Random places..

Over the next week, we went around Los Gatos and San Jose to malls and shopping stores. We went to the Westfield mall. It is one of those malls that has outlets all over California. We entered from the back door, so we were welcomed by the restrooms and storage rooms. Not very nice huh! The first store I saw was Hot Topic, a rock band tshirt store. Without further ado, I ran into it looking for Alter Bridge tshirts or of any other band that might interest me. The lady hadn't heard of Alter Bridge, so I lost my enthusiasm and got bored of the store, but still hung around there for half an hour. I saw a Disney store, Apple store, Swarovski store, etc. The most exciting of all, was the Dog Boutique. They have everything possible for a dog! Name tags, clothes, birthday cakes, shoes even! We mostly shopped at a store called Fanzz (I hate it when they use "z" unnecessarily!), which was a sports store. We bought some tshirts for a great deal and left the mall happily. We went to a store called Bed, Bath and Beyond. It is a vast store and one would take hours to walk around the whole store. As the name suggests, it has beds, things you would need in a bathroom, in your kitchen and more. Trust me, kids wouldn't wanna go there! Just beside Bed Bath and Beyond is a store called Diddams. It's the perfect party store. It has everything you need for a party and all the fun stuff possible.
We have been to so many more stores like the Dollar Store, Ross, Tuesday Morning, Michael's Crafts, Walmart, the Indian Store and so on. All these stores are unbelievably vast. We got really tired just walking around in the malls.
We also went to Sudarshan's school to watch their concert. It was so melodious. They played music from Pirates of The Caribbean and Terminator. I did not expect it to sound so good. It was mainly an orchestra of approximately 15 instruments and the chimes added such a grand effect to the entire show! The great music kept me smiling and happy all the time. We went to his school again after a few days for an award ceremony in which Sudarshan won the Math award and gained an acknowledgement in French. We went again, of course, for his graduation. All of us wearing traditional Indian clothes to be formal. It felt really awkward to be dressed in a Salwar where all other people wore beautiful and elegant gowns. We applauded my brother with great pride as he bagged the Most Outstanding Student award among over 300 students. It was a surprise for us as well as him. It was a moment to cherish!
We went to Davis by train to meet my cousin, Kavita didi. We boarded the train in Santa Clara and made ourselves comfortable for our four hour ride. We went by the bay at San Francisco and watched enormous ships sailing(maybe). I soon met my cousin and nephew and niece. They are the most adorable kids! They are so loving, they would always come and say "I love Swathi chitti" and give me a hug or two. We went to UC Davis too see the campus. So green, so clean. We saw s great deal of ducks and ducklings. I saw ugly black ducks following a beautiful white duck. Hehe. (I'm not being a racist!) I also went to Sacramento, the capital city of California, to see Arnold Schwarzeneggar's (you may call him Shivajinagar) office. I found it pretty ironic that Sacramento was the least cultured city among all the cities I have seen so far. Everyone was smoking, drinking, sitting on the pavement and behaving indecently. The Capitol stood out, white and majestic with the American flag waving proudly on top, just above the flag of California. We entered a dignified and well furnished lobby which had a grand statue in the centre. It had passages stretching on all four sides into various other rooms. The roof was translucent with coloured glasses giving the room a glorious look. We walked and ran on the marble floors, clicked pictures and intruded the government officials' privacy. I drank the same water that Schwarzehneggar probably drinks, from a water fountain and I was pleased with myself for that. :)
Hmmm... I have tried a great variety of cuisines during my stay here. I have had tacos, burritos, churros, pesto pizza, falafels, smoothies, all possible fruits like peach, persimmon, blueberries, truck loads of strawberries, pears, grape fruit, the sweetest moosambies and baby carrots of course. I have been eating a lot of fatty stuff like brownies, pastries, chocolates, ice creams, potato and a LOT of cheese. For the first time I had pizza with nothing but extra cheese on it with ketchup. Such a sinful meal! But I'm on a holiday, I'm going to eat all the junk I want to eat! Wow! Just reading this has increased my appetite. I'm going to have some grilled cheese sandwiches. Toodles!