Well I am currently in Vancouver but gonna pretend i'm in San Fran still for the purpose of this blog!

So...I had a very nice last few days in Christchurch just chilling out - had a mammoth 4 and half hour game of Uno and a drunken night out with Art and Dave and a haircut! Was pretty sad to leave but the flight to San Francisco was pretty easy - i slept for 6 hours of it thanks to some well timed sea sickness tablets bought for the purpose of making me drowsy! Arrived in San Fran and caught the BART to downtown from which I stupidly decided to walk to the hotel (i figured 18 blocks can't be that difficult with 20 kg of weight on your back). Managed the 18 blocks only to realise that I was at the wrong end of the street so proceeded to walk another 10 blocks or so up a very steep hill (Lombard Street) until James eventually found me and rescued me!

Spent the afternoon at Fisherman's Wharf, ate some calamari and chips and then headed downtown to find some warmer clothes to buy! The next day we had planned to get up early to bike across the golden gate bridge but accidentally slept in late. Went to Neil's graduation which was actually interested although true to graduation form my hands really hurt from clapping afterwards! Free food and wine followed and then we spent the evening having dinner and then drinks with the people from Neil's animation course. The next day I spent hours searching for an internet cafe and more warm clothes before heading over to Golden Gate Park for a wander. In the evening we all went for dinner at The Stinking Rose which is a garlic restaurant (they even have garlic ice cream). The food was amazing but we did stink the bus out the next day on our Yosemite tour!

Yosemite was incredible even though it rained/snowed all day! The clouds were pretty low but they did clear every now and then so we could get some nice photos. We got pretty drenched on a walk but it was about time we got used to it as the next morning on our walk down to pier 33 we got even more soaked!!! Alcatraz was great though and then sun actually decided to come out on the way back! I decided to go to the Golden Gate Bridge but needed to charge my camera and while I did that the clouds came over again and we had more rain! I didn't actually get to go there in the end as the weather was bad again on my last morning so instead we went to the Tutankhamun exhibition.

I'm now in Vancouver and doing well. Had an orientation meeting yesterday to give me info on getting a job, finding somewhere to live and setting up my bank account (all very confusing). Had a few drinks and a dance with a couple of girls from my dorm so didn't dray myself out of bed until 11 today! Have done some solid hours of house hunting on the internet today but think I will give myself some time for some sightseeing this weekend. And it's not raining here thank god!!!