My time in the USA has come to an end, I write this while sitting in the lounge of gate G96, awaiting a boarding call (in about half an hour hopefully) to board flight NZ7 back to Auckland.
It's kind of strange how you can become attached to a place in just a couple of weeks. I'm not going to try and say something like freedom or liberty because lets face it I feel no more free than I do at home, in fact with the DMCA I feel less so. Perhaps their strange power points (though I love the way the apple power adapter folds in), their upside down light switches, the way their toilets are full of water.
I spent my last day in San Francisco taking life easy. I was awake not long after 6am, and hung around online (spoke on IRC... someone was awake!) until about 8 when I went and had pancakes. Yes, the hostel had free pancakes (that you cooked yourself) each morning, and I didn't get to it until the last day. Once I had my feed I headed back upstairs and packed. Wow. Somehow I fit almost everything in my checkin luggage (nearly 16kg!) except for a few odds and ends (such as alcohol) which are in my carry on bag (8kg! Though stephanie is 2.1kg of that, plus power adapter etc.).
I headed on down to Boudin Bakery (below Macy's on O'Farrell, near Powell) and had a coffee and waited for Macy's to open so I could head on in to the US Postal Service. I popped in and acquired stamps and sent off 8 postcards. Sorry to say that chances are if you are reading this you aren't getting one basically. I'm terribly disorganised, and should have solicited addresses much sooner. Please accept my apologies and take this blog entry as a substitute. If you need a postcard image try these vines.
Post cards sent I went and saw Mr & Mrs Smith, with the biggest cup of coke I have ever seen in my short life time. Wow. I knew Americans were good at going Super Size, but wow. I shopped around at Metreon (4th St, near Howard St), bought a few small gifts for a few kids back home.
Thought "I'm hungry, why not have lunch?" and went to a Quiznos. Purchased a large combo of their Angus Steak & Cheese sub. That was the best meat in a "fast food" sub outlet I have ever eaten. The problem was there was so very much of it. It fell out, and I felt obliged to eat it. I mean, how could I ever show my face their again if I didn't? The fact that I had to waddle out is irrelevant.
Somehow I made it back to the hostel, and spent the next couple of hours drinking a bottle of C2 and chatting on IRC.
They made us take off our shoes when we went through the metal detectors. How weird. That's about the only comment I have to make on the airport. Nice seats too, come to think of it. I found a power point to charge up stephanie while waiting to board, so that's even better.
So here I am. It's been fun. Thank you San Francisco.
(I should probably note, because my network listings/diagrams don't yet reflect this, but stephanie is my two week older 12" PowerBook G4. I haven't spontaneously acquired a child. I hope.)
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