ramblings on the USA

This country continues to surprise me. Take the concept of lite beer, bringing the taste of this beverage to a new low. Or the fastfoodizing of practically every kind of food you can imagine. And at the same time - fruit and vegetable snack trays in the supermarkets which must be scary healthy to some. Amazing.

Van Camp KDE 2010 - Banana Bungalows, THE place to be in San Diego :D

Then the breakfast - I've had sandwiches with peanut butter and jelly every day, certainly something crazy I'm gonna keep around. However, I won't ever even contemplate having a breakfast at a restaurant around here. I tried an American breakfast 2 years ago in San Fran, and since then I know it's not for me. Way overkill, I'd consider the average breakfast here a heavy dinner... I've even skipped several dinners as the 'lunch' I had was just too much.

Van Camp KDE 2010 - get your FLU shot at the supermarket. ?!?

But of course, I really love the people here in California. The dudes & dudettes at the hostel - so relaxed, chill... Great conversations about the weirdest stuff can happen at any time, people come in with beer and other stuff - happily sharing everything. Just great.

Right now I'm behind my laptop while to my right the gang is gearing up for party mode - loud but pretty OK music, lite beer (I'm having one, gggggh) and some fruit I brought. Good times.

Pic to the beer here. Yes, I'm on facebook (finally). If you can convince me I like you feel free to invite me as your new best friend.

Friday, Frank Chani and me went on a shopping spree after a nice lunch and some walking on the beach. We took a cab, and the Somalian taxi driver asked where we were from. When he received a phone call, he suddenly put the phone in my hand, and lo and behold - the first Dutch I heard in about 2 weeks on the other side of the line... Turned out the friend of the taxi driver had been living in the Netherlands for a few years, in the kind-of rural area of Tiel to be precise. World is small, ej.

From Camp KDE 2010 - Weird sealife friday morning

Then came the shopping, which was fun (I like shopping). New levi's (darn cheap over here), a jacket, some shirts and new sunglasses (the previous pair was broken by Troy when he pretended to hug me, remember?). And I went to a Body Shop to buy something for my mom - I already brought some beer for my dad so it seemed reasonable to grab something for her too. I don't really remember how it happened, but when I stepped out I suddenly realized I just bought about 50 bucks worth of scrubby, smelly and oily stuff... Will make mommy very happy. At least I hope so, as she shouldn't count on more gifts this year.

That evening we had food at Ricks, where Marcus just happened to have dinner with his wife and kid... He stayed for a beer with us and joined us that evening at Banana bungalows.

From Camp KDE 2010 more sea stuff, this time me and Frank ate it...

Saturday morning Frank and Chani left and around 15:00 Wade suddenly appeared at Banana Bungalows, looking for me. Took the ppl downstairs a while to figure out who he was looking for - until he mentioned that I'm Dutch. Oooh, the Dutch guy, of course, he's upstairs... Somehow I left an impression. Must be my orange t-shirt, hehe.

From Camp KDE 2010 - More cute than babies...

Wade and Molly took me on a tour of San Diego - we went to a hilly spot where you could see San Diego, we saw baby seals and had dinner in an excellent and pricey place. Had an truly excellent night. "Peggy" took excellent care of us (interesting to have the waitress introduce herself to you...)

Van Camp KDE 2010 - Wade & Molly. Aren't they a cute couple?

Last day (monday) I had to stop by Macey's on my way to the airport. The cassier had forgotten to remove the electronic safety tingy from my jacket :(

And now I'm finishing this blog in the plane, flying over Texas. Will go and look out of the window now for a while, have a nice day all. Oh, and can I say I love my new noise-cancelling headphones? If only they had a "cancel out stupid girls talking while sitting behind me" knob.