I have now arrived on the “other side”, in Southern
California (SoCal), after a long journey lasting 28 hours, from Perth to Sydney, Sydney
to Los Angeles,
Los Angeles to San Diego, and believe it
or not, got over the huge jetlag amazingly well and quick!
My flight from Sydney
arrived in L.A.
at 7 AM in the morning, and
despite little sleep on the plane(s), I was excited enough to last me through a
day of sightseeing in the “City of Angels”.
I picked Hollywood,
because in downtown L.A.
there is not really much to see. So I spent the few hours I had to spare along
the walk of fame and Hollywood
Boulevard, had lunch& icecream, and my picture
taken with a member of Kiss (photo was taken by Superman by the way). At 4 pm, I caught the “Pacific
Surfliner”, a train that runs from L.A.
all along the coast to San Diego,
famous for many surfing spots. Upon San Diego, my friend Mansun picked me up
from the train station and drove to Pacific Beach (or “PB” as it is known locally),
where he lives 3 blocks away from the beach (also called Pacific Beach). I was
very excited, because I was finally going to meet Jiyoung, Mansun’s girlfriend,
who I had previously only spoken to on the phone. After a first warm welcome, I got a second
one a block away at Mia’s, a South African friend of Mansun who has
spontaneously invited us to come over for dinner. And so I managed to get into
the new time zone with relative ease, but was nevertheless happy to crash that
night.
San Diego
is the only place that I am visiting during this trip where I have actually been
before, and so it almost felt like coming “home”. This was for the most part
due to Mansun and Jiyoung’s warm hospitality, but also because I already knew
some other people here, and last but not least because I simply love San Diego so much that I
actually almost made it my “home” about a year ago…
Since there was not so much sightseeing left to do here, my
stay in San Diego
was all about hanging out in PB, and more importantly, really improving my
surfing skills! And so yesterday, I finally “upgraded” from the whitewash (that
is the foam that is formed after a wave has broken and washes onto the shore)
to the line up (this is the spot in the water where all the surfers sit on
their board and wait for a good wave to form for them to catch), and I tried
and I tried, got tumbled over and nosedived countless times, but then I did it:
I caught my first proper wave and rode it… what a feeeeeling!!! From now on, I
will forever hunt and be haunted by that memory…
But surfing was not the only thing I did in San Diego! Apart from eating lots of great
food, thanks to Mansun & Jiyoung (Sushi, Vietnamese, Korean, the best
burger of my life, a huge American-style breakfast…), I caught up with some
more friends, and made some new ones.
On Friday evening, we met up with a few people I met at a
conference in Arizona
last year. They are all scientists (and most of them surfers), and one of them,
Christophe, is also the singer in a band called Streamview, and they had a gig
in town that night! So we all headed to Ocean Beach (OB) to see Streamview in
concert and it was really good! It’s very heavy metal but good stuff, check it
out: www.myspace.com/streamview
On Saturday morning, we got up super early (6 AM) to do a charity walk that Mansun
and Jiyoung had signed up to. It was hard to get up, but only a 5K walk, and
the best thing about it was that it took place in San Diego zoo, which is really famous and has
a great selection of fauna and flora from all over the world. So after
finishing the walk, we had a huge breakfast, and then went back to the zoo to
check out all the animals. And here I finally got to see some wombats, which I had
missed out on in Australia!
It was an activity-filled day and although we should have been knackered by the
time we got home for dinner, we had enough energy left to play Guitar Hero
until our arms and backs started to hurt and our eyes started to turn at the
sight of the screen!
During these last few days, I had my first chats about
science in about 5 weeks, and I found it both hard and refreshing at the same
time. I have now arrived in a state of mind where I am sufficiently well
disconnected from the stress of the PhD and with all the attractions and
memories surrounding San Diego, it is very easy and very tempting to slide into
a neverending dream…on the other hand I am also very aware that while I am on
this trip of a lifetime, where I am enjoying every single second and experience
to the maximum, family back home are
worrying, friends in labs in London are working harder than ever, and a new
challenge is awaiting me in Munich…
People always say that life comes and goes in waves, right?
(watch out this is going to be very philosophic now;-)). But really, what’s
that supposed to mean? Now that I am slowly starting to understand waves (in
general), I am a little confused and I wonder who made this analogy (maybe I
did it myself, in which case I am not surprised that it doesn’t make any
sense). There is no such thing as “the perfect wave” or “you just gotta ride
them”, at least not when you’re out there in the water. But on the other hand,
I guess there is still some truth in there. It is certainly easier to surf a
good wave. But at the end of the day, it is all a matter of timing, and lots
and lots of training. You need to be in the right spot at the right time, be
ready for it, then move like crazy and most importantly, stand up and keep the
balance. Once you know how to do that, you no longer need to wait for the
perfect wave. Because you can turn every single wave into a perfect wave. And
just ride it for as long as it lasts. And then you take a rest, until you feel
ready for the next one.
Any comments on that one are most welcome!
