Back in Santa Cruz for 3 whole days!

It's strange how even though I only spent one whole day in Santa Cruz before leaving for Yosemite, it still feels like home to me. Although really I shouldn't say "still", because I don't think that back then it *did* feel like home. I think it became home to me the moment I walked back into the house yesterday and realised that I was sharing living space not with strangers but with friends - people with whom, over the past 18 days, I'd been camping, labouring, hiking, drinking, surviving bear "incidents", and even having the odd emotional moment.

Yeah, I suppose it's been a good three weeks. There have been times when I've not been sure whether I'm having the time of my life, or just hanging on to sanity by my fingertips, but as I look back now I can see I've got some great memories, and hopefully learnt a fair bit too.

Like, I've learned that the American health system is really expensive. I guess I knew that before -as does most of Britain, which seemed to become uncharacteristically patriotic over Republican attacks on the NHS. But SERIOUSLY, it's bad. I came to experience this first hand as a result of those pesky insects that kept eating my arms and face as we worked on cutting those pines around Wawona meadow.

Now, I'm used to having reasonably bad reactions even just to midge bites, so it wasn't a huge worry for me when my arms started to swell up and go a strange yellow colour - although admittedly I'd never had anything quite that bad before - but when the Park Service workers started to look at me like they'd just realised I had some fatal disease, and others started saying things like "spider bites", I wondered whether I should check it out. Chris exercised his supervisor duties and announced he was taking me to the clinic the next morning, and I thought a nice picturesque drive into the Valley didn't seem like a bad alternative to slaving away in the woods, so I didn't complain.

It wasn't until we were about half an hour into the drive that I noted that I didn't have my wallet with me, and asked would I need anything. Chris looked at me like I was a stupid English girl and said, sure, you'll have to pay something. I explained that yes, I suppose in this case I was a stupid English girl and wasn't used to having to hand over cash at the doctor's.

I couldn't fault the efficiency of the system - five minutes after entering the clinic I was being ushered through to a triage nurse who took my blood pressure, and a couple of minutes later a nurse practitioner came into the room. Very friendly, she asked me where I was from, and what work I was doing ("slave labour eh?" she asked). She glanced at the bites, concluded it was just a local reaction, and wrote a prescription for some Claritin.

I was directed to the receptionist/cashier, and charged $140.

I kid you not.

America, I love you, but you're mental.

Other things I've learned from this time in Yosemite: you can fit 13 people into a small five-seater car. Well, I say "into". As we made our way back from the brilliant Wawona village country barn dance (which the Americans were very disappointed to discover wasn't really a novel concept to any Brit who's been to a Ceilidh) on one of our evenings off, the one vehicle which had driven the mile down the road from our makeshift campground became transport back for any of us who could sit on a knee, or grab onto a towbar, or climb onto a roof. (Don't worry Mum, I was one of the ones inside the car).

I've also learned that bears really do come and get your food if you don't put it into the bearproof boxes in the campgrounds. After two weeks without even seeing one it's easy to start to get complacent, but waking up at five o'clock a couple of nights ago to discover Liz's (one of my co-volunteers) backpack contents strewn on the ground, the bag emptied of its Goldfish crackers and the bottle of Head and Shoulders with little bear teethmarks, and a very shaken up Liz who'd been cowering terrified in her tent for the half hour that the little guy was roaming around outside, I realised that the Park Service guys are probably justified in going on so much about putting your stuff away! Still, it was a pretty funny experience, and we all laughed a lot.

Time for a few pictures I think...

It's hard to get tired of this view!

Along with Alex from Holland and Erle from Estonia, finally making it up to Vernal Falls (over a year after my first abandoned attempt - I was so ill last time I was here!)

Not a posed picture, honest! Cutting trees at Wawona meadow. The fence you can see is what we're trying to protect - the planned burn of the meadow isn't allowed to damage it because it's "historic", so we were emulating what the fire would do, as well as taking away the fuel that could cause it to get out of control.

Our reward after a 5-mile hike up to the top of Chilnualna Falls on one of our first days off.

The night Chris decided spontaneously to get rid of his (admittedly pretty gross) dreads. He wasn't entirely sure about the decision, which he left to fate and flipped a quarter: heads, he loses his head; tails, he keeps his tails. You can see what happened. His friend and debutant hairdresser Brittny was definitely happier about the whole thing than he was.

The day off on which Julie (from Michigan) and I decided to hitch-hike to Tenaya Lake and eventually got a ride with four Mexican/'Friscans all the way to the meadow, where we were rewarded with cheeseburgers and a great day swimming and sunbathing. We were lucky enough to hitch a ride back too, from a lovely couple from Michigan. No hiking but lots of chilling - not a bad day off at all!

Desperate times: short on lunch food on the last couple of days (probably owing to the boys' competitivity when it comes to how many sandwiches you need to make for a day), our Israeli friend Timor eats honey from the bottle.

The whole gang: Chris holding Timor, then Ben, Brittny, Conor, Erle, Liz, me, Julie, Henry and Alex. Good times.

So, I get a couple more days here in Santa Cruz and then on Monday I'm heading off for a whole MONTH with Liz, Timor and a guy called Asaf to Santa Catalina island, just off the coast of LA. But I'll tell you more about that later. I think I'd better go back to the house now - not quite sure for how much longer I can take advantage of free wi-fi in this coffee house where I've only spent $1.65 on an iced coffee.

By the way, Mark, if you're reading this: thank you for your text, it's great to know that school is thinking of me too as I think of you all and wonder how the new year 7s are settling in. I miss you guys!

I really appreciate facebook messages by the way. My English phone is pretty much dead so that's the best way to contact me, and I love hearing from home. Love to you all.

xx