This weekend my day-by- day calendar said "Hurry Up and Relax" and that is exactly what I did.
Friday, one of my orientation leaders BK taught me how to long board. Everyone on San Jose's campus either rides a bike or longboards, so to take some of the culture away, I wanted to learn. Luckily, BK is a good teacher and I only suffered one major fall. Long boarding is fun, and I could see how it could make for a good form of transportation, but it will definately take some more practice. Right now I'm working on learning how to stop, versus just jumping off, and I'm hoping Pete will help me some more once I'm back in SC. Then, Tom, a friend from home who is also driving cross country came for the night and we explored down town and caught up!
My first long board lesson, thanks BK!
BK, Me, Kaitlynn at dinner
Saturday I moved from my bed to the pool at 8:00am to soak up some sun. Then in the afternoon I went to tour Winchester Mystery House (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House) with Denica, her boyfriend Shane, and one of our orientation leaders Kaitlynn. The house is a huge Victorian Mansion, that is supposed to be haunted by the spirits of those killed by Winchester's riffles. The tour was interesting, and the house and gardens were beautiful. We topped of the afternoon by taking Shane to In-and-Out, a common tradition around here.
Denica, Kaitlynn, Me at Winchester Mystery House
Door to Nowhere, the mansion has lots of weird quirks
Today, I went to the Tech Museum in downtown San Jose. For those of you who don't know San Jose is located in the Silicon Valley, which hosts companies such as Google, Facebook, Adobe, etc. and became really prominent in the technology boom. The museum has a whole array of exibits, with my favorite being the earthquake simulator. I experienced the 1994 Northridge California earthquake, and I'm starting to think that is all the earthquake I need.
Earthquake Simulator at the Tech Museum
Tomorrow brings us to Session 6, which is our second to last. Denica and I leave here in less then two weeks, and while I am excited to see my family in Virginia and everyone back in South Carolina, I am by no means ready to leave here. So, how are we dealing with it, we are just avoiding the topic until further notice, perfect method, right?
Denica and I by our door, its decorated with the symbols of all five huddle groups
