I think I jinxed the weather with my last post. I said that I felt I was suffering from seasonal jet-lag due to the sunny, warm weather in California compared to Seattle. The winter gods apparently read this and decided to show me that it does indeed rain in California from time to time. Or for days on end in fact.
It has not stopped raining. And not the pathetic drizzle kind but actual full on rain! It is sooo loud. It isn't just rain; it is cold. Not freezing but around 12 degrees which I still think is cold! It has been very amusing watching people's reaction to this weather:
You have the people who fully embrace the precipitation with rain coats, waterproof ponchos, wellies, even waterproof trousers. This may be going a bit too far...if you want to stay dry that badly, just stay inside!
Then you have the people who are completely in denial. It is like they cannot feel this liquid sunshine. The number of people I have seen sidestepping around gigantic puddles or trying to avoid the small rivers flowing down the paths wearing shorts and flip-flops is quite astounding!
I have been asked a number of times if this weather makes me feel more at home. What a strange question! That is like me asking them if they feel at home when the sun shines! I nod and smile and mutter something about the English weather system or how my wellies were one item that I did not pack.
This week hasn't been very exciting. Just more work, watching endless episodes of Castle (did you check it out?) and watching Disney movies in my Disney class! Thursday was a proper full on Disney day where we watched Snow White in a lecture, multiple Mickey Mouse cartoons in a seminar, and then me and 2 friends went to the cinema to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D! They did not stop singing all the way through! I joined in on the classic "Tale as ooolldd as time.." and "be our guest" but they were proper going for it! I am obviously not well versed in the soundtrack and will have to brush up on my disney songs. It has been a week of watching a screen actually. We had to watch this really really sexually explicit movie for Spanish called 'Y tu mama tambien' which was like porn. We have to discuss it in class tomorrow which will be weird. I am not interested in knowing the spanish words for 'communally masturbating into a swimming pool on diving boards'. Yes. That did happen.
Today I went on a trip to Ano Nuevo State Reserve to hang out with the Elephant Seals. The trip was fun, don't get me wrong, but again, it was raining, and windy, and cold! There were hundreds and hundreds of seals though. Some weighing in at 5000lbs!! It is the middle of the birthing season so there were lots of newborns around, trying very hard not to get squished by the fighting males. Before a confrontation, the males lift up their heads and make a deep, loud sound, a bit like a foghorn. Then if the other does no back down then they slam their bodies into each other and try to bite each other's neck! It was quite awing to watch. Huge beasts of nature showing their full force. I definitely felt like a weak, tiny human next to them. We weren't very far away from them, about 25yards. You just had to make sure you didn't get in between two males as it could get messy...
So these photos show some of the Elephant Seals, one has been bitten by a Great White Shark and survived! There is also a video of one section of a beach just littered with seals.
Going to make a shameless plug for my other blog which you can check out by going to my profile. It is about health and fitness but I am not sure quite what I am going to do with it yet!
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