A Bit of a Water Baby!

Leaving Santa Cruz was very hard to do. Packing was a long, annoying task, and there was a lot of stuff that I had to get rid of! How did I accumulate so much in such a short space of time?
Sunday was my friends graduation, so in between packing and cleaning, me and the roommate went down to watch her walk and receive her diploma. Afterwards, her parents invited me to join them and their friends and family for a celebration meal which I happily accepted! We had planned on packing up the car and driving to Sacramento to meet our two friends to go to Tahoe the next morning. Didn't quite work out! We ended up not leaving campus until around 11pm so we ended up staying at the motel that her parents were at and got up the next morning at 6.30am to drive to Sacramento!

We arrived at Lake Tahoe, on the North Shore which is close to the border of Nevada, at about 2pm, unpacked the car and the infinite supply of food (that would have fed eight people for seven days, not four people for three) into my friend's uncle's cabin and rushed to the lake. It was just so gorgeous, though a bit windy! We walked down a pier and put our feet in. Then promptly took them back out as the water was freezing. Like heart stopping freezing! we hung out on the dock for a while in the sun, getting sufficiently burnt, and then headed back to the cabin for a BBQ, smores, drinks, and Parchisi!  A lot of games were played this trip.

Tuesday morning we went swimming in the communal pool for all the cabins in that particular area. I just love the water. We spent a good hour or so there before heading back, eating again, and watching the England game that the lone guy on our trip desperately wanted to do, with a beer in hand. We decided to go for a bit of a hike up the Tahoe Rim Trail, however this epically failed as we were being dive bombed by mosquito's and I was being eaten alive. We decided it was because foreign blood is a delicacy in these parts! We ended up just walking through the cute little town and along the shore, which were thankfully mosquito free.

Wednesday was definitely the best day. Again, we got up and went swimming where two of us perfected our dives and trick routines with rubber rings, while playing 'Monkey in the Middle'. I tried arguing that it was 'Piggy in the Middle' but was laughed out of the pool. After lunch we went back down to the dock area and spent the next few hours jumping off of it and into the freezing water! It was pretty exhilarating, and after a while, our bodies were so numb that you didn't feel the cold so much. Luckily the water was completely calm and the weather was boiling hot. We took plenty of photos and videos of course. You should see the tan lines on my back; I have a proper razorback from all the time I have been spending in the water this year, and after a bit of burning on this trip, I am going to be even darker! I just hope it lasts for the next two weeks so I can show it off to people at home who believe I would never be anything more than paper white.

After we had sun-dried we travelled to Squaw Valley, the Olympic Village which was where the Winter Olympic were held in I believe 1960. Gorgeous place but expensive to live. We looked. We then went back into town and had some dinner at a place called Rosie's, and then we border hopped into Nevada! I can now cross another state off of my list! We went to a couple of casino's where my ID worked just fine (21 age limit and all that), and I was very proud of getting my 21 and over wrist band at the Hyatt Casino! A secutiry guy even came up to me and when he saw that I had already been carded said "Wow, you look so young", to which I replied, "Well thank you!". The great thing about these casino's is that you get free drinks all the time. They just come round while you are sitting at the slot machines or tables and ask what you want! This made up for the fact that I sucked badly at all the slot machines and lost all my money! One of my friends came our $2 richer than when he went in! Winning.

This trip to Lake Tahoe was such a great way of spending my last few days in California and with some of my friends that I have made here in America. I hadn't thought I would make such good friends with only being here for just less than a year. I am going to miss them a lot and I am very excited that one of them is spending the year in Berlin starting in August! I am currently sitting in Sacramento airport where they dropped me off on the way back for my flight to Seattle. I won't lie, my eyes were a bit watery! Though now that I am leaving California, and will be home in less than two weeks, I can really get excited about seeing my friends and family that I have missed so much! For now, onwards and literally upwards to Seattle, then tomorrow down to Skamania Lodge. More swimming, more lakes, more water. WATER BABY.

You name it, I ate it.

Thanksgiving has come and gone however I am still feeling the effects. I need a wheelbarrow. Or a gastric bypass to prevent this from happening again! Too much good food.
Although I have initiated thanksgiving feasts back at home due in part to having an American brother-in-law, doing an American studies degree and pumpkin pies are just so damn good, nothing could have prepared me for a proper American thanksgiving.

My roommate invited me to join in with her family for the holiday and I eagerly accepted. It wasn't until I began to hear stories about her family,seeing a drawing of her HUGE family tree and getting to know her a bit more that I started to become a bit nervous! I'm a quiet British girl. I love my family to bits but we are a small family (I remember everyone's name for a start) and we are not a particularly loud family either, especially my home with my parents. My roommates family are one big loud American one! She has 32 cousins. I have 5 and 2 of those are 1st cousins once removed (or 2nd cousins, i'm not sure).
I have to say that they all welcomed me with open arms and made me feel comfortable straight away, even if there were some members that I had no idea what they were saying because they talked so fast!
We left Santa Cruz on Wednesday night and stayed at my roommates house in Sacramento. The following day we drove up convoy style to her aunt's new house in the Sierra Nevada foothills. It was gorgeous! Huge stone fireplace, open spaces, country kitchen, neighbours a mile away, perfect.
The house was descended upon with grandparents, aunts, cousins, in laws, everyone, on her 'moms' side of the tree. Plates were lined up on the kitchen counter...yams, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, cranberry sauce, biscuits (like bread rolls), a Turkey to feed the 5000, and that was just the main course. The appetisers went on for hours: cheese and biscuits, smoked salmon, salami and cold meats, pickled asparagus (the only thing I did not eat!), piped cream cheeses. I was full by the time the Turkey came out of the oven!
The 40 or so people held hands round the kitchen and gave thanks and then we dug in! The following few hours was a vicious cycle of eating, pain, lying down, eating, pain, napping etc. OH and also a long long game of hide and seek with a 7yr old and a 12yr old. I had forgotten that feeling of extreme excitement and twitchiness that you get when you are a kid and hiding under laundry baskets!
Dessert- 11 Pumpkin pies. How did I have room? I didn't. I forced myself to find room!
We drove home and then a few of us went out to a pool bar (as in snooker) for a while to 'work off' some of the food in preparation for the next day. Her dad's thanksgiving day. Lord help me.

But first, Black Friday. The sale day to end all sale days. After playing pool, it was about 1am so we decided to swing by Walmart to laugh at all the crazy people lining up to buy plasma TV's at a reduced price! I was shocked at how many people were there. It was like a marathon. People sprinting down the isles, snatching at DVD players, dragging small children who were half asleep to the mile long line to pay, this wild look in their eyes. I silently chuckled to myself at the insanity of it all. The picture shows the lines at Walmart at 1am!
I had been looking for a new camera for a while so while we were in Walmart we went to have a look at some to see what the sale prices were like. I found a really nice one for $200 but a guy came up behind me and whispered "Target are selling these for $99. I bought 3. GO". Go we went. I turned into one of those crazys that I had just snorted about. Running out of Walmart, jumped into the car, drove full speed to Target while praying that there was one left. Barely waited for the car to stop moving before I lept from it and ran, pushing past hoards of people with a similar intent. We arrived sweating and puffing with wild eyes in front of a stack of 200 cameras. I laughed at myself. While I line hopped to the front with my new toy. I feel like my dad.

Getting tired of typing so will make the rest brief. Day 2 was similar to the first day: food, and more food. The highlight was definitely playing with matches and nearly setting the house on fire, and my introduction to smores. Toasted marshmallows sandwiched between graham crackers with chocolate. It doesn't take a genius to know that this was like eating heaven. A 'slumber party' followed with my roommates 12 year old cousin complete with popcorn and movies! I have definitely been in touch with my child side this weekend! As if I hadn't eaten enough food, we stopped by 'A Touch of Britain' to buy maltesers, smarties, dark chocolate kitkat and mince pies. Although we don't celebrate this holiday, everyone being with family and friends made me feel a bit homesick, so I have decided that I am thankful for skype and facebook!

I am about to cry at the prospect of the coming 2 weeks. Too much work, not enough time. In the next 5 days I have 2 presentations, a 10 page paper due, and a Spanish composition and oral exam. Kill me, kill me now. Preferably by stuffing pumpkin pie down my throat. That will be a nice way to die I think. Or to be hugged to death by Soxies.