the last hurrah

So I write this post in my last few hours of freedom. I will be entering the professional work force tomorrow morning. I won't be doing anything spectacular for the first while, but I will nonetheless be a young professional.

That being said, I have a little catching up to do! I have basked in the glorious sunny weather of northern California a lot recently. I have talked about the wonderful weather in one of my previous posts, but I can't fail to mention a freak heatwave we had roll through last week. It got up to the upper 90s. My iPhone said 98 degrees at on point. Being outside felt like a Texas summer for a while, except that I had an awesome view of the Pacific Ocean and Golden Gate Bridge as I went on a hike around Sutro Heights Park and around to the Sea Cliff. When I caught the bus to head home, however, the sunshine started catching up with me. The bus was HOT. The bus has no a/c. There's usually no need, so the windows were cracked which was only letting in the heat! Then my house...my room was the same temperature as outside. Before anyone tells me that last Tuesday it was 100 degrees in Texas or Tennessee or anywhere else, think about how that would feel sans-a/c. Yeah, it's a whole new animal. Needless to say I didn't sleep well until about 6am when I had to get up and close my windows because my room was once again down to the SF summer temperatures of mid-60s. Alright, enough complaining...I just had to share my rogue-heatwave story.

So I spent the past 4 days in the Monterey Bay area. I was between Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, and Carmel. I have to admit, I that was some of the most beautiful coastline I've ever seen. Seeing the boats in the Monterey Marina and the Lone Cypress jutting out of 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach was awesome. Also, just seeing Pebble Beach and it's famous golf course was incredible. Pebble Beach is interesting...it's a private community that you have to pay to enter. I went whale watching and saw 14 humpback whales and 1 blue whale. Supposedly the latter are going extinct. Also please note: going "whaling" and "whale watching" may be slightly similar in orthography (an honest, excusable mistake, right?), however could not be more different in meaning. Don't confuse the two when you're talking to a local in Monterey or the person will most likely burn a hole through you with his/her eyes. Yikes.

Well, I should get some rest -- or at least that's what all the professional people I know say, so I guess I should say it, too. I'll leave you with some photos of the Monterey Bay:

Pebble Beach, CA

Point Lobos, just south of Carmel-by-the-sea, CA

Sailboats in the Monterey Bay @ the Monterey Marina

Dun Dun Dun... Dun Dun...... (part-2)

The weekend was fun, but I slightly omitted the awkward part of it. The Saturday International Dinner/Fellowship was a bit weird for the fact that I was the only single international person there. Every other international people there were married with or without kids... and most of them came with their parents. The matter got even worse when everyone started sitting down to eat, since they all grouped with their own family and left no space for "loners" like me... not that I wanted to join in on the fun, but I do not necessarily speak their language. Oh and the topics that night revolved around the babies and the parents' struggle rearing their progeny.

Things got, once again, a little more interesting when I started having a conversation with a group of old sweet ladies. The oldest one, who happened to be the most outspoken one, started asking me to guess her age... I stood speechless... What do you answer? It was not in my attention to offend anyone that night. Well, she proceeded to break the silence and tell me how she does not get offended anymore because she is old. She said, "that is one good thing about being old, you can say whatever you want to say and you do not have to care about what others may think." Consequently, she started telling me a whole lot of things she had in her mind, which I will gladly list for you.

The things the old sweet lady did not care about sharing:
1- She is turning 89.
2- She has always had fun in life... and that with two husbands, who are in a better place now.
3- She is the first woman to push and fight for more female representation in the workplace.
4- She told me that I was handsome and if she was my age, she would "be all over me.".... huh?
5- A older gentleman wanted to marry her, which she politely declined because she thinks he could not keep up with her and her lifestyle... He passed away a week ago... :,(

She had told me so much that night, but she is still a sweet lady and she is so funny. Anyways, talking to her made that night more fun. I laughed so much.

Sunday was pretty awesome as well. The sermons at church were really uplifting and challenging. I got to play sand-volleyball with a friend from church (Mason) and all his friends from UALR.

P.S.: classes are going to be hard. Please keep me in your prayers. Seriously.

Dun Dun Dun.... (part-1)

Well, I have been here for two weeks and I am starting to like it a little bit.
This weekend was very fun, but awkward and I will definitely tell you why.

On Saturday, I cooked a really good meal for lunch... omelettes and rice... sigh... It was a success. Then, I met some of my new friends from France to play ping pong down at the Student Center and swim in the only indoor olympic-size pool in Arkansas.

P.S: Did I tell you all how one of the French guys' Dad was born in Antananarivo, Madagascar? Well, he was born in my hometown... CRAZY. Anyways, that did not matter since I still beat him in ping pong and wants a revenge later tonight.

After my successfull and athletic adventure in the Student Center, I went to dinner at the Bell's. They are in charge of the International class at Pleasant Valley Church of Christ. They were so hospitable! They opened their house to at least 10 families of people from various cultures. By family, I mean new born babies, parents, grand-parents, and little children... of course.

It was a pleasant evening though. Their house overlooks the Arkansas River and a bridge that connects Little Rock and North Little Rock. The kids were really loud though. All in all, my Saturday was eventful and fun.


P.S: I started studying for my online class... not good. It's ok because there is only 4 more years left.... just 4 more years........ WAIT UP! that's 1,460 days.... I CANT DO THIS!!!!!!!

shopping - a whole new beast

This is going to be a random post but here we go...

When you first move to a city, you have to re-think pretty much everything. Like getting from point A to point B, for example. I'm still not very efficient at timing departures and arrivals for dinner or other appointments. Luckily I have another week before this becomes a serious issue - my job. I plan on being a bit more efficient by then.

Certain essentials in urban areas seems a bit more elusive than in the mid-sized towns I'm used to. For example, the Walgreens two block from my apartment has most things I need, and they are gladly willing to sell me those items at a seizure-enducing premium. I have recently seen a normal size bottle of Dove shampoo for $9.99 and a small block of cheddar cheese for $4.99. (Luckily the Safeway is a short bus ride away.) The main elusive essential I am referring to right now is something that seems simple enough, yet I feel I could have located the loch ness monster more quickly. Pillows. I began my search on Tuesday, I believe. I did not find any until Friday when I went to Costco. I have been heavily employing the use of Yelp! recently, however all of the "home furnishings" locations I tried from Yelp! took me to upper-end Asian furniture with Chinese and Japanese writing. It's interesting that something so simple, yet specific can be so difficult to find.

I also went garage sale-ing today. I felt like a grandmother as I got up at a somewhat-early hour on a Saturday morning with my list of 3 garage sales I wanted to visit. All I ended up with, however was a metal drying rack for laundry. Hopefully my quest for a bed and desk will end quickly and successfully.

I played Karaoke last night with a group from the church I've been visiting. There were songs in Chinese, Tagalog, and Spanish included on this Karaoke set. Here's the proof:

I also found my new favorite street in San Francisco. It's in The Mission:

And last but not least I grabbed coffee at an awesome coffee shop on Nob Hill:

I wasn't made to write a blog

First, I absolutely disliked (I want to use the word "hate", but I will be classy) being in Little Rock for the first few days being here. I was away from my OH! comfortable Abilene and it was really hard to move away from that little place.

Anyways, being in Little Rock and experiencing culture shock sucks. I did not know anyone and I had MAJOR problems with my admission at the university.

Things I have learned/noticed about this city:
1- The Walmart by ACU is NOT representative of all the other Walmart around the U.S. Don't ever go to a Walmart around 9pm.
2- Arkansans think they are the only Americans who say "YALL"... I have a video to prove it.
3- There is an overwhelming amount of trees in the city... which is cool in a certain way.
4- I have a multicultural house. One of my roommates is from California and is half-French! He fluently speaks French. He is also in an acapella group and loves drawing.
My other roommate is a Danish South-Korean, which is pretty cool. I get to listen to awesome Danish music. A LOT. They play musical instruments as well (respectively the piano and the guitar)
5- I hung out with Spencer's cousin, JD, and got to know his friends. They are pretty AWESOME.
6- I met a Latvian guy and 5 French people. Needless to say that we are all already facebook friends and we will go on road trips all over Arkansas to experience The Natural State!
7- I started attending Pleasant Valley Church or Christ and I really enjoy attending there.
8- OH and last but not the least, I went out to have dinner with JD and his friends at this place called, "The Pantry"... It's DA BOMB! The owner is from the Czech Republic and the food is just delicious. I tasted almost everyone's plate and everything was awesome... If you come to visit, WE WILL GO THERE!


Anyways, I cannot wait to write more about my (mis)adventures in Little Rock!

welcome to the city...

It's really late and I'm about to pass out. It's been a full day of hanging out in the Mission District and having a dinner for new international students at San Francisco State University through a non-denominational outreach organization called International Students, Inc.

The reason I'm writing this right now is that I have to get this post written. I casually mentioned in my previous post that a fight broke out on the bus next to me the other day. Well here's the in-depth version of the story:

I was going to dinner in southern SF near Daly City. I had ridden the BART (an underground rail) to the Balboa Park station and was taking a Muni bus to my friend's house. After waiting in weather that is too-cold to be considered "Summer" I took the only seat on the bus - next to a "thug" dude. A person I now refer to as creepydude. So I sat in the tiny space between creepydude and weirddude. It was a tiny space. When I first got on the bus, creepydude had a razor in his hand...yes, a razor...and was shaving his black hoodie pullover. Seriously?? I guess he was taking the balled-up lent off his hoodie. He felt such urgency to remove this lent that he was doing it with a razor on a public, moving bus. (Hence the name creepydude.) So when he looked at me and told me I could sit next to him, naturally my city-smarts kicked in and told me: "Spencer, it's not such a good idea to sit next to creepydude. He has a razor in his hand on a public bus. Notice your surroundings." ....... Actually that's what should have happened. Instead, I just took a seat next to him and proceeded to stare at my iPhone in hopes that my concentration would make the bus wheels turn faster.

Creepydude was in an intense conversation with his girl who was sitting on the other side of him. (Obviously a conversation that was private and the rest of us were intruding on the conversation by being present on this bus.) After yelling at her, telling her to shut up, and counting to three (like a mom trying to shush her child), he turned and backhanded the living daylights out of this girl. Immediately the tension became tangible. No one in the bus knew how to react. Finally the guy across from me couldn't take it any more...with fury on his face he decided to confront creepydude. While his efforts were valiant, I wasn't about to get tangled up with a guy crazy enough to be playing with a razor on public transportation. The guy across from me decided he was mad enough to start a fight, so that's precisely what he proceeded to do.

Let's recap: I'm crammed into a tiny space between creepydude with a razor and weirddude. I can't move to my left because there's a pole for people to hold onto. I can't move to my right because there's an open razor blade...

So the fight breaks out. Eyeglasses are cracking, flat caps are falling, messenger bags are dropping, and razor blades are flying -- all right next to my face. Weirddude decides to slide over to get out of the way, and I decide to help him. I duck behind the pole and shove weirddude over so I can slip around the back of the pole to safety (ish). If I had gone around the front of the pole I would have undoubtedly become one with the razor blade. Now you, dear reader, understand my immediate proximity to the flying blade. Also it immediately occurred to me that a guy crazy enough to play with a razor on a Muni bus would probably have a knife on his person. Thus, I had no difficulty rationalizing my shoving weirddude in order to make my escape to safety.

Crazydude and his girl and one of their friends all got off the bus. I got off at the subsequent stop and had dinner with my friends. I wouldn't be lying, though, if I admitted to being slightly shaken by the series of events.

----------------------

Just moments ago, however, I became aware that this series of events made the headlines in the San Francisco Examiner: here are the two stores you must read. Also, my intuition was right...apparently the guy across from me (besides having the light of day beat out of him) was stabbed by crazydude twice - in the shoulder and the waist.

Story 1

Story 2

For now I will live to see the light (and fog) of another (cold) Summer day. Call me crazy for not helping hero-man, but I'm smart enough to stay away from anyone as crazy as razor-blade-holding crazydude on the 29 bus to Sunset.

So, lesson learned. No my city-smarts know tell me to look before I sit.

first impressions

Two questions: 1) Is it possible to fall in love with a physical location? I believe so, and if you tried to convince me otherwise, I would probably argue with you. 2) If the answer to question 1 is yes [and it obviously is], then is it possible to fall in love with said location in approximately one week? Once again, I would assert that it is.

I’ve been in the Bay Area a grand total of one week. Despite the first 5 days in Daly City covered in fog and slightly colder weather, I’m a fan. Which reminds me…the weather. Is is supposed to be Summer, or am I hallucinating? I didn’t know the words “Summer” and “it feels nice outside” could go in the same sentence. My brain all but short-circuits when I tell a friend that it’s mid-August and mid-60s. It blows my mind.

So far I have (1) missed my bus stop and had to walk extra blocks so many times I lost count, (2) met a neighbor who informed me he was “in charge of keeping the neighborhood clean” [note: I couldn't tell if he was a hippie or homeless…I guess that fine line is still a little blurry to me…], (3) learned that it takes me one hour to church, (3) summited mountains [better said…I've walked around the City frequently], (4) had a fight break out next to me on a bus [I made a narrow escape], and (5) seen a bottle of Dove shampoo for $9.95.

I’m not the best writer or blogger, but I do intend to give this thing a shot…and if Laza pulls his weight, also then this may just turn out to be a success.

(This photo was taken from the docks at Fisherman’s Wharf looking back towards the City.)