Chillin in the Mission

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post (more than two weeks I think). Sorry about that. It's been very busy with finding apartments, starting my job, etc. Now I am finally getting settled though, which is nice. I still have no internet at home, hopefully that will be ready by next weekend. For now I'm at Philz Coffee on 24th Street, a very popular hipster hang out with good, homemade coffee. Usually they make their drinks with heavy cream, but today I asked for milk which is a bit more manageable. Anyway, my life:

Two weeks ago I began my job....for those who don't know, I am working at a startup company called Connect18. The company was founded about 1 year ago, and that develop spinning (exercise bike) classes that combine fitness and education. Two of my co-workers went to Mexico in April and May and took tons of pictures and videos...this is the base of the beginners Spanish curriculum. So basically students in the spinning classes take a virtual tour through Mexico while cycling and learning beginner's Spanish. Here's a link to a YouTube video explaining what the classes are like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht0_Xs_-oE4


And here's a link to the website:

www.connect18.com

I am working to help develop the Spanish curriculum, so I am doing things like translating, deciding what videos to use for the new classes, planning out what grammar/vocab will be taught, creating online support material, etc. Overall pretty cool so far...the people I work with are all really young and cool. So far so good.

So my job started two weeks ago....two weekends ago I switched from staying with Dan, Saray and Gabe and started staying with Melissa, Karen and Jacob in Nob Hill. Jacob left last Tuesday to start school in NYC, but now he decided not to stay in the program, so he's coming back! It was fun staying with Melissa and Karen, it started to feel like home which was nice. They hang out a lot with other guys from their building: Timmy from Tufts, then Thomas, Alex and Laucho (not from Tufts)...so there were always lots of people around. Ben hung out with us a few times last week and over the weekend and also slept there twice...same with Adina and her housemate Becca. So it was often a full (but fun house). Last weekend I hung out a bunch with Hailey, as well as other friends from Tufts who were in town to visit......had some awesome dinners and breakfasts and stuff like that.

Now, the house: Marisol, Selby and I looked at a house two weekends ago that we all liked.....it took a while, but eventually the landlord ended up offering us the place. By the time she had, Marisol had already found somewhere else, so Selby and I decided to take the place (which is sort of between the Mission and Potrero Hill) and find a third roomate ourselves. We signed the lease last Friday and also posted a Craigslist ad that day....we got lots of responses (maybe about 50?) out of which more than 20 looked really promising. We wrote those people back, and had people come over on Saturday and Sunday for open houses. About 20 people came....all of them were pretty cool, and both Selby and I agreed that we could have lived with any of them. We also wished we had gotten a 4 bedroom place. We had to pick someone though, and we ended up picking a girl named EJ....she's from MA, went to Wesleyan, graduated 05, now is working for a yoga magazine here in the city. She's very cool, likes to cook, is planning to paint our living room, likes music a lot....that's about all I know. But I think it's gonna be a great house.

Selby is away this weekend so EJ and I are planning on doing errands, picking up furniture, stuff like that this weekend using Selby's car and Hailey's truck. Tonight I am supposedly going to a bonfire/party on the beach in SF....hopefully next weekend I can get out of the city for real and go to Yosemite or somewhere like that.

Last night I drove to Berkeley and visited Ben and Maria....we made crepes, hung out at Maria's house. Driving across the bridge to Oakland was pretty nice. On Thursday night I went with Emma (a friend of EJ's who is now my friend too) to drive Selby to the airport, then we went to In-n-Out Burger....I think it was the first time I've ever eaten there! It was good but still a fast food burger....not as good as the Indian Pizza I had with EJ the night before that.

The part of 24th Street right near my house is pretty awesome for food. There are dozens of Mexican and Salvadoran places for tacos, tortas, etc, tons of shops, coffee places, an old fashioned diner, little bodegas, barber shops, bakeries. It's really cool. For those who visit, I promise LOTS of good Mexican and Salvadoran food. Not to mention every other kind of food.

Okay, it's time to go now....I must go figure out how to get to IKEA, today's primary shopping destination:

More soon (I hope)

Reunions

Today I felt a bit better which was good, and I had a pretty relaxing day (aside from being stressed about apartments). I had breakfast at a place on the corner and ate banana pancakes, then took a quick trip to Walgreens, then another quick trip to the bank, then mainly chilled out. Ben left early in the morning, Gabe was out in the morning but was around in the afternoon. I had some soup for lunch, chilled with Gabe, then I got a call from Marisol, who is also looking for apartments now in SF. She and I might live together here in the city which would be pretty cool. Gabe and I went to meet up with her at a cafe, we hung out there for a while, then eventually Gabe left and I went with Marisol to look at Craigslist a bit, then I went home, hung out with Gabe some more. Saray and his girlfriend came home after that, then eventually I left to head to Polk Street to meet up with lots of Tufts kids (and a few non-Tufts) for dinner.

We ate at Mekong again, there were 9 of us: Jacob, Melissa, Karen, Adina, Adina's housemate Becca, Claude, Sunil, Sunil's brother and me! We had a nice dinner, then I got a ride home in the back of Sunil's very full car. Somehow Claude and I squeezed in there. Now I'm back here mentally preparing for my job tomorrow morning. I'm excited! Well, that's about all for now.....

Exhaustion

I'm very tired. Yesterday Ben and I explored downtown after my job interview, then headed down into the Mission and had lunch at a Guatemalan restaurant. We practiced our Spanish and ate chiles rellenos which were OK, I had good tamarind juice. Next we bought some food for dinner, then walked all the way to Castro Av just in time to miss the bus back to the apt. Grr. We waited for the next one which took about two years, then back at the apartment we rested, eventually we cooked dinner (mostly Ben did since I had a headache), Dan and Saray came home and the 4 of us had a nice meal together. After that we just stayed in the apt, Ben went to bed early and I went to bed earliesh too. Today Ben woke up at 6 and I woke up at 8 and then we hung out here, looking at Craigslist (as soon as I'm settled I am going to need a BIG break from that website), then we eventually left and went to Berkeley. Berkeley was fun, we walked on the campus and Ben tried to find his professors, we had Taiwanese food for lunch. I found out that I got an offer for a job which I accepted, I start on Friday....I am not writing about it on the blog yet, so if you want to know more you should email me. We shall see how it goes. After checking out campus we met Mary and her boyfriend Seth at Berkeley Bowl, then Maria too. Then Mary left, Maria, Ben and I stayed and chilled there, then Adina came with her housemate, we met them. Berkeley Bowl is a pretty cool store. After this Ben and I went with Maria walking around to see various houses, then chilled at her place, then walked around more, then eventually took the BART back to the city and then the N trolley to Abby's house. We had a nice dinner with Abby, Kendra and Russ. Ben made good soup, we also had good bread and salad with corn in it. We chilled for a while after dinner, then Ben and I found out that Gabe was coming home tonight afterall (he drove all the way from Laramie, WY, which is 16 hours). We took a bus back to the apt, saw Gabe (who is staying at his sister's tonight since we are still in his room). Gabe is awesome, it was really cool that he let me stay here. This makes up for all the times he annoyed me in chorale in 11th grade. Ben and I are both emailing people and still on our computers. We are both getting sick (I think I already DID get sick). It's 11:37 PM and definitely time for bed. Goodnite. More soon on this blog, don't worry.

A week ends and another begins

On Sunday I had a pretty relaxed day...around midday I went to Cole Valley to check out an apartment. The place was really nice, but for 4 people....over 30 people showed up at the Open House. Even though the place was pretty decent I didn't bother trying to get it...I still have the application in case I change my mind though. After this I was going to meet up with people at a free Ozomatli concert in a park in the south of the city. I spoke to Selby (who now lives in the Bay Area) on the phone and he said that at noon they were already closing the gate. So it wasn't worth it to go. Instead I headed back to the apartment, hung out with Dan and Saray. In the afternoon, Dan, Saray and I headed to Target in Saray's car so they could do some shopping, then we were back in the city. Dan bought a cuisinart so he made pesto, I made pasta and some sausage and tomato sauce, so we had a nice dinner. In the evening, I decided to go by myself to a dessert place in Richmond...it's a chain from Hong Kong. The trip was definitely worth it, I had a really amazing drink: sago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sago), fresh squeezed mango juice, whipped coconut cream, crushed ice topped with fresh mango. Pretty awesome. I also bought a box of mango mochi (mochi with fresh mango inside) to bring home. Dan, Saray and I ate them in 2 seconds. They were amazing too. So that was Sunday.

On Monday I cleaned up my room in the morning, then at 11:30 or so headed out to the East Bay. I got to Berkeley at about 12:30 and walked to Adina's new house. It was fun seeing her, her place is pretty nice. We went to a Thai place for lunch. After lunch it was time for me to head to El Cerrito for my interview at the afterschool program. I got to El Cerrito early, it's only 9 minute train ride away from Downtown Berkeley which is pretty nice. I roamed around a little bit, visited another Target, then had my interview. The interview went pretty well, I am pretty excited about the job so hopefully I'll get it....I'll be keeping you all posted. After the interview, I called Adina and we met again at the Berkeley BART station to ride into the city together. She went and had dinner with Melissa, Jacob and Karen while I went back to the apartment to meet up with Russ, Abby, Kendra and Ben! Ben just arrived yesterday from Germany, R, K and A went to the airport to pick him up. I got to my apartment at about the same time they did, so Ben and I dropped off our stuff and Abby and Kendra came up to see the cat. Then all of us piled in the car and drove back to Abby's house in Sunset, then all headed to dinner. We ate at an Indian place which was pretty good and pretty cheap, then went back to Abby's house and hung out there for a bit, had some tea. Ben and I came back to the apartment here at 9 or so, then Ben went to bed. It was pretty impressive that he stayed up that late at all.

This morning we're chilling here, I have another job interview here in San Francisco at 11 AM for this company....more details about this later, it sounds possibly interesting. Ben needs to do various errands as well. Ben has a blog too and I'm putting the link to his blog in the links section of mine, so check it out.....it's exciting that he's here! That's all for now...

First Weekend: Part 1

On Friday morning I headed to Clement St. to go to New May Wah Market...got good fresh rice noodles, several vegetables, garlic, chilis, thai basil, thai curry paste, chicken breasts, coconut milk and shrimp crackers all for 11 dollars. After that I headed back to Alamo Sq and cooked myself kee mao for lunch. I got distracted with the cooking due to two phone calls regarding jobs....I have an interview at a school near Berkeley on Monday. So that's very cool. After my lunch I went on a short run...running is tiring here due to the hills.

In the evening I walked toward downtown, eventually at 7 met Jacob and Melissa for dinner at a Thai restaurant in the Tenderloin. The food was really good, after dinner I went to their apartment, saw the roof which has some nice views when it isn't foggy. Then we decided to go to the movies, so we walked down to Van Ness and saw Little Miss Sunshine.

Little Miss Sunshine was good and entertaining, though I don't think it was all that great. After the movie it was 12:20 and I said bye to Melissa and Jacob and tried to get a bus home....no buses came, so then I eventually started walking down McAllister. About 3 blocks away from Van Ness, things started feeling slightly sketchy....as I was thinking this, 4 guys pulled up in a pickup truck across the street from me and got out. One of them called out to me and told me that I probably shouldn't keep walking down McAllister because people had just been shooting down there. He suggested walking on a different avenue, but I decided to go back to Van Ness and find myself a taxi. This was much faster and cost 6 dollars. I had no idea how much to tip since I am pretty sure I've never taken a taxi by myself in the United States. In South America you don't tip taxi drivers so it is much more simple. I think I didn't tip enough.

Today I slept till 10, Dan and Saray slept even later than me. I left at 10:25 or so and took the bus to the Ferry Building to go to the Farmer's Market. The farmer's market was pretty sweet, I had coffee and a scone, then met up with Melissa and Jacob. I tried lots of good samples, ate some more food, we bought stuff to make dinner (homemade ravioli). Then we headed our separate ways, I went on the BART to Berkeley. This was my first time in the East Bay, and I liked what I saw. I first headed to the Farmer's Market in Berkeley, where I saw Maria. I chatted with Maria, then ate a really delicious peach, then went off exploring. I made sort of a figure 8 through Berkeley, starting by heading north along Shatuck, then west, then down MLK, then back east on University and into UC Berkeley campus. UC Berkeley is really nice, it was also a beautiful day, noticeably warmer than in San Francisco. From campus I headed south on Telegraph Av, then west again eventually back to Shatuck, then I had a chicken caeser wrap at the famous Berkeley Bowl supermarket. I bought a few more things for dinner, then eventually got on the BART again at Ashby.

Crossing the street before heading back to SF on the BART, I ran into Mary, my friend from senior year of high school. I don't think I had seen her since then. It was good seeing her, she lives in Berkeley now so hopefully I'll see her again soon. It took exactly one hour from Ashby Station to the doorstep of Gabe, Dan and Saray's apt in Alamo Square (BART and bus). This actually included a 10 minute stop to buy a Muni pass and a map downtown.

Berkeley was pretty cool, I really liked it there a lot. I'm thinking about living there instead of SF, especially if I get a job in Berkeley. We'll see what happens though...

I chilled in the apt this afternoon, looked for jobs and possible houses in both SF and Berkeley. Then eventually I headed back to Nob Hill to Melissa and Jacob's for dinner. I had a nice dinner with Melissa, Jacob, Timmy and Kyle from Tufts, also friends who live in the same apt building, Thomas and Alex. We made homemade ravioli filled with basil goat cheese and sauteed yellow squash. Jacob made an awesome sage/butter sauce, Timmy brought excellent bread and wine, Melissa made a salad, then peaches and blueberries for dessert. Good food, good company.

It took a while for me to get home (2 buses). It kind of sucks having to travel on buses, especially alone since there isn't anyone to talk to. A car would be pretty convenient in this city, especially at night, although I don't think there's much parking near Melissa and Jacob's house anyway. Karen is coming back tonight, it'll be cool to see her soon too (she lives with Melissa and Jacob).

Now I'll post a few pictures, although I think I'll mainly have this blog be for just writing. I'll eventually post pictures on my website if my brother or dad can show me how to do that. That's all for now...




Angkor the cat



Sunset near Arkansas



Full House



Basil goat cheese and yellow squash ravioli with sweet peas and wine and sage butter sauce

Bienvenidos a San Francisco

Well, I have now been in San Francisco for almost 48 hours. Things are going well so far, I like this city a lot and I'm excited to get to know it more....it's definitely strange to be here without a real place to live or a job, and at times (like a few hours ago) I feel a little bit lost....more on this later.

Anyway, yesterday was a great first day in the city. In the morning I hung out at Abby's house with her ex-housemate Kassie...she moved today to Washington DC, so our time here in SF only overlapped for 1 day. In the afternoon I met up with Russ and we set off for a bit of exploring. We started off in Cole Valley, and from there walked through Ashbury Haight and Lower Haight and then down into the Mission. All of these neighborhoods were pretty cool, and I was very impressed by Russ's knowledge of dozens of restaurants that we passed. There is definitely gonna be some awesome food here. I really liked the Mission and I'm gonna try to get back there soon....lots to explore, especially foodwise.

Last night I had a nice dinner with Russ, Kendra and Abby (mac and cheese and broccolli and mango for dessert), then Russ drove me over to Gabe, Dan and Saray's house so I could drop off my stuff. Gabe, who isn't here now (since he's in Amherst for a week) is basically the best person ever....he's lent me his room for a week or so while I figure out what I'm doing which is really cool. He lives with Dan and Saray near Alamo Square, which is where they filmed the intro to Full House. Very nice location. Dan and Saray and their cat Angkor are all awesome too, so far it's great staying here. After dropping off my stuff, Dan and I headed back to Abby's house with Russ and met up with Kendra, then headed to a bar near their house, with Abby, Kassie and some other people. Good times, nice bar....Dan and I got back early since he had work today. He and Saray both left early this morning.

I spent the day today (Thursday) applying to jobs, reading and exploring. I headed downtown to see about a MUNI pass, but then decided to just wait till Monday to get a weekly one...then later I took two buses to get to Trader Joe's for a bit of shopping....I'm gonna try to limit my eating out to one meal per day. Wish me luck. In the afternoon it was more job searching, then at 5:30 I went to see an apartment in Cole Valley, but when I got there there was a sign saying that the showing was cancelled. Grr. I headed to the southern part of Cole Valley where Russ and I had gone to a cafe/bakery the day before. We had noticed they were hiring, and since I had a resume with me, I decided to drop it off. I ended up having a conversation with the assistant manager who seems pretty cool....she looked at my resume for a second and then said "You worked at the Black Sheep Inn! That was the coolest place I went to in Ecuador!" So maybe my wonderful volunteer experiences in Ecuador will help me get a job after all. I've always wanted to work in a cafe/bakery type place and this place is really nice....people who work there seem pretty cool too. Sadly it doesn't pay much or provide benefits, so we shall see....

I had dinner with Abby and Russ at a Vietnamese place in Inner Sunset, then we got some bubble tea, then I chilled a little bit there before heading back to Alamo Square. Tonight on the busride home I started feeling a little bit lost....sometimes I'm pretty optimistic about things and am excited for all the things I can do here, people I can meet, etc. but other times it's pretty much the opposite and I start to wonder why I came out here at all. I guess that's normal though, we'll see how I feel after a week or two here. I still have a lot to do and explore in San Francisco, not to mention Berkeley and Oakland.

I think that's about all for now....despite feeling a bit lost and confused about things, most everything is very good. Tomorrow on my adventures I'll try to take some more pictures so I can post some here....

The Journey

I made it to San Francisco! Things are going well so far. After some errands and one last slice of Antonio's, I left for Bradley yesterday afternoon. My mom drove me to the airport and came with me to check in....this went really smoothly despite the new security issues, and I was all checked (both bags) and through security in about 10 minutes. No problems at all. Bradley has free wireless which was nice, and then I ran into a girl named Kim from Tufts, so I chatted with her for a while as we waited for the flight to board. The flight to Dallas was pretty uneventful, I started reading the book "Prep" by Curtis Sittenfield...I read practically the whole flight, with the occasional pause to look out the window at the Great Lakes and some nice, flat states.

In Dallas, the wireless internet is not free, so I didn't use it. To get from Terminal B to Terminal D, I took the new Skytrain. It's pretty fast and goes high up (above all the terminals). I was a bit concerned by how rickety it felt....a lot like the Green Line in Boston...a little strange considering it's a brand new monorail.

On my flight from Dallas to San Francisco I sat in the emergency exit row which was good. I sat next to a man from Bangalore who works for Oracle in Texas. He didn't seem to want to talk about Bangalore (I told him I was there last fall) so we didn't. I read more, then tried to sleep.

I got to San Francisco on time, and Russ was there to pick me up. My bags also made it to San Francisco, but it took 45 minutes for everyone's bags to arrive at the baggage claim area. Strange. Anyway, it's good to be here. San Francisco seems really cool so far (although I haven't seen much yet). Now it's time to seriously start looking for jobs. I'm currently in the Inner Sunset neighborhood, things are pretty quiet here (at least in the mornings). It's 10:40 AM right now and it looks like the fog is starting to clear.

That's about all for now...hopefully I'll put up some pictures sometime soon.