It's Friday! The end of my first week as a post-doc! It's been pretty uneventful, except for the fact that I got a MacBook Pro from my new boss, furnished my apartment, and have already had a lot of good times with my old friends in the city. It takes me about 40 mins to get from my house in Outer Sunset to work in Mission Bay (have to cross the entire city). The first day of work, I made the big mistake of literally driving across town using inside roads. I figured it was the best way to get to work because it was the most direct route. Never ever ever drive across the city during traffic hours!!! EVER!!! When I described the experience to my lab, my new co-worker, Tim, suggested a different route where I'd have to head south for a couple of miles, then north on 280. It would add a few extra miles, but at least I wouldn't have the stop-and-go problem with heavy city traffic. The next day, I followed his advice and cut my initial route by 10 mins! I was still getting into pretty bad traffic near San Francisco State University, so today, I tried a different route that would take me south-east on Ocean, then 280 north to Mission Bay. This route let me skip the traffic near SFSU, and get past a busy interstate intersection on 280. I got to work in 30 mins! Whoo hoo! Another thing about the city that I learned (yesterday) is NEVER to take 17th avenue. NEVER EVER! My car cannot handle a hill that steep with a stop sign in the middle! I thought my car was gonna die. And I also realized that no matter how good of a driver I am, I cannot handle steep hills like that. I was shaking by the time it was over. Never again. Third thing about driving in the city I have now realized is how hard it is to find parking. Last night, Kevin, Christy, Jan and I (+my new fellow post-doc who just moved here from Japan) were supposed to meet at Hotei in the Sunset district to have dinner. I could not find parking to save my life. I drove around up to 4-5 blocks radius for at least 20 mins. Christy and Jan were already at the restaurant waiting for me and Kevin. It got so hopeless, Jan jumped into my car to help me locate parking (help from a local is always a good thing when finding parking!). We drove a little further, and eventually Jan spot an open space I would NEVER have seen. Never try to park in a popular part of the city during dinner time. NEVER!
Still love my apartment. Still happy, still lovin' life! Feelin' like the luckiest girl in the world these days! I finally put my vacation pictures onto my computer. I'll upload them when I have some time this weekend. I'll leave you with a few from Bali for today!
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| The water lily pond I mentioned in one of my posts about Bali. Raw, organic, and so beautiful. |
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| The group of neighborhood boys playing in the pond, also mentioned in my previous Bali post. |
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| Beach we visited, also in previous post. See the hint of black sand? |
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| A small make-shift altar on the beach. |
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