2007

Happy New Year 2007!!

How time flies... Hello 2007 and goodbye 2006. It was another good year, I enjoyed it, but as before...I do have regrets (typical..hahaha). Anyway without regrets you would probably make no resolution. So here it goes, I want to challenge myself to be more responsible. Ya, it does sound like a new year resolution for a 15-year-old, but it's significant for me in so many ways.

I'm in that part of my life that I have to make plans, new targets, and it's all freakin me out! And I come to realize that I'm freakin out because I have not been responsible in time, opportunities, endowment....

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I have been travelling since the winter break started, but I'm now back in Raleigh, have been running around campus, bookstore, bank, library. Have been trying to figure out how to manage my classes. I'll fill you in on my course decision (haven't got a settled pick yet). It would be interesting (I guess, as it is my last semester).

Anyway, here are some pictures from my break. At the end, I think we (me and Olive) was too ambitious, we were dead tired at the end of the trip, and boy was I glad to fly back to Raleigh..hahaha (that's a first).

Fly from Raleigh to Los Angeles, took the Flyaway service bus to Union Station, and took Amtrak Pacific Surfliner to San Diego. This picture was taken on our second day in San Diego, we took the bus to check-out University of California, San Diego, but turns out there was nothing to see (with due respect to UCSD students, friends, family). We took the return bus back, and stop on a "Scenic Drive" sign in La Jolla. It was a good call, we found this family of sea lion (do you know the difference of sea lion and seal? one of them has ears, I forgot which one. I'm not kidding...really!)


On our way back from Old Town to Downtown San Diego, we took the orange line tram. The last stop for this line was "Tijuana/International Border", so we did a detour, instead of going back to downtown, we followed the line to the last stop. You can tell the difference as we're getting closer to the border. The Mexico part was more populated. What is surprising is the number of people and cars crossing the border, and they all look like commuters. Imagine the trouble of each morning to check all those commuters (and how expensive maintaining the security, if my idea on security in this border is as tense as the security in any airport in the US these days)


Christmas Eve, we were already in Santa Barbara, took the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner San Diego-Santa Barbara. Chrismas Eve mass at Misson Church, an old church in Santa Barbara with Lovita and her husband, Nur (another Indonesian friend). There was people standing for the mass, we took seat in the chapel, it was OK if compared to being early-but-still-late at my congregation back home. Christmas Eve mass are always lovely (anywhere) as we extend greetings to strangers seating near us.


Angie (on the right in picture) took us to 3 wineries for wine tasting. Fact: I am no wine taster. I have trouble defining one from the other, except for Merlot, it's red wine grape from earlier ripening (and all these years I thought I was a white-wine-r).

Between Angie and Olive, is Diona, our host. She and Maddy welcomed us at their place over our stay in Santa Barbara (mmm...I have no pictures of us with Maddy. She was working on that day).

After 3 winery...you can guess,... we were "happy"...hihihi.


From Santa Barbara, we took the Greyhound bus to San Fransisco. Our first stop in San Fransisco was seeing Berkeley. Berkeley has a history of Indonesian economist (the Berkeley mafia) who establish the system of market economy in Indonesia, but somewhere.. their brilliant idea was manipulated, and became the cause of the economic crisis in 1998 (among other things).

So my hunt for the Econ Dept at Berkeley took me to Evans Hall, a massive-modern-like building in the middle of the campus (ughh...ugly!) ...o well, there goes all those history.


A start of a new day on the 31st, we walk down to Market St from our Downtown (old) Hotel in Taylor St. We ended up at a not so nice part of Market St (but hey, as tourist, this is a sight to see..hehehe), took the bus to Golden Gate, and took another bus to Sausalito, the other end of the Gate, a small Italian-like small town. From there we took the Ferry back to Downtown San Fransisco, and got a glimpse of the lovely Golden Gate on a sunset. Sunsets are always breathtaking....


Here's a nice picture near the Marine Park, San Fransisco, by Olive. On my back is Alcatraz, a max-security prison during the 60-ies, prisoners include Al Capone.


From San Fransisco, we took the Greyhound nite bus to Los Angeles, we made reservation on a Chinatown tour (good price..hehehe) for a Vegas-Grand Canyon tour. The overnight on the bus saved us from hostel expense, but ...we were dying to shower..hahaha. The pick-up place in LA was at a Chinatown Dim Sum, and early that morning, the kitchen was ready. We had cheap and hot breakfast that day (we tried coming back for dinner on the day of our return, but that didn't work out. Dinner was typical and costly there!)

Crossed Mojave Desert to enter the state of Nevada to Las Vegas (the picture is the Mojave Dessert)


On Vegas, ...I just don't get what the fuss is all about. Vegas is totally overrated, but then we are risk-averse people (that's just an excuse, we are damn broke..hahaa). Riviera is the place we stayed, it was a nice change from our small hotel (but looks more like a hostel) in San Fransisco. It's an old hotel in Vegas strip.


Grand Canyon...was damn cold! This is Arizona! who would of thought!...It was the first sight of winter from the day I left for the winter break. I was actually downsize in wardrobe from what I wore last winter, but hey...I was OK. Could it be that I have adapt?? :-)


That night we stayed at Laughlin, Nevada. A city by the Colorado River. We were almost late to dinner (buffet) due to Friends (the series) and just laying in our room..hahhaa..it's sooo us! After dinner, we went out to the river walk, saw people feeding the duckies, stayed for a while, and then came the racoon..and then..a big beaver!! wow, that made my day :-)

The picture is London Bridge of Lake Havasu in the border of Nevada and California, this was our last stop of the Chinatown tour.

Last stop was at Hollywood, CA, for one night. Hollywood is overrated, at least Hollywood Blvd. But UCLA was nice, more modern looking than Berkeley (this is "modern" in a nice way of looking at it..hahhaa).

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All the way it was public transport for us. San Fransisco has this compact one page map with the bus system, more compact than NYC map of the public transport (but also less complicated and less massive as NYC public system). And although people said that LA public transport is bad, but they actually work. From every subway station, you have a map of the transfer bus line (their subway system doesn't cover much), and places of interest. I manage to visit Universal City, UCLA, Bel Air and Sunset Strip.

Surprisingly, I was rather impress by San Diego, maybe it's the combination of being the first stop, the weather was better (while I was there), saw the magnificent ocean landscape after a long time, my first sea lion watch....

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Wow this is a long entry...anyway, from Raleigh, Happy New Year 2007! I wish for world compromise. Cheers!