Tuesday evening, Will and I met the local cavers and they seem to be a nice bunch!
Unlike our cosy weekly meetings with Spekul, SFCB (San Francisco Bay Chapter Grotto) members only meet every fourth Tuesday of the month. Admittedly, they seem to live much more geographically separated. For us, getting to the meeting took us an hour and 20 minutes by public transport!
We met them first at a pre-meeting dinner in a hamburger restaurant. Arriving at the restaurant we saw a huge table of young guys sitting all together, while none of the other folks looked, behaved or were present in numbers that would suit a thriving caving club. After some debating (we felt a bit intimidated, especially because there were no seats left around the table) we did go in and ask the group if they were the cavers. They turned out to be a football team ... Pfwieuw ...
The cavers we found hidden in a more secluded area of the restaurant and as in Europe, they turned out to be of all ages, some of them looking somewhat gruffy, an estimated 42 % of them female and all of them rather welcoming and very talkative ... ;-) Many people of the club seem to be (rather distinguished) geologists or other scientists, so we might learn a lot.
The meeting went well, although very different from what I'm used to at Spekul; so much more formal, but with a kind a humour that felt very familiar ... ;-) I've tried to sign up for a caving weekend for 7-11/11,- that is - if they have an opening ... They seem to have limits on how many people can go on a trip and also seem to insist on having a trip leader, a job which not too many people seem to want or can take upon them ... (first impressions ...) Will wouldn't be able to come that weekend since he "volunteered" to go to work that Saturday; they'll have a "hack day" at Metaweb or something the like ...
Yesterday, Will and I had a fun and very relaxed evening. We met after work to take a ride on the cable cars, went to Embarcadero - which luckily wasn't as touristy as during the day - paid another little visit to our friends the sea lions, had a nice view of the lights of SF, went to a book store and took the cable car back getting of at a small Italian restaurant where we had a late dinner.
Tonight we plan to visit the SF MOMA (Museum of Modern Arts, they're open almost until 21.00 h on Thursdays) and on Friday we'll give the California Academy of Sciences another try. Hope there won't be such a crowd on a weekday as last Sunday. On Saturday then, we'll finally be moving out of the Gaylord suites and into the house at Balboa Park! Looking forward to that!
October 30, 2008
Some pictures
October 23, 2008
Mission accomplished!
Our first weekend in SF was pretty laid back. We had gotten an invitation from one of Will's colleagues to a(n unofficial) house warming party / barbecue in North Berkeley. We took BART there (Bay Area Regional Transport); brr ... it was a trip under the bay, something like the channel tunnel, but then in an area where earthquakes do happen more regularly. Met a couple of Will's colleagues (again) and had a good time discussing scary movies. We got a lift back into town over the East Bay bridge and had a spectacular view of downtown SF by night!
The Sunday we met up with Mike Love (finally got to meet the person behind the name) and Brendan for brunch in the Mission. The Mission is supposedly SF's coolest district with a lot of Latino influences and - especially around 24th street - a very relaxed atmosphere. I liked it instantly coming out of the BART station the first time I set foot there.
Monday afternoon, we went to Balboa Park again. We had asked Taylor, the leaseholder, if we could visit again, because after visiting more houses and meeting more nice people our decision-to-take had become more difficult. Taylor was very nice about it, even offered to bribe us into moving there with 25 year old scotch ... ;-) After another nice encounter with all the house mates we decided to move in; both Will and I have a very good feeling about it. Our future house mates will be Taylor, Hillary, Andy, Stephanie and Oscar. And I am especially very happy about the fact that they have cats in the house (one of them listening to the very cool name of cin jin), there's also a friendly dog and especially Taylor seems to be into gardening ... ;-)
Now, I urgently want to get rid of the last traces of being sick and in the weekend we Will start exploring SF with the city pass (think cable cars, museums, Aquarium of the Bay and even a bay cruise) that we got as a wedding present!
The Sunday we met up with Mike Love (finally got to meet the person behind the name) and Brendan for brunch in the Mission. The Mission is supposedly SF's coolest district with a lot of Latino influences and - especially around 24th street - a very relaxed atmosphere. I liked it instantly coming out of the BART station the first time I set foot there.
Monday afternoon, we went to Balboa Park again. We had asked Taylor, the leaseholder, if we could visit again, because after visiting more houses and meeting more nice people our decision-to-take had become more difficult. Taylor was very nice about it, even offered to bribe us into moving there with 25 year old scotch ... ;-) After another nice encounter with all the house mates we decided to move in; both Will and I have a very good feeling about it. Our future house mates will be Taylor, Hillary, Andy, Stephanie and Oscar. And I am especially very happy about the fact that they have cats in the house (one of them listening to the very cool name of cin jin), there's also a friendly dog and especially Taylor seems to be into gardening ... ;-)
Now, I urgently want to get rid of the last traces of being sick and in the weekend we Will start exploring SF with the city pass (think cable cars, museums, Aquarium of the Bay and even a bay cruise) that we got as a wedding present!
October 17, 2008
Sia's off for her next adventure ...
We've finally arrived! After months of not knowing whether one day we'd end up in sunny San Francisco or not, we're here ...
The flight over was not so pleasant for me. A splitting headache made me take an aspirin which in turn made me totally nauseous. Will was forced to play "pakezel" (pack mule) again. He carried all the big bags from Powell station to the Gaylord suites, which we will call sort-of-home until the 24th of October.
To prevent us falling asleep immediately after arrival we walked to the embarcadero. On our walk - in the middle of town - we spotted a bird of prey who had just caught something and was eating it with a lot of appetite. Just hope it wasn't a small hedgehog ...
Wednesday, we tried to get Will a Social Security Number (for which we'll have to wait about a month - that is, if they don't forget about it ...), we opened a bank account, bought the best porridge / granola ever, filled our fridge with all sorts of organic fruits, and got me a phone ... ;-) Just in case, we can be reached now at +1 415 6230294 (mobile).
Yesterday then, we went house hunting. Managed to get two appointments, one just one block away from the sea, the other in town near Balboa park. The "two rooms for a couple (or one who needs space)" near the sea couldn't seduce us, but the sea itself was beautiful with all the fog hanging around. The other house (Looking for awesome roomate(s) to join a happy home), we really liked, especially the people there. Curious to know where we'll end up ...
Today and tomorrow, we'll try to get some other appointments.
The flight over was not so pleasant for me. A splitting headache made me take an aspirin which in turn made me totally nauseous. Will was forced to play "pakezel" (pack mule) again. He carried all the big bags from Powell station to the Gaylord suites, which we will call sort-of-home until the 24th of October.
To prevent us falling asleep immediately after arrival we walked to the embarcadero. On our walk - in the middle of town - we spotted a bird of prey who had just caught something and was eating it with a lot of appetite. Just hope it wasn't a small hedgehog ...
Wednesday, we tried to get Will a Social Security Number (for which we'll have to wait about a month - that is, if they don't forget about it ...), we opened a bank account, bought the best porridge / granola ever, filled our fridge with all sorts of organic fruits, and got me a phone ... ;-) Just in case, we can be reached now at +1 415 6230294 (mobile).
Yesterday then, we went house hunting. Managed to get two appointments, one just one block away from the sea, the other in town near Balboa park. The "two rooms for a couple (or one who needs space)" near the sea couldn't seduce us, but the sea itself was beautiful with all the fog hanging around. The other house (Looking for awesome roomate(s) to join a happy home), we really liked, especially the people there. Curious to know where we'll end up ...
Today and tomorrow, we'll try to get some other appointments.
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