I live in California now

It's official. Not only do I have an apartment in California, I live in that apartment. Which is wildly different from the 2 weeks where I had an apartment, but didn't live in it.

Some things I've learned:

1. Houses are only for sale on the weekends. During the week there are no "For Sale" signs up. My mother commented on it. Come Saturday, eighty-bazillion (That's right, I said bazillion which is not a real number. Wanna fight about it?) signs go up and many more people were scurrying about trying to sneak them onto other lawns. If I were ever to buy a house here, I would need almost constant reassurances that I could also own the home on weekdays.

2. If in a residential district, drive as far to the left of your lane as possible. Because people are going to come up on your right to turn at stop signs. And they're going to do it whether your in the way or not.

3. Libraries are more expensive here. They actually charge late fees. A quarter a day, up to $8 per item. I'm gonna end up in trouble. They also charge $.75 to transfer a book from another library in the system. Which is disappointing because I really wanted to request the Hugh Laurie book. That's right, House wrote a book.

4. There's a lot to do here. Today, I went for a walk on this trail, which, as you can see, is the site of a race in December which I would like to register for. It wasn't as pretty today as it's been cloudy and really freaking cold. Still, amazing and well worth the ass-kicking that the hills and steps gave me.

I've also found a French club which is meeting September 20. That means I'll be voluntarily going through what I went through in French class, i.e. trying valiantly to convey thoughts in a smelly and ungrateful tongue.

There's a nature walk on Sept. 10 on the above trail led by some environmental science, blah, science, blah, science guy. There's a hobby swap site where I might whore out my excellent English skills to an immigrant who can whore out their skills in their native tongue. I've maybe found a place where I can afford to buy some yarn.

On top of all that, I've got to try and find a job, feed myself, and take long walks on the beach. Because, let's face it, if I didn't take long walks on the beach, my entire life would be a lie.

5. Daly City is not, as has been said, one of the ugliest cities in America. Here are some pictures to prove it.
Pink House
Other cute house
Of course, not every place is as cute as those, but those will give you an idea.

And just because I happened upon it, here's the local Asian supermarket. Strictly speaking I probably shouldn't be linking to those pics, so let's keep it on the DL, shall we?

6. I'm firmly in the minority here. Only 26% of people in Daly City are white. That's kind of fun. I suspect each suburb is a different mix. This one is the Asian one. I like it.

I think that's enough to be getting on with. More later.