Disasters

I'm kinda bummed about the disastrous situation down in New Orleans. And intrigued and confused. Where are the rescue and relief operations? Is it just me, or wouldn't you expect a country like the U.S. to have the resources and the emergency plans to deal with catastrophies like this. I have been watching people crying on television and reading first hand accounts of the situation down there, and these people are without hope. They feel forgotten and abandoned. What is the problem here? Does the fact that they are 90% black and poor possibly have anything to do with the fact that no immediate relief and assistance seems to have been put into place for those people? I mean, where is everybody? I can't imagine the same scenario taking place if this was La Jolla, California, instead of New Orleans, Louisiana. So, I wonder. Come on! You have the resources to overtake a country of 30 million people in 48 hours, now how about sending a few truckloads of water down to this goddamn flooded nightmare of the place. There's children and elderly people desperately waiting for some basic things there. I don't know what to think anymore. There's something wrong, very wrong here. Just can't put my finger on what's going on, really. But I feel saddened ...

Setting Myself Up

My future life as a student is now approaching. I now have schedules for orientation events. I will probably skip those, considering that I sort of know campus by now, having spent all summer here (I even know Porters Pub, we had lunch there once), and I more or less know what I want to do, although some of my classes are conflicting with each other.
I have a space now, for myself, my books and the brand new desktop computer that the lab ordered me. I know a few students now: Mark, Shaojie, Max, Banu, Ben, Neil and Ali. So, my computer was delivered, and I have installed Linux on it, connected to the network after I got my IP number and am now all set to go.

And best of all, I don't have to pack my laptop and take it with me each time I visit the bathroom, but can leave my things in a safe place. The place is mine now!

First Days of Summer?

I think summer finally arrived! Either that, or summer ended. Since I arrived mid May, the weather has basically been the same each day: Overcast or partly clouded, breezy, with a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius. Actually, sometimes there is mist in the morning. The wind from the ocean is chilly, and I learned not to leave for work without a jacket. But, for the last couple of days it's been bikini weather ...

Why Don't We Do This More Often?

Yesterday after work we drove by the bakery to get some baguette, then a bottle of red at Henry's, packed a picnic bag with bread, wine, italian salami, Boursin spread, grapes and that nice Gouda farm cheese we got at the Farmer's Market the other day, then walked our picnic down to the beach. We got there just in time for sunset.

We spread our picnic out and munched on it, and enjoyed watching the surf, the colors of twilight, and the people. The tide was falling out, and the beach was glowing orange/gold in the sunset. On one side of us some vagabonds had dug a big hole and made a camp with some blankets and shawls. It looked as if they were there to stay ... On the other side a couple of guys were rolling and making out in the sand. Night fell on us after we'd been sitting there for about an hour, but we were fortunate to have picked a spot just behind a hotel that flood lighted the beach, so we stayed an extra hour eating sausage, cheese and bread, and peoplewatching. We saw a guy running up and down the beach in his wet suit. He then began running in circles and looking mighty confused. Maybe he lost his surfboard ...

It was a beautiful night. But almost the first time since I came that it was really warm enough to do this ...

Going Sideways in Temecula Valley

So, mor spent the weekend with us. We set her up on the futon in our living room. It's not the Hyatt, but she didn't complain. On Friday night, P. & R. drove into San Diego and all of us went out for dinner at the Fishery, which like the name says is, aside from being a great seafood restaurant, also a fish market during the day. It's in PB just north of us.

On saturday we had a nice breakfast at home with prosciutto and melon, home style bruschettas, goat cheese and bread and "Boursin". Then took out to Temecula where we hung out for a while at P's house, then went wine tasting in Temecula Valley. They have an extraordinary number of new wineries there, and a big "wine tasting business" by now, as far as I can see. They have great facilities, but are maybe a bit touristy compared with the wineries I visited in France ...

We only tried a couple of wineries, actually, but that was really enough for the day. Enough, in any case, to make mor a little "tipsy" and to turn C. a little silly. By the time I asked him (at the second winery) whether he would prefer the Merlot or the Cabernet Sauvignon, and he answered he didn't remember, whereas we just finished tasting them, I realised that he was out wine drinkin', not tastin'. All in all, we probably tried almost twenty wines, but that included everything from champagne to red port, going through white, rosé, red and desert wines.

Back at the house we talked with Cedric for a while (their new adopted garden cat), then went out to dinner again at the Mekong River. Got great spring rolls, thai beef salad, vermicelli, kung pao, green curry and orange chicken. Then spent the night at P's.

Early sunday morning we drove up to Newport with mor. On the way back we stopped in Laguna Beach for breakfast, then slowly made our way down the coast, stopping every once in a while at furniture stores. In Oceanside we visited the Farmer's Market, in Solana Beach we strolled through the shopping center, in Encenitas we stopped again at the quirky, hippie market, with the soaps and the pearl necklaces, and the cotton skirts and the encens and the new age stuff ...

We were finally too lazy to go to the movies like we meant to when we got home, but we rented one on DVD. It was really good: A very long engagement with actress Audrey Tatou and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. If you liked his earlier films: Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, Amélie, then you will like this one. It's not quite as quirky as the first two, and a little darker than the last one, but the story is touching and the composed footage from Paris of the 20's is amazing.

Going Sideways in Temecula Valley

So, mor spent the weekend with us. We set her up on the futon in our living room. It's not the Hyatt, but she didn't complain. On Friday night, P. & R. drove into San Diego and all of us went out for dinner at the Fishery, which like the name says is, aside from being a great seafood restaurant, also a fish market during the day. It's in PB just north of us.

On saturday we had a nice breakfast at home with prosciutto and melon, home style bruschettas, goat cheese and bread and "Boursin". Then took out to Temecula where we hung out for a while at P's house, then went wine tasting in Temecula Valley. They have an extraordinary number of new wineries there, and a big "wine tasting business" by now, as far as I can see. They have great facilities, but are maybe a bit touristy compared with the wineries I visited in France ...

We only tried a couple of wineries, actually, but that was really enough for the day. Enough, in any case, to make mor a little "tipsy" and to turn C. a little silly. By the time I asked him (at the second winery) whether he would prefer the Merlot or the Cabernet Sauvignon, and he answered he didn't remember, whereas we just finished tasting them, I realised that he was out wine drinkin', not tastin'. All in all, we probably tried almost twenty wines, but that included everything from champagne to red port, going through white, rosé, red and desert wines.

Back at the house we talked with Cedric for a while (their new adopted garden cat), then went out to dinner again at the Mekong River. Got great spring rolls, thai beef salad, vermicelli, kung pao, green curry and orange chicken. Then spent the night at P's.

Early sunday morning we drove up to Newport with mor. On the way back we stopped in Laguna Beach for breakfast, then slowly made our way down the coast, stopping every once in a while at furniture stores. In Oceanside we visited the Farmer's Market, in Solana Beach we strolled through the shopping center, in Encenitas we stopped again at the quirky, hippie market, with the soaps and the pearl necklaces, and the cotton skirts and the encens and the new age stuff ...

We were finally too lazy to go to the movies like we meant to when we got home, but we rented one on DVD. It was really good: A very long engagement with actress Audrey Tatou and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. If you liked his earlier films: Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, Amélie, then you will like this one. It's not quite as quirky as the first two, and a little darker than the last one, but the story is touching and the composed footage from Paris of the 20's is amazing.

Beach Party

We were to a beach party yesterday. A combined 60th birthday and 40th anniversary of J's mom, but J. is C's best friend. It was just south of Newport, or in Laguna Beach. As if Laguna Beach and the surrounding communities weren't exclusive enough, the party took place in a closed residence. Imagine a private beach on the overpopulated coastline of California, region of Los Angeles! Well, private with the some propably 3000 residents. The hills and cliffs were covered with villas. Maybe we will buy one too some day, or the day we can spend a 10 million dollars on a house, that is. Or maybe not. Maybe we will just buy a little hut in some deserted fjord back home and keep it to ourselves ...

But the party was right on the beach, with a bar and a buffet and a band and a ball floor. We had clams, paella and fudge ice cream. After dinner we had a walk on the beach and tried to spot the fluorescent blue flashes in the waves as they broke on the beach. I had never seen a "red tide" before, but those are caused by a sudden surge in a particular type of plankton in a particular stretch of coastline. It turns the water into a reddish color. At night however these plankton are bioluminescent, so when waves agitate them, they emit blue light.

The crowd at the party was nice. Mostly lawyers and mostly middle aged, but friendly and fun, dancing and drinking. These are very good friends of C. and they are basically family. So it was nice to see them and it was nice to see C. with them. Plus, Mor came and she drove back home with us after the party, to spend a couple of days with us. We drove back the Pacific Coast Highway, through Dana Point, then took the freeway from there. The traffic much lighter of course on the way back, so it was only an hours drive.

The Lab

I finally paid a visit to my PhD advisor and walked through the quarters where I am going to be spending the next few years. (My advisor wouldn't call it a lab, because there's no space there for the supervisors, or like he said: "The students own the place".) And I was pretty satisfied. We are situated in a brand new building, and the staff has been moving in since only a couple of months ago. Instead of the computer rooms the department's graduate students used to have in the basement of a building on the edge of campus, we now have four bright rooms on the top floor of this new building. And everything, desks, book cases, office chairs, is new. Our professors and basically all the faculty I am interested in having contact with, that is the theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, are on the same hallway or the next one. I admit that it's a privilege to have access to these brand new quarters right at the beginning of your studies. And another aspect is that we're now in the building next to the one where C. works. We will be riding together to work, just like in the old days ...

Aside from this, I am also really glad that I chose whom I chose for advisor. He comes across as very helpful, friendly and interested. That will be a big asset, once I begin my research projects. He offered to get me a computer swiftly and basically just wanted to help me get started as soon as possible. So, I even have a key to the student's rooms already.

Classes will start in about five or six weeks. I am having a hard time selecting between the ones I would like to take. I might want to try to sit four classes, I wonder if that's going to be too much. But, I am hoping some of them might be easy, given the background I already have. We'll see ...

The Nursery

As I said before: looks like we are here to stay, so I'm not waiting any f***ing longer for that herb garden C. promised me with the new house. This weekend I told him that it was NOW that I needed it, and I was promised a trip to the nursery on sunday.

On saturday we went to the beach. The ocean is a few blocks from where we live, probably close to ten minutes on foot, but I must confess that this weekend was the first time proper that we went down to the beach with the intent of hanging out there. So, we brought our towels, sun screen, a water bottle and pocket books to pass a couple of hours. The sky was more or less overcast most of the time we spent there, exactly as it has been for the whole summer down here in San Diego, but the temperatures were comfortable. By the time we left it was a little windy though, and it felt too chilly to take a dip in the water, as we would have otherwise. Nothing to do with the Gulf of Mexico!

Sunday we went to pick up pots and soil at the nursery for my tomato plant. I also invested in a few herbs: basil, orange mint, rosemary and chives. I never grew herbs outdoors before, set aside the indestructible chives plant I used to have on my balcony, so this is sort of an experiment. I will have to figure out how fast they grow and how much space to give them. Hope to get a cilantro plant as well, so that we will be able to make guacamole every weekend ...

Our first trip to IKEA!

I've started to make myself to the idea that we are probably not going to be moving any time soon. We have on and off been looking for a bigger house/apartment since May and still haven't seen one that has totally convinced us. Or they have been completely out of our price range. I still feel we need more space; I have no decent place to work at home and most of my things are still in boxes waiting for that new place when I will finally have the occasion to unpack them. But, as long as we can't come up with something that is better than the place we presently have, what's the point in moving.

Pacific Beach is a very nice community, but a lot of the housing here seems to be geared at temporary visitors or college students and just lacks the homeliness we're looking for. Many houses seem to date from the 50's, with bathrooms and kitchens that haven't been renovated since then. Some neighbourhoods are just too convivial, meaning that they have a very young, noisy, partying crowd. Then there are the oh-so-unappealing condo complexes, while C. and I see ourselves as a bit past the "Melrose Place" stage. There are gorgeous houses to be find in between of course, but they cost they eyes out of your head, and we're not rich, yet!

As it dawned upon me that we were here to stay, I felt that something had to be done with our living space, and we did some rethinking, moved the futon and the coffee table, shifted the book case from one wall to the other, then moved another table and the stereo around. That was a lot already. Then C. set me free in the kitchen and I discovered that we had a lot of unused cupboard space and that with some organising the kitchen could actually be made to look tidy. I also discovered that we were missing a few things that could make our lifes better. With that in mind we headed for IKEA (for the first time since I came here). I had envisioned we would be making this trip as soon as we moved into the much dreamed of new appartment, but well, you can also use IKEA for smaller purchases I guess. We made a list and at IKEA methodically picked up all the items from our list. I felt very satisfied walking out of there.

Since we were shopping, C. also wanted to make a trip to R.E.I. where he had a gift certificate since ages ago. He had been talking about getting me some roller blades for that gift certificate, or maybe also some climbing shoes, a mountain bike, a surfboard, a wetsuit and what not. I myself had rather been leaning towards buying us a new, bigger tent for that money, or if we had to spend it on me then a new pair of walking boots or a bicycle helmet. We walked out of there with a tent and a pair of 5.10 climbers!