Day 264 (Friday 4th) - Fourth Of July Fireworks
So, Independence Day - as with most days here, I think it started with a game or two of Beer Pong - my record is as yet unsullied, with a 100% record of getting the last cup every time, and also winning every game. We (myself, Ivan, Sam, Alyssa and Katie, I think) then proceeded to Albertson's to stock up on supplies, armed with $150. This procured us a big trolley of beer and some burgers etc. as well, although actually it got us more than that, as Ivan had a sudden brainwave. He walked straight past the checkouts and out of the door, with all the stuff - as it was very crowded in there noone noticed at all, and he simply loaded the stuff into the car and we drove off. Apparently, I learnt afterwards, Albertson's theft is a common occurrence - during a union strike a few years back, striking employees would go into work and help people load up trolleys with groceries, then carry them straight out of the front door without paying. So back to the story, due to this epic act of theft we had a further $150 to spend in Keg & Bottle, mainly on expensive spirits such as Belvedere vodka and Stoli Vanilla. We returned to the house triumphant, to an adoring crowd. Sam and I wasted no time in chucking 100 or so beers into the paddling pool, along with ourselves. Oh, we both shaved some good ol' southern highway moustaches for today, in honour of his country's independence from mine. Anyway, we were swiftly joined by a load more people, about 12 in all, and drinking games ensued as more people gradually arrived. Due to our excess of beer (if such a thing can exist) many rules involved pouring beer onto/into/at other participants more or less at random. The games swiftly descended into anarchy (there shall be a few pictures to follow before too long), but wonderful anarchy. The BBQ was fired up, beer bongs were done off the balcony of the girls' house, a variation of beer pong - 21 cup, which involves more people and is much faster - was introduced and dominated, and general mayhem continued for a while. We went down to the beach, which was amazing - loads of people partying all over, including us. Sam and I had a good frolic in the sea, a bit of a body surf and so on. After a while we headed back up to the house for a nap, to prepare for the night ahead. My map lasted far too long - Alana and Gilli came in a few times while I was asleep. I awoke after far too long, to find everyone had sort of wandered off. Not to worry though - I wandered the streets for a few minutes and bumped into Gilli (not too surprising, as I was walking to her house), then Ottie and finally Ivan, who was walking down the street, shirtless, with sunglasses on and his arms around two girls, all of whom were laughing hysterically. As the party restarted, a new game was introduced to the world - Silliness. This involves the following:
- Open a beer
- Drink as much as you can, and then 5 seconds more
- High five everyone you can see
- You have 5 seconds to acquire headwear
- Spin around 5 times, counting to 5 in any language you choose
- Put your fist in the air and shout loudly
- Repeat until no longer feasible
This was a genius invention of Ivan's, and got everything running again. However, this was not to last - two guys named Dylan and Derrick let of a firework, which failed to shoot off and exploded in the tube, showering us with sparks. Somewhat inexplicably, he then set up another one, which he had been boasting about - a three-inch wide one for which you need a pyrotechnics licence. They hopped over the fence, as everyone else backed off with a sort of "this doesn't really seem like a good idea" look on our faces. As it turned out, we were quickly proven right. There were a few attempts at lighting it, the last of which resulted in disaster. With a deafening boom and a blinding flash, the firework went off in Derrick's face. There were screams from everyone and quick thinking from some - namely B-Roth and Sam who leapt over the fence, catching him as he started to roll off the cliff. He was passed over to myself and a few others, who carried him out to the car - Gilli was quickly enlisted to drive them all to hospital. He was in pretty bad shape, his arm was charred and bloody, and he had blood seeping out of his mouth. A few girls were crying, many left, and in general the party atmosphere was ruined (we later found that he was going to be fine - he had second degree burns on his arm and hands, but his sight and hearing are fine, all of which means it's now fine to make fun of the situation).
One of the most annoying consequences of this disaster is that we lost Gilli and Sam, two of my favourite residents of Isla Vista - I'm not entirely sure at this point if they will be returning before I leave, which sucks. Anyway, so the party died and those who remained needed to have a good sit down to get over the shock of the last few minutes. However you can't keep a good party down in Isla Vista, and before too long Ivan had his firestick out and was doing some spinning, then we were taking shots back in the girls' kitchen - we ran out of mixers so we were chasing brandy with crackers. Classy. My main compatriot for the shots was Emerald, with whom I also had a very long talk about all sorts of nonsense. At some point, before 11pm according to the clock on my camera, I went next door to check out their party. It was odd, it looked crazy and pumping from the outside, but inside there was hardly anyone there - everyone was dancing on the balcony, with hardly anyone inside. I lost everyone a bit, and found myself repeating the same conversation a few times with lots of girls who found me interesting for 10 minutes, then left when my accent lost its novelty. Eventually I put myself to bed, as I had no idea where anyone I knew was, and had very little energy left for partying anyway. In spite of the disaster, I would say that my first Independence Day was a good one.
Day 265 (Saturday 5th) - The Day After
I awoke somewhat bleary, noticed that Ivan was nowhere to be seen, and was persuaded to play a quick game of beer pong, against my better judgement. A crew of 12 of us went to Cajun Kitchen for breakfast where I had my first Jambalaya, which was incredibly hot and spicy, but delicious nonetheless. I was pretty much deaf for the whole meal, due to a combination of loud music and general congestion, which must have made me an interesting conversationalist. I crafted a paper rose for Emerald, and a dollar shirt for the staff, which impressed everyone far more than it should have. Upon my return I realised that my mind was fried, and the best thing to do about it was relax. Ivan eventually returned, grinning about the events of his 4th of July - he claimed to have had a 20 hour drinking spree, stopping at 6am. He felt in need of the same treatment as me, so we lazed around for a while, and had a big discussion about Dylan. Apparently he is not too good at making first impressions - something I definitely noticed - in fact, I had been saying to Emerald last night that he was the only IV resident to whom I had not taken an immediate liking. Everyone agreed that when he arrived, he should be on trial so we could get new impressions of him. He came over shortly after, and gave everyone a rundown of the events that followed last night's explosion (already mentioned above). After much procrastinating about going to the beach, we went to Dogshit Park (I love the nicknames for stuff in IV) with Angela, B-Roth, Dylan, Mike & Liz. Sorry for all this listing of names by the way, it is helping me to picture the situations and remember more about them. Dinner plans were made, apparently for my benefit we were going to Cuca's for a special treat - Ivan even rang up to check they would have it. This treat turned out to be the Cuca's El Pastor, a giant Burrito with chips in it! Also a couple of types of meat and a few other wonderful things, but I was mainly impressed by the chips. I finished it, but not without a struggle, and lethargically went home. We intended to take it easy, but instead we ended up playing a couple of games of beer pong, during Which Ivan beat my winning streak. B-Roth and I were against Ivan and Liz, who were both outstanding. My record of 10/10 with 8 final cups unfortunately went down to 10/11. We did demand a rematch, during which I made the best shot ever - right handed, behind the back, bounce of the empty cups and into the final cup. My record is now 11/12 9, which is still good, but no longer unbeaten. Anyone reading this and thinking "What the hell? Why do you care so much about beer pong?" should immediately play it. I can't really explain how good it is without a table, 22 red cups, two ping pong balls and a crate of beer. Anyway, I'm glad it was Ivan who broke my streak rather than anyone else.
There was rumour of a dance party somewhere, so We went off on a fact finding mission, which ultimately failed. We found the house, but people inside were just sitting around with the TV on, all of which looked decidedly un-partyish so we dropped by Coop's place instead, which was fun. I said my final goodbye to Coop and Alyssa, which made me pretty sad, but on the upside Coop's boyfriend Ben gave me his shirt. I said I liked it, and that it was apt (it says living legend on it), and he just said "Do you want it?", took it off and gave it to me. Apparently an English friend of his had done broadly the same thing, so he was keen to keep it going. We came back and Ivan decided that, as this was to be his last night in IV for a while, we should set about all remaining booze left from yesterday. This culminated in his hanging upside down from the rafters, swigging straight from a bottle of Tequila. A game of indoor frisbee somehow erupted (I managed to both catch and throw with my feet) and a few more people turned up. Today seemed like it was incredibly long - when I went to sleep it was 0322, and I left Berkeley, Dylan and a few others talking about baseball, football and various other things I don't understand for ages. I also had wierd unsettling dreams, mainly about finding myself in San Francisco and being in a terrible rush about something, which really freaked me out when I got up - I had to check that I still had my stuff, and that I was still in IV.
Day 266 (Sunday 6th) - Adios Ivan Vujkovic-Cvijn (sic)
Today was an odd one. Ivan repeatedly failed to meet his own deadlines for leaving, we went to Bagel Cafe for a farewell breakfast, and talked to the chap in the tattoo shop for a while about potential additions to both of ours - no appointments until Wednesday, unfortunately. Ivan had a conversation with about 10 people just on the way to the cafe and back - he is an impressively social fellow. He had about 100 goodbyes to go and make, and we eventually said our goodbyes at half two or so, which was really sad. I have decided to stay one more night, then have a night in LA before heading off to Miami. After Ivan left I felt a bit lost for a while, so I went and arranged to have a haircut with Hailie, then hung out at the house and started preparing food for this evening - B-Roth, Angela and I are cooking tonight. I invited the girls over in exchange for the haircut - this is the standard deal, apparently, although when I was told this I got a little confused. I said I was getting a haircut from dinner, to which Berkeley replied "Oh, going to cook her dinner are you?" In a sort of 'you sly dog' tone. The haircut is pretty good - a little shorter than I would have liked, but this is always the case, and I'm sure I won't even notice once I get some salt and sand in it. Dinner turned out to be awesome - grilled squash, onions and zucchini, a vegetable korma, awesome salad with reduced balsamic vinegar dressing and grilled corn, and some awesome cous-cous. The healthiest thing by far that I've eaten since I got to the US. Sam arrived just after we finished eating, closely followed by Gilli, just in time for dessert - Cazookies, which are fresh baked cookies with cookie dough ice cream, and are delicious. Also Emerald from next door brought over a huge bag of Starbuck's pastries for us to feast on, thereby undoing the heathiness of the first course. We all hung out for the rest of the evening, having a pretty cool and sedate time. Gilli gave us another rundown on the "Boy Go Boom" story, as she put it, and we spent some time coming up with various other nicknames for Derrick - my favourites were Major Tom and Sly (as in Stallone, in Cliffhanger). As the evening passed, I found myself having to say final goodbyes to people, which was pretty sad. I am on the verge of tearing up right now on the train back from Goleta to LA, in fact. Ivan has a really great group of friends - really cool, easy-going dudes, and a load of awesome girls. He said, in fact, that they try not to hang out with dumb girls. He pointed some out at Bagel Cafe after chatting to them for a while - really hot and somewhat vapid girls who are fun to hang around with for a day or two, but tend not to stick around long-term (I'm paraphrasing a little). Alyssa, Coop, Hailie, Gilli, Liz, Emerald, Angela and Alana are all anything but what I just described. All of them are very smart, cool, funny and gorgeous, so maybe it's best I leave IV now before I fall irretrievably in love with one of them - a very real possibility, I fear.
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