San Fransisco

After a simultaneously chaotic and slow burn stay at my hotel in Quito, it was time to fly to California. I woke up at 8 in the morning on the 15th and took a taxi to the airport at 10. In an effort to limit redundancy I'll copy a section from my notebook here that explains how the day unfolded:
"The flight info that Alison sent me had all the flight times in 12-hour time. When I wrote my itinerary, I converted all of them to 24-hour time, for clarity's sake. Ironically, I seem to have missed one important conversion. This was the time of departure for my flight from Quito to Houston. If I had looked ahead at the departure from Houston to SF, I would have noticed that it was for 5:50 rather than "17:50". I therfore could potentially have considered the possibility that my flight to Houston actually departed at 00:40, rather than 12:40, which is what I wrote. I arrived at the Quito airport, Mariscal Sucre, at 10:40 this morning. I went to check in when to my dismay, my flight could not be found. After speaking to the front desk and journeying through the airport's back rooms to the United office, it was confirmed that I in fact missed my flight at 00:40 this morning- the first hours of October 15th. The soonest flight that could be rescheduled, thankfully at no extra cost, leaves 24 hours from my original flight at the same time tomorrow (just after midnight). It is currently 12:04 PM. How does one kill 12 hours in an airport with no internet connection? I could of course take a taxi back into the city and take the opportunity to see one of the tourist attractions I so regrettably missed out on during my stay in the historic district. While this is no doubt tempting, it would cost me a lot of extra money. Being the traveler I am, I look at the feat of spending 12+ hours on a somewhat comfortable bench in the airport lobby with a sort of masochistic ambition."

So, due to completely preventable circumstances, I was left to entertain myself for the remainder of the day. I listened to music, ate airport food, read, wrote, and looked through my old photos. Looking back, it actually went by incredibly quickly. Before I knew it I was on the plane to Houston without a care in the world. Even though I almost missed my connection in Texas due to an insanely long customs line and I was made to wait in the airplane 30 mintes after we landed in California, I made it to my AirBnb early the next morning. During the flights, the various symptoms I contracted in Quito blew up into a concerning stew of pain and discomfort all over my body. The next day I woke up in my nice clean bed and walked through the nice clean apartment building in Daly City to meet my Uber to the nearest urgent care. The sympathetic Dr. Martin (like the boots) agreed that my symptoms were concerning and that I should keep an eye on certain ones in particular (the stomach pains, headaches, and neck pain especially; these could be indicative of a mosquito borne virus), but advised me to go home and rest for the day and see how I felt the day after. Thankfully, the next day I felt much better and was confident proceeding as usual, making sure to take extra care of my body. It was an unusually long and stressful travel day, after all.

My stay in San Fransisco was lovely and low key. On Wednesday the 18th, I joined my new fashion designer friend Fromsa into the city to see his "workshop". This place was, in essence, a hive of "hackers": remarkably intelligent people who come together to talk, think, and make stuff. These projects range from work related tasks to personal projects to pure art. All of this takes place in a 2 story building full of shared resources and tools. I had so much fun reading, talking to people and exploring the various rooms while Fromsa designed, cut, and sewed his fabric pieces. This mecca for nerds is called Noisebridge, if anyone would like to check it out or potentially pay a visit. Admission is free and the receptiveness of the people around is based solely on your willingness to learn. Aside from this obvious highlight, I also had a wonderful time walking across the Golden Gate Bridge the next day, the day of my departure. I took a bus to one end of the bridge and made the 45 minute walk to the other side. From there, I took a brief hike up to a beautiful lookout point and took some pictures. In reality, this was my way of killing time after checkout before my 11:10 flight to NZ (PM, I double checked this time). However, I have been wanting to hike for the entirety of my trip and hadn't gotten around to it until then. Even though it took me about 20 minutes, the terrain was fun and it scratched my hiking itch in a small kind of way. The view from the top was rewarding and it assured me that it was worth it to make the short trip to California before I moved to the south Pacific.

The only flight I decided to book first class was my 13 hour flight to Auckland. Thank God, United Airlines, and my amazingly generous grandparents that I did. I was delivered delicious in-flight meals and enough water to stay hydrated. I spent most of the flight watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy and sleeping in my horizontal recliner bed with extra blankets. I was humbled and pampered by the quality of the service, to the point that I didn't want to get off the plane when we landed. Feeling refreshed and physically very relaxed compared to my nightmare flights to Cali, I stepped out into the New Zealand air with a smile on my face. That was this morning. Having flown for 13 hours and covered a 20 hour time zone difference, I completely skipped Friday and arrived on Saturday morning. I took a bus to my hostel and approached the front desk, only to be told that I had to wait 3 more hours before I could check in. Thankfully, I was able to leave my bags in the storage room and explore the city for a while. I bought a book and read in the sunlight, visited a fabulous Mediterranean cafe, and wandered aimlessly. By the time I was able to check in, I had a good feeling for what kinds of shops and parks were around. I learned at La Botella de Leche that it may take some time to make friends at a hostel, but at this huge industrial style "backpackers accomodation" with way too many rules it has been especially hard. Everyone seems nice, but greets you with no more than a "hi". Despite this initial struggle, I'm currenlty sitting next to my two new hostel friends Niamh and Gareth from Ireland and England, respectively. I've bonded with them over the mysterious antisocial aura about the hostel, and they've made it tolerable to stay here rather than walking around Auckland like a stray animal. I love Auckland; the parks and shops are beautiful and the people are friendly. In a book store today, I heard an old man greet the shopkeeper with no less than a heartfelt "Thank you very much indeed"! I have 7 more nights here and expect to enjoy them well.
Keep your eye on the blog, I hope to be posting more often!

Peace and joy, Jonah