The last day in SF and campus

Our last day, Jeff and I attempted to eat at Assab, an Eritrean restaurant, but it was closed for lunch. Then we got some food from Bean Bag Cafe and some fruit from a fruit stand. Then we played Mario Kart Wii until it was time to head to the airport. The flight went smoothly, and we met a guy from Snow Hill, MD! We had trouble finding Jeff's mom's car because while she gave us a very specific location, she did not tell us which lot. The flight got in early, but between having to get luggage since it had to be gate checked and finding the car we got to Jeff's at 1:30. Then we had some mac n cheese, and then went to sleep. In the morning I stayed as long as I felt possible and then came to Williamsburg. Left my ID at Jeff's, which was annoying but he mailed it to me and I got it today. One of my headlights was dangling out but the campus police fixed it. Went to the activities fair and saw lots of people I knew. Today I had classes and picked up my ID and went to lunch with Zach and his new girlfriend Kat who I have Culture and Cuisine with. Went to Juggling Club and eventually Skittles showed up (besides me and Sabrina) and we also got 2 new freshman, a guy named London and a guy named Joe. Then I hung out with Edris for a while and now I am procrastinating going to bed for some reason. Mom is coming to help me move the rest of my stuff tomorrow. I also talked to Will on the phone for a little while which was nice.

Upper Haight, Golden Gate Park, Buena Vista Park

This morning Jeff and I got up around 10:30 and took showers. Then we went to breakfast at Mojo Café (I think) on Divisadero which is a bicycle repair shop as well as a café. We got bagels (poppyseed for me; sesame for Jeff). Then we came back and started walking around the Haight with Patrick. We started off in Lower Haight but it was pretty dead so we went to Upper Haight (literally it's up a hill). It is certainly a hippy part of the city. Lots of smoke shops, Tibet shops, hippy stores, and funky thrift stores. First though we went in the anarchist book shop. They had a list of all the free food in SF by day of the week. After that we started going into thrift stores. At the first one, Crossroads, I found a good purse but decided to get them to hold it and shop around. We went in lots of other ones. I finally found a really cute little dress at Buffalo Exchange. We walked all the way down to where Haight runs into Golden Gate Park. Then we walked into the park a ways, through a tunnel and to hippy hill. We sat there watching people for a while. I saw an adorable puppy. After that we walked back to meet up with Tracy. On the way a girl was like "hey I see you're walking with a hot girl, can I follow you home?" I laughed and then realized I had just been paid a nice compliment. We found Tracy and walked up the other side of the street. We stopped in at more thrift stores and at Loyal Army which has really REALLY adorable t-shirts. After that I bought the purse from Crossroads and met everyone back in Buffalo Exchange because Tracy wanted to look there. It was nearly 3 by this point, so we decided to grab lunch at the Pork Store Café. I know what you're thinking - but you've gone vegetarian this month! However, it was vegetarian and even vegan friendly, as nearly every restaurant seems to be in this city. I got a California Veggie Burger which was a garden burger with avocado, sprouts, tomato, lettuce, and jack cheese. It was delicious, though I opted for the salad instead of fries but was less than impressed with the salad (though it did have green peppers!). After that we made our way back to Patrick's. Before that though, Jeff and I went up into Buena Vista Park, to see the good view it had to offer (and, oh yes, it lived up to its name). The fog was rolling in over the city; it was magnificent. So that was a nice little hike. On the way back we stopped in a comics shop and I got the second Y the Last Man hardbound volume. Then we went to the truffle store (both of these were on Divisadero) and got some truffles. Looking forward to eating those! Next Jeff and I played some Wii at the apartment (yes, there's a Wii - it's a really sweet apartment, and has lots of electronics thanks to the roommate that works for Google). We played Mario Kart and Mario Party. After that all of us went to On the Corner Café, which is indeed on the corner of Divisadero and Oak. Jeff and I both got the Buffalo Mozzarella Pesto sandwich, which was incredibly good. Patrick's friend Sarah was there for a while, and after she left we attempted to play Agricola (this café had lots of board games) but failed because none of us knew how and it was really complex. So instead we played Ticket to Ride which I love and Jeff won (doesn't he always?). I talked to Amy and she is really excited about tomorrow - so am I! Though it means I'm leaving San Francisco, a city about which there is nothing I don't love. Oh well, we are coming back for a bit later!

Castro and the Mission

Sunday, August 9: Today Jeff and I had breakfast with Patrick and his girlfriend, Tracy. We had bagels with Lucerne cream cheese (which is really good!). Then Jeff and I walked around nearby neighborhoods. First we went into a game store really close to Patrick's apartment - it was a great store! We went to Divisadero and kept going as it turned into Castro. A few blocks later we were in the Castro, the gay neighborhood. We found lots of cool stores in the Castro, and there was a group trying to adopt out older dogs on the street. There were lots of gay couples around, and lots of dogs. It was a really cool neighborhood. We then turned left on 18th street to walk towards the Mission. We passed Dolores Park which is supposed to be really interesting and came upon Bi-Rite Creamery on the left. There wasn't a line at the time and we got some strawberry kiwi sorbet and took it to the park to eat. We talked to a woman getting support to overturn Prop 8 but they wanted money, so we pressed onward. We got cheese samples at a random little market and then saw a bakery with a huge line (turns out it was probably Tartine, which was highly recommended). So we turned right on Valencia to walk up in the Mission. First we came upon Paxton Gate, which was described by Eric and Patrick as the 'gothic plant store'. They meant more like Victorian gothic than goth, I discovered. It was full of taxidermied animals, weird books and plants. The one notable thing was the taxidermied mice dressed up to look like different things, like pirates, a bride and groom, a priest. They were amazing. Next door to that was the pirate store, 826 Valencia. It's well known - it was made into a pirate store to front for a non-profit teaching center (because they couldn't be just that due to zoning regulations). It became so popular that there are stores like it in NYC, Chicago, Ann Arbor, LA, Seattle, and maybe a couple other places. It was amazing and hilarious. We wandered into lots of other cool shops, including some vintage clothing stores. Eventually we got hungry and ended up at Ali Baba's Cave, where I got the most gigantic falafel sandwich (it was on lavash) that I've ever seen. The roll thing Jeff got wasn't very good so he just ended up eating half my sandwich. I had been craving falafel and this didn't disappoint. The sun was making me feel dizzy so we went in lots of shops. We wandered back up Valencia and found Good Vibrations, which is a really well-recommended vibrator and sex toy store. They even had display models of all the vibes so you could really tell how loud and powerful and everything they were! It was great. We then stopped in at a café called Muddy Waters and got some delicious root beer that seems to be everywhere here. The bathroom was covered in graffiti, and there was an old anarchist outside, and a guy doing bong hits. SF is a very hippy city. I saw so many VW buses today! Anyway, we found a by-the-pound vintage clothes store, and then made it back to Patrick's. We relaxed for a while and actually met one of the roommates, Megan. Then Patrick, Tracy, Jeff, and I played Settlers of Catan. Jeff won. After that we went to this amazing café on Divisadero called the Bean Bag Café. I got Millano pasta which had tomatos, spinach, cream sauce, and pesto. So good! Tomorrow I think Jeff and I are going to do some shopping in the Upper Haight, and check out Golden Gate park, and potentially go up to Buena Vista Park.

The day of the Greyhound

Today was the grand greyhound bus trip. Yes, it was long. Yes, we went through monotonous scenery for hours and hours. Yes, we had to get up early just to wait an hour at the bus station. But it was all worth the whole arriving in San Francisco part. Los Angeles was fun - don't get me wrong - but if I had to describe it I would say it is a conglomeration of suburbs as opposed to a real city. It's so sprawling, and besides that, even nice-looking neighborhoods have the potential to be really dangerous. So seeing the skyline of San Francisco was a fresh new start (and besides, the air is really fresher - not so smoggy). On the bus Jeff and I read a Cosmo together, and read books. There was a stop in the middle of fucking nowhere when we got some burritos at Taco Bell. Got to SF around 7 pm. Patrick picked us up and promptly got on the Bay Bridge going back towards Oakland by accident. We got off at Treasure Island and it turned out to be a lovely view of the city. Let me tell you - it's cold here, at least at night. I knew to expect that, but still… anyway, then Patrick drove us to his highly swanky and awesome apartment which is located at 952 Oak Street which is in… Hayes Valley and/or Central North SF, I can't really tell on Google Maps. It's nice, and very close to those Full House opening credits houses. We walked through a neat little park to get here (up a big old hill). San Francisco immediately struck me as similar to Wellington because: it's on hills near water with some little islands, it has ridiculously changeable weather, and it just has that nice vibe that I got from New Zealand cities. Jeff and I walked a couple blocks to Little Chihuahua on Divisadero. We shared a plaintain and black bean burrito (AMAZING) and a grilled veggie taco (yum). They had lots of salsas and cool ambience. We walked along the street and saw some nice coffee shops and a comic store and a game store. Looks like a cool neighborhood!