So. Hello California! I am now curled up comfortably on my double bed in Tammy and Jeanine's guestroom in a lovely area in San Rafael, north of San Francisco. There are two gorgeous cats wandering the house and Nala, a lovely Labrador (I think) by the front door. They're lovely.

Anyway, to start at the beginning, the flight here was pretty ok. I was not in the mood for sleeping as it was daytime so amused myself by watching the final Harry Potter film and bringing up feelings of nostalgia by watching Spy Kids 4. I used to love Spy Kids, haha. I saw the sun setting and then rising again way too soon due to time difference and made good use of the opportunity to try out my new flashy camera. I was quite proud of the photos I had made and was starting to feel a bit braggy about my camera until the lovely English guy beside me pulled out a huge professional Nikon and easily took some absolutely stunning pictures, making mine fade to almost normal quality. His pictures are great though. We spent the rest of the flight taking photos, discussing them and chatting about life. He was travelling with his mother who was just as lovely so their company made my trip very pleasant! After having waited in line for about an hour at the stupid American customs at San Francisco Airport I picked up my 20 kilo backpack and dragged myself to the arrivals hall. There, tiredness hit me. I had not slept properly for about 35 hours by then and I stumbled to a bathroom and threw cold water in my face, changed my clothes and drank a few litres of water to wake myself up. I was planning on buying a simcard there but realized there was no way I was awake enough so I found the busstop and caught the Marin Airporter towards San Rafael. I was woken up slightly by the sight of the famous Golden Gate Bridge and was especially stunned when it turned out that there was a major traffic jam on the bridge. I confusedly tried to make sense of the traffic and suddenly noticed a smashed up car near the end of the bridge. A policecar raced past us, a tow truck in tow, causing all huge American cars to squash together to let them pass. The bridge was cleared in about 20 minutes but I was on the bridge long enough to see most of the sunset which, to be honest, was not too bad a way to start my trip!

Arriving in San Rafael, Tammy and Jeanine, my hosts, took me to buy a simcard after which I completely collapsed and had to go to bed. It was 7 in the evening so I hoped to avoid jetlag by going to bed near bedtime(well, children's bedtime..).

I slept like a log in their lovely home and now feel really happy and rested and ready to go into San Fran. So here goes! Seeya!