San Jose part dos..

WHEW!

Amber and I have just got back from our day venture into frenetic downtown San Jose. The contrast of experiencing the hectic city coming from the tranquil beach village of Santa Teresa has Worn.Me.Out. The plan at this stage of our travels is to settle ourselves in Singapore (early August) and find work for a year. After the traumatic episode I've just had, I don't know if I want to - or if am even capable of, living in "civilization" again. If you can accept that heaven and hell are psychosomatic experiences on earth, this is hell.

Our (mine) mission was to locate several museums of interest spread throughout the downtown area. The one I was most interested in was the Criminology Museum. I read in some web threads of bizarre human body parts on display. I felt like being freaked out. We had a good look around, asked a couple of people for directions, and found out that it has been closed for about 10 years. I should have checked the date-posted label when I did my online research. Then we found the Jade museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Entry fees were US$8 and US$3 respectively. Flag.

We decided to chill out at the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library). Sweet. I'd find a comfy couch, a reasonably interesting book, and chill out for an hour or so. We get there, there is an almost empty study area on the left wing, and a "research" area on the right with some free but occupied internet stations. The only available publications available for browsing are displayed on an uninspiring metal rack. I pick one up about foreign film festivals. It's dated 2000-2003, and toss it dispairingly onto the seat next to mine. Amber asks a random where all the books are and she explains that to borrow a book, you'd have to tell the librarian what book you'd like, and she will issue it to you. We leave to find a cafe where we can read our own books.

This event pretty much sums up my entire experience of San Jose thus far. Thank goodness we didn't stick around to look for jobs here when we first arrived. It would've driven me bonkers!

BRING ON NEW YORK CITY!!!