London

Posted on by maxserov

So this was like maybe 3 or 4 years ago, so ya awhile ago. But I remember it so vividly because I had such a good time. So for the summer of 2012? I think. I went to London for the olympic games and that was so fun. First we watched some of the tennis and rowing games. After which we explored around the city which is probably one of the most beautiful I’ve seen. We watched some other games the next day, but the day after I remember we watched the final soccer game with Brazil vs Mexico and that was gnarly. So we got there, barely because it was so crowded and watched the game. Everyone was getting so hyped every goal I’ve never really seen a sport like that in person. After Mexico won the whole crowd went wild and then we tried exiting. A 3 minute walk took around 40 minutes. It was that bad, it was like santa Monica but with humans. There wasn’t an inch to get through and we just had to wait it out. The next day we went to Stonehenge and the whole place is really spectacular. The whole feel of the place and the views were awesome. The next day we went to a castle and it was something fictional. So to get to the castle you have to cross a very thin and skinny path that crosses through the ocean so when you look from afar it looks like people are walking on water there. We got through and then began a giant climb. To get to the main place you had to go up and up, and up, and more up. It was really long and when we finally got up the views were so grand. The castle inside was giant and there was a lot cool stuff on display and secret passages. The next few days after that we spent going along the coast stopping at all these cool places. I really wish I could go again because I didn’t really appreciate it as much at the time. But it was a really good time and I hope I get the chance to go again.

Train Encounters

Posted on by maxserov

So this Friday I took the train down to San Diego down to moms again. When I got on the train about 20 minutes later I go down to the cafe area to grab a bite. 4 Complete strangers are having a debate about our country and ask me to join. I sit and learn their names, where they are from, and where they are headed. One guy is from Britain and works as a chemist in Missouri, just turned 21. Another guy is from like the very Texas of Texas and went to jail twice and heard stories all about that. And another guy was going over to Arizona all the way from California taking the train. Anyways so we just started having all the convos about different things and then another person joined. Then another and so on, then it was like 8 random strangers who don’t know each other just bonding with each other. I don’t know it was really really cool experiencing all this and hearing all the advice from all these random people with different experiences and lives. It was just non stop conversations for 5 hours and one by one everyone left. There was one guy that quit his job that day and said it was his last train ride. I don’t know it was really amazing & cool though. The last 20 minutes I had a really interesting conversation with this guy who lived in Santa Monica which was perfect because Im moving there soon so I had a good talk about the place. In San Diego I just did finals stuff and went to the beach with the dogs. I also learned how to drive (better) because I was really bad earlier. I took the train back up to SB and on the way up I met up with one of the guys from Fridays thing. Crazy right? So we talked for 2 hours till he left and now we are like pretty good friends. I feel like the whole encounter with Friday and on the way back taught I should definitely be more open with people and opportunities in general.

Here & There

Posted on by maxserov

I didn’t do that much this weekend for the most part. I went down to San Diego again and got sick, again. I went back to Santa Barbara Saturday night so I got there. Sunday was a really mellow day, I woke up and went up on my roof for, like a while, its was super relaxing and chill. After that I skated at the park for a little with some friends, then watched tv for the rest, then slept the rest at my friends place which is really comfy. 

  

 

Monday I was planning to just watch tv all day  & when I got home I didn’t know my sister came over. She came all the way from San Diego just for that day so it was really special. She brought the dogs along which was amazing since I missed them so much. My other pup isn’t in the picture but he’s a black cockapoodle and super cute. for lunch we went out to eat at some place on State which was really good. I don’t remember the name but they had a Hawaiian sandwich that was too good. 

  

After that my sister bought me some art supplies for my present & we went back home. There my sister baked me a zebra cake which is super good. Its like a chocolate and vanilla mixed cake with fruit on top or whatever you want. It’s too bad I didn’t snag a photo since it looked really good too. While we ate the cake my sister put on a movie (Hector & the search for happiness) that at I thought wasn’t gonna be good because of the bad reviews. But after watching I was pretty stoked on the movie itself. It’s about this psychiatrist that goes through a mid life crisis and he goes around the world looking for what makes people happy to help his clients. Im not really gonna go into detail, but its on Netflix & a good watch. After the movie I went for a long walk with the dogs at like 12 which was really refreshing and then went to bed.

  

 

Hikes and Trains

Posted on by maxserov

Over the weekend I took the train to San Diego, more specifically the Carlsbad, and didn’t do much. Saturday was a bust since I felt like crap, but my sister managed to drag me out for a hike. It was probably a 8 mile hike there and back.


At the end of the hike there was a waterfall and we set up lunch on one of the rocks overwatching the flowing water. The dogs really loved the water since it was blazing hot.


We had some pretty intersting convo’s on the way back. I managed to get a skate session in at the nearby park and then watched comedy specials on netflix. The next day I don’t really remember what I did now, I think I might have skated and maybe something else. Ya but all I remember is Going on the train back the next day and the conducter guy that speaks on the microphone broadcasted throughout the train was singing a bunch of songs like super passionately. It was pretty funny since I met him later in the snack place and he was jammin out to a buch of jazz, pretty cool guy. Week kinda slowly went by, On Wednesday I went over to my friend Andie’s house and he invited a bunch of friends that were jammin out on the guitar. It sounded really cool and I think ima try to learn guitar now. But later on in the day we went skating, came back basically starving and I grabbed some things from his fridge and made the friggin best quesidilla. As we were making it we had to stop mid way because all the fire alarms within a mile radius went off at the same time. Everyone was freaking out because it was so loud, really really loud. Kinda messed around after that and then started heading back home later at night. On my way back home I saw some friends skating across the street in this lit up parking spot. I cruised over and there were like 10 people.

They were filming for an upcoming skate video, I skated for an hour with them and busted my elbow trying a trick over this barrier. But it was really fun, I went home and my brother picked me up and we drove to his place in IV. I met his new kitty and he’s the cutest Bengal ive ever seen. Yvon was stressin out because he wasn’t potty trained but you know, what was he expecting.

The Russian Embassy

Posted on by maxserov

I slept over at my friends house. We didn’t really do much just play games and climbed a few buildings.

  
I slept on my friends patio outside and obviously I woke up a couple of times to people yelling and reving their engines at 2 in the morning. I woke up at 8 am and the sun was scorching my leg. Like no joke I legitimately thought my leg was on fire when I woke up. The day was hot, the morning was just goofing around and later we went skating. Not much else happened, the next morning though I got woken up at like 6 am. Totally not ready for and pretty agitated. Turns out we had to go to San Francisco so I get get my Russian passport at the embassy. I completely forgot and I was hoping for a long Sunday morning. But I spent the next 6 hours stuck in the car.

We got there and ate at a really neat Mediterranean place. The guy who worked there was super over enthusiastic about every dish and he was pretty funny. later on we stayed at the queen anne hotel which was pretty nice. They had free cookies out in the lobby so naturally I hoarded like over 10. We then slept for not enough and then the next morning went over to the embassy. 

  
We’ve been to that place over 4 times in the past and each time something went wrong because the people there really suck. If you don’t have one small thing that wouldn’t even matter you would have to come back again, they wouldn’t care if you flew like half way across the world or something. So we get there and at first they tell us our appointment was scheduled for 3 days ago. Then after an hour and a half of waiting and agitation we get in. We were there for another 2 hours till we were finally done. Right after that we began our drive back. We stopped by a Mexican restaurant along the way that was really good, but it was also in the middle of nowhere. I finally got home and tried to get some sleep.

Weekend Heat

Posted on by maxserov

Over the weekend I hung out with some friends in the heat. On Saturday I didn’t really do that much, just skated, hung out, & went to the gym. My mom also came over and we spent the rest of the day together walking around State. It was cool because she was telling me how lucky I am to live here and I never really appreciated how beautiful it really is here.


On Sunday the moment I stepped outside I knew I was going to the beach. we all met up at Hendry’s with a raft, some spears and diving gear. We were super stoked to get out even tho the water was really cold. Of course someone had to hop on the raft first and paddle away from us so we have to catch up. Just 2 people on the raft wasn’t so bad but as soon as Owen and Andie hopped on the whole thing was flooded with water. The raft is meant to be for 6 people but they didn’t inflate it all the way so when everyone got on the whole thing started sinking. We had to start paddling back to shore before the whole thing deflated and we even caught some waves on the way back with the raft. Since that was a bust we kind of just explored the cliffs around the beach.

  
I also saw the dog I really want to get and I only want him more now. After the beach we drove to spudnuts and got some boba. Admittedly not the best boba in town, but it’s still boba so its good non the less. We grabbed some donuts on our way out and made our way over to August’s. We hitched on the back of Owen’s car and took the longer route through the mission. We switched off every 10 minutes until we got to his house.


His mom ordered Chinese food for us which was perfect since I pretty much haven’t eaten all day. I chowed down on the food and then went back home, finished up some homework and went to bed.

Spring Break

Posted on by maxserov

Ok so i didn’t really do anything so far this week. Nothing really that story worthy happened. so since i have to finish this im gonna wing it and talk about my spring break which consisted of sleeping, surfing, skating, more sleeping, dogs, and hikes down in San Diego. My friend Neal who iv’e known a long time opened up an indoor skate park in Carlsbad area and i am super stoked for him. It was really awesome since so many people showed up for the opening day. Especially seeing all the pros supporting the park both there and online. It was really crazy seeing how fast the whole place came together because a few months ago I was just skating a ramp and a few obstacles he had set up at the time.

   

The next day I went out with my sister on a garage sale hunt around our area. Least to say i was pretty pleased with my findings, I got a Al Merrick board for $20 and a wet suit for $60. The board had a few dings but nothing too bad, definitely worth more than twenty.

   
 

 I also found some awesome plants and pots for my room. throughout spring break I would mainly get dropped off at Cardiff every day to surf and check out all the awesome local shops and people at that place. I went on so many hikes though, every day my sister, mom, or friends would take me on different trails around SD. It’s really beautiful in the spring time too because all the flowers and shrubs start blooming.

  

 I really wish i did more over spring break because i had so many opportunities to do stuff i didn’t. When i got back my friend invited me to go to the swell gym here in Santa Barbara. It was probably the best gym iv’e been to, everything is super organized and clean. And they have a smoothie place there and they sometimes give you free smoothies which is really nice. Overall im probably gonna sign up there in the next week or so because it’s a really good gym.

Hiking Knapps Castle (sorta)

Posted on by maxserov

first thing I did for spring break, on Friday my sister picked me and some friends up to go on a hike with her friends. Earlier I saw some photos of Knapp’s castle and really wanted to go there. We decided we’d take two cars because there were 7 people and my car was too small. We drove up on the 154 and then took a right into one of the narrow turns. We went all the up near the top of the mountain and found the trail. Since we didn’t see my brother, we decided to wait till he got there. In the meantime we climbed this hill with an incredible view overlooking the valley.

It was way too windy though, I really regretted not taking the jacket with me. 20 Minutes passed and we kind of got fed up and we couldn’t call since there was no service. We decided to go up and see if they passed us and drove to the very top of the mountain. Apparently my brother almost ran out of gas & he’s been waiting for us for a while. Really dumb on his part to go up without gas, at least the view up there was good.

After he rolled his car down the hill we could start the hike. The only thing was that it wasn’t really a hike, It was like a 5 minute walk to the fort. There was a trail that went down & looked longer, but we didn’t go there. The views were spectacular though, you overlook the whole valley with the sun shining in all it’s glory.

There was a chimney so I climbed to get a better view of the field and mountains. On our way back we stopped by a gas station and thank god we made it, and after went to get some food. We stopped by Woodstock pizza in IV, there were so many choices for the pizzas. Hawaiian pizza was the best for sure though, we all agreed. We drove back and ate even more food to satisfy my hunger, went to bed after & was stoked to sleep in the next day.

The Average Weekend

Posted on by maxserov

I started my Friday by over-sleeping my alarm which means I skipped a class & then leaving my fifth & sixth period to visit my moms place down in more northern San Diego near Carlsbad. That’s pretty much my favorite little vacation spot because of the freedom I get. I don’t really have to worry about anything down there, plus I get to see my mom & sister too so thats a bonus. But the drive there was the worst one I had in the thousands of time iv’e been there and back. From SB it took eight, almost nine hours to get to our place. We even left at twelve to make sure we skipped traffic but that really didn’t help.

After we got home we went straight to our friends place and crashed there. I played so many games of FIFA & lost like all of them since I was playing against someone who played soccer their whole life. I woke up later in the next day, made some breakfast and cruised down to go skate. I went to Rancho Penasquitos skate park and they recently rebuild the place a bit, so it was nice skating new stuff. After, My sister picked me up to go to some cool little shops. Nearby the place there was a lot of varieties of flowers blooming across the train tracks & it felt like spring.

One of the shops was the size of a closet but was packed with all the little cool trinkets & necklaces, the whole feel of the place was cool. I wish I wanted to stay there longer but my stomach acted up so we went home. The rest of the day I slept & threw up, from dehydration im guessing. Later at night my sister brought over hot & sour soup which i recommend if your sick or have stomach problems, & it tastes good. That definitely helped settle my stomach, the next morning my sister was super sweet & made me oladushki (russian pancakes) for breakfast. Some sour cream with sugar on there, it’s the best combo.

We left later that day between eight and nine, it only took two & a half hours to get home. We drove pretty fast the whole way but that’s some really good timing.

Lazy birthday

Posted on by maxserov

I didn’t do that much this weekend for the most part. The highlight was probably climbing this building right after it rained so it was pretty slippery & wet. But it looked cool because of the mass of clouds covering Santa Barbara.

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Sunday was a really mellow day, I woke up and went up on my roof for, like a while, its was super relaxing and chill. After that I skated at the park for a little with some friends, then watched tv for the rest, then slept the rest at my friends place which is really comfy.

 

Monday was my birthday which it totally didn’t feel like it. I was planning to just watch tv all day since im not gonna celebrate on a Monday but rather the weekend & when I got home I didn’t know my sister came over. She came all the way from San Diego just for that day so it was really special. She brought the dogs along which was amazing since I missed them so much. My other pup isn’t in the picture but he’s a black cockapoodle and super cute.

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for lunch we went out to eat at some place on State which was really good. I don’t remember the name but they had a Hawaiian sandwich that was too good. After that my sister bought me some art supplies for my present & we went back home. There my sister baked me a zebra cake which is super good. Its like a chocolate and vanilla mixed cake with fruit on top or whatever you want. It’s too bad I didn’t snag a photo since it looked really good too. While we ate the cake my sister put on a movie (Hector & the search for happiness) that at I thought wasn’t gonna be good because of the bad reviews. But after watching I was pretty stoked on the movie itself. It’s about this psychiatrist that goes through a mid life crisis and he goes around the world looking for what makes people happy to help his clients. Im not really gonna go into detail, but its on Netflix & a good watch. After the movie I went for a long walk with the dogs at like 12 which was really refreshing and then went to bed.