Week 1 in beautiful San Francisco

I don't think I'll ever want to leave! Seriously! Have you ever noticed how amazing San Francisco is? They have this great system called free cycle where people put their stuff out on the street that they don't want and other people can just take it. Really, who wouldn't want to live here? I have already added a pair of boots and a great shirt to my collected street items.
Anyway, this first week has been nothing less than amazing. All us students were given the privilege of going on a self-guided city walk, which was honestly one of the best things to learn the city, bus system and such. Yay for hands-on learning!
Corinna, Kaite and I were in one group that went to a bunch of different areas of the city. First, we were told by our itinerary to walk up to Haight St., where we also discovered Buena Vista Park. We met a man that worked there, providing maintenance. He told us that this is the oldest park in the city, created for nature lovers. Here is a view from Buena Vista...it is named appropriately huh?

Here is a shot of this green haven. The nice man we met also told us an interesting fact about the stones lining the gutters of the pathway. When the catholic church moved locations in the early 1900's the headstones in the graveyard were broken up and then taken to pave the gutters of this park. In some spots you can still see names and dates.

Another view from Buena Vista.

Oh, Haight. So great! After we left the park, we made our way down Haight St. Much of Haight still clearly has it's roots back in the summer of love, when it gained it's fame. It's quite the interesting place; I wish I could have seen it back in the 60's.

My new favorite book store located on Haight Street. Just kidding. They do have some pretty cool stuff inside though.

The three of us wandered around Haight Ashbury for a while and were also instructed to go into the Social Services building and ask about what services they provide. When we walked in, I glanced at the bulletin board where those brochures and flyer's about healthy living and flu shots typically reside. One in particular caught my eye: "Gay Men Addicted to Crystal Meth. How to overcome or lessen your addiction". This didn't disturb me, like it might most. However, I did take notice of the fact that, that wouldn't be just on a bulletin board in a doctors office back home. Those help flyer's may exist, but I'm guessing they would be given upon special request. If you could believe it, experiences and things I notice like this just makes me love this city and living here even more. I can't really explain it, but it's like the fact that people are sensitive to differences among people, yet each "group" is accepted.

Anyway, our next stop was the Mission District (the Latino part of town) and after a first few failed attempts to get on the #34 bus, we managed to walk along the route and successfully board our first bus. We got off down on Mission and 16th Street, where we wandered, taking everything in and enjoying lovely murals like this one below on the Women's building.

The Roxie Theater seems like it would be a fun place to see some classic films. Can't wait!

I'm also going to make sure to go to the Castro Theater at some point. That'll be fun as well.

Our next stop was Market Street, which has become a familiar walk these last few weeks. The few people we met there were quite the characters. One lady was trying to help us find the right bus and when she pointed us in the right direction, she apparently didn't know if we knew to stand on the island or not and accordingly began yelling and jumping up and down-"It's on the island! Get on the island!" We waved to tell her we got it and then proceeded to wait on the island haha. A few minutes later, while we were still waiting for the bus we saw a pimp walk by, dressed in pink fur from head to toe. We also had a man just stroll up and ask "Where are you ladies headed?"

"North on the #19." we replied

"What the f*** do you mean North?!"

"Towards Pacific Heights."

"Oh, well you ladies are heading in the right direction" he said calmly as he strolled away.

It was pretty funny.

We then walked around Pacific Heights, which was definitely a more ritzy area of town and then made our way to our last stop of the day. The Golden Gate Bridge. We then returned to the house for some group reflection and to hear about the rest of the group's day's.

Katie, Corinna and I at the Golden Gate.

Our House! On the corner of the street...our house ;)

So, after the city exploration, which was really helpful in getting some bearings, the rest of the week was dedicated to getting an internship. We had a number of people on panels come and speak to us about their different organizations and we all were able to set up some interviews. I set up five. One for a Chaplaincy at San Francisco General, one for a place called The Arc of San Francisco (they assist people with disabilities in taking classes, getting jobs and I'd work in marketing and communications). Another one was for a place called St. Anthony's Foundation, that works with the poor, one with an after school tutoring program called 826 Valencia and the last one with a branch of Youth With a Mission called Because Justice Matters; it deals with women who have been trafficked into the sex industry (this one sounded a lot more like Barrett than me). So, all very different.

We also devoted the first week to finding out a little about ourselves and our personality types. According to Myers Briggs I am an ENTP: extroverted, intuitive, thinking, perceiving.
This was a really interesting subject to discuss and I feel like I always knew I was these things, but it's nice having a better understanding of why I react in certain ways or how to better asses my needs accordingly. I believe all these are pretty accurate. For the most part I am extroverted, but I may teeter somewhere on the mid line between this and introverted; I definitely like my alone time as well. I am intuitive in many situations rather than sensing. I almost always draw from my own emotions rather than get swept up in what is going on around me. Although I am much of a feeler, I believe that for the most part I am thinking. Especially when I am around my family, I tend to be the one who is the least emotional in tense situations. And perceiving rather than judging is definitely accurate. I absolutely go with the flow and adapt my personality to my surroundings and what others many need. Personality is a very interesting thing. How much of it is our own do you think? How much of it is predetermined versus what are surroundings are like? The endless nature vs. nurture battle.

Other highlights of this week also included running in the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park, which is right across the street! It was amazingly beautiful and peaceful even amidst all the traffic, cars and people. It's an interesting place, the city. So many people are always around, but sometimes that is the best "alone time".