A Week in Review: SF Adventures

Walk the Hills

On Saturday, I was invited to Larkspur for a spur of the moment hike with a few friends.  One of my good friends had been staying in this super rustic and beautiful mountain-side house all week dog-sitting, and he'd discovered a few trails he wanted to take us on.  My friends brought food, water, sweatshirts and baseball caps.  I brought my camera.

It's absolutely beautiful up there.  I must admit that I'm not entirely sure where we were (I believe it was Mount Tamalpais?) but it was a different hike than I've ever experienced.  It was difficult, yet at the end I just felt so incredibly light and inspired that I wasn't entirely ready to leave when we decided it was time to turn back.  I'd really like to invest in some good hiking boots and go back some day.

By the Bay

I still have about a week until classes start, but I am remarkably happy that I returned to San Francisco early this year.  Not only is my internship going well so far, but this is really the first time that I've gotten to just hang out in the city with friends without having to rush home to do homework.  Best of all, we've actually been taking advantage of this free time.  This past weekend, I met friends in the Marina for what turned into an all-day neighborhood exploration complete with a trip down to enjoy the sun by the bay.

It's nice to know that after four years of "exploring," San Francisco can still surprise me.

Skydiving Adventures

Just to clarify, I did not go skydiving myself.  I am much too chicken for that!  Rather, my younger brother went for his 18th birthday (all grown up!) and I simply flew home (without jumping out of the plane) so that I could partake in this crazy experience.  Here's a quick picture of Trevor and his best friend Melisa before they took flight...

And here he is falling out of the sky!  I really cannot believe that he actually got up the courage to do this almost as much as I cannot believe that he's actually 18.  I guess this means I have to stop being in denial about my own age!

Happy Monday everyone, and hope you had an amazing Easter weekend!

Weekend Train Ride

Hello, friends.  I cannot believe that it has been so long since I last wrote.  It's actually kind of funny, because when I originally decided to do that 30 Day Drawing Challenge, I thought it would be a good way to revitalize this blog and get me back in the swing of posting regularly.

What I didn't expect was that I would completely use up all of my creative juices for nearly a month.

But now I am back with a fun story of my weekend.  On Saturday, Justine and I braved the rain and wind and took a trip south to Stanford.  I needed to visit the Cantor Arts Center to write a report about their Rodin collection.  I knew that I was going to see some amazing art...

But what I didn't expect was that the journey would be the best part!  This was my first trip on CalTrain, and I was amazed at how easy it was.  Justine and I decided to sit on the upper level, and I can only describe the entire trip as filled with lively music in my headphones and beautiful scenery outside.  Palo Alto itself is a beautiful city, and as Justine had lived there recently, she showed me around.  It was an amazing adventure of a day, filled with sculpture, palm trees, gelato, playgrounds, and wind!

Can't you feel the wind?  In other news, I have finally managed to break my countless-month-long writer's block, and am currently in the process of crafting a young adult novel, partly inspired by the amazing Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  That woman is a genius.  Look for a combined book and movie review soon.

Thanks for sticking with me everyone!

Happy December

December is my favorite time of year, simply for the fact that it means Christmas is just around the corner.  My roommate Christine and I decided to get started on our Christmas shopping yesterday.  We hit the ever cool and trendy Hayes Valley shopping area, and had a great time stopping in all the little stores.  She is a major foodie, and we spent lots of time eyeing little candy boutiques and organic food trucks.

Happy December, everyone.

Art in the Streets

Hello, everyone. I hope your summer is treating you well, and that, wherever you are, it is not too hot. I've been lucky so far, as the hottest day I've had to deal with so far has been about 85 degrees. I'm rather behind on reading my latest book (Emma by Jane Austen), so I thought I'd share some pictures from my family's trip to LA instead.

Back at the beginning of July, we decided to take a trip up to the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA. They are currently having a huge exhibition called "Art in the Streets," featuring street and graffiti artists from all over the place. Right in the heart of Little Tokyo, the exhibit is held in a big wear house of sorts where they have constructed ramps, temporary rooms, and even miniature city. It was really quite something, and as someone who loves street art, I was very excited to be there.

There were multiple old cars that were painted, and the very first picture shows a wall that was entirely covered in little prints of photographs of the graffiti-covered trains in New York City. Some people credit the tagging that first occurred on these trains as the start of what has become street art and graffiti today.

Although there was a large number of canvas paintings and photographs, my favorite pieces were those that had been constructed on the walls themselves. The first picture above is a rather terrible shot of a huge LA mural, featuring the emblem of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The other picture depicts the dozens of boxes that were mounted on a wall, all painted to look like faces. Some of those boxes actually contain speakers, and there were instruments set up for later use.

All in all, I was amazed by the diversity of the exhibit, and would definitely recommend going to see it if you are at all interested in street and contemporary art. I'm not sure how much longer this particular exhibit is up, so I'd check their website soon.

Visiting the Rock

Happy weekend, everyone! Hopefully the weather is treating you well wherever you may be. It's beautifully sunny here in San Francisco, but the entire campus has turned into one big wind tunnel. I've almost been blown over on quite a few occasions!

It was also very windy yesterday, when my dad took my brother and I on a little excursion to Alcatraz. They are in the city for a big family party this weekend, and I've been trying to spend as much time with them as possible while I can. It was my first visit to Alcatraz prison, and I was not prepared for how beautiful it is! I was expecting creepy and foreboding, not beautiful and somewhat breathtaking. The landscape and ambiance there is just... well, I think these pictures may do them more justice.

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

The Final Haul

Well, I've certainly gotten terrible at updating, haven't I? I didn't even get to do a Thanksgiving post! And here we are, in the last few days of my first semester here in San Francisco. I'm lucky enough to only have one final, so I have been able to do a bit of exploring with my friends. On Friday, for example, we took a trip to Union Square to see the Christmas decorations.

They had up a Christmas tree and a little ice rink. We got hot drinks and watched people skate before going over to Macy's to ogle at the live kittens and puppies that they were displaying in the window. There were so many people rushing from store to store, so many lights, and so many billboards displaying present options.

Justine was successful in finding a present for her aunt: this naval nutcracker!

And our friend Cassie, who is a serious cook, was delighted when we found this gigantic gingerbread house. All in all, it was a successful trip.

Although classes ended last Wednesday, I have been very busy trying to find time to go out and explore the city while also completing all of my required essays. People have been slowly trickling out of the dorm, and the floor is beginning to feel more and more deserted every day. I am now so used to having people around me constantly that it is difficult for me to comprehend that I will not be seeing them for six whole weeks! I have a physics final on Wednesday, and less than an hour later I will be on my way to the airport. With any luck, I will write the next update from the comfort of my own living room, while enjoying a steady internet connection.

But first thing's first: have to conquer my final!

The Great Flood

Tonight was a very nice night. My living-learning community put together a big Thanksgiving feast, and it was really nice. Then we returned to the dorms, and were hanging out in the hall when all of a sudden water started trickling out of the boy's bathroom. Before long, it had turned into this:

Poor Justine got stranded in her room! The nice thing about being in such a close community is that everyone genuinely cared about saving other people's rooms. We all grabbed extra towels and tried to keep the water from seeping into the doors of people who weren't there. The university was also very good about responding. The hall director was up on our floor within fifteen minutes, checking rooms for damage and keeping us updated on the situation. And the maintenance staff had the water almost completely cleaned up in just 45 minutes!

Thankfully, it happened early enough in the night that we weren't all trying to deal with it at midnight or later. Also, because to day is the last day before Thanksgiving break and most people are gone anyways, the maintenance staff will have plenty of space to deal with the situation. Hopefully they replace the carpet, because if not it is nearly guaranteed that we'll be getting mold. And one of the girls on the floor recently developed a mold allergy...

It wouldn't be college without at least a couple crazy stories to tell, now would it?

Adventures on Haight

After weeks and weeks of hard work, my friend Christine and I decided we needed to get off of campus for a while and reconnect with the amazing city around us. So we took a little gander down Haight Street, equipped with jackets, umbrellas, and our cameras. We saw stopped in a few little stores, including an art shop where I purchased a cheap sketchbook and various markers. And after seeing so much amazing graffiti and street art on Haight, I cannot wait to get down my own ideas.

Because we were feeling adventurous, and because the rain had finally stopped, we decided to keep going down Haight until we got bored.

We ended coming upon Buena Vista Park, which is essentially a large hill covered in trees. Being curious about how good the view of the city would be from the top of the hill, we decided to go on a little hike.

We climbed up and up... but in the end, it wasn't the multiple staircases or trails that made our ascent to the top rather slow. The park was so beautiful, we just couldn't stop taking pictures!

And at the top, as we were getting blown side to side by the wind and the sky was threatening rain, we decided that it was well worth the walk. San Francisco truly is a beautiful city.

We got back to campus just before the rain hit. We then sat together in Christine's room, cozy under a couple of blankets, comparing photos and watching lightening light up the sky. By the time I finally went to bed, the wind was howling through the buildings on campus, the rain was going vertically at my window, and the trees were swaying violently in the wind. It would have been scary if I hadn't been feeling so thankful for being alive and where I am at.

At the end of the week, it will be Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for?