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)