Back at home in sunny San Diego

Epsilon Nu, San Diego State University

I had a fun week being back in San Diego! It was a great escape from the east coast weather and I really enjoyed seeing cool new places and eating some great food!

In San Diego, Taco Tuesday is a city-wide event where all the Mexican bars and restaurants have deals on tacos and margaritas. I went to Fred's, which is known for their unique tacos, with a few AEPhi seniors. It is in Old Town, a historical district of San Diego. I got a buffalo chicken taco and a Texas barbecue taco. Both were really good and I was happy to try something specific to this restaurant.

I rode the trolley while I was at SDSU because they have a stop right on campus next to the student union and it goes to all the shopping centers in Mission Valley. The trolley is raised above street level at some points and has a really great view of the small mountains throughout this area of San Diego. The cars seemed pretty new and were very clean and I could actually understand what the conductor said over the PA system. The only thing that confused me was that it seemed easy to ride the trolley without paying because of the lack of regulation or ticket machines. But I thought it was really cool that students can take the trolley for $2.50 right from campus, down three stops to the football stadium (especially since I used to take make the 40 minute drive from UConn to the stadium). Just a few stops further are the different chopping centers. Even though I have been to a few Southern California malls this year, the outdoor style still amazes me.

Wednesday, February 12th was Sharsheret Pink Day, so we wore pink all day to show support for one of our national philanthropies. Sharsheret, which means chain in Hebrew, is an organization that links Jewish women with breast and ovarian cancer into support groups.

Wednesday I also got to make a visit to University of California San Diego (UCSD) to do some work with our chapter there. I really enjoyed putting on a program for the Beta Eta Chapter and getting to know their executive board. I'm glad I got to visit both San Diego chapters while I was in town, even though it was short at UCSD!

On Friday night, I got dressed up for a GALentine's dinner with Rebecca, the Epsilon Nu president, and her roommates. We went to a Greek place they like in the Pacific Beach area call Cafe Athena. It was such good food; I had a sampler of different popular menu items and a pear crepe a la mode for dessert. Even the car ride home was fun because we sang 90s songs the whole way back. Literally all the songs were ones I used to sing on e-kara karaoke with my sister when we younger. I used to love singing e-kara, which explains why I still remember every word to Aaron's Party.

The weather was so gorgeous and just got better as the week went on. By the last day of my visit, it got up into the high 70s so we decided to go to the beach. Rebecca and her roommate Hannah took me to Coronado Beach on Coronado Island, which is actually a little peninsula across the bay from downtown San Diego. It is a gorgeous place, full of palm trees, million dollar homes, pretty hotels and little shops. They equated it to Malibu, but for the east coasters I would have to go with the Hamptons. To get to Coronado you have to drive over a bridge, which is pretty high up and has a fabulous view of the island and of downtown. The beach itself was great too. The sand is glittery and actually looks like someone dumped gold glitter into it. I really enjoyed relaxing for a bit but I also could not get over that going to the beach in February was not that strange for everyone else.

View of downtown from the bridge going over the San Diego Bay

After the beach, we were all pretty hungry and decided to go to Slaters 50/50, a burger place down by the Naval base. Hannah had been there before and they have a substantial gluten free menu (for Rebecca) so it was the perfect choice. Their signature burger patty is 50% bacon and 50% ground beef, hence the 50/50 in the name. I decided I wanted to try that even before I saw the menu but once I did see it, I realized they had bacon in a lot of their dishes. I couldn't resist trying the fried bacon mac n cheese balls, since I love mac n cheese and was told they are good. I was definitely not disappointed at all. Then after the huge burgers, Hannah and I shared the chocolate brownie a la mode topped with bacon bits. I have to admit that it was pretty weird, but I did enjoy the brownie and ice cream. This place also had over 100 beers and ciders on tap, so over all it is a cool place and I recommend it if you're ever in San Diego.

From left to right: bacon mac n cheese balls with hot sauce ranch dipping sauce; build my own burger with signature 50/50 patty; brownie a la mode, topped with bacon bits

One last random thing about Rebecca and her roommates is that they really like Disney movies. They have a huge bin of Disney movies on VHS and during my visit we watched Spirit, Mary Poppins and The Lion King (I conquered my childhood fear on that last one).

Thanks for reading!

Christmas Eve in San Diego by Neal Svalstad