Today, I was sitting at work, and I remembered how when I first moved to California I noticed all the differences. The way people spoke, the clothes they wore, the foods they ate. Before moving out here the words taco and burrito were only in my vocabulary when making fun of taco bell. I owned only one pair of shorts and I never really wore them because I thought I had chicken legs. The word gnarly was only something that the Ninja Turtles said when I was a kid. All of these Californiaisms have slowly become a part of my everyday life. It took me a while and I think the stubborn East Coaster in me wouldn't allow me to become a West Coaster, but sadly its starting to happen. The one thing I think that still makes me a New Yorker through and through is my love for the change of seasons. In Fall you drive through the forest to see the amazing colours on the leaves, in Winter you sit in the house and are thankful that you aren't outside in the freezing cold and snow. In Spring you are simply glad to see the sun in the sky after 3 months of miserable weather. An in the Summer you try as much as possible to hold on to those 3 months of nice weather before the cold starts to set in again. 24 years of experiencing the change in seasons has made me appreciate weather the good, the bad, and the wet. The 2 years of eternal sunshine in California have made me a little bitter to be honest. You see the sun is only great when you have a cloudy day to make you realize that there was a sunny day in the first place.  ¶ 10:41 PM

 
The world cup is down to the final 4 teams, and I have to say I am surprised by three of them. Coming into the tournament Spain and Brazil were seen as the favorites to make the final. I expected Argentina and either France or Italy to be among the final 4 as well. However in 2010 the final four teams are Germany, Spain, Uruguay, and the Netherlands. If I had to guess right now, I would say the final will come down to The Netherlands and Germany. Its very hard for me to pick a winner between those two teams, because they have both played so well that it could really go either way if it comes down to them.
Another sports related story is about Rafael Nadal. He recently won both the French Open and the Wimbledon titles. He seems to be in the same form he was in during the 2008 season when he also won both tournaments. It's no secret he has been my favorite tennis player for a number of years now, so I am always happy when he wins. I hope he can win the US Open this year, and then his doubters will have little left to say about him.
Finally I'm still in the process of planning out the whole trip to Europe. So far all I have planning is a week in London, and a week in Ireland. There's still one more week that I have to decide what i will do with. The options are endless, a friend of mine wants me to come to Bulgaria, another one says I should go to Holland, and then there is always Lille in France where I can visit my good friend Nicolas. Even with all those being said, I was thinking of possibly going to Stockholm in Sweden, simply because I've always wanted to go there. I probably won't make a final decision until August or September, but these are all the places on my list for the moment.  ¶ 2:59 PM