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| Life in California. |
(Because of a small error it wasn't possible to add comments during the last week, but it is FIXED!)
It's about time for a new update! Some news about my life in Santa Barbara. Time
flies, and I only have 5~6 weeks left. But I enjoy every minute of it. I'm
getting more and more used to this new place, the weather, the people, and
school. Although it looks like I didn't do anything here because I didn't wrote
anything since more then a month .. but it's the opposite. The 30th of June I
went to San Francisco for three days, the 6th of July I went to Los Angeles for
one day, and last weekend the destination was Las Vegas.
San FranciscoMy first trip in Santa Barbara was to San Francisco.
Although I preferred rent a car, go by ourselves and take a hotel or camping ..
we went with EF. After we (Eric and me) searched for hotels and campings for 2
days, it turned out that in that weekend (just before Independence day) the
whole USA planned a vacation, and all hotels and campings were full.
San
Francisco was very nice, although it was clouded and not very warm. But that is
normal for this city, people told me. It was a strange view; the Golden Gate
bridge disappearing in the clouds. We also visited Alcatraz, the famous island
that was used as a prison. Impressive! We also saw Chinatown and Little Italy.
Unfortunately the view from Twin Peaks was not that good because of all the
clouds. Twin Peaks are two hills from where you can have a great view over San
Francisco .. if there are no clouds. The famous cable car, we took at night, was
great. I always thought that it was a real way of transportation in SF, but ..
well .. it was .. but it's now only for the tourists. Well, it was a nice trip,
but .. too short .. so maybe I will go there again when my parents come. (More
about this below)
Los AngelesThe 6th of July I went with Eric, my friend from Hong Kong,
who by the way already went home (damn!), to Los Angeles. We wanted to rent a
convertible, but .. we were too late and all the convertibles were gone. We
drove the Highway 1 down to Los Angeles. It's a very nice way, along the
coastline. We stopped at Malibu beach .. rented two bodyboards, and changed one
bodyboard for a surfboard after a while. We both never surfed before, so .. it
was pretty hard, but .. well .. we can say we surfed at Malibu Beach! After
staying a little bit too long at that beach, we continued our journey to Venice
Beach. Very nice! We left Venice Beach at about 6pm and didn't even see the city
Los Angeles at that time. But, that changed when we arrived in Beverly Hills,
where all the poor people live. After we took the Rodeo Drive, with lots of
cheap shops. Sadly we couldn't get close to the Hollywood sign to take pictures
before it was dark, so .. we only saw it from a big distance. After this we went
into Hollywood: the walk of fame! At about 11pm we started our way back to Santa
Barbara. A great day!
Las VegasLast weekend Las Vegas was our destination. We took the trip
with EF and left Santa Barbara Friday around 1pm. The view from the bus was
amazing. Every 50 miles the landscape changed, with strange kinds of mountains,
and trees. Actually I expected a real desert with sand and only sand .. but ..
there were also some plants and trees. Although the temperature was good for a
desert. I heard it was a record temperature: 50.5 deg. Celsius. This is of
course the perfect condition for an air-conditioning to blow up .. NICE!
Las
Vegas .. it's crazy! There is so much to see .. everything is big, and nothing
is crazy enough. You can find the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the
Empire State Building and Chrysler Building, or a rollercoaster on the top of
the Stratosphere (314 meters), a gigantic Sphinx. You can find Venice, including
Gondolas, bridges, and romantic streets, and this all was inside! Not just one
street but more streets and even a Piazza San Marco with performances are
included. Caesars Palace is also impressive! It's like a whole city inside of a
building. For example the Trojan Horse, forming the entrance of a shop, is as
big as a three floors house. And of course all the casino's like the MGM
(including Lions (they were asleep when we were there)). The newest casino Wynn
was like a golden building at night, really impressive.
The old part of Las
Vegas, Fremont Street, was even more impressive! Most of the famous shots from
Las Vegas you see on TV are taken here. The old casinos, an impressive
lightshow, and the neon Cowboy; amazing!!
Probably I saw only 25% of the
things you have to see in LV.. it was just too much!
Saturday night we ended
our day in style, and took a limousine. He drove around for about 30 minutes
through Las Vegas and then brought us back to the hotel. Quite an experience
too!
Although it is very hot, even at night it was above 30C, Las Vegas is a place
you HAVE to visit if you're in this neighbourhood.
Life in Santa BarbaraI'm getting used to Santa Barbara, the people, the
school and the weather. School is much more relaxed over here, compared to
Boston. Shorter days, nice activities in class, longer brakes. I also chose
sports class, where we do some sports every Thursday. So finally I played
American Football! We also played softball (like baseball). A problem here is
that most people are here just for a couple of weeks. That means that at the
time you get to know people, they already have to leave. I have different
classmates every week.
The area here is really nice. I have a bicycle over
here, so I did a couple of trips on the bike by myself. It's really great with a
bike .. you can see much more!
Parents go USAYes, my parents will come to California! After I finished
my study at EF, I will stay two weeks more to travel around with my parents.
They will leave 29th of August, and I will probably leave 2 days later. (If I
don't find the perfect rich girl, with nice house and car before that time). And
then ..... it's over! Almost 8 month in USA. But .. it's okay for me. I look
forward to see all my friends and family in Holland! Eat patatje oorlog,
kroketten, pindakaas with hagelslag, real bruinbrood, Dutch cheese, hmmmm!
(sorry, can't translate this). I really don't feel homesick, but I look forward
to start my 'new life' back in Holland .. of course only if I don't find this
rich girl in Santa Barbara... |
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