Pacific Standard Time Part 2

I’ve now been in California for over a week. I still miss being away from home a lot but it isn’t as bad this week as it was last week. I’ll admit that it is still challenging and I still really really really really miss home, but I have adjusted to being here.

I was feeling really confused in regards to school and my internship when I got here but things are starting to make sense now. I am getting to know my classmates and I am learning a lot from them as we prep for the summer camps we will be leading in the coming weeks. Hopefully, once we get everything ironed out and finalized I will have time to get back to my research project. Speaking of my research project, I met my new advisor and she has a cat. Because of this, I’d say our relationship is off to a good start.

Last Thursday was my birthday so I bought a really expensive milkshake at Cold Stone. It took me 29 years to actually go to a Cold Stone. I’m not sure if it was worth spending $5.50 for a vanilla milkshake but now I can say I’ve been to Cold Stone. Likewise, I finally went to a Chipotle and I liked it. So, I can say I have at least tried 2 new things since I’ve been here.

I have been drinking a lot less coffee than normal. That may or may not change. My California coffee count is only 3.

There may be a drought here but there certainly are quite a few lakes and fountains.

Speaking of the drought, here are a few shots of the canal trail I’ve been running on. The water is fenced because this is the county’s drinking water.

Last Friday Phil and I went on a movie date. We saw The Secret Life of Pets at the same. He saw the 7:10pm show in New Jersey and I saw the 4:10pm show here in California. It actually felt like we were seeing the movie together. Hopefully, we can do more things like this soon.

I’ve also been talking to Phil and the cats on FaceTime a lot. I really miss them A LOT. So far, I’ve seen 3 California cats and I was actually able to pet 1 of them. It’s not the same as snuggling with my cats though. 

I took some cool photos during my long run on Sunday. The first is a tunnel that I ran through on the canal trail and the last 2 are from a place called Lime Ridge Open Space.

To end this post I’ll share a funny anecdote: As I was walking out of my school the other day I noticed these bricks, and several others like them, so I stopped to read what each brick said. As I was reading the bricks a sprinkler suddenly came on. For a visual, imagine me jumping around and running away.