7:47 PM:

A bit short on time here, but briefly...

Vancouver was nice. I've written several entries about it, but they're on my Palm, and I don't currently have any way of transferring them to a PC, so y'all will have to wait a bit before finding out the details.

I'm currently in Chicago, and still need to write my bloody personal statements and put together my bloody portfolios, and generally get my applications together, the deadline for all of them being February 1st. (Erin? I just might be a bit preoccupied during my visit to your neck of the woods...) I plan to work on all this tonight. Tomorrow morning, it's off to Texas via Greyhound.

I'm gonna be on the road during the Super Bowl. I'm not thrilled by this. I don't care about the game in the least, but I really want to see the ads, and while I've set my VCR to record 'em for me, it'd be nice to see them at the same time as the rest of the country. Oh, well.

Anyway. The trip ain't going badly. More to follow when I'm in Dallas, probably.

7:55 PM:

So on to Vancouver. The train ride was mostly uneventful. The seat next to mine was unoccupied for most of the trip -- as it had been during the entire trip from Chicago to SF -- which helped me get some sleep along the way. The train did fill up in Portland, so I had to move my stuff off the other seat and let somebody else sit next to me for awhile. This turned out to be a good thing, however, as I ended up having a very pleasant conversation with the person in question.

I had some 'splaining to do at Customs, though...

"You're going to be in Canada for only two days?"
"Yep."
"What are you going to be doing?"
"I'm visiting a friend."
"Where do you know this person from?"
"I've been typing to her online for years now."
"This is a girl, then?"
"Yes."
"And you've never actually met her?"
"Right."
"Are you employed?"
"Well, not exactly. I just got my master's degree a couple of weeks ago, actually, and haven't gotten a new job yet. I'm checking out other schools now, in fact."
"I see. Go to that counter over there marked 'Immigration' and tell them you're here to visit a girl you've never met."

After answering several additional questions at the second counter, I showed 'em my return ticket, and they let me through. So I'm here! And about to get offline, actually. I'll probably post once more before I leave tomorrow afternoon; otherwise, I'll be in touch after I return to Chicago on Thursday.

I remember wanting to write more about San Francisco, just to wrap that portion of the trip up, but now I can't particularly remember what I wanted to say. It was, on the whole, a nice visit. Despite my grousing about the quality of the Internet access, I liked the hostel I stayed at, and I rather liked the city, too, so long as I was just visiting. I wish I'd checked out the Golden Gate Bridge and the Exploratorium, but such is life. I did, at least, get down to Ghirardelli Square, which perhaps tells you more than you need to know about where my priorities lie. (They make orange-cream-filled chocolate! And double-chocolate-filled chocolate! Both of which are expensive, but very, very yummy. And kosher!) Plus I happened upon a groovy secondhand clothing shop on Friday, and passed a pleasant fifteen minutes or so browsing through the skirts and stuff without feeling paranoid or under scrutiny. So score a few points for the City by the Bay.

I still don't want to live there, though.