See Ya in 2 Years

So I leave San Diego for Washington DC in about 9 hours and 30 minutes, and the past week has gone by WAY too fast. The last few months seemed to drag on, but suddenly it was time to make my Gig Harbor/Seattle visit, and time started flying by. There was tons of paperwork I had to get done as well as last second shopping and, of course, packing up all my stuff. I was supposed to hang out with a lot of people that I never got the chance to, and to them I'm sorry. However, I did have a little party for members of my family, my closest friends from high school, Steve and Joe, and their families. I also ate a lot the last, well, 2 weeks, stuffing my face with my favorites, mainly mexican food, pizza, sushi, and for my last dinner in SD I had thai food at my favorite thai restaurant. My mom and I finally got the whole packing situation figured out about 45 minutes ago, and figured I'd write this to say goodbye to all those I had meant to but ran out of time. Apparently I won't be able to have internet access during my training portion, which ends (I think) on April 5th, so this will be my last blog entry until then. BUT make sure to write me letters! My mailing address is on the right side.

PS: I love you guys.

My Infamous Seattle Adventure

I just got back last night from my 5 day vacation in Washington state. I went to visit my grandpa, Sandy B, my uncle, and his "friend" Julie, and also to meet up with 3 of the people that will be in Zambia with me on our Peace Corps adventure (Kerry, Rachel, and Derek). Hanging out with my family members was cool, largely consisting of getting together for meals and talks about travelling and Peace Corps stuff. Nothing too cazy though, right? Right.

On Saturday I was to meet up with my new PC friends. I printed out a map and directions from mapquest, which said the trip from Gig Harbor to the Ethiopian restaurant in Seattle would take about an hour. Our set meeting time was 7pm, and I left my grandpa's house at 5:45, to give me enough time to find the place, since I'm not familiar with Seattle. I'm not sure how mapquest comes up with their arrival time estimates, but I got there in 45 minutes, and so I listened to the cd I'd burned specifically for that drive until Rachel and her sister showed up. Within 10 minutes Kerry arrived with her friend Julia, and soon afterwards Derek arrived with his friends, and we had dinner. I honestly feared that it would be a somewhat awkward situation, but any awkwardness was short-lived, probably due to the fact that we'd already gotten familiar with each other through facebook and emails. The food was good too; I'd say it was similar to Indian food as far as the taste. After eating, Kerry suggested we go out, and we all agreed. Derek and his friends knew of the place Kerry was thinking of (some bar in the Fremont area of Seattle) and off they went, while Kerry, Rachel and her sister jumped in Julia's car, who I followed. Julia was VERY hard to follow: changing lanes just before a right turn, realizing she'd gone the wrong way, etc. Anyways finally we'd arrived at the bar, and I parked my grandpa's escalade on the street. Inside the bar, we played Kings (everybody has different names and rules). It was fun, and got more fun as the game went on... go figure. After we'd gotten loosened up from our drinks, the 4 of us talked about our upcoming trip, the fears we had, the fact that we'd all gotten tired of answering the same questions that others had been asking us, things to expect, and more. I decided to cut myself off at that point, since I was going to have to drive back down to Gig Harbor. However, Kerry said that if I wanted, I could keep drinking and that I could sleep on the futon in the basement of her mom's house. I asked if the car would be ok, and Julia (Kerry's friend) was like "yeah you're fine, I leave my car here overnight all the time." After a while, Rachel and her sister took a cab home, and I went with Kerry and Julia to another bar, where we again met up with Derek and his buddy, until we had to leave due to it closing. So Derek and his friend left and Kerry and I went back to her house where we ate some leftover mussaman curry and pizza (awesome!) and then I went to the basement to pass out.

I woke up at like 11:30 the next day and Kerry and I went to the local farmers' market in Ballard with her mom. After putting some food in my stomach, along with some apple cider that was GREAT, Kerry's mom drove us to where I'd parked my grandpa's car. Unfortunately, there was a farmers' market there too, right where the escalade had been. After finding out which company had towed it, Kerry's mom was nice enough to drive me to the place and figure things out. My grandpa had to email them a permission letter for me to pick it up, and a photocopy of his drivers' liscence. There was a delay, however, so we went to lunch (perhaps out of sympathy for me, Kerry's mom paid for my chicken sandwich) before returning to get the car. It set me back about $160 but it wasn't as bad as the last time I'd been towed, which was about a year ago just before a Modest Mouse concert that cost me like $280. However, it added to the entire event, and caused me to write about the night in full detail. Anyways, thanks again to Kerry and her mom for being so helpful and nice to somebody they had pretty much just met! They even took a picture of me at the towing place....