I have been meaning to post the pictures that I gave my parents for Christmas.
While they were out here helping me get setup we got a chance to sneak away to San Francisco. I'm pretty sure they had a good time. I know this because they said they were having a good time. I took a few chances to take pictures of them around the city. The results are below. I was pleased with them, and I hope they were as well.
Well, now that I'm back from being abducted by aliens, I can finally get back to blogging! (And with one sentence Justin calmed the angry crowds, restoring peace once more.)
This New Years was spent in downtown San Francisco. (I was told today that I should never refer to downtown San Francisco as "downtown". This apparently causes great confusion here, since every town has a unique and separate "downtown". San Francisco is properly called "the city".)
We took the train into the city, which was a nice ride. It took about an hour and a half, but the scenery was good, and I didn't have to try to find a parking space once we got there. The train was cheap too: only $5 to go in, and it was free on the way back (a nice gesture by the government to keep the drunk people off the roads). This was but the start to a pretty cheap night. All in all I spent under $30, which included two meals.
At first, I was very unprepared for how this was going to turn out. I wasn't sure what kinds of crowds the city would be drawing. But I'm happy to report that I only met "good people". Everyone was in a good mood and friendly. Everyone was chatty and full of spirit (some were probably full of spirits as well).
I lied about only meeting happy people. I met one cranky person. The bus driver. She was none too pleased with the evening. Apparently there were a number of coworkers that decided not to show up for work. This let the remaining buses filled to capacity. And I mean filled. We literally could not fit another person on the bus. The bus driver explained (with very colorful language) that she should be at home right now. She did not deserve this apparently.
But everyone else on the bus was having fun. Everyone was talking about their night and what plans they had. A cute Chinese baby even blew a kiss to me. I think that's the point when I knew the night was going to be a good one.
There were also a large number of street performers. And most of them incorporated fire in one way or another. I'm not entirely sure how legal this was.
We also got a chance to go back and see the sea lions at the wharf. They're always up for a good time of knocking each other off their platforms, yelling for absolutely no reason, and smelling very bad. It was dark, so they were a bit tough to see, but they sure their presence was known by anyone within ear shouting distance.
The night culminated in a very long and very entertaining fireworks display over the Bay Bridge. The streets were packed with all different kinds of people screaming and having a good time. It was a good time had by all. We then dashed quickly back to the trains to catch a ride home. My legs were killing me by that point after having walked a fair bit around the city and not getting a whole lot of sleep the night before. But the fireworks were worth it.
This passed Sunday I went into the city again to hang out with some people I met last Sunday in the city. [Ehm.] I had a lot of fun checking out parts of the city that I hadn't been to yet.
The first place we checked out was Chinatown. It was nice to stand in a crowd of people and feel tall. I wonder if Chinatown is a good representation of a real Asian city? I hope it is. It was definitely a unique experience and a pretty neat look into a different kind of culture.
We ate at a place that served a din sum (I think that's how you spell it) meal. Now, this was my first din sum experience, and it was a little wild. It's basically a-la-carte, but very fast paced, and with very pushy waiters. The waiters walk around the whole meal with carts filled with food. They'll pass by and ask if you'd like some of what they're serving. Apparently, they work on some kind of commission, because these people were like vultures. We were lucky to have an Asian (well, second generation) with us that had done this sort of thing before. He was able to suggest certain things and yell at the waiters whenever they got too pushy. He explained that, being as the other two people at the table were white (namely me and the girl that was with us) we were pretty easy targets. White people don't really know what's going half the time, so the waiters figure they can just unload food on the poor saps looking for an authentic meal. So it's a good thing we had a ringer.
We then went down to Union Square, which is the main shopping district in San Francisco. Any store you can imagine was there. Since I'm currently broke this only allowed me to "look, but don't touch". But it gave me some ideas of where to get fashionable items, if I ever decide to buy fashionable items.
We also got a chance to visit the sea lions down at the wharf. Yes, I finally found them. They're tucked away and a bit hard to find, unless you follow the tons of people that flock to see them. Then they're pretty easy to find. But they were a good time. They're always yelling at each other, and sleeping, and pushing each other off the decks they lay on. They also smell pretty bad. I don't figure they bathe much, or brush their teeth.
The adventure ended on the Pacific coast. We caught the tail end of the day's sunset on the beach, as we watched an old man bury driftwood straight up in the sand. San Francisco is filled with interesting people.
Every time I go to the city I have a good time. I've yet to be disappointed. This makes the urge to actually move there grow. Sure, traffic would be a problem for work. But I think I'd enjoy the scenery and social scene more. Or at least, I'd finally prove to myself if living in a city is actually fun. I've yet to try, and I keep telling myself it would be, but you never know until you try it.
So I've tentatively planned to wait a few months and see how my feelings change. I could, if the mood struck me just so, sublease my apartment (I don't really think this would be that tough to do, it's a nice place and a good price) and move to the city somewhere. I've even been checking out rental prices in various districts, and there are some pretty reasonable places. We'll just see I guess.
I'm becoming more official every day. Well, I'm feeling more official every day. In the span of a few days I got my official work badge, my official California driver's license, and my new bank account. So it's been exciting.
There's nothing new to report on the cube front. I'm still invading another man's cube. My boss seems to be taking a "we'll just see what happens" kind of attitude. Apparently the cube overlords get upset when you try to talk to them about cube assignment problems. So we'll just see what happens.
The weather here is being quite fickle at the moment. It's been raining all weekend. I've yet to experience the California weather of my dreams, but I guess patience is a virtue.
I went to church down in San Francisco today, which was a pretty fun experience. It was a new startup church that only had about 30 or 40 people attending. I met a lot of people who had just moved to the city in the last few weeks just like me. It makes me kind of wish that I had moved to the city proper instead of 40 minutes down the road. Every time I get to go into the city I like it even more. Maybe it's because I'm getting a little more accustomed to maneuvering in such a crazy environment. The hills seems to add a lot of beauty to the city. Maybe I'll get a chance to move there in a year or so. We'll see how things pan out.
My first week at work went pretty well (minus the cubicle conundrum). I'm learning more about where I'll be fitting in with the group, and it's relieving to see that I'll be given a lot of responsibility. I was prepared to be a grunt worker, but it seems I'll actually get a chance to do user interface design work and head up the development work on it. So that's exciting.
