jakespov

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Summer in Utah

Now that fall is here I finally have most of the pictures and stuff for my summer in Utah :) Won't be a long post because I've been doing so much stuff without taking pictures that it's kinda hard to post about it butttt anyway here we go

I got here August 14 for orientation and to move in. I spent a lot of effort making sure my dorm room was nice and comfortable as I expected to be spending a lotttt of time in this room (and I was right!!!). So here's a little room tour (I took these pictures today because I've been working on it gradually so here's the current and probably final state).

Actually, I've decided I don't have so much to say, I'll just show you. All I've been doing is going to class, hiking and/or being in nature in some way, and hanging out with cool people that I've made friends with.

So here's some nature pics I took. Some of these hikes were with friends, some from a hiking class I took where I met some more new friends. (People here are really nice :) it's cool.)

And now for some random pictures of friends I've made and parties we've been going to. Most of these are from house/dorm parties and some are from going out, weird adventures (the car pic was an impromptu Swig and In-N-Out drive that ended up in some guy's hotel room), and some tailgating we did for the football games that our uni's team played.

OH AND I MET TORI KELLY who is my idol and has been my inspiration for making music since 2009. I got to meet her for the first time I almost died it was crazy :3

That was my summer in Utah! It's fall now so I'm going to try to be a bit better about taking pictures and stuff but I've been having such a fun time here it's insane :D

If you're close family I promise I'll tell all the stories when I get back haha ok photo dump done see y'all in a while for the fall pics and adventures

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San Diego!

SORRY THIS IS SO LATE Okay I'm going to do a quick post about San Diego (<3 I love this city) and I'll post about my summer in Utah soon!

PS: this post contains some iPhone pics, some film pics of mine, and some of Jeff's film pics which are half-exposures which are kinda cool!

SO I arrived in San Diego August 7th and checked into my dinky hostel...

Immediately went to explore the city and had a great night eating pizza. This is when I realized the lack of public spaces here; I got a pizza to go and couldn't eat it anywhere; there were no benches or picknick tables or anything so I ate it on the curb somewhere behind a parking lot lol.

Day 2 I spent cycling around around a rental bike (I cycled 74 km that day!) which was super fun but so tiring because San Diego is one big mountain. I have many pretty pictures but I think this video does the downhill route I took more justice. I was so insanely happy lol I was listening to the Beach Boys and picturing what my life could look like here. (It would look pretty damn cool.)

Cycling back up was, in fact, a bitch and I complained the whole way up but you don't wanna see that. Apple Maps told me it was "moderatlely hilly" and it was a 45 degree incline for half a mile, I almost ended it all right then and there.

The next couple days were spent going out at night and doing fun things during the day, like visiting Gaslamp Quarter (where I spent a lotttt of time), cycling around the city and its surroundings, and visiting Balbao park.

I met up with my friend Jeff to head to a beach where we spent the afternoon and had some fat pizza afterwards. Imagine this view! At the beach! Right at your house! Every day! Why does anyone live in any city that isn't San Diego it's insane I don't get it because WOW THIS PLACE IS GORGEOUS!

Some more going out later we went to a big festival the city was running and I got a semi-impromptu tattoo (I'd wanted it for a while and knew I wanted to get it in San Diego and what better day than the festival day!). The festival was so fun and I got to see some more new parts of the city. We went to a club there and (not pictured) Trinity the Tuck was there? And she performed there? Which was kinda fuckin crazy like what that would never happen in Amsterdam.

Okay almost done: the last major thing I did was I went to my first ever MLB game with Jeff, of course it was the Padres where they beat the hell out of the Pirates because of course they did. It was such a cool unique experience I had so much funnnn ok last pictures coming in nowwwww

I really can't express how much fun I had in this city. I partially wanted to scoop out the area to see if I could see myself living in this city or this state and I think I can pretty confidently say I can, even after only a week and a half there.

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California part 2: Joshua Tree & Palm Springs

This one's a bit crazy, lol. Hang tight.

Basically, I had told David before I got to California that I really wanted to visit Joshua Tree. So I met his friends and we drove there.

The drive there was beautiful—miles upon miles of open road.

We'd spent some time beforehand making sure we got the perfect AirBNB. It had great AC (necessary when it's almost 50˚C outside), a huge lit up pool, a hot tub, and a firepit we used to make S'Mores.

A lot of beer and pizza later, the first day was already up.

The next day we decided to go to Palm Springs (a one hour drive over from where we stayed) to go out.

After sufficient pregaming to avoid paying $20 for every drink, we drove there and had probably one of the best nights out in California I had.

Anyway. On the drive home we stopped in Palm Springs (and, of course, Trixie Motel) to actually explore the town and we went to Pasadena.

Last thing to note of my last few days in Ventura County is probably the night we hung out with David's friend Jesús, and I had way too many edibles, got way too high, and made these burgers on bagels that I think about every day. Some of the best food I've ever tasted (at least that's what it felt like at the time). As you can see on the pictures...

SO! That's the end of my adventures north of Los Angeles. I had the best two weeks ever, it was so amazing. I loved meeting all the people I met and still talk to a lot, and I had so much funnnnn. Also having a proper summer in 40˚C heat was very much neccesary after a year of the weather we had in the Netherlands.

My next post will be about my week in San Diego, and after that I'll get some pictures developed I took in Utah (I've already been here two weeks, sorry for the delays, lol)!

[jakespov]

California part 1: Ventura County & Los Angeles

Just to preface this post/these posts: Tumblr won't let me put more than 30 photos in one post so I'm doing 3 posts about California before delving deeper into Salt Lake City, where I'll be spending four months to study. I have more photos, and narrowing 400 photos down to 30 was very difficult!

So—it finally happened. World's biggest California fanboy visited to California. Like I said, I'll be studying in Utah for four months, but I visited California first.

I stayed for around two weeks with my friend David. First, some pictures I took in the area where I stayed.

We traveled around the area a ton! We went to Santa Barbara where they have a lot of walkable streets and a pier (that is—for some reason—accessible by car, meaning you can't walk there in peace, but instead have to watch out for cars... on a pier... very weird). There was also a city party going on with people dancing in the streets, which was cool to see.

One of the things I was most excited for coming to Los Angeles was visiting The Griffith Observatory (and Griffith Park). If you didn't know: my all-time favorite movie is La La Land, where this observatory is prominently featured several times. I put on the La La Land soundtrack when we drove up to the Observatory, and I lived my little fantasy there for a while. It was insanely gorgeous; I wish I could've spent even more time there. From on top of the Observatory, the Hollywood sign is also very visible, especially with the great weather we had.

In Los Angeles, we also visited the Getty Museum, which is a very large museum on top of a mountain accessible by a little tram (not pictured). It also provides an incredible view of the entire city of Los Angeles which, again, was visible because of the great clear skies we experienced.

We also went to the Santa Monica pier which was luckily not accessible by car so it felt a bit more welcoming. There was a ton of overpriced merchandise so here's me holding the items I would've bought if they weren't so expensive.

Then lastly, of course, I met a lot of David's friends who I hung out with a lot—especially David's best friend. We had a lot of fun hanging out, talking, drinking, and going to the beaches at night.

Okay, I know this one's a long one but I just had an incredible time in California so I wanted to share that all with y'all. I know all the posts are kinda delayed but that's because it takes while for my film rolls to develop. It'll all be published here eventually :) Ok bye now

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some random shots from the first roll I took with my new camera

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Spring break 2024

So I spent spring break with some of my friends. We drove to Teuven, Belgium.

We also spent a day in Aachen, Germany.

We also spent some time in an old castle-like building.

Lastly we climbed, had some ice cream, visited a petting zoo, and then we went home!

[jakespov]

me and my best friend, and my mom with her best friends on king's day