San Francisco
I'm settled in San Francisco! I arrived Saturday evening after a six-hour drive from Los Angeles. The drive wasn't bad at all; I had the stereo blasting, singing along like there was no tomorrow.
Eric, Eric's friend, Nick, and I took it easy Saturday evening in preparation for a long Sunday. In summary, Sunday consisted of a trip to IKEA, the assembling of furniture, a visit to Matt, and dinner with Sierra. It was a rather eventful day.
Eric and I are living in the Castro Haight, which seems to be an awesome neighborhood, though I haven't had much time to explore yet. My first impression of San Francisco is that it's an awesome town, with plenty to see and do. What's exciting me the most now, though, is my settlement in one place for an extended period of time. I've mentioned before how drained I have been from hopping around Europe, Los Angeles, Cape Cod, and China; I am so, so happy to be staying in one place for a long time -- to not have to pack and unpack my life.
Hello, San Francisco, you have much exploring to be host to.
The Financial Crisis: Explained
Time does a really good job explaining the current financial crisis. My favorite quote:
When greed exceeds fear, trouble follows.
Thank you, greedy bankers, for making tax payers pay for your bull shit. As if the war wasn't enough reason to pay taxes. We all really appreciate it.
McCain’s Fellow POW
My dad sent along this interesting video, so I thought I would share it. A fellow POW of John McCain shares his political opinions.
For you guys that know Jim
I know a lot of you know Jim, so I thought I would announce his new blog: Jim George. His other blog, INTelegance is purely technical and artistic; his new blog will be focused on personal experiences. He'll continue the Shanghai stories once I've left.
We Got Tea-Partied
It seems like people here will try anything to scam westerners into spending money. One popular mechanism is what's called a tea party. I had heard about these from other foreigners here; until today I had never witnessed one.
Jim and I escaped work for a few minutes while the building was evacuated for a fire drill. We went to the local park and played some hacky sack. Two locals approached us and asked to play, one spoke English and the other didn't. We played hacky for a while and had a blast. But then it hit us, like a tree branch hits a snowboarder. They asked us to go to tea. We weezled our way out of it for reasons described below:
Often young locals will be very friendly with young foreigners. Sometimes this is honest. However, in the tea party case, the locals will say that they're students or foreigners, etc. They're very good at not letting you suspect anything, so most foreigners go with them to get traditional tea. Upon arriving, you will be presented with a menu. You'll order a few teas, and the bill will be astronomical given the quantity of tea you drank. We're talking 250 Yuan (~$35) or so for a few small cups.
Close call, but we survived.
Register to Vote
Don't forget to register to vote. Obama's campaign emailed me a one-stop-shop voter registration link.
San Francisco-Bound
There's been a change of plans! I'm flying back to Los Angeles on September 21st, only to be leaving a few days later to move to San Francisco, permanently.
A few factors have influenced this decision, the leading factor being visa complications along with a few other things.
I'm sad to be leaving Shanghai after just a month, but I'm insanely excited to be moving to San Francisco. After over four years, I am finally returning to California, the land of milk and hunny, my adolescent stomping ground, my home. I'm a short drive to Los Angeles, a short drive to some surf, a short drive to Tahoe snowmobiling, a short drive to Mammoth snowboarding, a short drive to canyoneering, a short drive to river rafting, and a short drive to all the other adventures that I've had in this wonderful state. Mmmmmmm.
I've even considered turning into a wilderness man with a scruffy beard and long hair, though I've retired the idea for now. Instead I decided to post some photos of great California memories.
California, here I come!!!
Jim’s Bike: STOLEN
It only took nine days. Jim's bike was stolen off of the street in front of the Google office.
We're going to go to the second-hand market today and look for it.
Today is a sad day.
Shanghai Photo Update
Another photo update:
I tried to capture more of the street mayhem -- red lights being run, drivers driving on the wrong side of the street, streets being shared by pedestrians, bikes, cars, busses, etc. I love it!
Also pictured are Jim and I at the Bund, which overlooks PuDong, the financial district, along with the torrential rain that shortly followed.
We've made really good friends with the staff of Bell Bar, a bar that Christophe stumbled upon and dragged us to. The guys and gals that run that place, Jimmy and HongMei and Amay and Jimmy's girlfriend, are totally rad and really fun. We've been hanging out a lot with them lately. Jimmy whipped up some wild flaming shots, composed of Kahlua, tequila, and a Chinese liquor. We drank them out of a straw -- totally delicious.
Lastly, I wanted to capture the resourcefulness here. Take a look at the photo with the tricycle stacked with cardboard. The streets are riddled with tricycles, which are essentially junk transportation that locals can hire. These guys are amazing at stacking their tricycles with more shit than you can imagine. It's totally insane. But what's more insane is that they hop on the seat and ride away. So cool!
