Cell phone and shiny cars epidemic...

in the land of silicone and surfer dudes. It's spring break on E 24/7.

Thirty hours away and I am in a whole new dimension. I walk down a street that was so wide that, in most of the countries I was in, could have fit three rows of houses and a couple of dirt roads inbetween. Don't forget to add the stray dogs.

I was in a daze. Boys and girls are all quite perfect, in their designer clothes and perfect hair. I couldn't walk down the street without seeing at least 5 people on their cell phones.

Conversations overheard most certainly contained the words "like" or "dude" or "whatever." Most people were smiling. On a chilly day of 25C, people were out on the beaches suntanning. Actually, they were all slathered up in sunscreen as most tans seemed to have been acquired at any of a number of 24Hour/discount/internet cafe/ laundry tanning salons.

In a gas station where I was picking up loads of chocolate bars that I had not had since leaving Vancouver, the clerk praises my English. "It better be [good]," I replied, "I'm from Canada." I guess they get a whole lot of Asian tourists down there who randomly and individually go into out-of-the-way gas stations to buy a lot of chocolate.

I spent an afternoon playing mini-golf and went go-carting. Then we proceeded to have dinner at an Asian chain restaurant which was overpriced and not very authentic. It wasn't a fusion restaurant, they were trying to do the real thing. Trying was the operative word. Think trendy med-range restaurant with skinny, pretty waitresses. The food wasn't bad but, I would not be a repeat customer. I'm so spoiled from living in Vancouver.

Overall, it was a nice city. A pretty one, to boot. Just a bit of culture shock on my part, adjusting and noticing that my perceptions have changed over the past year and a half. I could have been any number of those cell-phone toting, "like-whatever," primped gals before I left.

Growth is good.