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!

los angeles to san francisco - packing it all in, as usual

I arrived in LA on Friday evening, May 31, and enjoyed dinner with Vince and the kids (Sarah was out studying).  The next day I headed out for an early lunch at Din Tai Fung with Debbie and Judy.  DEE-LISH-US!!  We hung out for a bit and then I headed over to Irene's house and enjoyed dinner with Irene and Joe.  That evening, I got to spend time with Sarah and Esther, a friend I haven't seen in a while.  Esther was also an architecture major at Cal, but unlike Sarah and me, she is still working in the field.  Sunday morning I met Kim, my "big" from Emory, for breakfast before helping my friend John move from one house to another in Huntington Beach.  In the afternoon, I got together with my cousin Queenie for a cup of tea and a chance to catch up before heading north to Valencia for dinner with Debbie and a night's lodging before heading north to the Bay area.

debbie and judy at din tai fung

kim and me after breakfast

me and queenie and our cups of tea

I drove up to the Bay Area Monday morning, and enjoyed dinner with my parents at a new Shanghai dumpling place down the street from their house.  Tuesday I drove up to Oakland and had lunch in my old stomping grounds, Oakland Chinatown, with an Emory classmate before dropping her off at the airport to head back to her rotation in Portland.  Wednesday I headed up to Tahoe for a couple nights, staying with Lisa again.  On my way I stopped in Folsom for lunch with Pearl.

me with my emory classmate angela in oakland chinatown

pearl and me after lunch

As usual, my brief time in Tahoe was full of adventure.  Soon after I arrived, I entered my first stand-up paddle race on a borrowed board and was quite happy not to finish in last place, especially since it had been over 2.5 years since the last time I'd paddled.  My host Lisa and her boyfriend Dean also raced for the first time and got 2nd and 1st in their respective divisions!

race starting line

I got a couple of peaceful morning paddles in, heading out Lisa's back door onto the dock and dropping her board into the water there.  I also managed to catch up with my good friend Danielle, who was expecting her first child at the time (he should have arrived by now, I haven't heard), drop by my old office to say hi, and head down to Minden to visit Marissa and Leigh Wayne at the ranch and help them prep for a ranch party that Saturday (also squeezed in a short horseback ride on Tango).

danielle and me in her back yard

emerald bay pt office dog, moose

tango-back view

peaceful morning paddle

 On the way back to Cupertino, I spent a night in Walnut Creek, catching up with Libby and family.

libby and me

One last day spent in Cupertino, then my parents drove me up to San Francisco on June 9 to stay with our family friends Trudy and Steve in Dolores Heights, sandwiched between Noe Valley and the Castro.  Parking is an issue here, so my car is staying in Cupertino while I commute via the MUNI streetcar or BART.

My mother, Trudy, and I walked up Corona Heights to work up an appetite for a mouthwatering Peruvian dinner at Limon.  They feature rotisserie chicken and scrumptious ceviche, in addition to a blue corn juice with a delightful flavor.

mama and trudy walking up the stairs to corona heights

inca blu "exotic peruvian juice"

I am comfortably accommodated in the basement floor of a pre-1906 Victorian house with my own bedroom and bathroom and a short trip up the steps to the rest of the house.  It's a short walk to the MUNI stop and an even shorter walk from the Embarcadero Station to the clinic...

tuscon to california

My last week in Tucson was completely packed.  Tuesday after work I was taken out to dinner by Daniel and Alice, joining Les and Sharon (all members of Tucson Chinese Baptist Church) and the volleyball team on which both couple's kids (twenty-somethings) play.  It was a good time hanging out and saying good bye.

Wednesday evening I drove out to Saguaro National Park East.  There's an 8 mile one-way driving loop that I took, enjoying the desert on the other side of Tucson.  I didn't have enough time to hike, but did get out of the car to check out a few scenic spots.

probably the tallest saguaro i've seen

first time seeing the flower of the hanging chain/ chain-fruit cholla

another gorgeous sunset

Thursday was my last day at work.  I got off at lunchtime after going through my final review, since my CI McHaley was leaving then anyway.  I went for a run and then made sure my stuff was all packed up before going to meet Kelly (another friend from TCBC) for my last dinner in Tucson.

me with mchaley right before we left

after dinner with kelly

The next morning I slept in a bit and hit the road by 9:45.  I drove I-10 up through Phoenix and across toward California.  Once into California, I passed a town called Desert Center.  The one thing that stood out about the place was that all the palm trees looked as if they'd been decapitated!  It looked as if a tornado had whipped through and ripped the tops off of all the trees.  I finally got around to looking it up online and learned that Desert Center was founded in 1921 by Stephen Ragsdale, an eccentric cotton farmer from Arkansas.  The palm trees were planted in 1990 by his son, Stanley Ragsdale, because "he said he always wanted 'a tree-ring circus.'  Since his death in 1999, the trees have fallen into disrepair and many have died," according to Wikipedia.  The town is also the birthplace of the Kaiser Permanente medical system.  Yes, I bring you more completely irrelevant information!

I stopped for gas at Chiriaco Summit.  Who knew that stopping at a podunk town to fill the gas tank could be so interesting?  It turns out that the little town of Chiriaco Summit is the home of the General Patton Memorial Museum and the "West Coast Vietnam Wall" as well as a collection of military vehicles, antique weaponry, and classic cars.

chiriaco summit classic car garage

general patton memorial museum

west coast vietnam wall

ed hastey memorial vehicle park

I rolled out of Chiriaco Summit and shortly turned off I-10 onto Cottonwood Springs Road into Joshua Tree National Park.  There was a trail called "Bajada Trail" about half a mile in so I stopped and walked along the trail and learned quite a bit from the informational signs.  Several miles further in, I came across a ranger station and asked for a recommendation with minimal time available to check out the park.  I was told to drive another mile or so to Cottonwood Springs Oasis and walk around there, and also told I didn't have to pay the $15 fee since I wasn't staying long.  I took a short hike from the oasis down a wash.  It was beautiful, and pretty cool to see the funny little (there weren't any big ones there) Joshua trees.  It turned out to be just a 16 mile detour, well worth it.

dead tree along bajada trail near the freeway

cottonwood springs oasis

one of the bigger joshua trees i saw

beaver tail cactus

I continued on from Joshua Tree and ended up at Sarah and Vince's place in Los Angeles, where I spent two nights and reclaimed the stuff I'd stored back in March.  More on LA in the next posting...

last weeks in tucson

My final three weeks in Tucson flew by with a bunch of "lasts."  I went for my last hike from there on May 11, heading a bit Northwest for the Tortolita Mountains.  I started out by driving through the gate of the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain Resort.  The friendly guard at the gate told me exactly where to park to find the trailhead, and offered me both a large and pocket sized map of the area.  From the trailhead, I took the Wild Burro Trail and ended up making a big loop (approximately 10 miles).  I had a lot of chances to listen to one thing I will truly miss from my time in Tucson - the sound of wind rushing through the spines of a saguaro cactus.  It's inimitable.  I can't even describe it, but I can say that it's soothing, a very peaceful sound.

cloud shadows and wind were respite from heat and bugs, respectively

old ranch building

this portion of wild burro canyon had an awesome echo

remains of a "line shack"

That week, I expected to spend my birthday at home by myself, working on my project.  Instead, in the afternoon I got a text message asking if I was free for dinner, and I ended up getting taken out to dinner by a group of friends from Tucson Chinese Baptist Church.  We had Mexican food at El Guero Canelo (apparently, there's a song about it...) and later went out for some amazing gelato at Allegro.  They had flavors like Pink Grapefruit with Black Pepper, Pineapple Basil, Spicy Chocolate, and Cucumber.

happy post-gelato faces

On Saturday, I took a midday run - that was crazy, it was so hot!  That evening, I searched online for the best places to check out the sunset from Tucson and ended up taking a short trek south to the San Xavier Mission.  I was a little late for the actual sunset, but it was beautiful anyway and therefore worth it.

Sunday I had my second tennis experience in Tucson, and am proud to report that I was able to return more than half the balls hit my direction not only over the net but in the court!

Friday night was the full moon, and it was beautiful!

Saturday I went out to my "farewell" lunch with an even bigger group from church, since the three girls in the group photo above were leaving for a vacation trip to the east coast.  I had to work on Sunday, but got off early enough that I took a drive up Mount Lemmon (recommended since day one by my landlady Jamie) where temperatures were cooler and the view was gorgeous.  Mount Lemmon is the highest peak in the Santa Catalina Mountains at 9157 feet.

one of two deer at the molino canyon vista

view from the top

crazy spider webs on the aspen trees at one point near the top

cool rock formations

Monday night I went to Meet Me at Maynard's for my last downtown run/walk, enjoying the fun and funky architecture as well as earning my free t-shirt.

two sides of a structure in downtown

The remaining few days will be covered in one last Arizona blog post...