aaaaaand i'm starting my tenth week in the city

Yes, I have been remiss in my blogging.  I have finished the ninth of my ten weeks in San Francisco, so I'll start this post from week one and see how far I get!

i'm living in the yellow house

On June 10, I started off my rotation by meeting another student who was working under the same clinical instructor.  Mikaela is from Vermont and was in her second year, near the beginning of her first long term clinical.  At first it was slightly awkward figuring out how to work with two students to one CI, since I had never had that experience before, but we sorted that situation out within the first week.  After that, it was nice to have another student around to bounce ideas back and forth and compare notes.  We also enjoyed spending our lunches together outside, discovering new places to sit and relax.

Per my usual modus operandi, I've spent a lot of my time here exploring, catching up with old friends, and making a few new friends.  During my first week, I met up with a Cal architecture classmate, Shawn, for lunch.  We got empanadas at El Porteño in the Ferry Building on a recommendation from a co-worker of mine - DELICIOUS!  Shawn has his own architecture firm in the East Bay, SBB Design.  We actually met at the beginning of our freshman year in the dorms, since he lived one floor above me.  We lost touch, and reconnected via Facebook.  This was one of my "forgot to take a photo" situations.  Anyway, it was great to catch up, we hadn't seen each other since Cal days!

I get to the clinic most days by walking to the MUNI Castro Station and sometimes by a ride to BART with my hosts Trudy and Steve.  Either way, I started walking home often in June to explore and enjoy the city.  I headed back to my parents' place in the South Bay for the first weekend, since it was Father's Day weekend.  I came back up on Sunday afternoon, and began my second week here.  That next Saturday, (June 22), my mother came up on Caltrain and we took a bike ride ending up in Golden Gate Park.

on one of my walks home, i went up cathedral hill to st mary's

i saw the america's cup defender cruising the bay during lunch

lunch in the Castro before biking with my mother

view of academy of science from de young museum tower in golden gate park

it was quite rainy for a couple of days near the end of june

Trudy and Steve went on vacation to Europe so I was house- and cat-sitting for two weeks.  I took them to the airport on June 29 in Trudy's car and didn't drive it again until I picked them up on July 14.  In the meantime, a lot went on for me.  For starters, on Sunday morning I attended Reality Church SF, a non-denominational church meeting at Everett Middle School in the Mission, on the recommendation of my classmate Hope who spent her first clinical at a Concentra Medical Center in Oakland.  I was introduced to her friend Stefan via Facebook before I went, giving me a point of contact in a huge church.

Next, starting that Monday, BART went on strike for 4.5 days, cutting our patient load nearly in half as patients cancelled appointments right and left because they weren't coming in to the city for work.  MUNI was a little more hectic than usual during those days, and I'm sure the traffic was awful.  The strike timing was good for Trudy as her usual commute includes taking BART to Berkeley.

BART strike!

I took Caltrain on July 3 down to the South Bay where I joined my father for dinner on his birthday while my mother was at her Taiko drumming class.  On the 4th of July we took a short bike ride and then had my parents' usual BBQ with lots of friends.

4th of july bike ride

bbq chef (my father) and friend

my mother and friends

san francisco 4th of july fireworks from noe hill

On July 5, Mikaela finished her clinical and headed back to Vermont.  Saturday, I spontaneously decided to head out to Walnut Creek where I joined Libby and her daughter Tori watching the movie Monsters University in 3D.  It's a fun movie, especially if you happen to enjoy Disney and Pixar animated movies (I do).  Sunday evening was the first of 5 "Summer Sundays" at Reality Church, with evening services at First Baptist Church on Octavia at Mission.

tori, libby, and me

That Monday, we got two new students from Samuel Merritt College in Oakland.  They were there for their first one week clinicals.  Curtis was assigned to work primarily with me while Laura worked with our Clinical Instructor, John.  We learned a lot from each other and it was good experience for me functioning partly as a clinical instructor myself. We three also enjoyed our lunchtimes together and some time after work as well.  Tuesday afternoon Curtis and I walked up to Coit Tower, and Wednesday afternoon Laura and I took the F Market historic streetcar out to Fisherman's Wharf and then walked along the water past Fort Mason and the Marina, ending up at the Palace of Fine Arts.

coit tower

golden gate bridge from crissy field

palace of fine arts

That Thursday, my parents took Caltrain up to the city with their bicycles and we enjoyed El Porteño empanadas during my lunch hour - we got six different ones and each ate 1/3 of each flavor.

enjoying lunch in justin herman plaza

vaillancourt fountain in the background

Friday afternoon I got a message that my friend Kody from LA was in town visiting a local mutual friend, Dan. They had gathered a group of mountainboarding friends together which made for a fun mini-reunion.  Four out of five of us went out for a delectable Pakistani/ Indian meal in the Mission at Aslam's Rasoi.

me, dan, brian, mika, and kody

mika, dan, me, and kody with full bellies and a custom pistachio ice cream dessert

walking home that night gave me my first glimpse of the bay bridge lights

This post is already long so I'm going to conclude here at 5 weeks in.  More coming, soon!