The world’s oldest active ship, the Star of India, which is now part of the Maritime Museum.
The Alternative Breakers have officially arrived in San Diego! Not without a few spectacles of course. I guess that is what you get when take a bunch of students from a minimally populated state and put them in the middle of large city grocery store. Yeah, you heard me right. We had issues at the grocery store. Did you know some stores won’t let you take shopping carts out of the store to keep you from stealing them? We sure did not know that as we tried with all of our might to pull two shopping carts full of groceries over a magnetized floor. It did not take too long for us to figure out that we were going to have to haul our groceries to our van, especially once a few locals informed us about the cart situation. Fortunately, we were able to make it back to the vehicle without any more complications. I guess you cannot officially call it a trip until you have some tourist incidents like that.
Shopping carts and sleep deprivation aside, this trip is already promising to be interesting and fun for several reasons. For one, staying in a city directly by the ocean during spring break is sure to never disappoint. Two, I think our living situation for the next week should prove to be quite interesting. As someone who has never stepped foot in a hostel before, I was slightly nervous when I was told that was where we would be staying. You might remember the horror movie released several years ago about guests being terrorized by a madman inside a dingy and dark hostel. I was grateful to find that our hostel was actually quite colorful and bright and all staff and guests have been very friendly. We have already met a few guests from across the country and as far away as Australia and Bahrain and most people are genuinely interested in talking to you and learning where we are from…even if they are not entirely sure where Wyoming is.
“Wyoming? That’s in the middle right?” asked one Australian guest. Well, at least he kind of knows where we are.
Overall, San Diego is a friendly city even if it is a little crazy with its St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Many of the bars are located next to our hostel or across the street, which makes for great people watching from our window. If I had a dime for every man I saw in a giant leprechaun hat…
The War’s End Kiss statue near the docks in San Diego
But the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations are just one side note to our trip. In one day we managed to successfully find our hostel, almost make a mad getaway with a shopping cart, make a delicious stir-fry for dinner, and successfully get lost on our way to the docks. We even had our 12-person van valet parked for us because we know how to roll in style…that and there was no other parking for miles.
All in all, I’d say it’s been a successful and busy day. Tomorrow is sure to be even busier as it will be our first day of volunteering. I am not entirely sure what to expect, but I am sure I will have lots to talk about.
With that I bid everyone good night and in case I do not get back tomorrow, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
