That's for Friday~!

Alright, I need to recap what I did yesterday. It was a mini adventure. I’m not someone who can walk through Orchard Road for hours, I walk hastily and wouldn’t stop for much things. Hence, this trip to Old Town is a new challenge to me.

I left my place around 12ish, right after I had my mozzarella turkey ham mushroom sandwich. I was trying to locate the post office, well I didn’t and so I took bus 150 from UTC to get to Old Town. When I alighted the bus at Old Town, the first thing that I was greeted with was the trolley system and the coaster, which was awesome. I took some photos of them and started with my photography excursion.

Lucky me, the Old Town State Historic Park is just beside the trolley station and so I simply walked in. It’s really like a small town with a central square in the middle, a large grass patch for people to sit on and get some shades from the trees. So it’s Old Town, so we don’t expect to see buildings like those in the city, but wooden houses with big boards and old style handwritings. I suppose this place is developed to be a tourist site, since it has been renovated a few times, and have restaurants and shops in the entire park. There is a trolley tour that lasts two hours, and ticket costs 32 USD. I was tempted to but I thought I should walk around more and maybe I can wait till the Tracy and Qiao Qi when they come here.

I walked here and there, amazed that every single shop amazed me. There are museums all over the place, each telling us a little part of San Diego of the past. One of the first museums I went to was the Stable, telling us how horse carriages were used as an important transport for delivering things through the state. Then I went to a newspaper museum, which was not so interesting. I like the candle shop and the candies shop. The whole candle shop has this thick intense and sweet aroma, which is less artificial than the Body shop, so I looked around and eventually bought 4 honey stix of different flavors, namely mint, cinnamon, coconut and clover. The candies shop sells a whole lot of stuff, from fudges (like 12 flavors) to caramels to chocolate and sweets. I saw some gross lollipop with scorpions and larva inside. *Puke* After that I moved on to the courthouse, to take a look at the sheriff’s office and the mayor’s office, and little jail at the backdoor. I then went to the First school there, which was closed unfortunately. So I moved on to the Well’s Fargo Museum, which is in fact about bank and money exchange during the old times.

I thought it was about time for me to leave and so I went to the Fiesta De Reyes, which is a Mexican plaza, selling Mexican food and many related items, from hot chili sauce to colorful clothing and hats. I went to this penny souvenir stop, where I can make my dime into a souvenir by putting in half a dollar. There were toyshops, tile shops and paintings on sale too.

This isn’t the end of my adventure, in fact only halfway through. Around 3pm, I decided to walk more to explore the rest of the park. I spotted this greeting cards shop that has very interesting punch lines on the card, and an Old town gallery, with great photography and paintings. It was a hot day and I got myself a diet coke and walked on. Then, I saw this beautiful and exquisite Catholic Church. I walked in and sat down, listening to the peaceful songs and read a bit from the songbook. I flipped to my favorite page, which is Psalms 23, and then I kneeled down and prayed. I like the place. It calms me down, ensuring that I don’t walk alone. I walked on to Whaley House, known to be haunted even during the day. ( I don’t wanna pay to get frightened, so I just walked past it)

I got to this wonderful deserted place, where I saw houses, each unique in their own way, as though they belong to different princesses in Disney land. I took some photos there, sat and rested a while and then decided that it’s time to go home. I walked to the visitor’s center and realized that there is a show called ‘Saints and Sinners’ at 6pm and so I think ‘Why not?’ and decided to go have dinner and look for post office at Midway Drive since it is 4.45pm already. It was really out of pure luck I found Midway Drive and many fast food restaurants like Carl’s Jr, In n out, subway and Fatburger. In the end I stick with burger king since it was nearer to the State Historic Park. Of course, I walked back to the park right after the quick and hasty dinner.

I am so glad that I didn’t miss out this show, it’s a show that requires the audience to move around the square with the cast, as they tell us some interesting facts in the old San Diego, like the square used to be a garbage dump and they spent 18 years cleaning up the place, and the deep pits were made in the square so that a bear and bull fight can take place, for the people to bet on. There is also a scandal about a schoolteacher and she got married to the principal of the school. I like the story line and how they get the audiences involved. I feel that I am transformed into another person here, in some ways? During the show there was great humor, and even gunshots! In the end every sinner turned out to be somehow a saint. Corny and dorky it is.

Luckily there was bus 30 (which takes a longer time to get home) when I realized that Bus 150 is out of service after 6.30pm. I got to Ralph’s again at about 8.30pm and did some shopping again, getting shampoo and more food. I got home, got all hyped up for unknown reasons. Jordan offered me to sit beside him and research on how caffeine works, as he was all energetic and alert after eating a caffeine pill before his chemistry test. We spent hours looking it up, and I taught him some mandarin while he taught me how to pronounce ‘theatre’ and ‘the’ in the correct manner. There were some chemical discussions and I taught him about organic chemistry, ring strains, and stable structures (checking aromaticity of compounds). I went for a shower and we continued with the movie ‘Who killed the electric car?’ while Mandy and Peter continued preparing for their exams. When we were done with the show it was like about 2.30 am? We looked up the Internet for more about electric car till it was around 4am when I slept.