San Francisco, California - May 25, 2002
Its been 10 weeks since I've posted anything at all. Well, I was working for the City of San Francisco - Department of Elections. I was able to get my girlfriend a job at the same place upon her return from the Philippines. We worked together for nearly two to three months. Election Day came and went though, and slowly each employee was let go from the position as the demands and needs of the department diminished.
We were finished perhaps by mid-April. So myself and Flor, my girlfriend took a very extensive trip. We threw everything into my car and went first to Los Angeles. The very first stop was Hollywood. What can I say about Hollywood? Hmm.. its not bad.. alot of rock-star-wannabe types wandering around. Lots of zebra and tiger strip pants and black leather jackets. A nice step back into the rock scene from about 20 years ago. Kind of reminds me of San Francisco's locked into the sixties theme. But Los Angeles is locked into the eighties. I did appreciate the grittiness of Hollywood, and the food was significantly cheaper than San Francisco, which I appreciated very much! Apart from the very young rockers everywhere, and tourists with mullet haircuts, it was a pretty cool place. Not that I mind mullet haircuts or wanna-be-rock-stars, I just haven't seen that kind of stuff in a long long time. Reminded me of my High School years in Michigan years ago.
Next step was downtown Los Angeles! Korea-Town was everywhere! I was really shocked at how extensive it was. I was expecting the same Korea-Town which was in New York City - which is basically about two blocks by two blocks. I was quite surprised to see Korean signs and Korean people everywhere in downtown L.A. for at least a few miles around. Alot of the signs didn't even have the English translations. It was pretty cool! It almost made me want to move to L.A., but then with more driving and driving and driving around L.A. the more spread out it seemed, and the endless expanses of driving, I changed my mind about thinking of living there. But up to the point, Hollywood and downtown L.A. were pretty cool!
From Downtown we went to Santa Monica Beach. This area was pretty cool, very expansive cliffs and such. Reminded me alot of Santa Cruz for whatever reason. From there we moved down the beaches to Venice. I liked it there alot more. Lots of roller skaters, people hanging out, tattoo shops, movie camera crews, etc. A nice touched compared to eighties Hollywood. Venice had a much more nineties feel to it. More piercings and tattoos and beach culture. They even had the weightlifters on the Beach working out - a nice leftover from the Eighties.
The next day in L.A. we went to DisneyLand. My first time ever to go. I really had no idea what to expect, but as we wandered around, it was pretty much as I expected. Ideally, its a great place for kids and those who love kids. My girlfriend loves kids, so for her, it was incredible. For me, it was an interesting day. At least they had a movie theater and bookstore there. Walking around wasn't bad though, but it certainly was expensive!
Okay, next day - San Diego! Very cool town! Got a great place in a downtown hotel. Amazingly you can rent a hotel room by the week for like $120. Quite a shock and significantly cheaper than the rent I pay for my 25% share of my 4-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. ($600/month in case you are wondering). Anyhow, that almost made me want to move to San Diego! I just about did right then and there. You have no idea how sick and tired I am of paying San Francisco rents! Anyhow, San Diego was a very nice compact little city. There were bicycle cops everywhere patrolling the compact nightlife scene. My favorite part was they had alot of college students riding bicycle tout-touts from the India/Thailand part of the world. The ones where you can sit and have a bicylist drive you anywhere you want to go. The other cool thing about San Diego is they have the fastfood Filipino restaurant 'Jollybee's' which I'm hopelessly addicted to because of my girlfriend.
The next day we went to Sea World in San Diego. Actually we had a really good time there! The sea animals and such were pretty amazing. I was thinking if I did live in San Diego someday, I'd buy a year pass to that place, and on borind Sundays I'd go down and just hangout, riding the few water rides, and catching the dolphin/whale shows. The best part though was watching the kids go crazy as they got splashed from the dolphines/whales/etc.
The following day we drove across the Joshua Tree Reserve as well as the Mojave Desert. The most interesting part of this part was that my gas tank's metal expanded tremendously which in turn sealed my gas cap so I couldn't get it off. I even had cops and a truck driver and a massive motorcycle rider try to take that thing off, but no one could. Somehow, scarily so, I was able to get it all the way from San Diego to Las Vegas on one tank of gas. The deserts were pretty cool though. Saw some cool stuff like a dusty airline landing strip and hundreds and hundreds of desert vehicles like three-wheelers and dune buggies and such. Seemed like ALOT of fun to be ripping it up on any kind of vehicle in the desert. Made me real envious!
Next stop was Las Vegas itself. Its changed quite a bit. Flor was my tour guide as she has been there dozens and dozens of times. It was pretty much everything you think it is. Lots of tourists, lots of gambling, a weird relation of money was felt - that kind of money doesn't matter kind of thing. My favorite part was having Flor showing me the in and out of the casinos and such. We went to New York, New York casino which was amazingly like New York. I was taking pictures of it left and right so that later when Flor and I went to New York, I could show her the REAL places themselves! She didn't seem as interested in it as I did though, but we had alot of fun nontheless.
From Vegas, I woke up and drive the car like a madman for something like 20 hour straight. We drove from Nevada briefly into Arizona and all the way up through Utah, stopping briefly at Salt Lake City. Not much to see there - well I've been there about five different times, so I was more anxious to keep driving, which is what we did. We continued on through Boise Idaho and all the way into Oregon in one day. Completely exhausted we both passed out in a motel bed. I don't know why I felt so compelled to drive like a madman. Well, actually I do know why. I find southwest USA interesting, and I find Northwest USA interesting, and I was just anxious to get back up there.
In Seattle, we wandered around the Fish Market, the International District, the Space Center, and everything else. It was pretty cool, but after a half day, we went up to Vancouver Canada instead. This was an interesting city - lots of Asian students. Most of the city and its residents were very similar to Seattle, but I specifically remember seeing alot of Japanese and Korean young students - probably English students. It also had a nice laid-back easy energy to it. Complete with parks, nice views, laid-back people, etc. It definetely lived up to its reputation as a great place to be. Its very hard to think of anything bad to say about the place.
After Canada, we went down to Portland Oregon, which is where I lived for a year about six or seven years ago. We stayed with a really good friend of mine and his Korean wife. Chris and I had been roommates about 10 years ago working at the Grand Canyon, then we were roommates again afterwards in Portland, Oregon. After Oregon, I went to Korea, told Chris he has to come on over, and he did - only to meet his future wife within the first few weeks. That was nearly six years ago, and he's been very happily married ever since. Anyhow, Flor and I hung out with Chris and Lisa and had a great time. Actually Flor wants to move there she loved it so much. I was quite amazed to remember how incredible Portland is, much to the extent that it made me wonder what I was doing in San Francisco anyhow? Powell's Bookstore (the largest bookstore in the English-speaking world) expanded its 3-story high city block of books to around 4 1/2 stories. It was amazingly even larger and easier to get lost. Not only that, but the city is amazingly clean and so compact, making it so easy to get anywhere at anytime. Also, it was a relief not to have the enormous homelessness problem or frustrating parking/public transportation issues that San Francisco exists with. The more I saw how other cities worked like San Diego, Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, the more I questioned why I chose San Francisco - but actually I know the reason already - I chose San Francisco because its amazingly multicultural, so much more than perhaps all of those other cities combined. Vancouver may not be too far behind though.
The other thing we did in Portland was go up to the Rose Gardens and overlooked the city - I think that was one of Flor's favorite parts of the city as well. Also, just walking around the city, and lots of youthful energy and just a good vibe in general. I couldn't have been happier to be there, great place. In summary, I think if I were to leave San Francisco (and stay in the USA), I'd have to definetely choose either Portland or San Diego.
Well, once we got back to San Francisco, it was only a few days later and we were off to New York City for 10 days. Flor has always wanted to see New York, and I always wanted to be her tour guide and show her all of my memories, and everything I knew of the city. We flew from Oakland into New Jersey for $138/roundtrip! ($175 total with taxes). Thank you Yahoo Travel! The trip was pretty cool though.. did all of the tourist things including a few things I'd never done when I lived there - which included going to a beach in Staten Island, going to the Statue of Libery (i'd only taken a boat around it years ago), and going up to the top of the Empire State Building. Funny how I never did any of those things that many people travel all across the world specifically to do. We also went to Ground Zero, which we really couldn't see very well. My old apartment was connected by the same subway entrance/exit, so it was a bit strange since the World Trade Center was basically right in the neighborhood that I spent nearly all of my time. The city itelf still pumped with as much life as it ever did. Despite what happened with the World Trade Center, teh pulse of the city is just a strong as ever. The biggest change was the subways were diverted around that stop. I think that was my biggest change was seeing all of the subway maps altered. But other than, it was just as busy and just as multi-cultural as its always been.
After New York City, Flor and I came back to San Francisco. She has been at her cousin's house since that time, as her cousin just gave birth to her second child. I was extremely lucky to get a very amazing internet job at a temporary agency. I was doing website stuff, which is something I'd always wanted to do, kind of dream job for me. But then after around three weeks, the temporary job ended. That was about two weeks ago, and since that time, I've been sitting home applying to an employer's market looking for jobs. Nothing is coming up though, so it gave me time to reflect on myself and post this much-neglected additional page onto the website.
One last thing, I am adding a page to the picture from our travel trip! Go check it out and see Flor and ME! Its my USA 2002 page!
Next Journal Entry:
June 15, 2002
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com