Scary approach = crappy landing

I couldn't resist the sunshine, so I went flying :-) It went OK; takeoff and the flight itself were pretty good. I went out over Woodside and did some steep turns and slow flight. Then I came back, and then things got a little scary. I couldn't find the airport at first. Then I saw Shoreline so I headed south of it and hoped for the best. Then the tower said, "report at 3 miles." I hate when they say that, I have no idea how far 3 miles is! Then I remembered that it's 3 miles from CalTrain to the airport, so I was getting ready to report to the tower over El Camino. Then he asked me to make a right 360 turn and report when I was heading back in -- I think things were just too busy and he didn't have space to put me in yet. So I did, and he thanked me when I reported.

But now I had to find the airport again -- I figured I was close, and that I should just turn right over 101 and hope for the best (he had asked me to make left traffic, and turning right over 101 would put me in the pattern). He told me to follow another plane, which I thought I saw but wasn't sure, so I asked for help and he told me to go ahead and turn base. So I did, and now everything should be normal, right?

Weirdest thing happened on my approach -- I was going along, and next thing you know I'm in a fairly steep right turn! I try to correct....and it gets steeper!! Freaked me out -- finally I corrected, and then the same thing happened to the left!! I'm not sure if it was just turbulence, or if I wasn't using enough rudder when correcting, so the "adverse yaw" took over and counteracted my corrections. Anyway, this rattled me a little, but I put my mind to setting up the approach. My approach was fine, but I wound up a little fast over the runway, and as a result my landing bounced..TWICE. Pretty ugly. But I got it down. I have an actual lesson tomorrow, so hopefully I can get it together before then!