On the road to college...

Financial aid forms...check!

Can't wait to fill out my own tax forms. Looks like an absolute headache.

OH MY GOSH...

My room is clean! It only took 3 some hours to do (I organized a lot of stuff too, ok?). Anyway, someone from one of my mom's quilt groups is coming over tomorrow for a quilt expo and staying a couple nights. To make room, I had to move practically everything out of my room except for the stuff that wouldn't fit in Jennifer's, which is basically everything except all the great posters and random Germany memorabilia that go on my walls.

Mom asked me if it didn't feel great that my room practically sparkles now. Unforturnately for me, that's not the room I'll be living in for the next month or until summer, as we take in a series of guests. Maybe sometime I'll be able to do the same cleaning spree for Jenn's room (Don't mind that I don't put pictures of it on right now).

Here's a more comprehensive photo of the bathroom, too, so you can see better the remodeling work that's been going on.

Long Weekend

Because of today's civic holiday, this weekend was a 3-day weekend. It was 33% longer for me, though, because I was out sick on Friday. Thankfully I feel much better now, well enough to get a hair cut,

(note the newly painted bathroom wall in the background, the product of Mom and Elaine's afternoon work), cook Schupfnudeln (potato noodles with bacon and Sauerkraut) and Bockwurst,

and work endlessly on my civics paper. So far the civics paper is really interesting. I'm writing mine on how the federal government should establish renewable energy portfolio standards, to help wean the country off fossil fuels. I'm having a blast with it.

Oh, and all my college application work is done. (Yay!). I submitted my last application, finally, and had my last college interview on Saturday. The interview went great, considering it was for an Ivy League. We ended up taking an hour and a half instead of one, and I left with a good feeling about it. It's doubtful that there could be any better sign.

Museums

Most museums in San Francisco are free on the first Tuesday of the month, so we took advantage of the opportunity and visited two of them: De Young and the SF Museum of Modern Art. They were both very interesting, with some great exhibits. (I especially liked the wire sculpture exhibits in the De Young Museum.)

The De Young Museum is in Golden Gate Park. The building itself is art. The 9-story tower is a weird, but fascinating shape. There is a great view of the park, parts of San Francisco, and Aunt Kathryn's car (without a ticket, she would like to add!). Some other interesting exhibits from the museum (Guess what they are):
If you guessed a coffin styled like a cocoa pod and a piece of Chihuly, you get 50 points! If you only get the Chihuly, though, you only get 15 (Come on, he's so easy to guess!). :)


I don't have any pictures from the other museum (in the building designated the "Juke Box" because of its interesting roof), because pictures weren't permitted. I have to say that the art there was a little more modern (ie, "bizarre"), if you can get even more bizarre than a cocoa pod-shaped coffin. Here are some photos from some of our other random adventures, though:
Ooh! another guessing game! What animal did Vincent make with my hair?
Vincent's boredom was alleviated by the time we reached this detour: a super steep hill. We went up, discovered a dead end, and had to go back down again. It was an adventure to make your adreneline rise.

I took a walk around the lake, just as it got dark, and discovered a moon that was almost full reflected in the water. It's full tonight, though, so I wish Jon a happy 3 lunar calendar months!

Today, we're going to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and go walk through Fisherman's Wharf and China Town. It's going to be busy. I wish you all in Socal and Wherever-Else a fantastic day.

A Walk through Presidio

The park at the edge of the city where the ocean turns into the bay, right next to the Golden Gate Bridge, is not called the Golden Gate park. Actually, the Golden Gate park is a few blocks South. This park is called Persidio. It mainly has a few trails surrounded by trees with an occasional view of the ocean and the Golden Gate. Aunt Kathryn and I walked along the trail til we were within a half mile of the bridge, and except for those occasional picture-perfect views (took advantage of every single one) you couldn't even tell that you were in San Francisco anymore.

We walked down some steps to a sandy beach and walked around a rock cliff covered in muscles. The water must be very high at high tide. Thank goodness it was low tide, so we could walk around them. We still got wet, and I must say that I do not envy the people who go out there and surf or swim in that water. It's like ice!

There are some really nice houses on that side of the city (this is where Robin Williams lives, but nobody puts name plaques outside their house). Think of the great views of the bridge they must have in those houses. Even when it's foggy, they could still see twinkling lights not too far off.

After a three hour walk we made it back to the car. We had been considering taking two buses back from the bridge, but a walk sounded more appealing. Walking is great exercise around here. Consider all those hills and slopes you have to walk over. Exercise is far from the reason to walk around here, though. The view is priceless.

Happy New Year from San Fran!

My aunt Kathryn, cousins Bert, Vincent, Nika, and I spent the last day of 2006 making the 7 hour trip to San Francisco. It actually wasn't that bad. The people in the back seat spent most of the morning sleeping, and I spent most of the time watching the scenery

"And this is what it's going to look like for the next 6 hours"

(where there was scenery to watch) and talking with Aunt Kathryn about Germany, so I had a good time. First view of San Francisco

If driving across the bay bridge was my first impression of San Francisco, it was an impressive one. I never realized how long a bridge could be. And that's supposed to be nothing compared to some bridges in other parts of the world. You can tell immediately that the city's flavor is drastically different than Socal's. For one, you drive over the bridge and you are no longer in any resemblance to surburbia. The buildings give off a lively vibe very different from those in European cities. When we were walking through downtown before midnight, I doubt it was just the New Year's enthusiasm rubbing off. I can imagine now why lots of young people go there for excitement. You only need to be standing on Market to feel it.

There are many things unique to the city that tell a lot about its culture and its people. Take, for instance, the street cars. Apparently the city buys old retiring street cars from other cities all over the world and put them to use (the ultimate mode of recycling?). It has its own Gay District, right along with the usual China Town and Hispanic District.

The city is going to take awhile to get used to. It's very, very different. But I'm enjoying it, a lot. We walked mainly through the "ritzy" part of the city last night. There was a pretty fancymall we got to walk through, though all the stores were closed. Did I mention how fancy it was? I look forward to seeing other parts of the city, places on the other side of market.

We went by the Ferry Building ("Once the tallest building in San Francisco") to watch the city's traditional New Year's fireworks. They were set off

We assumed that the Bomb Squad was transporting the fireworks...

under the Bay Bridge, which we drove across to get to San Fran. It was a spectacular display. I look forward to seeing them another year. Maybe the fireworks will be perfected so that the smiley faces are the right side up (I was amazed that there were smiley fireworks at all, actually).