July in California

Kicked off another summer in the wonderful but wacky state of California. Was welcomed by stark naked men celebrating gay pride weekend in the streets of San Francisco as my airport shuttle sat stuck in traffic for an hour. I didn't realize that really anything goes in this city.

(If I hadn't told Derek and Daniella that I was arriving at 9 p.m. instead of a.m. could have avoided that little welcoming....Oops) So, I figured I might as well check out the party and document some of it with my cam, hence the couple of somewhat risque pics in my California Cities gallery.

Great time as always with Derek and Dani in my favorite city on a fault line. Congrats on their marriage.

An awesome time in Coloma, CA (home of the discovery of gold and the start of the great gold rush) with my sister, mom, aunt and uncle Jan and Gene, and all of Alice's friends. Great food, wine, olive oil, BBQ's, hiking, kayaking and rafting the American River, Hooverville mixed berry pie, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale...



Then it was time to head to L.A. to start working on my MA in TESOL at APU so we dropped mom off at Sacramento airport and I rented a car and headed for the Pacific Coast Highway and spent the next couple of days checking out its amazing beaches, cliffs, vistas and wildlife. These may be my favorite pictures yet. Before I got to the coast I stopped in a Walmart or Target to pick up Neil Young's cd Living With War. If this CD doesn't break your heart, nothing will. You can tell this guy loves his country (his second one anyway) as much as anybody but he's sick off this crap. Anyway, this was a great soundtrack for a road trip through California. Hippie freak flag flying rock n' roll activism by one of the founding fathers in the place where it all started.... and damn good songs at that. If you don't buy the album, at least check out this heartbreaking video Families.

Note: A road trip through California is like riding through the songs in your album collection. I recognized names of highways, roads, streets, areas... Ventura, Santa Monica, Mullholland, Sunset, Route 66, Laurel Canyon, San Jose, Cucomanga.. to name a few. (My university campus actually lies right along about a mile of Route 66)

Arrived in L.A. to a free pad and tours of the beaches and nightlife compliments of Juan, a fellow teacher here in Korea and native Los Angelite. Couldn't have gotten any better til I hooked up with Wes who also offered his grandparents' home in the Valley and his dad's apartment in North Hollywood for me to crash in and a family car to use for the two weeks I was in L.A. Major props to Juan and Wes.

Wish they all could be....

The next two weeks was a mix of studying for my masters in Teaching English as a Second Language at Azusa Pacific University about 20 minutes from downtown L.A. and doing L.A. kind of things: Dodger's games, watching girls at Santa Monica and Venice Beaches, eating great ethnic food and lots and lots of Mexican, hitting the hip night scenes of Hollywood, Koreatown, Chinatown, Echo Park, and generally just sweating my hiney off.

School was very cool and I'm looking forward to the next two and a half years of the program. It's "field based" which means I'll be going back to L.A. for two more July's (what a bummer) and studying in Chiang Mai Thailand for the next two January's (boo hoo). In between, I'll be doing lots and lots of research, writing reports and of course teaching English at Hongik University in Seoul.

Luckily my buddy Stephen whom I met in Korea years ago is doing the program with me so hopefully we'll keep each other motivated. And some of my classmates are a blast to hang out with, especially Serge, the future president of Russia or jailed tycoon, not sure which.

Wrapped up the time in L.A. with one of my oldest and best buds from Korea, Jordan, and his gorgeous wife Kazuko and their awesome kids Rio and Aria with a BBQ in their swanky UCLA couples housing, with its little courtyard patio looking something like a mini U.N. with all the multinational students. Look for Dr. Jordan just about anywhere in the future... teaching comparative literature at a top university, or if that gets boring for him maybe just putting out a couple of rap CD's for kicks but then again maybe he'll rather just be hobnobbing with Hollywood stars who want one of his screenplays.

That brings us back to Korea where the average tempurature has been in the upper 90's since I got back. My thermometer at home has even been over 100. Not much fun since I'm working 6 days a week at an English camp for kids and it's too hot to even take them outside to play. Looks like it's time to watch An Inconvenient Truth and find out what's going on.....

Click here to see my California galleries