Monday, September 20, 2010

Epic Journey Log Entry #9 --- Austin/San Marcos

Epic Journey Log Entry #9
Austin/San Marcos

After 5 nonstop days of travel and adventure, I was looking forward to relaxing in Texas. I had been once before, to stay with my friend Amanda and her family in the Valley, and enjoyed it a lot. I had decided to schedule Austin into my itinerary since one of my best friends, Naomi, had moved there a little over a year ago. With her living so far away I only see her during winter break, spring break, and once in the summer, so I was very happy to hang out with her for 3 days!

Essentially, being in San Marcos con Naomi was like being home – I felt very relaxed and at ease throughout my time there. Since she had class Thursday night and all day Friday, I just hung out and got a lot of work done on my laptop. On Thursday I did go to class with her but left in the last half since they were going to watch a movie and I needed to get some e-mailing done. It was my first Student Affairs grad class to sit in on (in Chicago I sat in on a Public Administration class at DePaul University) and it went as I kind of expected a Student Affairs grad course to be.

(Side note: For those who are unfamiliar with this graduate program, Student Affairs aka High Education Administration aka College Student Personal is a program that educates and trains future higher education administrators who special in Student Affairs/Student Life at Universities. These professionals serve as Residence Hall Directors, Career Counselors, Dean of Students, etc. It’s a career that I am highly interested in but, unfortunately, not at this point sure if I want to pursue it as a career).

From there we got dinner at this Mexican place that had this delectable spinach and cheese enchilada (spinach is my veggie of choice as of late) and then we headed back and hung out.

In the morning I got *quite* the rude wake-up call.

Bleary eyed I turned my head, looked at my right shoulder and SCREAMED.

There, just hanging out was the BIGGEST CRICKET I HAVE EVER SEEN!

I brushed him off with a burst of energy (scratching myself in my over-extended must-destroy-at-all-costs efforts) and tried to leap out of bed…but since it was an air mattress I just slid off in an ungraceful heap, gaining painfully throbbing chalie horse at the same time.

So yes. Do not underestimate the much talked about motto that ‘everything is bigger than Texas’. Because it is. Also, I learned the value of another motto- ‘do not mess with Texas’…because they will send mutant crickets after you.

Naomi and I later in the evening did a very Naomi-style outing – to the Victoria’s Secret Outlet store ;) That was fun and then we had pretty tasty thai (I say pretty only because my previous thai was in the Seattle) and then hung out later that night with some friends of hers.

Later the next day we didn’t do a whole bunch besides hang out and eat at the famous Whataburger, which is a much-beloved Texas fast-food chain that I had during my previous trip to Texas. I’m going to be honest….even though Texans may hate me….but after eating it this time, while it was *very* tasty* it wasn’t much different from any other fast-food chain in Ohio. The fries are like McDs, except much less salty (which is good!) , the burger was similar to Wendy’s, while the strawberry shake tasted just like Burger King’s. So perhaps it is the best of all 3 worlds? ;)

Here's my meal:
http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z357/Nix_BGSU/SDC10611.jpg

Interesting observation about Texas: Texans *love* Texas. Here are some examples based on observations and discussions with Texans during my trip (and I have tons of good friends from TX):
- A couple guys said they don’t like country – unless it is from Texas. Then it’s okay.
- The Texas flag *almost* flies higher than the American flag at some stores. The USA flag is higher, but just barely.

Well…alright, those are not many examples but I can’t quite remember any more…but I know more exist!

Overall, I loved my Texas time con Naomi and Austin is still on my list of ‘Places I Would Like Living In’ :)

Friday, September 17, 2010

Epic Journey Log Entry #8 -----Long Beach/Orange County

Epic Journey Log Entry #8
Long Beach/Orange County

From Alex’s we drove by ‘Dexter’s house’, which was the exterior filming site of the main character in the TV show Dexter, which is a Showtime show.

Then we proceeded to an event that almost surpasses Alex’s Bar in coolness.

We headed to Orange County where we had a 15-person meal at Liz’s (the Couchsurfing Ambassador of Orange County) apartment. Almost everyone did couchsurfing and there were locals plus 2 girls from the UK, 1 guy from Turkey, 1 guy from Spain, and 2 girls from Germany. The guy from Madrid, Spain was Eduardo and he made us *real* Spanish food.

It’s been 4 years since I lived in Spain and for 4 years I have been craving tortilla Espanola (because it is real hard to find Spanish food in the states, besides paella).

As luck would have it, he made a delicious tortilla Espanola, plus the tuna meal that I remember my host mom (Ana Cabo) making, a delicious roasted chicken, and rice.

YUM! YUM! YUM! YUM! YUM! YUM!

I sat next to Eduardo and it was cool to listen to his experiences in the states and just to talk to another Spaniard again.

Although I had the best time talking to the girls from the UK – one (Fiona) was from Manchester and I forget where the other girl was from. They’ve been in the states for a year because they came here for internships in NYC and have been living in New Jersey. We just had a great discussion, which one of the German girls joined us for as well. We discussed bits & pieces of the following:

***How Europe is becoming slightly more conservative, due to the current British and German leadership who are from the conservative parties.

***How Europeans were so happy that Obama got elected because they have friends (the UK girls) serving in Afghanistan and it really is up to the American leadership how that war is handle and it was frustrating to not be able to have a say in that election. This gave me some insight and understanding into part of why foreigners really did show a lot of interest in the 2008 election. I mean, how awful would it be if you had loved ones in a war and you really didn’t have a say in how it was handled because you didn’t have a vote? Sure, they can vote for their PMs (Members of Parliament) but due to the ‘special relationship’ the UK is going to always back the US.

***The UK girls don’t think that Obama is really interested in having strong relations with the UK but they seemed fine with that – in fact, they really think that Obama is going to positively change the world.

***The German girl thought that people were too hard on Obama and expect too much of him, since he is only one man. I talked about how he is just one man but in my opinion the Democrats in Congress did not have the cojones to seize their moment and really implement change, and now they are definitely not in a position for sweeping reform as they originally were.

***We talked about scientology because Germany has it banned because it’s a cult, and me and the one UK girl talked about the excellent South Park episode that explained it and we tried explaining the concept to Fiona, the other UK girl. We also briefly discussed Mormonism and then the inherent reality that *all* religions are mythology – it just depends on the personal beliefs of a person. That came about because the story behind Mormonism (also featured on South Park!) is pretty ridiculous…but the same can be interpreted about every other religion. It was good food for thought.

***I asked the UK girls what they preferred being called- ‘English’ or ‘British’ because I hear both descriptions get used. The one said English (although technically Jamaican-English since her dad is from there) but Fiona said British because her dad is Irish and that combines both nationalities.

The night lasted until about 1am until finally we headed back. I only listed brief conversation topics above, but the night was most excellent and full of good conversation!!

In the morning Suzie made me a DELICIOUS tomato omelet (I mean, how nice is that?!) and it was also the first omelet I ever had (which is silly, I know, but now I love them!). By the time she drove me to the airport I realized that it was a little bittersweet to be leaving because Suzie and Chris were such excellent hosts and I got along with them both really well. Luckily, Suzie gave me an open invitation to stay anytime again!

Epic Journey Log Entry #8--- Long Beach/Alex’s Bar

Epic Journey Log Entry #8
Long Beach/Alex’s Bar


From there we picked up a friend of Suzie’s (Michelle) who we happened to drive by at the same time. Michelle has an internet radio show and it was obvious that she was well-suited for that job – she was bubbly, talkative, and kinda crazy (in a good way).

Then the 3 of us headed to Alex’s Bar aka Fangtasia.

*swoon*

We spent 2 hours there talking to Matt, this bartender who’s originally from Michigan, and the manager of the bar, who is also the mother of the owner.

So.Much.Fun.

We were the only ones there, since we got there at 5pm, and it was like we owned the joint. They let me go behind the bar and take pictures, Matt turned on the stage lights so I got to take pictures up there (aka the location of Eric’s Sherriff throne in the show), and I took pictures of *everything* in the place.

During those 2 hours I learned a lot about Long Beach, Hollywood, and True Blood. Instead of a narrative format, I’ll just list everything:

***True Blood shot both the interior and exterior of Seasons 1 and 2 @ Alex’s Bar, plus the exterior scenes in Season 3.

***TB recreated the interior on a set for Season 3, which is actually sucky for Alex’s Bar because the bar gets *nothing* for them designing their set like that. If you think about it, if you use a person’s face for an ad or something, they get money for you using their likeness – not the case for locations (and the bar even told them where they got all their art, all the way down to the paint shade/numbers!

***The manager yelled at Lafayette once because he was in the back room flicking the light switches (bored??) while they were trying to work on tax stuff…Apparently he looked very sheepish at that.

***This is nasty…So the stars all have their own trailers but for some reason Anna Paquin decided to use the office bathroom…which is always dirty and the previous occupant left a horrible smell…she came out looking disgusted and gave one of the bartenders an incredulous look, and he was like “It wasn’t me, I swear!” haha

***The woman who plays Nan Flanagan is even more emaciated in real life than on TV – she really does look like a corpse, which is probably how she got a vampire role! The manager also mentioned to someone that the actress was from a soap opera, and the woman heard and gave her a dirty look; supposedly not wanting to be associated with that soap opera anymore.

***Matt the bartender said that Aleksander Skarsgard aka Eric the vampire is a bad actor – or at least in one of the scenes that he was watching the guy kept flubbing his line and apparently Matt heckled him.

***That same actor who plays Eric is also the nicest cast member. Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer aka Sookie and Bill kinda kept to themselves.

***Alex’s Bar got chosen because there is this internet database where houses/businesses can post pictures and descriptions so TV/movie people can scroll through and find locations.

***Now that Alex’s has such a well-known interior, Alex the owner wants to change the interior and create more of a classic 50s look – because no other shows/movies will want to shoot in a bar that looks like another show.

***The Tenacious D movie also got filmed there and the manager said that group was a lot warmer than the TB group and they were super friendly.

***Green Day did a secret show (aka no one knows until the day of) here 2 years ago. Matt said that Tre Cool was very cool and when the bartenders threw empty beer cardboard boxes into the back, Tre stacked them up and then would just jump onto them! Haha.

***Matt knows somebody who knows the woman who plays Flo, the Progressive spokeswoman, and apparently she’s crazy rich from all of those commercials!

***Long Beach has a large gay population and apparently Alex now wishes he had started a gay bar instead, because all the officials back off of the gay bars/events because they don’t ever want anyone to say they are discriminating against them,

***Long Beach has a biking community, unlike LA where people don’t do a lot of walking or anything, because parking is so scarce.

***Long Beach is apparently really welcoming of anyone regarding sexual orientation, race, etc, and overall is pretty chill.

Epic Journey Log Entry #7---Long Beach/Arrival

Epic Journey Log Entry #7
Long Beach/Arrival

jetBlue has 3 hubs – Boston, NYC, and Long Beach – and to get *anywhere* you must fly through one of those. Since I wanted to fly into Austin for the weekend to stay with my friend Naomi and had to fly out of Long Beach anyways, I decided to do a 1-night stay there.

And I am so glad I did.

When I flew in I wasn’t really sure what to expect or what exactly I was going to do. When I landed at 1:00pm I was at first taken aback by how tiny the airport was. You think the Toledo airport is small? HA! Fly into Long Beach! I was crazy surprised that it was the major West Coast hub for jetBlue – only 4 gates and when you board/leave the plane you get off outside and have to walk outside!

Chris, this girl who’s originally from Strongsville (near Cleveland) picked me up – which I was incredibly thankful for because Cali has weak public transportation since *everyone* and their momma drives. She had to run some errands real quick but we did stop at a taqueria where I got asada and lengua tacos – gotta love *real* Mexican food in California! The asada was great, but the lengua (cow tongue) was ‘eh’ – it wasn’t really seasoned so didn’t have much of a taste.

Then something unexpected happened.

Chris pulled into a parking lot that was cracked and light-weight shady looking with a dilapidated building that stood ominously before us, and said, “Do you know where we are?”

I looked around and suddenly felt apprehensive because the area *really* didn’t seem very legit. Since I had just met Chris for the first time that day my second thought (preceded by ‘huh?’) was ‘Oh god, I wonder if this is the part where she turns into an ax murderer like everyone warned me about and I’m going to die in Long Beach!’

Of course, I didn’t say that out loud.

Instead, I said, “Um, no…should I?” while I kept my eyes on her hands, just – ya know – seeing if she reaches for a giant butcher knife/ax/ninja star.

She gestured towards the red covering that hung over a door. “We’re at Fangtasia!”

OH.MY.GOD.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Let’s backtrack, Gentle Readers. I knew that Chris and her roommate Suzie lived a couple miles from the bar where they filmed the Fangasia bar scenes but for the life of me just did not recognize it/expect that she would take me there. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Fangtasia, it is the ‘vampire bar’ in the TV show ‘True Blood’ that just aired its 3rd season on HBO. It’s one of my favorite shows and is adapted from one of my favorite book series.

Needless to say, I was fairly ecstatic.

The bar, which is named ‘Alex’s Bar’ was closed so we couldn’t go inside, but Chris got me to recreate a death scene by one of my favorite characters, Eric, who fell right in that parking lot. I laid in the same-ish spot and got my picture taken :)

After that highlight we headed back to their apartment which was an adorable place set right by the beach. Chris and Suzie are a bit older, early to mid-thirties, so they had a very nicely decorated apartment that even had a balcony. Chris had to go to bed (she’s a nurse with a 7pm-7am shift) so I met Suzie, who is an incredibly awesome person.

Suzie took me out and we embarked on an excellent Long Beach/Orange County adventure. First up, we headed to the beach so I could see the Pacific Ocean for the first time! It was nice, but sadly Long Beach does not have very nice beaches unless you go farther South. Due to the refineries and the fact that Long Beach’s port is the 5th busiest in America, the water isn’t that clean and Chris said it has an oily feeling to it. Plus, it was kind of cold!! The area was very breezy and sadly not the kind of weather that would make me want to lay out.

However, I did see something neat. Apparently a recent trend that is big in Long Beach is ‘kite surfing’. Basically, you surf while wearing a harness that is attached to a giant kite. Sounds silly/crazy/weird but it was cool to watch and it definitely made for a brightly colored beach with all the kites flying!

Epic Journey Log Entry #6 ----Seattle/Downtown travels

Epic Journey Log Entry #6
Seattle/Downtown travels

Ugh, I’m tired….Basically this is what I saw in Seattle:

-International District: Uwajiyama (sp?) which is a HUGE Asian supermarket and I got some smoked salmon sushi

-Pike Place Market: Oh my gosh! This was AWESOME! I recorded a video of the fish-throwing guys, bought some natural-no preservatives apple chips and dried mango slices, tried King Salmon at the fish-thrower guy’s spot, saw the infamous gum wall, saw the First Starbucks (but it was crazy busy so I didn’t order anything), hung out at the park next to the market and ate my fruit, meandered through countless bohemian.international/afghani/asian shops, and tried various foods in the market.

-Rode the monorail to the Seattle Center (home to the Space Needle and back). Really not as cool as you think, but I wanted to check that ‘touristy’ thing off my list.

-Ate some gelato by Pike Place and ate at a Thai restaurant where I had curry and pad thai – it was my first time eating pad thai and I LOVED IT!

-Saw a store dedicated to maps and globes – I fell in love with it and sooo wish we had something like that in Toledo!

-Went up in the tallest building, ran into the Starbucks on the 40th floor right before they closed, and took aerial photos of the city.

- And that was mostly it…….The buses were confusing, I had to waste 2 hours to ride to pick up my laptop and ride back downtown, and just ran out of time. Mind you, I had fabulous time but I definitely needed anther day! Part of what makes it hard is being a girl traveling solo – I would head back each night at 7pm so I could get home right at dark; I just don’t like traveling at night in unknown areas.

-Overall it was a GORGEOUS CITY and I got to see Mt. Rainier when I would take the bus downtown (plus I saw it when I left) and the plethora of Evergreen trees created a lovely green landscape, plus I got lucky with the weather – sunshine both days!

Epic Journey Log Entry #5 ---Seattle/Arrival

Epic Journey Log Entry #5
Seattle/Arrival

On Monday I arrived in Seattle – pleasantly surprised by the lack of rain and the sun that greeted me!

Upon entering the Sea-Tac airport, I took their light-rail system (LINK) to Pioneer Square and then boarded bus #358…which for some reason my sometimes-dyslexic mind kept thinking was #385 – which really confused people when I asked for directions!

Thanks to Julio, I had an idea of things to do in Seattle (since he lived there for a year until last year). He did tell me that people weren’t exactly the friendliest there, but I seemed to get fairly lucky with people (although living there might be different).

Right away at the bus stop I struck up a conversation with a guy who had just moved there 3 months ago from Chicago. It was pretty cool to talk to another Midwesterner and right before he got off the bus he gave me one of his bus tickets so I didn’t have to pay the $2 fare!

Once I arrived at my stop in Shoreline I went to the computer repair shop that was right next door because (I was very sad about this) my computer got infected with an extremely bad case of spyware the night before! I was extremely frustrated by it and had no choice but to pay for it to get fixed because I needed my laptop for work. However, on the plus side, I’ll be able to write off the expense since I’m an independent contractor at my work.

In Shoreline, which is north of Seattle and an hour-long bus ride from downtown, I arrived at Dayna’s house (she was my couchsurfing host) and she was also hosting a girl named Jessica from Monterrey, Mexico! Dayna was on her way out to a concert so I talked to Jessica a little bit. Since she knew I lived in Spain briefly, she asked if I spoke Spanish and I was pretty embarrassed by how bad my Spanish is now.

I can read and write it okay, but my ear for it has *never* been good and now since I never practice I don’t speak very well either. Note to self: I *must* practice mi espanol mucho mas!!!

So I departed and left for the International District (formerly just called Chinatown but the influx of other Asian nationalities required a more general name). Of course, I didn’t get to see much because it was getting dark, I was alone, and the ID plus Pioneer Square (right next to the ID and where my bus stop was) seemed like it was kind of shady.

Seattle, unfortunately, has a pretty big (it seemed to me) homeless population and while generally homeless dudes are harmless, I didn’t want to take any chances.

When I got back to the suburbs, Shoreline, I stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant near my host’s house and had some awesome Kung Poa Chicken and fell in love with the way that Vietnamese restaurants make their spring rolls – they are wrapped in something clear (seaweed? I forget) and aren’t fried like in Chinese restaurants.

By the time I arrived there was yet another girl who had arrived that would be staying with us (Danielle from Rhode Island via Texas via many other states). She was *real* cool and definitely had an aura of positivity shining above her. She was stopping by in Seattle on her way to the farthest tip of Washington to work on an organic farm that was going to help prepare her for her upcoming Peace Corps assignment in February in sub-Saharan Africa.

Then Steve, one of Dayna’s housemates showed up with his friend Kim and they took us out to a local place to hang out and get out of the house while we waited for Dayna to come back for her concert. So the 5 of us (Danielle, Jessica, me, Steve, Kim) had a great time talking and getting to know each other – it was a very good way to end the night.

Epic Journey Log Entry #4 -----Miami, South Miami Beach, West Palm Beach, West Palm

Epic Journey Log Entry #4
Miami, South Miami Beach, West Palm Beach, West Palm

After the Hollywood Boardwalk experience (which was also my first beach boardwalk experience and the first time I ate a Turkish doner kabob since my Spain days!), Julio and I set out for Miami the next day.

People who know me, know that I love other cultures with a passion – I really must have had past lives in every single country because even I don’t quite understand where my love of submerging myself in other cultures come from.

In particular, partly thanks to my BGSU ‘familia’ and years in the Latino Student Union, I love Latina cultura more than any other. It’s not any one thing, really, but more so a combination of my love for la musica, dance, language, and people.

Henceforth, our first stop – after a yummy ham & eggs breakfast that Julio made (I never put ham in my eggs before and now I love it!) – was CALLE OCHO which is the main drag of Little Havana in Miami. Ay de mi, it was great.

First we went to a fruit stand that made smoothies from FRESH FRUIT. En serio, I will never enjoy a standardized smoothie with just lame-o fruit juice EVER again. I had a mango smoothie and, ay!, you could taste the real fruit. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Plus, it was only $3 for a large amount! Try finding that at a mall food court!

There was an great mini-park that had an ancient tree with roots that were raised out of the great and encircled a large area in a convoluted way that created great resting places. It was here that we drank our smoothies and observed the surroundings…which included chickens and baby chicks walkin’ around like they owned the place.

And no, I’m not kidding.

But you know what was weirder than the chickens running around? We found a small ANIMAL SKULL and various BONES in the dirt surrounding the tree.

…yeah…I have *no* explanation for that! Very creepy!

It really felt like another world there but soon we began continuing our adventures. We drove to South Beach where I saw the Atlantic Ocean under bright sunshine for the first time! Gorgeous, simply gorgeous. We took some pictures on the beach and walked barefoot for a while. Amazingly, since tourist season was over, the beach wasn’t crowded at all,

Then we walked around for a bit and hydrated ourselves at a Burger King. Now, mind you, we got some delicious caffeinated beverages, but I was surprised to see that this particular Burger King, 2 blocks from the beach, served beer! It was fairly amusing :)

Then something not so good happened…my purse strap broke! I had bought the purse at Wal-Mart specifically for this trip because it had a zipper and was long enough to wear over my shoulder (aka it prevents purse-snatching and pick-pocketing better than most). I mean, YES, Wal-Mart is the devil and you can’t trust anything from there but I never expected it to break on my 2nd day of wearing it!! And it’s not like I snatched a sea turtle from the beach and stuffed it in there! Grr, it was very frustrating.

From there we went to West Palm Beach’s outdoor mall to meet with one of my friend’s that I hadn’t seen in over a year – Stephanie. We met through a community organizing training and she is seriously only of the sweetest and funnest people I know so I was thrilled to see her again. We ate lunch at the B.B. King restaurant where I had a delicious pulled pork sandwich (one of my recent favorite things!) and Steph and I caught up. Also, it was cool that I had lunch with both Julio and Stephanie because they had never met (both fairly recently moved to the area) so they got to make friends! I was pretty happy with that – I love it when my friends befriend each other!

Wanting to see some more of South Florida, Stephanie drove us through West Palm Beach to Palm Beach. Yes, there is a distinction. PB is where the uppity millionaires live – and unfortunately has a dark past. Steph is a community organizer in the area and was told (plus, she later verified this) that the almost-patron-saint of Florida (name escapes me) enacted cruel policies to form the neighborhoods of the area. In the 1800s PB was an African-American neighborhood but he saw it as the perfect location for high-scale real estate. Once he realized that no one was moving, he invited all the folks in the area to a party at his estate.

Sounds pretty nice, huh?

…Nope.

While everyone was gone the neighborhood was razed to the ground thanks to arsonists.

I’m not sure of the further details, but I plan on googling them at some point.

Besides its dark history, PB was beautiful location and the three of us had a photo shoot (inspired by a rather unattractive and vapid Floridian male who was posing on the beach). After that we went back to WPB and stopped by a Cuban place that Stephanie enjoys to have another mango smoothie (really, I’m kind of obsessed now!) and I got a rellena de papa, which is fried dough with seasoned meat inside. It’s a fritura and popular in Cuban/Puerto Rican culture – and something that I am also obsessed with! It always pains my heart that NW Ohio has a decent-sized Mexican population but not enough folks from the Caribbean to run a store to sell me delicious frituras!

After our tasty treats, we went out separate ways and Julio took me back to his casa. Since he had to leave for Orlando that night for work, he was kind enough to leave me his key so I could take a taxi 3-miles to the Tri-Rail and then the Tri-Rail would take me to the airport..

Honestly, once we were all done I could not believe that I had experienced so much of south Florida in such a short span of time – 24 hours! Julio was the BEST host a person could ever have – incredibly thoughtful and giving, he really made my time there absolutely wonderful. I’m incredibly thankful that he hosted me