My First White Christmas (Lake Tahoe)

If you know me well, you will know that the mid 1950s is my favourite era, particularly when it comes to music and film. The first thing I did when I realized I would be spending my first Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere was start humming “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…”. Now you all know what I’m talking about, Bing Crosby’s beautiful voice charming out the best-selling single of all time (yes, that’s right folks – 50million copies and counting!). I love the mountains, I love snow and I have literally been dreaming about a white Christmas since I was a kid. So it seemed perfect that given Diogenes and I were away from family and that most of our friends had gone back to their respective families for the holidays, that we go up to the mountains and enjoy a White Christmas.

We travelled up with the married couple, Dave and Liz, who live in the studio in my house and all stayed in a quaint hotel on Tahoe Beach. We dined at a waterfront 5-star restaurant on Christmas Eve with the best seat in the house. We had a 3-course meal and ample wine to go with it. The meal was beautiful, relaxing and whilst it didn’t compare to the fresh lobsters, oysters and grilled whole fish I would normally eat on Christmas Eve, it was the perfect way to share the special meal. On actual Christmas day we travelled around Lake Tahoe, playing in the snow, exploring the view points and visiting ski resorts. Due to my injury we couldn’t ski, toboggan or do anything super fun and there were high winds so the gondolas were also closed. Nevertheless, it was just simply divine and a beautiful way to spend Christmas. The weather was perfect and we watched the sunset over the lake and mountains. I am still blown away at how beautiful it all was.

After Christmas Diogenes and I travelled down to Santa Cruz and spent some time on the beach eating prawns and scallops along the famous wharf. We reminisced time with our respective families and at home and hence enjoyed a quasi-Southern Hemisphere Christmas lunch on the beach eating seafood in memory of good times. If there is one thing for certain, Diogenes and I certainly know how to live the good life! I sent out hand-made cards to all of my family and tried to get in touch with everyone I love dearly. I felt spoilt with cards and presents flying in from Australia, Germany, Norway and Vietnam and decorated my room with flowers Diogenes gave me (Poinsettias and Winter Rose - two Christmas classics), candy canes, tinsel and other Christmas items. I really missed my friends, family and 'home' but being away from home almost made me get into the Christmas spirit more to make up for what we normally take for granted!

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Ski Accident

OK, word is out. I am bed-bound. Diogenes, Mario (Di's housemate and colleague) and I ventured up to the snow for the first time this season. The boys had never skied before and by the end of the day were rocking it! They both picked it up incredibly quickly. I was a very proud mother duck. However, I was not so fortunate in my tales. It was a combination of many factors: ill-fitted skis, ice on the slopes, black diamond slope, lack of practice/warm-up, skis that did not release, that caused me to have my worst injury on record. I don't remember how it happened, but all I remember are the thoughts going through my mind, in slow-motion, as I fell down the mountain, twisted up in my skis. I was lifted down on the back of a snow-mobile as I couldn't use my left leg. It was both fun, yet embarrassing. Luckily, I was saved by Grace, and merely tore a muscle and did some soft tissue damage in my quad. I feel my recent yoga efforts saved me from any ligament damage or broken bones. I am on crutches and making a slow but progressive recovery. I am getting movement back in my leg, and slowly retraining the muscles to walk (and I am hoping by the end of the week to walk up stairs - I hope I am not being too ambitious). I am in high-spirits and using my time to catch up my blog, read, practice some languages, and hopefully start/finish writing a journal article I've been begging for time to write for months now. Below are some happy snaps of our short-lived time up the mountain.

Social Commentary

It’s been a while since I’ve written, but I am enjoying a rainy, cold Sunday afternoon to finally update my blog. Today I did my first long-distance trip by myself, driving on the right-hand side of the road. I drove along California’s infamously huge and busy highways (6-8 lanes one way!) in peak hour traffic… in the dark… in the rain… Yes, dear friends and family, it’s official, I can drive on the right side of the road! It has been just over 2 months since touchdown in the US. But it feels like 6. It has been an uphill battle finding my feet here. That is not to say that I have not been happy, quite the contrary; I often look out the window of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit – the local underground train system) on my way to work and feel so appreciative of not only my life & loved ones but for the opportunity I’ve been given to be here in San Francisco. I changed jobs as the working conditions at my old job weren’t compatible with me, and what a difference it has made! Finally I am getting some money in (still significantly less than the minimum wage in Australia, but at least more than the minimum wage here), which is a blessing I cannot explain. Today I indulged and bought myself some waterproof shoes, as my old ones started to get holes in the bottom causing me to walk around with wet feet all day, and I went grocery shopping and bought RED meat. Wild, I know. I can feel my iron levels sky-rocketing already. The next ‘luxury’ items I have my eyes set on are ski clothes/warm weather gear. It has been -22C up in the nearby mountains lately, with metres and metres of snow, so I am itching to get my ski boots on, and, of course, feel my toes again soon.

I have come to realize that the US both intrigues me and scares me at the same time. It’s difficult to write my honest thoughts for fear of being crass; being ‘PC’ is more than important here. No more Summer Heights High humour for me; at least not in writing, my accent still entitles me some free passes in conversation. The other day I bought a slice of pizza whilst waiting for the bus, and one of the hundreds of homeless men that exist throughout the Bay area came up to me and asked if he could sit down at my table. Without hesitation, I said ‘of course’. It was 6pm at night, dark & cold and he had just woken up for the day. He talked proudly about the blanket he had back at ‘home’, a garage in a block of apartments, and boasted about how warm it kept him. He told me his story, and it honestly seemed a little far reached—he was in the secret service around 9/11 and was an anti-Zionist, or something along those lines. But who knows, this IS Berkeley. Homelessness is a lifestyle choice for many whom you see lingering along Telegraph Ave and there are layers upon layers of Berkeleyans. The most entertaining layer is the upper-middle class Toyoto Prius drivers. There are hundreds of them here. You can’t walk to yoga without at least seeing 30-40+. Speaking of yoga, the yoga scene here is amazing. I go to a Yoga Centre called Yoga To The People, and it is Power Vinyassa Flow. It is athletic, yet thorough. The best part about it is that it is community run, so you only have to make a donation to go.

I am now working in downtown San Francisco and commute every morning from the East Bay. I absolutely adore San Francisco. The other night my friends and I went out in the Castro. If you don’t know what that is, reference Harvey Milk. Every day I talk to people from all walks of life about political, environment and social issues. The Bay area (San Francisco and surrounds) is a unique demographic in the United States. People are considered progressive and/or radical socialists here, depending on who you speak to; in other words people believe in pro-choice, gay rights & climate change. I don’t see what’s so radical about that, but with the rise of The Tea Party and capitalist conservatism the norm I guess it is all relative. More than half the country doesn’t have access to health due to complete privatisation and the health system  being ‘left up to the free market to allocate resources most efficiently’; another notion which astounds me. Everyone seems to harp on about economics here, but they seem to neglect to realise that most of the economic theories they rely on cannot function in a world that has one of those annoying, dynamic, ‘can’t be defined in a perfect system’ variables, aka humans. Health, education, equality and the environment – you know, just a few of those fundamental things that make societies work – seem to be put on the back-burner here. I’m still yet to realise for what, though. Big oil? Corporate interests? I feel I need to go and live in Texas or the mid-west or anywhere less progressive than here to even start to try and understand the mentality of the general population. With the collapse of the economy here, the collapse of the social systems, and the collapse of all that Americans hold dear and true; the American Dream, I still do not understand why this countries opts to go backward in the direction that is causing it’s collapse and realise it’s time to let go of their old ways. I know people from abroad of the US have talked for a long time about the rise of China and that ‘all great Empires must fall’, indicating the transition away from a US-centric world, but you can actually feel it happening here, day by day. It’s not some news story. There is a big shift ahead.

I see this girl every day. She has pet rats.

She sits outside the train station begging for change. 

Well, without getting much direr, I felt it important to communicate an outsider’s view from an insider’s perspective of what is happening in the US, politically and socially, at the moment. Every day I crave to go back to Norway and even Australia (which is at large a generally politically conservative county) for the simple ‘opportunities’ I once took for granted; the easy life. However, I am learning a lot here and feel blessed for this experience, all the while knowing I can go home and escape when things get ‘too hard’. Unfortunately, there are a few hundred million others who don’t have that luxury. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a very important holiday in the United States. Everyone returns home to their families and spends the day/weekend eating... and giving thanks, of course. The day is very much like an Australian Christmas, but without the presents and the hype. As Diogenes and I don't have family here, we were invited by one of our housemates to have Thanksgiving with his family. Of course, we felt very honoured and accepted immediately. So we spent our Thanksgiving celebrating with a very traditional American family in a very traditional way. We all held hands and gave thanks and said Grace before the meal. Everyone brought a dish from home and we sat, and talked, and drank and were very merry, I can assure you. Naturally, turkey was the main dish. The evening was a true delight and I can't think of a more lovely holiday; a day just to give thanks and be grateful.

A Big Sur Birthday

My birthday weekend was to die for! I have never felt so blessed. I came home from work the night before and the house was decorated with streamers, balloons and fairy lights. On my actual birthday I woke up to flowers delivered on my doors step from family and Diogenes. I ran work-related errands for most of the day (no rest for the wicked), but came home to Diogenes waiting for me with surprises in my room. He bought me a new bike, it is beautiful! He also bought me some vintage Pinot Noir, a leopard print snuggie (that is kind of an in-joke), and some gorgeous little tid-bits like a photo-viewer key chain, etc. I also received incredible presents, letters and other messages/phone calls from friends and family all over the world, and felt completely showered with love. My gratitude-o-metre was flying through the roof. Later in the evening we celebrated with friends drinking wine, eating glorious food (including a home-made birthday cake from a friend), dancing in the living room and finally we went to bed in the early hours of the morning. The next day Diogenes and I took off to Big Sur. Big Sur is a region south of Monterey, and is renowned for its natural beauty and breathtaking camping and hiking. We arrived on Friday night and stayed in a Yurt overlooking the ocean at a secluded eco-resort, and spent the next day taking it easy and exploring the coastline, eating at incredible restaurants right on the cliff edge and enjoyed long walks along the beach (tres romantic, I know). We camped the second day, right in front of the ocean again and enjoyed a delicious 5-Star dinner in front of a fireplace with a beautiful live band and freshly made waffles at our campsite in the morning. We slowly made our way back home on Sunday, continuing to explore the National Parks and local attractions. I am so grateful to everyone who made my day/weekend so special. It surely was a Big Sur Birthday!

Halloween

This weekend I celebrated my first Halloween. Halloween is a huge tradition in America and often quoted by my friends as their favorite holiday of the year. Hence, my household decided to throw a party. A big one. We carved jack-o-lanterns, baked pumpkin bread, decorated the house with spiders and glow-in-the-dark cobwebs and transformed our gorgeous old Berkleyan Hills manor into a monster mansion with a DJ, dance-floor and copious amounts of food and drink.  Everyone came in costume; from giant bananas to mermaids to Vikings to Chilean miners subsequent to their rescue from the Copiapo. Diogenes and I went as two American classics, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. There were in excess of 100 people at the party at one time – it surely made for a ‘sweaty sardine’ environment, as one guest was heard saying. The party raged on until the sun came up in the morning and only the stragglers were left keep the dance floor alive. It was one of the biggest and best parties I’ve been to (not to toot my own horn) and everyone had an exceptionally amazing time! Cleaning up the next day wasn’t too painful given there were 7 other housemates to help, and by lunchtime you couldn’t even tell there was a party the night before. Hundreds and thousands of little kids and young teenagers raged the streets in costumes knocking on doors for candy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any kids come to our house (we even bought candy for them!). I think it was because we are so far up the hill that no one could be bothered walking up here for candy… ha, need I make social commentary on that last sentence? The history and the development of the Halloween holiday is an interesting one but I will leave Wikipedia to fill you in on that one. There wasn’t a single house without a pumpkin out the front for weeks prior to Halloween and the holiday is surely one I’ll never forget! 

11/11

11:11 is a number that I have a strong connection with. I often see it on the clock when I glance at the time for no apparent reason. Spiritual folk have described witnessing 11:11 on the clock as a moment when one’s conscious and subconscious mind are at one; a moment where you are in an extraordinary state of awareness. Seeing 11:11 on the clock gives me great peace in knowing that I am exactly where I am meant to be; where I am is 100% the right time and place. 11/11 is also my birthday.

My birthday has become somewhat of a spiritual moment for me. I always feel significant changes in my life start around my birthday and which often are concreted into place around New Years Eve. I am finally ending a 7 year cycle of change (my 21^st year), and am excited for what the New Year will bring. My birthday comes at a time before all the hustle and bustle of Christmas, at the change of the seasons – be it spring to summer in the Southern Hemisphere or fall to winter in the Northern, and at the end of a journey and the beginning of a new one.

I always become very reflective and sentimental around this time of year, and I like to look back and reflect on my growth. I recently crafted a ‘photo wall’ comprised of a collection of photos from over the past year. Every night since erecting it I stare at it for at least half an hour. It is a form of meditation; a way for me to feel grateful for my life and all the people in it.

MY YEAR:

The photo wall starts with photos from my 21^st birthday last year; a very significant day for anyone. I remember feeling at peace come my 21^st. Despite it being organized last minute because I didn’t know whether I’d be in Canberra or Perth, my closest friends in Canberra made my day really special. It was a good way to say thanks for the previous 4 years of university together as well. My birthday was around the time my boyfriend officially asked me out and we started our life together. Just a week or two later, I graduated from university with First Class Honors and felt a tremendous sense of achievement and closure of that part of my life. My mum was there to celebrate it with me and I remember feeling really appreciative of all her support over my whole life. I said goodbye to Canberra and university life, and Diógenes and I travelled to Sydney to enjoy the surf and the sun before venturing on a long journey by car from east to west Australia. We camped in the desert, never ran out of conversation and cemented our relationship in stone. We arrived in Perth just in time for Christmas with my whole family, and went sailing to Rottnest Island and enjoyed the beautiful Australian Summer. My grandmother from Germany was visiting Australia for the first time and it was also the first time we celebrated Christmas together. One of my favorite pictures is with me and all the important women in my life; my mother, step-mum, and two grandmothers. New Years Eve was a very special time when some of my oldest and closest friends whom I grew up with ventured down on a camping road trip to the Margaret River Surf & Wine region of Western Australia. We spent almost a week touring, having fun and enjoying the peace of the Australian bush & ocean and catching up on old times. I realized that I was lucky to have made such amazing friends in this life; friends I will love and cherish forever. Settling back into life in Perth, I celebrated Australia Day with my cousin, one of my best friends, and felt appreciative of my home country and all that was Australian. At this stage I knew that I would be leaving Australia for a while and this day was important for me to recognize and connect to my heritage. Over the following months I worked to save money for my overseas adventure, and in the meantime made friends with a beautiful bunch of people from all over the world. One of my greatest memories with these folk was travelling to Lancelin and running amok in the sand dunes overlooking the ocean; being completely free and uninhibited, laughing and loving life.  In the mix of it all, I flew to Bali for Easter and met my half-sister for the first time since she was a baby and I was a young girl. This was an incredible moment to connect with a part of me I had longed to reunite with for a long time. We formed an amazing bond and I am proud to say I have a sister (a fantastic one, at that)! As time approached for me to leave Australia I felt at peace with my family, particularly my Dad who I had really deepened my relationship with. A few weeks before I left Australia, my step-mum finally went into remission from a chronic and rare form of Leukemia after battling the cancer with chemotherapy and the like over roughly 6 years. To see her recover was an amazing goodbye present. She really helped me grow into myself and discover my spirituality over the few months I was back in Perth. Speaking of spirituality, I met some amazing beauties and was taken in to their family on my path to connect with God/the Divine who really inspired me by not only talking the talk, but walking the walk, of loving and giving peace to the present moment and everything in this universe. My mother and maternal grandmother were incredibly supportive to me and I tried to spend as much time with them as possible, doing humble things but nevertheless appreciating every moment. There are no words to explain how much I love them. My mum in particular was (and always has been and always will be) my best friend. I spent many an afternoon walking along Cottesloe beach with my best friend Emy philosophizing about life and recognizing how important our friendship is to each other. My dogs aged rapidly before my eyes; one becoming completely blind and the other completely deaf. Without much longer to live, I enjoyed the simple pleasures of walking them every day and sitting with them in the park cuddling and playing, knowing that it would be the last time I would see them once I left Australian shores. I particularly had difficulty parting with my dog Chloe, my companion since I was a young girl, who has always been there for me through the good and the bad. My cat as well. Saying goodbye to my animals really felt like a chapter in my life had ended, and I had to let go and go forward. I celebrated my last few weeks in Australia spending as much time as possible with the people I loved the most, and celebrated with a farewell party (or three), who I can primarily thank my mum for arranging. And that was that, goodbye Australia. I headed overseas to Norway and fell in love with the Nordic life once again. I went to Lene and Sven’s beautiful white-tie gala wedding and danced a Polynesian waltz for the first time. I learnt a lot about the World and my passion for travel and learning about other cultures was ignited strongly once again. I landed in Germany a week later and had an incredibly meaningful time with my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. For the first time in my life, I felt really a deep connection with my German family and I will never forget my time there.  This was a very important and special week for me. Shortly after, I arrived in Brazil in an attempt to build a life there with my boyfriend. We spent a couple of months touring the south of Brazil; learning and participating in Brazilian life and culture; enjoying the good and bad of life in Brazil together. I made some amazing friends and have memories for a lifetime. I’ve written extensively about my journey since leaving Australian shores in this blog. So another year is coming to an end and Diógenes I are now living in the United States. Both of us have jobs and are quickly moving up the ranks. We are starting to build new friendships, new lives and new memories that in a year I will be able to reflect upon as just the beginning of a much longer journey.

Sometimes a year can pass us by so quickly, and we are not really sure what we have done or achieved; we all know what it feels like to have life speed past us. So that is why my birthday is an important day for me. It is a moment for me to really appreciate all that has been since 11/11 the year prior. I can honestly say that this has been one of the best years of my life. The love I feel for my family and friends is overwhelming. Despite being on the other side of the world, I feel closer and more connected to those I love than ever before. I feel like I have matured a lot emotionally. I have found my feet and I am proud to be who I am. I am proud of my family, I am proud of my home, I am proud of my friends, and I am proud of what I have achieved in this life and I am proud of the woman I have become.

In many ways, this blog post is to say thanks to all the special people in my life and who have made this one of the most special and monumental years of my life; helping me really establish my roots & my identity as I transitioned into my own person... and helping me find a deep appreciation for the people that make my life important. There will never been enough words to suffice how important each and every one of you are to me… Your love and support is the greatest birthday present I could have ever asked for this 11/11. Thank you. 

Life in the Bay

My first two weeks in the US have been… well, I have no idea how to sum it up in an opening sentence. Firstly, I am really happy here. Perhaps I’ll start this blog entry at the center (see, I am starting to use US English; note the –er not –re ending) of daily life. Home. I love my house. 

I have incredible housemates; they are an eclectic mix of people who all feel completely comfortable to be themselves, and whose personalities and outlooks on life I greatly enjoy and respect respectively. I also feel really comfortable to be completely myself, and I feel there is a great sense of understanding and acceptance in the house, including a willingness to be a ‘house family’. We garden together, go to music festivals together, cook together, drink wine (and scotch) together, have bonfires in the garden, talk with, yoga with, shop with, exercise with each other… of course not all 8 of us together at once necessarily (actually that rarely happens), but there is an awesome community vibe to the house. The surrounding neighborhood is one of the nicest in the area, and a short stroll up the street finds you immersed in nature. Speaking of such, I saw my first Raccoon come investigating on our balcony, little Bambis on the street at dusk, squirrels everywhere and apparently there are mountain lions that venture down from the Hills every now and then. I have a feeling, though, it is pretty rare for a mountain lion to be found in Berkeley and my housemates might have been playing on my naivety a little. American humor, I’m still working on it. The town itself, Berkeley, is a really interesting place. It is an incredibly progressive town with a significantly socially and politically liberal and relatively wealthy population. Neighboring areas, such as Oakland, a heavily industrialized area, do not predominately portray the same characteristics and hence there is a mix and flux of different demographics in Berkeley at times (particularly at the borders). Homelessness and theft are major issues in the Bay area generally. Honestly, I feel more threatened here by security issues than I did in Brazil. Probably because I am usually alone, the men in particular are usually significantly bigger than me (I was quite tall compared to most of the Brazilian population), and there seems to be more resentment as opposed to sorrow and despair from the homeless here; they often carry a really aggressive and threatening attitude. Of course, I speak only of my experience with panhandlers on street corners, and I do not intend to generalize all people subject to homelessness. Nevertheless, one of my housemates attributes the 'attitude' to the US's generally liberal politics and therefore many homeless feel like the system is at fault and carry an attitude 'well, what are you gonna do about it?'.

Given the many political chats I’ve had with my fellow Berkeleyans I am starting to understand the US political system and the less tangible, but actual ‘system’ that governs US culture(s). The US is definitely stereotyped by the majority of the ‘rest of the world’, and people often ask me about my perception of the US before and after being here. The longer I am here and the more I learn about the US, I am really starting to see the ignorance inherent in the stereotype. This country is way too diverse to be categoriZed. Perhaps stereotypes, generally, are based on a certain level on ignorance through generaliZation (note the Z, not S – US spelling). The state of California is a particularly interesting state to live in – hey, it has Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor, how can it not be? I am really looking forward to learning more about the politics here. Marijuana is a topical issue here right now as Arnie just passed a law to make smoking pot as criminal as getting a parking fine. Given there aren’t any ‘pot-smoking inspectors’ that walk around neighborhoods and cities in a cool uniform and hat like parking inspectors, I can’t imagine anyone being fined for smoking unless you blew smoke into a police officer’s face and they had a particular personal aversion to the green stuff. Hence it is effectively legal. There is an election coming up for the people of CA to decide whether to completely legalize it or not. On the back of the East Bay Chronicle, there are adds for doctors where all of which have little hemp logos indicating “medicinal marijuana available here”. I am really intrigued to see what the outcome will be.

Speaking of politics, I am starting work this week at an influential political non-profit, the Californian League of Conservation Voters. I had my interview today and I really, really liked the staff, the values and goals of the organization and the pay/working conditions seem pretty reasonable! Not to mention, I'm working in a really topical and challenging field that I am really passionate about. Can't ask for much more? The US economy is still going down, with the AU dollar 99c to the US dollar. Not bad if I hadn’t already transferred my savings into my US bank account… dang. Come on dollar, go back up! Research positions and a possible fellowship are also on the cards, but more to come on that later. Career prospective are nevertheless not bad, and I feel this is a fantastic place for my career to blossom in time. I am also going to enjoy having some sort of financial freedom again. I am definitely still interested in post-graduate academia, be it a PhD, Masters or Grad Program. I am going to enjoy my time to work (for money) and gain some practical experience nevertheless over the coming year(s).

What else? I feel I owe it to you, my friends and family, to fill you in on everything as I am becoming increasingly distracted with ‘life’. I saw Diogenes for the first time since he departed this weekend. We enjoyed some touristic activities in San Fran (Golden Gate Bridge – a must do), and generally enjoyed what being in our 20’s is all about. Life is just grand, what can I say? I am really happy and really comfortable here, and am really enjoying building a life here. I went to an incredible music festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, in the Golden Gate Park the other weekend and chillaxed with a picnic and friends (and 300,000 other people) to some awesome music. There is always something happening in SF (downtown San Francisco) or the East Bay (Berkeley and surrounds), every night, it’s just a matter of choosing what/when/where I want to be. So…. This is, so far, my life in the Bay. I’m loving it. 

Hello United States!

Yesterday I said goodbye to my partner in crime, Diogenes, as he left for Salinas, Monterey, to start his traineeship. I am currently writing from my beautiful Berkeley Hills bedroom, looking out my window at a view spanning the San Francisco Bay area. In a few hours I will watch the sunset out of the same window and watch San Francisco and the Golden Gate and Bay Bridge come alive with lights in the distance.

Arriving in the US was far easier than we had imagined, or at least had been warned about. The trip was quite uncomfortable given we booked last minute and had awful seats on the long 9 and 6 hour flights from Sao Paulo to Miami and Miami to San Francisco, respectively. But we arrived in our gorgeous Victorian era hotel in downtown San Francisco and felt very exhilarated by the SF 'vibe'. After dinner in China Town, we witnessed a mass movement of cyclists parading the streets with loud music (some were naked), and we thought to ourselves “… this is San Fran, baby!". Our first meal here was at a local diner where we ordered simple sandwiches, that turned out to be half a cow between two slices of bread. They were enormous. With nearly 2/3 Americans overweight or obese, we had no difficulty understanding why. We travelled over to Berkeley on our second day, and despite Berkeley’s reputation for incrediblely delicious and healthy food, the portion sizes weren’t much smaller. I ordered two rice paper vegetarian fresh spring rolls for lunch from the Berkeley Organic Farmers Market, and was presented with two football sized parcels of cabbage, mango, Vietnamese mint and vermicelli wrapped in (bed) sheets of rice paper. The sustainability and local, organic food movement here is incredible. There was even an organic beer Olympics at the Farmers Market. Our hostel was full of lost souls from all over the world who were the epitome of ‘hippy’ and no doubt participated in the original Woodstock ‘69. The US is just larger than life. Everyone here is a complete character. We were amazed at how friendly and lively everyone is. I knew straight away that I was going to LOVE this country.

Everything happened so smoothly. I found a house quickly and Diogenes was around for a few days to help me sort myself out and set myself up. I have 7 other housemates who are all a little older and grad/PhD students or professionals, and I feel like I fit in really well. Luckily, there is also an Ikea nearby where we scored some funky but cheap furniture.

However, my luck turned when my wallet was stolen in downtown San Francisco on a mission to apply for a Social Security number. Amazingly, when I tell Americans about it, they don’t even look surprised! Concerned, but not surprised. Identity theft is a huge issue in the US, and I am sincerely hoping whoever has my wallet was just a regular thug after some cash. Unfortunately I had some items of significant sentimental value in there which are irreplaceable. Nevertheless, I am using it as a good opportunity to start afresh and reestablish myself here in the US. I was granted a cheque-book and given cheques are obsolete in most western countries I am finding small pleasures in signing my name on the antique currency. Spanish and Chinese languages are prevalent here and almost every phone line you ring has an English and Spanish option. The Social Security office was 99% Chinese, and all the tellers spoke Chinese. Fascinating. The next stop for me is to find some work. Now Diogenes and I are apart (despite feeling a little lost and naked after having just spent roughly 2000 hours straight together, 24/7), I have more time to focus and concentrate on myself and my career (and my blog!). With the US market taking another downturn, my prospects are not abundant, but nevertheless I have much hope that the right thing will come along at the right time… it always does. Like America, for instance… I still remember the phone call offering Diogenes the job… Hello United States!