We jumped into cars and drove at high speed down the freeway to a part of San José known for its nightlife, where one of my colleagues had an apartment. What rapidly became apparent however was that they were out on the pull, and were targeting Korean girls in particular. On reflection, I probably should have realised when they took me to the Korean Bar Association dinner. It was not really my kind of night: the bars were heaving, the music was loud and tuneless, nobody was really dancing other than as a way of get physically close to potential sexual partners, and then I realised that I was one of several older men standing on the edge of the dance floor watching the younger girls dance! I decided I definitely didn't want to be one of those men. So I made my excuses and left. The taxi home wasn't cheap, but my lift showed no signs of being ready to leave (he eventually stayed until 5am) and seemed to be drinking more than perhaps the designated driver should, so I think it was the right move.
I had previously said I wanted to go out clubbing and dancing for a laugh one weekend, so they probably think I am an ungrateful wretch. But I guess I wasn't specific enough about the required level of cheesiness. I've decided I probably need a GBF to take me somewhere where I can conga through the Castro dressed as a nun to seventies disco without expecting any sexual favours in return. If any of my readers knows such a person please send me his address.
Saturday began with a hangover, naturally, and I didn't do much other than catch up on my ironing until it was time to go to my next social engagement, a barbecue at another colleague's house. I was expecting this to be a works thing, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was only one of two colleagues at the barbecue, and that most of the guests were real people rather than lawyers. This was barbecue as we understand it in the UK - food cooked outdoors by men who normally leave the cooking to their wives. A pleasant evening of sitting in the garden, chatting by the fire, drinking home made sangria.
Sunday began with church, where I got chatting to a very pregnant Zimbabwean lady after the service. It turned out that she had been intending to move to Boston because her husband's work contract was up and she wanted to stay with her parents there once the baby arrived, whilst he looked for another contract somewhere else in the States. However the airlines will not allow pregnant mothers to travel during the last few weeks on the pregnancy, so they had started out to Boston with a two year old daughter in a car. They'd got as far as Los Angeles and decided it was too difficult, turned around and come back. Another problem with living in a country this big that I had never considered. Initially I thought that LA seemed the wrong direction, but realised that in fact you can't drive across the northern part of the USA, it is too mountainous, so following the road south and then across Texas is the only way to drive to Boston. Other church friends were then very surprised to see them. In the end I went for lunch with them and another couple after the service: both had young toddlers which was fun, we ended up with Thai food all over the table but the children seemed to enjoy themselves.
On Sunday afternoon I had yet another social engagement, this time a block party in a colleague's neighbourhood. This was a street party like none I had ever been to. There was a bouncy castle (here they are bouncy houses), a jazz quartet, and great food including a large paella cooked in a giant pan.
Lots of children playing, and adults chatting, including a Jewish grandmother who wanted to talk about her favourite English actors, and an elderly couple who had lived in Palo Alto since the days when it was all fields. Well not quite all of it, they lived in a house.
So by the end of the weekend I was ready for a sit down and a nice cup of tea, and to reflect on what I had learnt.
(1) It is quite difficult to avoid drinking and driving in California. People live all spreadout from each other and public transport is poor. Walking to a pub is impractical for most people, friends live some distance apart. I'm not saying it is OK, but I can see why it happens. Apparently it is worse in places like LA, because they don't really have many taxis or even sidewalks.
(2) Target are still my favourite shop over here. They exchanged my broken kettle even though I had no receipt by simply checking the product code and my credit card into their system. Target is like BHS with good customer service, we should have them in the UK too.
(3) Korean women don't do it for me. No offence ladies, but there's only one girl for me and as at the time of writing her visit is only two weeks away!
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