I also got some work done, but the small space between the seats in an airplane is not made for laptop usage (especially not when the guy in front of you insists to lie down most of the time). Well, everything went well and we were actually a head of schedule when we landed in L.A. around 12 hours after take-off. Passing immigration and the custom went smoothly and without problems. They just took my fingerprints and wanted to know what I was doing in the US and for how long. I checked in my luggage for the connecting flight to Santa Barbara and got onboard the absolute smallest airplane I have ever flown with. 30 seats, a crew of 2 persons, and no possibility to stand upright (for me at least). Luckily the effective flying time from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara is only around 21 minutes. When I came to Santa Barbara I realized that the (damn american personnel)  managed not to get my luggage onboard the small jet in L.A. so my stay here started with a lost suitcase - shit happens. Phil, who I’m visiting, picked me up at the airport and took be to the beach for a beer and to enjoy the view of the pacific. Afterwards we had to go to the super market to get me a toothbrush, some toothpaste, a deodorant an some grease for my hair so I could keep it going until my suitcase would arrive, which I at that didn’t know when was. Phil then drove me to the hotel so I could check in and get a bath before we went out for some dinner and a couple of beers. At that moment I actually just wanted to go to bed, since I had been on the road for more than 20 hours, but as Phil said - he’d better keep me awake until at least 10 pm so I wouldn’t suffer that much from jet-lag. We went to an Irish pub where we had something to eat+beers and a couple of games of pool. When the time passed 10 pm I went back to the Hotel, and now I was really wasted; 30+ hours awake is not healthy :) When I came back to the hotel my luggage had already arrived and had been brought to the hotel by the airport crew which was great; so now I have plenty of toothpaste for the rest of my stay.

Today I woke up to an excellent view of the ‘mountains’ that surrounds the Santa Barbara area, a blue sky and palm trees. I went down to the reception to get some breakfast (which is included in the room price) before Phil came to pick me up so we could get the work started. However the American idea of breakfast is in the ‘El Prado Inn’-case equal to suger, suger and sugar. All there was on the breakfast ‘buffet’ was vacuum packed muffins and cofe/tee/cacao which is not really a nutritious breakfast if you want to be able to think, so I was glad that I bought some fruit yesterday. After breakfast I enjoyed the morning sun a bit before Phil came and we drove to the institute. At 15pm’ish I got a lift back to town and used the rest of the afternoon to walk up and down State Street, which is the main street of Santa Barbara. I also went to the beach and to the pier. The wind have been quite ‘chilly’ today so I didn’t jump into the pacific - yet ;)