California Part One: Journey Begins in San Jose

April 2010

As my 10-hour flight touched down in California, my gap year adventure officially began. The Gap Year Buddy and I were greeted by the friendliest guy at passport control. He asked if we were sisters or BFFs before taking our pictures. He then told me I wasn’t smiling enough so I pulled a ridiculous smiley face and he took another picture. It was a good welcome. 

We were staying with the Gap Year Buddy’s aunt, uncle and baby cousin. Her uncle picked us up from the airport in one of the trucks they had offered to lend us to drive around the state. It was an exciting prospect. The weather was mild but the sun was out in full force, just as we’d hoped.

The three of us stopped off for a cup of coffee on our way to their home in San Jose. For me, this coffee was my first American experience. I’m a tea girl and this trip was before I had started university and coffee became a necessity that was drunk as though it was on tap.

When we arrived at the house, the Gap Year Buddy and I were then treated to a delivery pizza. Again another American experience. We both lived in the Kent countryside. People do not deliver there. I was settling in nicely.

Our earlier coffee had got us through to the 24 hour mark and, feeling as though we had triumphed over jet-lag, we slept soundly in our new bed.

On our first full day in San Jose, we spent the morning playing with the Gay Year Buddy’s little cousin before taking the truck out to Santana Row, where we found some fancy shops. Thankfully, for me, we decided that she would drive on the way there and I would takeover on the way back, so I didn’t have to worry about driving on the wrong side of the road for a couple more hours.

We parked up no problem and then spent a while running around looking for a meter, before realising it was free. That was a nice surprise. We then treated ourselves to lunch. We walked into one place but after receiving detailed instructions on how we needed to order, we figured we weren’t quite ready for this yet. We looked elsewhere and found a place called Counter Burger. There was so much food. There was so much choice. America was living up to its food reputation. We snapped an inevitable Facebook-food-photo, ate as much of it as we could and then wandered over towards Macy’s.

As we approached, we discovered an entire Westfields shopping centre. Somehow we managed to keep hold of our money, despite the shops we visited. Although we did agree between us to return to get rid of any remaining dollars we had before leaving for New Zealand. The only money we did spend was at a juice shop, where we were invited to an actual American frat party by the guy serving us, after he realised we were British. And it was only our second day! We probably would have gone but sadly the party date was after we had planned to start our road trip south. Shame. We also found a Pottery Barn. You know, like in Friends.

Finished shopping, it was then my turn to get behind the wheel. It was surprisingly okay. Just weird.

For evening entertainment, we went out to a Mongolian BBQ with the family. It was delicious. The scary part was having to drive the family car back. On the freeway. No pressure. But happily, it was a smooth ride.

Read about the rest of my trip:

• California Part Two: a trip to San Francisco
• California Part Three: fish, food and detours
• California Part Four: the road trip begins and stalls
• California Part Five: sea, seals and Hollywood
• California Part Six: food, glorious food and Venice Beach
• California Part Seven: animals, beaches and even more food
• California Part Eight: lakes, driving and farewells