San Diego, California
January 30, 2003
I'm still down but I'm not out in Southern California!! I found a place to sublet in Mission Beach. There is a couple who are moving out of their 1-bedroom apartment, and I'll be subletting their old place from them. Even better, I'm only paying half of the rent intstead of the full price! So things are are looking up.. at least I have a place I can hook up my computer. Of course the bad thing is its going to be an empty house as I don't have anything to move in there!! But at least I'll have everything out of my car trunk and the backseat of my car. The stuff in the backseat of my car was of constant concern because of potential breakins.
Okay, this is what Mission Beach is all about. Its about five miles northwest of downtown San Diego (although its still part of San Diego city limits. Its a very very thin tract of land, with the ocean one one side and the bay on the other. It connects Ocean Beach with Pacific Beach. If I walk outside my door, (I'm staying in a sort of cottage), I can walk to the bay side, and its all sand and sailboats (its about 50 feet to that beach).. or I could step outside this cottage/apartment thing and walk the other direction and its the Pacific Ocean! That is just on the other side of this main street that runs the length of Mission Beach. Its about 100 feet away. So I'm sandwiched between two large bodies of water. Its pretty cool, except to get out of here, you have to drive either north or south a few miles to get around this Bay. Oh, if I walk about 2/5 of a mile southward (still in Mission Beach), there is a very large rollercoaster along with the usual boardwalks, pizza joints, surfer shops, etc.
Okay, just north of me, about 1/2 mile, begins a section called 'Pacific Beach'. This is basically clubs and bars and ALOT of nightlife. Compared to downtown, this seems to be more locals, surfers, college students, and the like. Alot of really young (and good-looking) people do their partying here. Its also along the beach, and there are your usual pizza joints, surfer shops, bars, and the whole beach life scene. Its probably one of the most livliest places in San Diego along with the downtown itself.
If you keep going north from Pacific Beach, you will be in La Jolla. This is a really rich area. If you have a La Jolla address, its kind of like having a Beverly HIlls address or something. Its a small very well-to-do community with amazing beaches. This is also where the University of California - San Diego is located, which I'm trying to get admitted to their International Relations graduate program. The other thing about La Jolla, is at one spot there is this really jagged cliffs and there is hang-gliding from there. Alot of hang-gliders!! And if you go down the cliffs (takes about 15 minutes, hiking downward), you would find Blacks Beach, which is a nude beach.
Farther north from La Jolla, there are more beach communities like Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, etc. All of them are more or less more beach communities.
Okay so back to where I am in Mission Beach.. not too far from me I have Sea World, (the dolphins and sharks and stuff). Then if I go immediately south, I would be in a community called Ocean Beach. This was where I stayed at a hostel for about a week during January. Ocean Beach has its usual continginet of surfers everywhere, along with a friendly homeless community, and kind of a small-town atmostphere. There are lots of little bars around here as well, and little things like hardware stores, five-and-dime stores, pizza joints galore, and more surfer shops. But it really more than anything has this really strong small-town feel (although its just part of San Diego once again).
Okay, south of Ocean Beach (or kind of connected to it), is Point Loma. This is basically a very long peninsula where you can go whale-watching and look out over the brightlights of downtown from across another bay. I think it strectes about 10 miles into the ocean as a peninsula, something like that, more or less protecting the downtown from the brutal direct waves, giving it a fairly large harbor.
So now, lets describe downtown San Diego. This is what all the billboard signs throughout the city advertise - "44 bars in 8 Blocks" and then they refer to it as a 'heaven'. In a way, they are damn right!! It is a pretty cool spot to just roam around on the weekends. There are a ton of policemen on bikes and otherwise, more or less keeping the peace. Then you have just tons and tons of people all over enjoying restaurants, hitting the discos, the bars, running around, yelling, screaming, drinking, walking, and just enjoying themselves. Alot of the discos even have huge windows enticing the passerby to enter when you see all these young people get their groove on the dancefloor. This little area of San Diego feels like a slice of Manhattan to me at times. Downtown isn't all great though, if you walk too far away from this 8-block radius, then its pretty empty and quiet. But thats alright, at least its very condensed, which is actually better and more manageable, and more exciting.
Okay, other areas of San Diego. One of my most favorite places for most of January had to be the Convoy Street area of San Diego. Its about 10 miles south of downtown (although still within the city limits). This is Korea-Town!!! The majority of things here are all written in Korean, and I can find korean-style internet cafes, korean-style singing rooms, restaurants, a little nightlife, but mostly just all korean stuff everywhere. Its kind of a comfortable place to be - extremel safe, and extremely familiar having lived in Korea so many different times. Most often I just go to the PC-Bang (Internet Cafe) and check my email and occupy myself for awhile. Now that I finally found a place to live, I can hopefully hook up my own computer (its been sitting in my car trunk for nearly a month), and I probably won't have to come here as often, but its good that I can come here if I want.
There are also other areas of San Diego too.. El Cajon, Clairmont, etc.. mostly these are kind of your usual city-stuff neighborhoods equipped with Targets, fast-food, and all the like. The more interesting areas of the city would definetley be the downtown and everything thats along the ocean. Okay, I hope you enjoyed your tour of San Diego today!! hehe
Tijuana, Mexico:
February 5, 2003
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com