Going Home, Going Back, Part I.

I have about 4 months of life in Thailand to catch up on, but for now, I’m jumping ahead to the present.

I’m in America for the first time in 11 months.

When I decided to renew my contract for a second year, I asked for about 3 weeks off to visit home before starting the summer SAT program. After much delay, I finally bought some tickets, and lifted off from Suvarnabhumi (or whatever the ridiculous spelling is… should be "Suwanapoom") at 8:30am, Sunday May 27th. With the time change, I landed at LAX just 3 hours later, at 11:30am the same day.

Before I get to that though, I connected in Hong Kong, and the airport there is AMAZING!

Anyway, although my final destination was NY and the northeast, I stopped for four days in the LA area first to visit two friends and see California for just the second time in my life.

First I met up with Nate (Nate, how did I not take any pictures of you? Sorry!) and we hung out in Pasadena (northern suburb) and downtown Los Angeles.




We did a little hike just a few minutes from Nate’s apt, and then headed to…

Sunset Strip!

Next, we met up with my friend Tiffany (who I was smart enough to take pictures of!) and after some more time downtime, I headed back with her to Santa Barbara, about two hours north of LA. The drive alone, to say nothing of the excellent company, made the entire trip to CA worthwhile.

Wow.

Santa Barbara is awesome in the original, Merriam Webster’s, pre-1980s sense of the word. It is breathtaking, absolutely gorgeous, perhaps the perfect place to live (well, besides the outlandish cost of housing). Drive 5 minutes one way, you are in the hills looking down on the city. Drive 5 minutes in the other direction, you are at the beach. Every day I was there it was 65-75 and sunny, with a breeze. I didn’t want to leave.

Dinner with Tiff’s friends at a hibachi place.

A little 1 hour hike in SB.

The true highlight of my two days in SB though was the two hour run I went on. This was by far the furthest I have ever run, and was the result of a mixture of being overly ambitious, getting a little lost, and running somewhere that isn’t hot, isn’t humid, isn’t polluted, and doesn’t require dodging motorcycles or street dogs.

Tiffany gave me directions to run from her place to the beach, but I got off course early on and decided to give up on finding the left coast in favor of just running aimlessly, exploring whatever parts of beautiful SB I happened upon. After about 40 minutes, I ended up downtown, and then I noticed Las Postitas, the road I was supposed to take to the beach about 25 minutes earlier… and I got ambitious.

I knew it would be a long run, but I started down Las Postitas anyway. I ran, and ran, figuring out how long it would take to run back if I went the right way. If I turn back now and don’t get lost, it will be a 70 minute run. A 75 minute run. An 80 minute run. But despite all my calculating, I never really planned to stop. I had to find the beach.

At a full hour, I found Arroyo Beach, and decided I would just go see the water and turn back. I’d get back to Tiff’s at about 90 minutes total, and this would already be one of the longest runs I’d ever taken. But when I reached the water, I didn’t stop. A charge ran through me, and I started to run even faster. I was Lewis and Clark. I’d found the Pacific. This was the greatest moment of my life.

30 minutes down the beach, 30 minutes cutting back through a private road on the mesa, and I was back at the head of the beach at 2:01. Longest run ever. I sat down at the bus stop, feeling exhausted and exhilarated, and waited to catch a bus back toward Tiff’s. After a few minutes I debated calling a cab instead, but the number wasn’t on the nearby payphone, and anyway, how long could the bus take to come?

Actually I’m still not exactly sure because after 50 minutes, a worried looking Tiffany pulled up and asked if I wanted a ride. I feebly answered that yes, yes I did. I guess since the note I left said I’d be back around 3:30, and it was now after 5, she was starting to wonder if I got hit by a bus or something. (Clearly then she also didn’t know that buses in Santa Barbara never come.)

Tiff dropped me back off in LA, I spent a few more hours with Nate (who I still don't have pictures of... sorry again!), and it was off to Burbank Airport and my Jet Blue flight to JFK.

I left Burbank at 8:50pm and got to JFK at 5:03am. I finally reached my grandparents at 6am but promptly crashed until about 1pm. Ok, this post is too long already, so I’ll let a few pictures do the rest of the talking.

Grandpa and Grandma’s.

My cousin Jack getting his souvenir…

…and scaring his little sister Katie with it.

A visit to my favorite childhood restaurant.

Me and my brother Andrew on his birthday.

Me coming in from my second USA run, this time a mere 63 minutes. It was mid afternoon and probably almost 80F and sunny, but after running in Bangkok this still felt a little bit like heaven.

Tomorrow I’m off to visit Cornell, so that’s it for now. Peace.