Never a dull moment
I think I've done more stuff in the ten days or so I've been home than I did in the past few months. Most of it has been fun stuff, but still, it's kept me very busy. I like it.
The one thing I wanted to make sure to do while I was here was go to the new Academy of Sciences, so we did that a couple days after I got back. (The very first day I was back was reserved for getting a Christmas tree and decorating it.) And it was definitely worth going to, even if they did sort of turn it into the Academy of Life Sciences, which those of us who enjoy astronomy and geology found a bit disappointing. Still, the rainforest and the coral reef they have are awesome, and the building itself is worth seeing. Plus, there's an albino alligator. You really can't go wrong with one of those.
Then there were the various dinner parties and lunches with old friends. Christmas was just my family, which was actually really nice, since we went to Michigan the past two years and had large extended family Christmases. I liked having a quieter day at home, especially since it was sandwiched between two big Hanukkah parties. One was at a friend's house the day before Christmas, and one was at our house the day after Christmas. So of course that one involved several hours of cleaning the house, cooking latkes, and my dad creating a new leaf for the table out of recycled wood, some screws, and duct tape. The party was lots of fun, though. We saw our cousins again, ate good food, had an increasingly silly sing-along, and I was talked into trying a Wii for the first time.
My brother had an absurdly short vacation and has be back for classes on Monday, so last night the whole family went on a send-off expedition to the San Francisco Airport, where he and a friend of his got on a plane for London. So they're going to celebrate New Year's in London, before Rees goes back to his castle for classes and his friend spends a couple weeks traveling in Europe. Why yes, I'm jealous. Who isn't? But Rees was definitely not home long enough, and it'll be another four months before he's back.
While I'm here, my dad's been taking me out to practice driving. It's amazing how much I actually remember from the last time I drove five years ago, and I'm even getting less abysmal at parking. Yesterday we practiced lane changes on various streets by the Richmond marina, so at least I got to practice somewhere with truly spectacular views of the bay. Today we found every traffic barrier in Berkeley, and I narrowly avoided having to deal with the Marin traffic circle. (I'm sure my dad has plans for that, though. He seems to have these lessons all figured out.)
And now we're back in party mode, with my parents preparing a big New Year's dinner. Dinner should be good, at least, even if no one in this particular group (except me) is even going to try to stay up until midnight.
Edit: Just watched CNN's live coverage of the New Year's fireworks by the London Eye, complete with a very upbeat version of Auld Lang Syne. Happy New Year, London!
The one thing I wanted to make sure to do while I was here was go to the new Academy of Sciences, so we did that a couple days after I got back. (The very first day I was back was reserved for getting a Christmas tree and decorating it.) And it was definitely worth going to, even if they did sort of turn it into the Academy of Life Sciences, which those of us who enjoy astronomy and geology found a bit disappointing. Still, the rainforest and the coral reef they have are awesome, and the building itself is worth seeing. Plus, there's an albino alligator. You really can't go wrong with one of those.
Then there were the various dinner parties and lunches with old friends. Christmas was just my family, which was actually really nice, since we went to Michigan the past two years and had large extended family Christmases. I liked having a quieter day at home, especially since it was sandwiched between two big Hanukkah parties. One was at a friend's house the day before Christmas, and one was at our house the day after Christmas. So of course that one involved several hours of cleaning the house, cooking latkes, and my dad creating a new leaf for the table out of recycled wood, some screws, and duct tape. The party was lots of fun, though. We saw our cousins again, ate good food, had an increasingly silly sing-along, and I was talked into trying a Wii for the first time.
My brother had an absurdly short vacation and has be back for classes on Monday, so last night the whole family went on a send-off expedition to the San Francisco Airport, where he and a friend of his got on a plane for London. So they're going to celebrate New Year's in London, before Rees goes back to his castle for classes and his friend spends a couple weeks traveling in Europe. Why yes, I'm jealous. Who isn't? But Rees was definitely not home long enough, and it'll be another four months before he's back.
While I'm here, my dad's been taking me out to practice driving. It's amazing how much I actually remember from the last time I drove five years ago, and I'm even getting less abysmal at parking. Yesterday we practiced lane changes on various streets by the Richmond marina, so at least I got to practice somewhere with truly spectacular views of the bay. Today we found every traffic barrier in Berkeley, and I narrowly avoided having to deal with the Marin traffic circle. (I'm sure my dad has plans for that, though. He seems to have these lessons all figured out.)
And now we're back in party mode, with my parents preparing a big New Year's dinner. Dinner should be good, at least, even if no one in this particular group (except me) is even going to try to stay up until midnight.
Edit: Just watched CNN's live coverage of the New Year's fireworks by the London Eye, complete with a very upbeat version of Auld Lang Syne. Happy New Year, London!