Emmanuel's Visit Day 1

6:20 AM:  Emmanuel finally arrived! I had been waiting for two weeks in anticipation for him to come. We waited for a ridiculous amount of time for his luggage to appear in Baggage Claim, which turned out to be only one tiny bag with clothes in it. We got a taxi and drove from Santa Barbara Airport to my house on the Mesa. When I asked him what he wanted to do today, he said he would leave it up to me and my good judgement.

8:30 AM: We went and had a quick breakfast at Starbucks. Emmanuel ordered a ham and cheese croissant, which I have to say is a very good choice. After breakfast, we got in the car and went to the head of the Jesusita Trail, which I figured would be a good hike to do because it is not too long and it has a great view of Santa Barbara. I knew he would be pretty tired from his 2 and a half days or traveling, so I picked a hike where we could stop whenever he needed to. Emmanuel was very excited to do this hike because he had never done anything like it before. He was very interested in the flowers and all of their different colors, which surprised me, because I figured he would want to do the hike and get to see the view as fast as possible.

11:30 AM: We finished our hike at Inspiration Point, where my dad came and picked us up. Emmanuel really enjoyed the hike, and he said he would definitely do it again if he had the chance. We were both very dirty and sweaty, because it was a very hot day outside, so we decided to go back to my house and take showers. Emmanuel went first, so when I came out of the shower, I saw Emmanuel on my iTunes looking through all of my songs! I asked him what type of music he liked, and he said he was just listening to Lil Wayne and he really liked him, but he asked why there was a lot of parts when they randomly skipped a word. I laughed and told him that they were just skipping over cuss words, and they have to do that, it's not by choice. He looked confused, but he didn't ask anymore questions about it.

5:30 PM: Emmanuel siad very politely that this was about the time that he ate in Ghana, so I asked him what he wanted to eat, and like this morning, he said he would leave it up to me. So I decided to take him to Holdren's Stakes and Seafood, because I wanted him to try an American favorite, skirt steak. I've loved skirt steak since I was a kid, when my friend Jen made some of the best skirt steak possibly on the planet. It's a bit expensive, but I decided to splurge since Emmanuel was here. When we got there, I told Emmanuel that I recommended the skirt steak and he tried it with a willing attitude. He loved the steak, but I don't think he liked the fries very much, because he offered them to me!

7:30 PM: After a dinner made up of skirt steak, good cheer and funny conversations, it was time to head home. Emmanuel was feeling a little jet lagged so we stayed up a little late just talking because he couldn't get to sleep, but he finally fell asleep at about 11:00, and didn't wake up until 8:00 the next morning.