So, Monday we got up pretty early, we had to pack, eat our breakfast and buy some lunch before leaving in a bus. I also bought some jelly beans, yummi. The first place we went was the Golden Gate Bridge. We had to drive over it to get to Muir Woods(which is up north from San Francisco, I think). After we drove over it, we stopped to take a lot of pictures(which I will put here later on, when I have my camera with me). So, while we were standing there like a big bunch of proper tourists, this man went over to us and started correcting our positions. He made the girls stand like they were holding the bridge and so on, and then he took the photos on their cameras. I think, they got some pretty nice photos out of it, but I haven't seen them, so I don't know. We only had 10 minutes or something for taking photos, so we had to hurry and get to Muir Woods.
When we got there, I think we were already a bit late, so we didn't have that long time there. At the entrance, there was a small tourist shop, but that was it. Then we walked into the forest. It was a bit weird, because as soon as you went into the forest, you could feel that it was a lot more moist than outside the forest. It felt like walking into a jungle or rain forest or something. There were a lot of huge trees, and they all had this weird kind of bark, which was a lot different from the bark I've seen before. I will post some pictures later, then you will hopefully know what I mean. Sort of. There also was this river, that we followed while walking through the forest. It was really pretty. Plus, the earth was covered in fern and other plants, except for on the path we were walking on. After walking out of the forest, we ate our lunch pretty fast, and then we drove again.
A couple of hours later, we arrived at the Steinbeck Museum, where we were actually a bit more than an hour late, so our tour guide had already left. We got a quick introduction from one of the workers, and then we just walked through the museum on our own. I think they were pretty proud, that they had made the museum sort of 'children friendly'. That means, that throughout the museum, we could press buttons, pull in levers and stuff like that to see some extra information about Steinbeck. It seemed a bit lame to me, but who am I to judge? I'm sure younger children love it. Plus, at least they made an effort, trying to make going to museums fun for the children.
When we were done at the museum, we had 10 or 15 minutes to go buy some food, before we had to drive 2 hours or something like that to get to Menlo-Atherton High School, where we were supposed to meet the host families(for the first time) for dinner. Keep in mind, up until this point the only thing I knew about my host family was what I could find out on Facebook on Natalie's very limited page, the mother's even more limited page or the short message, she had sent to me. Apparently, American people don't use Facebook that much. So, I met the mother, Jennifer, at dinner, and we spoke a bit together. The girls, Natalie and Rachel couldn't join us, because they had classes or soccer or something. When we were done eating, we went home, where I was introduced to the rest of the family. That is, the father, the two girls and the younger brother, Devin. Natalie is the girl I am shadowing, and she had just come home and was doing her homework. She kept doing that until 11 or something, so I didn't really get to talk to her that much. Instead, I saw a movie with the father. We watched 'The Black Stallion'. It was pretty good actually, even though it is a pretty old movie. I don't know exactly how old(in fact I have no idea), but it was old. At 11 PM, I went to bed. Oh, did I mention, that I got my own bedroom(with a double bed), and my own bathroom? That's pretty cool. Oops, I also forgot to mention the rest of the family: the two cats, Sasha and Simba(from Lion King), and the dog, Luna. Simba came to say goodnight, while I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom. He really likes running water. Apparently, Natalie taught him to drink from the sink. It was really cute.(I'll put some pictures of that up later on too).
Then I went to bed. In that giant double bed. Really, really giant bed. It was almost scary. So I stayed on one side of the bed, pretending it was smaller than it actually was.
- Sofie
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