Little change of plans...Ola San Diego

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There has been a few random changes of plan which have actually worked out really well and led me to go to San Diego for a month to do a work for my accommodation job in a hostel. This was due to the huge fee to change the date of my flight from LA to Lima as when I originally booked it I thought I would be in California for longer. For the cost to change the ticket I was going to be able to stay in LA and work for my accommodation and spend the same sort of money so I thought why not. Accept I didn't stay in LA as the place I was staying didn't have any jobs, plus their were a few creepy characters who I was happy to leave behind. So I applied for one in San Diego, as I'd heard it was a cool city, and got it. So here I am 4 hours of housekeeping a day, 6 days a week for my bed. I love how random travelling can be. I'm now flying to Lima on March 1st where I will meet Hilkka the girl I met in Indonesia. I am so excited to see her and she is going to travel the whole 3 months I plan to be in South America!

Anyway, back to Hermosa beach where I was going on a boat. It was a 24ft yacht which was very basic but had beers and some music so made for a fun afternoon. We saw the most amazing things, two whales not sure on the breed, dolphins and seals on top of some buoy markers. Was amazing to see such wildlife in their natural habitat and without tourist boats etc disturbing their peace. The following day I hired some bikes with two English boys who were also staying in the hostel and we cycled 15miles along the coast to Venice beach and Santa Monica Pier. This meant that we went past muscle beach which was funny as I had been reading Arnold Schwarzenegger's biography and he talked about muscle beach a lot. Not as spectacular as I had anticipated with no vest wearing muscle men in sight! But was a good bike ride and we saw lots of the coast. Not having to fly out on 30th January meant I could watch the Super Bowl in America which was an experience. I actually really got into it, as everyone around me was so enthusiastic about it. Although you have to refer to it as the 'big game' as Super Bowl is copyrighted apparently! I walked home and some guys asked me who my team was and I explained how I was there just for the football as I was English and one of them said if I just talked in my accent they would buy my drinks all night. I politely declined their kind offer and proceeded home. The English accent is a real winner in America! I woke up the next morning with a killer sore throat and fever which was not ideal when I was about to leave and head to San Diego embracing the Grey Hound bus for the first and hopefully last time.

I arrived in San Diego a week ago and a friend I made in Australia had a college friend in Pacific Beach so I stayed there for my first night and Jared was an absolute legend providing me with vitamin C sweets, blankets, a sofa and the TV! Exactly what I needed when I was feeling so rough. I headed to the Gas lamp District the following morning which was where I was going to be working/living for the next month. Straight away the other live in staff were really friendly and made me feel really welcome. There is one English girl; Brogan, who only arrived a few days before me so we have been doing some exploring together. A few of us headed over to Ocean beach for the farmers market on Tuesday, this is a really cool little hippy place with people playing instruments and doing circus tricks on the green in front of the beach. We managed to have a dinners worth of food from all the free samples of salsa, dips, fruit and veg. I bought a dip which had three layers: feta cheese, sundried tomatoes and pesto it was amazing. As part of my job at the hostel I can sign up to organise activities and I get $10 for doing it, so I signed up to organise a football match and managed to rope 14 people in. We went down to the harbour front and played on the grass there, where I scored a hat trick! I then let myself down as I went in goal and anytime the ball came near me I would close my eyes?! They enjoyed the football match so much they wanted to play basketball a few days later. Of course I was in my element doing some organising! We went out that evening to play pool and ended up in a place where the waitresses wore some very 'interesting' uniforms which showed in great detail their bottoms. The Gas Lamp district is a really happening part of town with a party every night of the week if you wanted it!

At the weekend the hostel was running a trip across the border to Tijuana so myself and a few of the other live in staff went along. Was an interesting experience with really cheap food and drink but ultimately it was a bit of a tourist trap/a cheap place for Americans to go and get drunk. We ate our meal in a nightclub, with one half of the room a full on dance floor and the other side full of tables and chairs. Very bizarre but a great people watching opportunity! The patrons of this club were dressed in clothes that were a throw back to the 90s very funny, but they could move! Very Latino and free. We got the last train home and I was definitely ready for my bed when we got in. The best thing about going to these various places are the characters on the public transport, In the end I started writing it down on my phone as there were just so many ridiculous people. So far this week whilst on the bus I have seen: a man wearing a 'hello kitty' mask, a man who's head and neck merged so he looked like a thumb, a man wearing nothing but zebra print accessories, an overweight guy using a walking stick who then suddenly broke into a run to chase a pigeon and a man walking along with two different types of shoe. So entertaining!

One of the girls (Kyla) who works at the hostel studies at the University so is a bit more of a 'local' and let me know about a website called 'Meet Up'. Initially I thought hmm is this a dating website? But actually it is a really cool website with events or if you just want to go running with a group of people then you can see if anyone is meeting up. I signed up to an outdoor yoga class in Balboa park, which is a huge park with lots of museums and pretty buildings. I'm also going to a gallery opening next Saturday. The yoga was amazing and there was around 30 people taking part and you just gave a donation to the lady at the end. Great way to start my Sunday morning. I chatted to a girl whilst I was there that lives up the coast a little bit and said she'd show me around if I wanted to head up that way which is a bonus. The rest of the day was spent playing basketball, reading my new book - The Kabul beauty school, drinking coffee and working. I have a list of things to do in the remaining 20 days I have left here, created by Kyla, to ensure I experience America. Theses things include: going to a college party and drinking from a red cup, drink a Bloody Mary, do hoppy yoga (yoga in brewery) and drink Moscow mules. I will let you know how this progresses. I'm really enjoying San Diego the city has lots to do and is very easy to get around, plus the winter weather is currently 23c which makes it so easy to do lots of outdoor things. Another great thing about being here is that I have been able to unpack and hang clothes up, the first time in 6 months! Best thing that happened today was finding a really cool shirt and some lounging around bottoms from a Thrift store all for $5!! The whole time I was there I kept thinking about my friends Mel and Gemma from school and the morning we decided to try and recreate the music video from that song.

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