July 2007: At Home in the Bay
Once again I find myself in Half Moon Bay. I flew home from Christchurch on the 4th of June, four months after my arrival. The trip was great, especially the cycling tour and you can read all about it on my New Zealand page.
This summer I try to relax before heading into a rigorous master's program at LSE. Many of my childhood and college friends live in the vacinity and I'm trying to catch up with all of them. But, not just catch up, rather to try and hang out whenever I get the chance, like old times. I've been moderately successful. Amid this relaxation are some projects I'm working on. First, I work at Sushi Main street again to earn some spending money. Second, the backyard is finally getting some real attention. My family is in the middle of landscaping. And third, I must prepare myself for the year to come by studying math and statistics. In all, my schedule holds many days of free time followed by hard work for several in a row. In other words, no routine. I've made a few collages of my recent activities.
The Backyard Project
The backyard project has been on the table for years now. My family moved into our house in 2001 and we've yet to landscape our backyard. This has gone on too long and we're now putting forth a serious effort to remedy that. The process is as follows: (i) remove the massive and embedded weeds from the ground; (ii) use vegetation killer to kill the remaining grasses and weed roots; (iii) use a sod cutter to clear the top layer of dirt and with it the biomass of the dead vegetation; (iv) till, level, and structure the backyard as needed; (v) pursue specific goals such as planting, path-laying, irrigating for lawn, etc. Right now we've reached the stage of creating a layout so that we can start the more fun process of planting and creating. Above is a collage (upon which you can click to enlarge) of some of the work. The sawing photo relates to a storage shed being built of the side of the house.
San Francisco Pride Parade, 2007
Meredith, Jeanette, Talia (Jeanette's friend), and I all went to the Pride Parade in San Francisco this year. It is the cities 37th pride parade and has grown into quite the event. The parade lasted around four hours and features gay groups, politicians, commercial sponsors, and more. We got a great seat atop a newspaper dispenser which gave us an elevated and seated perch for the parade.
Rafting the American River
Promised wakeboarding up near Sacramento with my friend Josh Rogers, we ended up rafting down the American river. Josh's friend owns a boat but it was busted and hence no wakeboarding. But not to worry since I'll try to get up there later this month. Plus, the rafting trip was barrels of fun.
Continuing News
No real news on the LSE front, except it is proving difficult to find accommodations. Right now I'm waiting to hear from the office even though it's well past the allotted time frame for a response. The thought of finding private accommodations in central London does not appeal to me.
And finally, I've left up the slide show links because they're amazing and New Zealand was the last remarkable thing I did.
- Cycle Tour Slide Show
- Landscape Slide Show
- Milford Sound/Dunedin Slide Show
- Lake Matheson and Glaciers Slide Show
- Abel Tasman & Nelson Lakes
- Christchurch Slide
Homepage for Chris Darrouzet-Nardi
Updated July 13th (Friday), 2007