June being nearly 2 weeks old has already rendered interesting turns of events.
The 5th of June marked in the Great State of California, the 2012 Presidential Primary. Now being the enterprising individual that I find myself to be, and being a registered voter, I was elated to find the opportunity to serve my County of Ventura as an Elections Officer. On Sunday night, I sent the email application to the Office of elections in Ventura. Monday morning I was contacted by Mr. Don M. in charge of a handful of the local precincts and was offered to be trained that afternoon in Ventura. Monday afternoon found me in the elections office being trained with a motley assemble of other last minute individuals. I also took the opportunity to visit the Mission of San Buenaventura, and then made my way home. I arrived home to find I had been appointed as an Inspector. This however required of me to drive all way back to Ventura again to pick up my supplies for my polling station. Now a County Elections Inspector is in placed entirely in charge of his or her own polling station and has final say on what goes, how the station is set up and the fluidity of its operation during election day. Tuesday, was one of the longest days of my life. I was at the polling station at 06:00 to begin the setup of the polling station before declaring the polls open at 07:00. Due to redistricting that occurred within the past few years, many people who had traditionally voted at my station, were required to vote elsewhere near by. However, on account to the lack of national importance of the primary and attention paid to the sample ballots that were sent to everyone by mail, many failed to notice that their polling station had indeed changed. By mid afternoon our voting machine stopped working, which made for an interesting vote count at the end of the day.
I officially closed the polls at 20:00 and began to disassemble the 2 voting machines and pack everything away. We, (myself and three clerks) didn't leave until 21:35. An inspector and a clerk then must deliver the ballots and all the accompanying paraphernalia to one of the fire stations nearby. The clerk and now a friend, Ryan E. then needed a ride home, which I provided. All in all it was a valuable and most gratifying of experiences, one which I would gladly repeat in the near future.
Subsequently, my cousin Connor graduated that evening and held a graduation party at his house for himself and a close friend of his who also graduated. I felt then obliged to make the necessary appearance at said party, congratulate both my cousin and all the other graduates in attendance and make the rounds within that scholastic society. Minutes to midnight, I fell exhausted into my bed.
The 12th of June Luke H., Mike R. and I drove into downtown Los Angeles to eat at Sarita's Pupuseria in Grand Central Market. Pupusa is a Salvadorian dish which can be best described as a pita bread stuffed with whatever is on the menu. In our case, cheese and pork (Queso y Chicharron) served with a spicy salad, rice and beans. This was hands down the best Hispanic meal I have ever eaten to date. We then ambled along broadway to china town, observing the sights and sounds of downtown as Luke and I had both spent very little time there. China town was quite and experience indeed. We perused various stores in search of anything we could find. We finally ended up in "Sincere Imports" were Luke and I both bought a pair of "Kong Fu Shoes" to wear around the house. We returned home at around 18:00. My parents also arrived from Switzerland that evening. So Mama and Papa will be around for an month and two weeks respectively. I'm very excited to have them here as I haven't seen either since Christmas.
As for my long term plans it would seem that I am indeed staying here in the Great State of California until next spring, to gain my Associates Degree. There after return to the alpine democracy and complete 21 weeks of boot camp and begin the journey of Swiss Army Service. Operation Exodus: Postponed.
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