On late August (don't remember the exact date) I was invited by a friend of mine who comes from China, to attend a fellowship event. Elda and I also joined in the trip, with a little confidence and was quite assured that the whole event would be conducted in Chinese, since most of the participants come from Chinese speaking countries.
So here goes the event. It started with a visit to Santa Cruz. We carpooled from DeAnza college to Los Gatos first, stopping by a decent house to have a glass of orange juice, then went straight to Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz might not sound that strange to me, but the thing is, I had exactly no idea where that was, whether it was close or not to Cupertino.
Anyway, it was a good place though. In fact, a fascinating one. I've never been to any beaches in America not until that visit. Obviously it look different from Indonesian beaches, especially minus the seaside-counters-and-sellers part.
I met some new friends! Terri, my Japanese-born friend, and Sierra, who comes from Hong Kong
We had a group picture together. Can you spot me there?
Then we had a beach walk on our own. I felt like wearing the wrong dress-code (gah, there's no dress code by the way) since I attended the outing wearing a semi-formal checkered outfit, jeans, and sneakers, without knowing that we were actually going to the beach ><. If only I had found out, then I would probably wear shorts, Tshirt, and a pair of sandals.
The water was freakishly cold! In contrast of the hot weather and burning sand! So you can imagine me running confidently into the water then practically flinched when the water met my feet.
By seeing the pictures above, at least you get the picture of referred beach I'm talking about.
Right after a beach walk, we happened to spot that the beach itself was connected to a nearby small theme park called Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Before entering the theme park from the beach, we had to pass like rows of shop. Nothing interested me though, so I just kept on moving.
Anyway, I thought this theme park required every of its visitor to pay for the admission fee, but turned the entrance didn't have any ticket boxes so visitors could roam freely inside the theme park. BUT there was actually one ticket box in the middle of the theme park. So it turned out that we did have to pay for $3.00 or $4.00 per ride. We didn't need to ride all of rides though, but if we wished too, just go to the ticket box and requested your desired ride. The lady would hand you the ticket after you pay.
Piece of cake huh?
Doris was ecstatic about riding on some rides, but maybe one ride is enough since our time being in the theme park was obviously limited. Actually Doris was excited about riding on this pendulum-like ride, but she hesitated to go on her own (since all of us had this gut to ride the ride along with her). So we switched to another not-so-gentler ride which is Speed bump (boom boom car)
After spending quality yet fun time at Santa Cruz, we headed back to Los Gatos for barbecue time. Anyway before having dinner, we had some games to break the ice. The game was a bit hilarious but it kind of challenged the heck out of our memories to memorize everyone's name there.
After the game, we had a dinner. The host was kind enough to provide food ranging from spaghetti, chicken, to sushi. What a comforting yet warm food in the contrary of the cold weather and the blowing wind. The rest of the night was spent with some more games but this time, it was conducted fully in Chinese, so there was no way I could join in.
Spent the rest of the night watching religious videos in the living room and the goals of the organization. The host also thanked for us all for coming to her house though
An impressive night indeed. Got to make some new friends and joined in the game. The valuable lesson that I got to learn is that that language isn't the barrier of communication. I can hardly speak Chinese but some of those games don't really require language as two-way communication, only with gestures and laughter.
Phiew, that was one quite long post. Have a great day!
the bird photo.. he was probably thinking, 'where's my food? where's my fish?' hehee
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