Good Times, Bad Times

Sorry that I kept you all waiting so long. But here it is again, my report of my stay here in San Francisco.

First off all I would like to say goodbye again to Michelle, Chris and Clarissa. They all left back to home, it is different without them.

Well, of course we took some time to say goodbye to all those people. So we went to Harry Potter 6 with a big group of friends here. We had to wait for 2 and a half hour in the cinema to keep good seats but it was worth it. We also went out to dinner in the Cheesecake Factory, one of the best known restaurants in San Francisco and we went to the airport to say goodbye to Chris and Michelle. After a week of grief (just kidding) we also had to say goodbye to Clarissa, so once again we went to a restaurant, a really good traditional Italian restaurant this time. But unfortunately we also had to say goodbye to her.

Okay so that were the sad moments, but luckily I of course had some great moments as well.

Two weeks ago:

Lisan and I looked for speculaas spice because we wanted to make pepernoten for the pot luck (everyone brings something to eat and then you share) at school. But the spice for this cookie is only known in the Netherlands and therefore impossible to get in the USA. Although it was possible to make the spice our selves using about six different spices we didn't make the cookies because that would have become pretty expensive. So instead we bought ingredients for Greek yogurt sweet pancakes (kwark pannenkoeken). And luckily as always everyone enjoyed the sweet pancakes.

On Wednesday was the potluck after school. We had turkey and other traditional Thanksgiving foods. The ambiance was really nice and I think everyone enjoyed the meal. Then we played some pool with Andy and Ruben (2 of my teachers) which was fun. After we finally left school, we first went to the hostel to meet up with everyone to go to the movies. When everyone who wanted to come along was there, we headed for the cinema to see the movie love and other drugs. It was a romantic comedy. Which was lots of fun to see.

The next day, Thursday, I woke up late since there was no school. After I finally woke up, I didn't do that much because at 6 we would go to an uncle and an aunt of my host family to have a Thanksgiving dinner over there. They had a rally big turkey, about 20 pounds and also other tasty foods. We had a good dinner and chatted a lot so I'm looking forward seeing them again with Christmas. After the dinner I went to the hostel since we were supposed to meet up with a group for the black Friday shopping. So I stayed in the lobby since it was not allowed to stay in the rooms after 10.30.

The day of shopping had arrived. I was still in the lobby of the hostel at 3.30 when everyone came down to go out for some shopping. Besides the early opening of the shops (the earliest was 4) almost every shop had a big discount, most of the shops had up to 50% discount. I didn't rally buy anything though because I didn't feel like standing in line for over an hour to either fit or pay for an item. So I ended up buying a strange shaped rubix cube. I also took care of Stephanie since she became my host sister here.

Friday night we went out for dinner in an Italian restaurant because it was the last night for Clarissa. We went to panta rei and I really enjoyed the food there, I would definitely recommend it. After dinner we went back to the hostel again because Clarissa wanted to say goodbye to some people living there and of course that was a sad moment. In the night I had the opportunity to say goodbye to Clarissa myself and I promised her I would see het again.

Saturday, I once again headed for the hostel. This time I was meeting people for a trip to Napa valley. When everyone woke up, we took the car and left off to Napa. It was a rainy day so we didn't stop too often. We saw some beautiful landscapes and some amazing houses. Once we were in Napa, we decided to get some information in a tourist center. We then headed for the geyser but unfortunately it was closed. Therefore we decided to go to Sacramento. Once we arrived there, we noticed that there wasn't too much to do on Saturday. There was hardly anyone on the street. It became quite late and we got a bit hungry so we went inside a small restaurant. I had a very tasty burger with gorgonzola cheese. After dinner we headed back to San Francisco to go to Twin Peaks. I had already been there but even though the view was once again astonishing. Then we picked up my housemate because she was going to live in the hostel. After we arrived at the hostel, I was send away because it was too late. So I went home and went to bed.

Since it was pretty late on Saturday I stayed in bed longer on Sunday. When I woke up I noticed that I ran out of clean underwear and therefore had to do my laundry. In the main time I was waiting, I cleaned up my room and vacuum cleaned. So after Sunday I had clean laundry and a clean room again. The rest of the day I spent reading, doing video games and relaxing. Of course I also worked on my homework ;-).

Last week:

We got a Wii at school so I decided to play some games. Wensday we had a big party with both EF San Francisco and EF Mills College. It was a lot of fun since I already knew the people of Mills a bit so I knew almost everyone at the party. But the next day I didn't go to class since I was to tired, I got home at 4 and had to get out of my bed at 6.30 if I wanted to make the first class. Friday I first did soccer practice with some EF students and afterwards we went to a Hookah bar with my mentor group. Of course we smoked hookah but we also had a small dinner. When I got home I played a video game with Louis (my host brother) till around 2 am.

On Saturday I went to the movies with some friends and afterwards to the hostel. And when both the supervisors at the hostel went outside for a smoke, someone invited me to come up for a small party. So we ended up drinking some beers and wine in a room. I stayed there till 5.30 and then the people living in the room were going to bed so we had to leave.

Sunday I stayed in bed for quite a while and when I had enough energy I got out to check the weather since we would play a soccer match against Mills but it was raining pretty hard. But everyone decided to show up so I couldn't say that I wouldn't be coming. So I packed my stuff and went through the rain to the soccer field. It was a pretty interesting match, after the first half it was 2-1 for us. Then it became 2-4 for mills we scored a goal so it became 3-4, then Mills had another breakthrough in our defense so it became 3-5 and we ended up losing with 4-5. Because in the end Mills was more active since they had around 6 people to change. It was a good match though.

So that is my quick report of my last 2 weeks :-P.

And some extra news:
Since I feel that my English is good enough for what I will be using it for. This in combination with the fact that I feel I'm not learning enough at school made me decide to change to Costa Rica to learn Spanish. This will be more worth my money since I will start from scratch.

So right now I'm making preparations for Costa Rica.

Well speak you all next time.

And like usual, feel free to comment.

P.S.
I placed new pictures on:
http://marijninamerika.myphotoalbum.com/