Sleep deprived, Arinozalized and 19 hours to go

Seriously, the pace in which the time is ticking right now is unbelievable. It seems like every time I look at the clock, another hour has passed. My flight leaves in less than 24 hours. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap.

Yesterday was no doubt the best day of my entire trip. My alarm woke me up at 3 AM after around 2 hours of sleep. I was heading to the San Francisco International airport to meet my arch nemesis, the airplanes. I hate them and I hate flying. Ugh. But the trip I was going to make was worth the hours of the non-stop butterfly feeling in my stomach because I was going to meet an old friend! It was about time, I think it's been around 5 years since we last saw each other.

The flight was horrible. The plane left half an hour late and the amount of turbulence we had was unbearable. The entire plane was flailing around like there was no tomorrow. Luckily I was so tired that I managed to fall asleep and miss most of it.

So when I arrived in Phoenix, I still had a 2 hour shuttle ride ahead of me to get to Flagstaff. It literally took you from a warm 65 degree weather into the freezing snow in a matter of minutes. I've never seen that happen, Finland is usually completely covered. First there were cacti and dead grass and BOOM snow and mountains. Weird. Arizona is weird.

Like any normal teenagers, Jackie and I spent our time shopping at Target for stuff just for the fact that it was on sale. Go black Friday. We also enjoyed some Big Band Theory, a bunch of youtube videos and Carl's Jr. Thanksgiving Dinner before it was my time to leave back to the airport. We saw each other for a good 15 hours. That's what I paid 700 dollars for. Jackie, I hope you know that my wallet hates you for this. But it was completely worth it and I would do it again a thousand times. Since we stayed up all night talking about anything and everything, trying to catch up for years of lost conversations, I didn't get any chance to sleep. And by the time the shuttle came to pick me up at 5AM, I was already cracking open an energy drink to keep we awake. So while I'm typing this, my brain is suffering from this almost-48-hour non-sleep Thanksgiving. But I got a Hogwarts T-shirt. Worth it!

We're here to save the day and we look f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s!

Mountains! Definitely not in San Francisco anymore..

The red sign at the right corner is Target's main doors. The Black Friday lines before the shop opened were longer than any bar line I've ever seen.

I've cleaned my room, packed my bags and just came back from my very last shopping spree. Not just because I've run out of time, but I now have $7 left. Altogether, I've spent over $2000 on clothes, make-up, presents and just living. At the end of my almost-3-month-trip, I neither gained nor lost money. So basically I worked and got paid in things. I'm not complaining. There's definitely no shopping for me to do in Finland now... hopefully.

I still have so many mixed feelings about this whole thing. I know my plane is leaving soon, but I just can't bring myself to accept the fact that I'm leaving. I want to go home but at the same time I don't, you know? It's a weird feeling. 

But now it's my time to retreat into my natural habitat and try to get some sleep to compensate for the past two days. In the morning, I'm going to go eat lunch with my host family for the last time and then they will drop me off at the airport. We meet again, airplane.

The last day of work

My work week was only two days long thanks to Thanksgiving and the six-year-old not having any school. I think those two days were the best ones I've had here, since I was even more eager to join the kids in tag and all the games. Monday we browsed Chinatown and I bought the kids lunch, ice cream and other small things that I just named their Christmas presents. I found some cool stuff for myself as well, so it was a win-win situation.

Tuesday we spent in Dolores Park, a place I am going to forever regret not going to before. You could see the entire city from there and it was also a great place to get my last minute suntan since the old one was already starting to fade. We went down this huge-ass slide with the kids, putting sand under our butt to make us slide even faster. Since I was wearing sweatpants and I'm a bit heavier than most of the kids, I was flying off the slide and onto the sand, it was awesome. After a few hours almost all the kids wanted to sit on my lap while I slid down because it ended with both of us flying off at full speed. I was even declared the Queen of said slide for my dedication, stealth and aggressive speed. Never been prouder of myself. The overall atmosphere was like some weird twisted Disney movie because I was definitely not the only "adult" having probably more fun than the kids on that slide.

The end of my last day went down with a bang. Literally. As I put the kids into the bathtub, they immediately engaged in a quarrel on who could drink from the tub faucet. In an act of rage (I'm guessing) the two-year-old decided that the best way to solve it was to go down fighting, and he hit his sister right in the eye with a toy car. So the last hour was spent sophisticating children on the wrongness of hitting and holding ice on someone's head. Thankfully, no-one was killed and we all survived the day. Despite the end, it was the best way to end my days here. Now it's just a matter of time before I head to the airport, but there are still a few pitstops to take, starting tomorrow at 4 AM. Can't wait!

Sometimes I don't know how to take pictures....

Christmas lights!

6 days remaining

You ever watch The Ring? You know how you only get 7 days to live? Well that's exactly what I'm going through right now, well you know, minus the whole dying part. In less than a week, I'll be on my flight to Paris and more importantly, home. The few days I have left are taking up a huge toll on my wallet. Every store I ever thought about going into is now at the top of my To Do list, as well as all the christmas presents I was supposed to buy. In the past week alone, I've spent more money than I have ever spent during my lifetime. It's insane.

I really don't miss the cold and darkness that Finland comes with. They expect me to just give up the 65-70 degree sunny autumn weather for the below-freezing cold? Nope, not gonna happen.

In other news: Saturday we spent in Palo Alto harassing Mark Zuckerberg, Google, Facebook and Apple. Sunday was spent shopping for towels (don't even ask) and any last minute clothes-- let me tell you, there are a lot of clothes I've thought about buying, and now I'm just going all out and getting them. Tomorrow I'll visit Chinatown and see if I can get any more christmas presents bought for a select few.

Android!

Ze entrance de Stanford Université á Palo Alto

To make my time here even more limited, Thursday I'm flying to Arizona for a day to visit an old friend from my adventures in Latvia. Plane leaves at 6AM which basically gives me no time to sleep before saturday, when I leave to Helsinki. At least I get to screw up my entire sense of time with all the sleepless nights and time differences. Who needs sleep anyway?

I've been counting down the days till I go home since day 50 and I always thought I'd be so glad to finally leave. Now, not so much. I've thought about going to the airport and just grabbing a random plane to a far off city here in the US, where they can't find me and my soon-to-be expired visa. Of course I miss the people back home, that's the worst part. But now that I've experienced life outside of Europe, it just doesn't seem like a nice place to live. Sorry guys, true story. Maybe for now though, the best thing for me is to go back to work and the same old routines. I kind of miss those a little. I even got my new work shifts today and I have never been so excited to see that from the 9th of December onwards, my life will be nothing more than serving burgers. How am I supposed to remember what a cheeseburger looks like...?

Nana nana nana nana BATKID!

Today San Francisco's bank was robbed by The Riddler, a woman was tied up on cable car tracks and Batkid was awarded the key to the city. But not before the young superhero stopped to have a burger at Macy's.

Today was amazing. I haven't been this happy for a long time; my faith in humanity was restored. Thousands of people gathered at Union Square to see Batkid and Batman save Gotham City from evildoers. People were cheering, booing the villains, performing flashmobs and most importantly, making a five-year-old kid's dream come true. They were even playing the original themes from the Batman cartoons, which gave the day a nice twist.

Check the news article and broadcast here! If you enhace the video just as they show Union Square, you can see the back of my head and the two-year-old's hand. Internet fame here I come!

The Batmobiles!

Batkid Miles and his sidekick

In other news: this week has been rough. Autumn is definitely on it's way and I've learned that yellow leaves and palm trees go together like toddlers and tiaras. It makes my heart break inside to see either or..

Christmas tree! In November! Yay!

Even the firetrucks are depressed by autumn

yuck

Land's End

The name of this place made it sound too cool to miss out on. Luckily, I wasn't that disappointed when I left Land's End at the end of the day after 4 hours of so-called hiking around the shoreline of San Francisco.

Land's End is located at the western coast of California. It's where the Pacific Ocean meets land, hence the name. Of course, Japan is only a few thousand miles away, but from there it just looks like the end of the world. Like it does in most places where the horizon is nothing but ocean.

Whoever made a review about this place and suggested that you were proper footwear is now my hero. On the map, the walk around the coast looks like a piece of cake, a sunday stroll if you will. But at the location, geezus the walking was terrible. Not only was there a lot of steep inclines, but the ground is mostly sand and dirt which naturally will move around under your feet. This made the climb a hundred times worse than it actually would have been. But thankfully I was smart enough to take my running shoes; the only shoes that have yet to give me blisters. Bless them.

I'm planning on making a video from this trip because it seemed like a fun new idea to try. So the entire hike I was holding my phone and recording my walk. The look on peoples' faces were adorable, most glared at me for filming their family and children while others stopped to say hi to the camera. Many also assumed I was some sort of internet vlogger, hence the camera. So I was asked a lot of "oh my god are you on youtube or something?". Sorry to disappoint, I am and never will be youtube famous :(

But since I am a lazy evolutionary form of an ape, I have yet to do anything with the footage. So here are some pictures instead.

So basically we're on the other side of the GG bridge

It's a hawk!

beach!

The view when you begin your hike

The other side of Land's End. Smooth as a beach...

Compared to this anyway

17 days remaining, 15 till I get to fly to Arizona for a day. Looking forward to it! My parents are also visiting the day after tomorrow. I'm running out of time, help!

A is for Alcatraz

L is for luxury.

Which really doesn't describe what the life of the common Alcatraz inmate was like back before the island shut its prison bars in 1963. That's what I imagine anyway.

Alcatraz was the one and only thing that I had in mind to visit when I first got here about two months ago. I remember seeing it in the third X-Men movie (I am a huge fan btw) where it was used as a research center. I see it every day as I pass Crissy Fields too, so I had a huge craving to visit. Today was the day I finally got my chance.

So the six-year-old took a day out from school and the four of us went to visit the island. It began with a ferry ride that took 15 minutes. Usually, this is the point where you get to take pictures of the San Francisco bay, but the fog this morning was incredible. It had been a very sunny week, so I was surprised by the dense fog we had. You could see about 300 feet in front of you at most.

The dock

On the ferry

The ferry dropped us off at the island (obviously) and every tourist scattered to have a look around. The tour begins with walking a 5 minute walk up to the main prison. On the way up, we passed the morgue and some closed off buildings. The morgue had a table and a couple of old instruments on the side, not that much more. There were never actual autopsies made at the morgue and dead inmates were usually sent to their families...

Random fact: eight inmates were murdered by other inmates, five committed suicide and fifteen died of natural causes.

The morgue

We were handed earphones and a player to listen to an audio tour as we went around the cell blocks. Since we had two kids with us though, I only got to about halfway before we had to give up and entertain them. Alcatraz audio tours aren't really the best things for children after all, too much talking. So we spent a few minutes just walking around the building and looking into cells and the yard. After the fog began to clear a little (because of the sun), we were able to enjoy a little bit of what you could see of the bay. You could even hear the police cars/ambulances/fire trucks that were driving around in San Francisco.

Random fact: There were over 300 civilians living on Alcatraz island. Most of the officers on patrol and the warden lived on the island with their families.

This was greeting us when we got off the boat

The main prison area

Imagine trying to escape and swim into that fog...

Regular cell, 5ft by 9ft

Regular cell with privileges to the use of an instrument 

Broadway

Inmates had the privilege of having one visitor per month

Inmate playtime was spent here

The warden's house, what's left of it

Random fact: On New Years Eve, inmates could hear people laughing on the shoreline. It was the only day of the year when you could hear sounds from the city reaching the island.

I've been re-watching Prison Break for a while now and I think it totally messed up my understanding of a prison. It wasn't too misleading though; the broadway and the aligning of the cells looked almost identical. What really shocked me was how small the cells were. 5 feet by 9 feet with a toilet and small sink plus the bed. So there really isn't that much room to stretch out in. These were the cells from the B- and C-blocks. D-block, or isolation, had much bigger cells. This was because the inmates would spend 24h in the cell, only let out once a week to exercise and shower. This was were Al Capone spent some of his time.

And if the prisoners got really out of control, they would be put in solitary confinement or "the hole". There, they would only be eating on a restricted diet and didn't have the luxury of going outside. No one would be kept inside for more than 19 days though, they would have gone crazy.

Solitary cell

The hole. Inside was nothing but empty space, locked with double doors.

Random fact: The showers in Alcatraz were always supplied with somewhat hot water in order to hinder inmates from becoming accustomed to the freezing Bay water.

Seeing the Bay Area from the island itself, I can only imagine how desperate someone would have to be to decide to try and swim over there. The water is around 50-55 degrees fahrenheit and the currents are really strong. Almost every escape attempt I heard about ended up with the escapees either drowning or not wanting to take the swim at all.

Random fact: A total of 36 men tried to escape from Alcatraz (including two dumbasses who tried to do it twice). 23 were caught, six were shot and killed and two drowned. Five prisoners are listed as "missing and presumed drowned". A sign of a successful escape or an escape gone terribly wrong? Who knows..

I really feel like going back there on my own and finishing the audio tour. I feel like I missed a few places that were accessible to the public as well. But by the end of our small tour, we were all so hungry that I think it was best that we left. We went to enjoy lunch at a small restaurant called Pier 23. Delicious burgers once more and another satisfied tummy. I was so tired by the end of the day that I just collapsed onto my bed and have been lying here since. But not before I had to go buy myself a new pair of sweatpants to roll around in and some food. To end my day, the key to my dorm room didn't work, so I had to walk back to my host family to get my spare key.. What would have been a 15 minute trip home ended up being a 2,5h trip around the city..

Today was a good day.

Sidenote: some of these pictures are edited (it's sort of obvious) because I was really bored and was trying new things with my camera...

I recommend going to Alcatraz, even to those who have no interest whatsoever in one of the most interesting things to see in San Francisco.