27 Oct Lake Tahoe

Last weekend I went to Lake Tahoe; me and 16 more (out of which 13 were exchange students)

The initiator and planner for this trip was Kien (to the right on the picture above). Kien is the guy that has more irons in the fire than any other person I have ever met, besides work and school, Kien always has something going on. Only the fact that he is buddy for 6 exchange students (one of them being my roommate) says something about him, the normal would be to have one. Big credit to Kien and his husband Ryan for arranging for this trip!

Lake Tahoe is located a three hour drive from San Francisco (or 6 hours if you get stuck in traffic and are going grocery shopping). Close to this lake Kien´s cousin happens to own a big cabin, which she most kindly rented to us. Though being 17 people everyone could sleep more or less comfortable (i.e. nobody had to sleep plain on the floor or even in the sofas). As you can see below we also had an open fire.

Besides cooking food (which takes a lot of time when you are 17 people), you can also rent bikes in Lake Tahoe. This we did, which was a truly great way of experiencing the beautiful nature in the adjacent of Lake Tahoe, without having to use the car.

One of the stops besides Lake Tahoe was a river where there were a lot of salmons. Doesn´t sound interesting?! Well, while we were watching the salmons we happened to encounter a bear that was there hunting for some food. Only a baby bear, apparently we missed the mother with like 20 minutes, but it was interesting anyway.

In the evening we lit up a fire outside the cabin, and besides eating a delicious homemade burger, we also had smores. A smore consists of one marshmellow, a piece of chocolate, and two crackers. What you do is that you roast the marshmellow over the fire; when it´s done you put the marshmellow with the chocolate between the crackers and eat it like a burger. This was the first time I ate a smore, but it was certainly not the last time. A good piece of american culture!

Thank you all involved for a wonderful weekend! Hopefully I´ll get the opportunity to go back during the rest of my time in San Francisco!

The previous week´s best moment: Bought lunch for 6.01 dollars and when I gave the guy at the counter seven dollars he said I could keep my cent. Am I that poor after two and a half months in San Francisco that every cent counts? Not really, but the cash-society is taking its toll on me. I hate having to walk around with cash in my pocket all the time, and the coins… don´t even get me started… Maybe the contrast is more significant for me as a Swede compared to other exchange students, since Sweden in many aspects in cash-free; we use credit cards everywhere. Yes, even if I would by a pack of gum for one dollar I would pay with cards. The same goes for when I go out to bars (for you who are not familiar with San Francisco, most bars here don´t accept payments with cards at all). Anyway, instead of having to walk around with 99 cents in my pocket (which would end up in my drawer collecting dust) I got to put down the dollar in my pocket instead; for a cash-reluctant swede as me this made my day.

Upcoming: Halloween. Woop woop! It´s going to be lots of fun celebrating it in the US since it´s supposed to a lot bigger here compared to back home!

Take care!