Catching up with the latest news in my world!
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2008
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12
31
Trip End
Jan 14, 2010
San Francisco, California
Friday, April 25, 2008
I met up with Amit (my climbing partner here in Memphis, who has now abandoned me for the better life in California), Jens (my great traveling companion in China, about 2 years ago) and Jordan et al (his friends) who is also from Memphis. My sole purpose for going to San Fran was so that I could meet up with Jens and the sole purpose of meeting up with Jens was so that I could tell him, face to face...here we meet again! Since it was almost more than one year ago that he told me, he didn't think we would be able to meet up again! And here we are standing in Union Square in San Francisco of all places, chatting like we were never apart for 2 years. And the best thing with meeting up where we did was that they were celebrating the worldwide day of Tai Chi and they had Chinese music and festivities all around the Square, like back in China! I love life!
Although my meeting with Jens was extremely brief (one whole day), I had such a great time, that when I look back it feels like I spent a whole week with him, not because it was long and tedious, but because we did so much. From Walking the city from centre to the wharf area about 3 times to the brief boat ride around the bay, Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge. Our arrangement was to meet at 9 or 9:30 (Jens would say 9 and I would say 9:30) at Union Square. However, by the time I turned up it was just before 9:45 and there was no sign of Jens until 10:15, knowing full well he is German with discipline! I knew there was something wrong. I eventually left the square with Amity. I was disappointed say the least, as I thought I will not be able to meet him and he would have come to San Fran and left and well, he would have been right, we would never meet again! But as I was riding the kart with Amit (whom had lived in San Fran about a a year ago, and had no intention of being a tourist, but had no choice but to give in to my temptations) we eventually heard from Jens and after 3 hours from the time we had initially arranged to meet, we did indeed meet up at Union Square.
Amit had found a great hostel near Union Square and I was so thrilled to be able to stay in a hostel so that I could remind myself once again of those times that I did when I was traveling, I had a great smile on my face every time I thought about the room, I know this might sound crazy, but I truly have come to appreciate the little things in life that reminds you of great times you have had in the past. I thoroughly enjoy staying at hostels even at this age, which apparently as I am reaching 30, I should not think of hostels and think more on the line of hotels and bed and breakfast!?
The hardest thing about the day for me would be feeling slightly torn between who I should spend more time with, Amit or Jens. Considering that I was in San Fran to see Jens and I know although Amit had friends over there, he was in San Fran to meet up with me, I felt slightly overwhelmed making sure I spent equal amount of time with each friend..but I have always struggled with that and luckily the boys got on so well together, so that made it a lot easier for me.
At the end of the day, we said goodbye to Jens and I assured him that we would meet again somewhere, sometime and I think that is the beauty of this life, that you can never expect what will happen next. Amit and I headed back to the hostel and we were suppose to go out with Jordan, but I was exhausted and as soon as I put my head on the pillow to have a quick nap, I was gone! I believe Amit was also quite tired. The next day we met up with Amit's friend from back in the day (another new American, specially Southern line I have picked up over here, which I love) when they went to University in DC. We had some amazing late breakfast in Cantel (I hope I have remembered this name correctly). I used the public transport so much while I was in San Fran, almost wanting to make up for the lack of it over here in Memphis. I spent the afternoon with Jordan and his friends and eventually by late afternoon, Amit and I headed back to the airport, my flight wasn't till 12 midnight, but I was pretty tired, and I was quite happy to go to the airport and chill for about 4 hours before the flight. I met a young boy at school (high school) who was flying back to Minneapolis from San Fran and he was studying for his Chemistry exam. We had a little tutorial on the plane and I kinda thought I liked being a teacher! Although my friends had always told me that if I do become a teacher, I will be sent to prison, for a) my intolerance to nonsense, b) finding young boys adorable! =[
I had an amazing time in San Fran, sorry that Tracy my good friend missed out on the trip and also not being able to meet up with Jane, but I did get to speak with Jane on the phone, which was so nice. I will make sure I will be better organised next time and let you know in advance that I am coming up to San Fran, which considering how much I like that place, it will be sometime pretty soon.
