Wish me luck

In the last three months much has happened in terms of friends, little of which was talked about in this blog.  So let’s start filling you all in.

Abroad, my friend situation is simply amazing.  Thanks to Whatsapp, a messaging app on my iPhone, I have managed to keep up with a lot of my friends that I made while in Shanghai, nearly all of whom reside across Asia.  Through text messages and pictures, I have rebuilt my relationship with Jeanni who provides with me words of confidence at just the right times.  Yanjia, who I barely talked to in Shanghai now periodically blows up my phone.  It is amazing how things have grown since I came back to California.  However, everything pales in comparison to how I managed to convince my Singaporean friend Wan Ching to come to the states for her grad trip.  She is arriving in San Diego in less than two weeks, driving from Washington DC and to say that I am excited about her visit would be an understatement.

On the home front, things have not fared as well.  I managed to lose two old friends in the same week due to petty arguments, the result of which has made me the question my significance to them.  The situation sucks, but I have never been averse to putting myself out there to get hurt and that is not going to stop now.  Kathy, the only new friend I made last quarter has graduated and gone back to Long Beach, meaning no more screaming mock fights or alcohol fueled study nights for the foreseeable future.  Furthermore, reconnecting with Ashley L. has stalled due to her continuously diminishing amount of free time. 

A silver lining to all of this bad news at home, is that I have gotten a lot of closer to Robocop.  His family moved to Korea last year, leaving him with no home for the holidays.  I offered him the floor in my room and he gladly accepted for the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.  The result has been the most fun that I have ever had on the holidays.  Jokes and loud laughter abound whenever we are together, in addition, he gets along with my family meaning that I do not have to.  Over the last month, we have become frighteningly comfortable with each other and though living with Robocop has revealed a great many annoying quirks that I never knew about, I can honestly say now that I am confident we will be friends for life.       

Tomorrow, I am returning to a lonelier San Diego with fewer friends than I started with.  Not a new phenomenon, but a definite sign that I am going to need to be more social this quarter and make more friends.  

  

Wish me luck.

-muffinman 

The scenic route

On my way back down to San Diego, I decided to take the scenic route with my good friend Sarah. With my Camry packed incredibly neatly, almost tetris like, Sarah and I set off on our one day road trip.



Sarah is a shuttle driver at UCSD and I had the utmost confidence in her driving abilities. She managed to pull off an incredible 31 miles to the gallon on the winding roads of highway 1, to put this into perspective, I usually get around 25 miles to the gallon driving normally. I drove for the last quarter of the tank, and without a doubt, the calculated mileage would have been higher had Sarah driven the tank to empty.

Typically, it takes me about seven to eight hours to drive down to UCSD. Taking the scenic route, it took an exhausting eleven hours. This was partly because a large stretch of the road was limited to 35 or 45 miles per hour, compared to 80MPH on highway 5 (more direct road through the state), and the fact that we stopped liberally to admire the view and take pictures.

Sarah ended up driving eight of those eleven hours, because highway 1 was so much fun that she wanted it all for herself. And that was fine with me, as I got to focus on taking pictures of the amazing coastline. It had been awhile since I had gone out on a shoot and I was rediscovering my love for the camera. At the end of the day, I got some really great shots.


My favorite picture of the drive


This was not bad either

Cannot wait for thanksgiving when I get to do it again! Wonder who will join me next time around.

-muffinman