back to the cabin for some margaritas to relax ;) ... then it was back to the ranch for a St Patrick's day meal of corned beef - to conclude my Saturday excursion.

A Weekend With the Jones'

So on the Friday night I rushed home from work, quickly got packed and was out the door again and running for the train. I was catching the amtrak train to Sacramento, but first I had to catch the train into downtown and get to the amtrak station. This turned about to be hassle free and I had ample amounts of time.

The train itself took the eastern shore of the bay area up and around to Sacramento. So we passed Oakland (didn't look too scary), Berkeley, and the like on the way to Sacramento. The coastline was pretty in some places, and in others not so pretty. When two kids from Oakland sat next to me I had some nice conversations about sport and why I shouldn't visit Oakland hehe..

Once out of the bay area it was all flat agricultural land, as the central valley where Sacramento resides has quite a bit of agriculture. It took about three hours to get to Sacramento, and once I arrived Mr Jones picked me up.


The Jones' had offered to take me for the weekend. They live on a ranch about an hours drive from Sacramento, which was cool, as I got to spend time with goats, horses, dogs, cats and a baby. For the weekend they planned for me a Redwood forest trip and some horse riding..

Indoor Soccer

So with the Germans organising, we hired out a mini indoor soccer field at the 'off the wall soccer' facility in San Jose. There was about twelve of us and we got split into four teams, thus it was three aside soccer. The field was small enough for three people, yet big enough to make us run >_< . I sweated like a ------ (brownie points for guessing the word) and was pretty sore at the end of it (calluses :'() .
Unfortunately due to some untimely injuries, my team - the mighty team Stefan - only managed second place, losing on goal difference. The awards ceremony was laugh with everyone getting beer, 'medals' and certificates.

Being a VIP

My Saturday night was spent out partying. First up was Nick's (very late) house warming - he hired his apartment complex's function room. Which was cool as it had a sweet kitchen and room with pool tables. We had some sounds blaring and Nick put on some good food and drinks.
Afterwards we headed to town to a place called Vivid. Apparently it's the new snazzy joint in downtown San Jose. The crew that I was with included some clever Germans who had some cool hook-ups, so we found ourselves with VIP passes and free cover charge tickets - Sweet! So yea the club was massive and one of it's features was a dancing silhouette on a giant screen.
I'm quite glad that we were VIP because we got to hang in our own separate lounge upstairs on a balcony type area. This was handy when buying drinks because there weren't any queues to the bar, nor was there a great bustle there.

Clubs here have to close before/about 2am, so once closing time came around we left. There was a surprising situation when arranging my ride home, as my phone didn't allow me to ring the appropriate person, however that was soon sorted when I found someone else to give me one :]

hot hot hot

Well today was the hottest day I've experienced so far here in San Jose. It was at least 24C or so, and this is only the start of spring! I can already see from the wonders of the internet, that I will most probably be having the warmer weather from now till November - probably :D hahahahahaha...

American & Big

Ever since my arrival, I am continually astonished at the portion Americans have things in. Im not exaggerating, most things here are like extra large compared to New Zealand. From people -oh gosh >_< , to cars -guzzlers!, to meals with giant cups (almost 2L) like the 'mega jug' and takeaway meals that last me for two whole meals, to even animals - this cat was bigger than a small dog (I'll try to get photos next time I see it).

The roads here are generally straight, wide and numerous. The freeway system here is huge and can be a tad confusing when you have five lane freeways that are joining or splitting into another freeway, which is also surrounded by several exits. This all means you have to know the area, or you have GPS navigation!



The suburban roads are usually two lane, and like the freeway have lots of cars to fill it with. There is a slight trend for smaller cars, but then again that's like American small which is still large anyway. But yea the mind boggles as to why anyone would want a massive Humvee? I have lost count of the amount of them I have seen.

The shopping likewise is on par with the rest of things. You can find giant malls and giant shops. One place you can shop for your groceries is a place called Cost Co, where each store is a massive warehouse. They just put checkouts near the doors and you shop down the storage isles, hehe. It's comparable to Moore Wilsons but on a giant Pak'n'Save scale, with the addition that they cover everything, from all the different food items to clothes, car parts and plasma tvs. Now I can come to understand why they say these giant retailers are running small business out of America, they can be a lot cheaper!

The local mall near me is supposedly small, however it eclipses anything that I've seen in NZ, so I do have to wonder how long it will take me to understand this American concept of 'Big'..