Fisherman's Wharf and other delights...

This week was orientation week at SFAI. A whole week seemed a bit much, but fortunately a lot of it wasn't relevant to exchange students so I played hooky and went to do some touristy stuff. And what could be more touristy than Fisherman's Wharf... :-)

Started my walk from the Aquatic Park at North Point

Not too many swimmers in the water... Apparently the beaches in San Francisco aren't too popular and people generally drive an hour or two outside of town to find a good beach.

The Wharf is used for historical tourist attractions and ferries to the islands around San Francisco or the mainland, but I was also pleasantly surprised to see that it hadn't lost its use as a working fisherman's dock, where a lot of the Wharf's famous seafood gets brought in.

I was told that if I went to the Wharf, an absolute must would be to have the clam chowder in a bread bowl in one of the seaside restaurants and I have to say, I didn't regret it. It was delicious (though, on a side note, I have to say that all the food in SF is amazing! I haven't eaten out in a single restaurant yet where the food wasn't outstanding and that includes fast food, so there must something we're doing wrong back in the UK...)

These photos were taken at the Boudin demonstration bakery, where they have a glass front and make all these great animal breads in front of you with a running commentary. It's like making bread sculptures, I love it!

Bread python, anyone?

Walk along pier 41, where you can find some of the ferries to the islands around SF.

At pier 39, I was able to see the famous sea lions which elected residence there about 20 years ago and, as you can see in the picture above, even though there are plenty of wooden docks to go around, the sea lions are determined to only occupy 2, with a 3rd one reserved for loners, which of course leads them to spend their time fighting with each other over the best spot on the dock. It's quite a show!

Street artists at Pier 39

The Ferry Building, which is both very popular with tourists and also another great source for amazing food from all over (although at a less purse friendly price)

This is my latest favourite piece of artwork! It's called the Raygun Gothic Rocket, it's at Pier 14 and was made by the Five Ton Crane artists collective (check them out at http://www.raygungothicrocket.com/). I really love this piece, it's so Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow! It really captured my imagination!

There were also quite a few other interesting outdoor sculptures around the Ferry Building:

Finally, I really felt I ought to take a few photos of the old fashioned buses which still run in the city. They're so beautifully retro with great colours!

After this beautiful visit to Fisherman's Wharf, I figured the next day I'd go to walk the Golden Gate Bridge, only the closer I got to the bridge, the more fog started rising towards the city, until I eventually got there and all I could see of the bridge was this:

 That was a bit of a disappointment, but I am determined and I will be going back to see the Bridge properly in its full glory!

A few more things I've learnt in the last week:

- Getting a social security number is really easy, all you have to do is get a job offer, present yourself with your visa documents and fill in an application form. It took no more than 20 minutes... Once again, I think of the palaver I had to go through in England with a British passport!

- "For sure!" is my new favourite expression. Everyone uses it here and it can mean anything from "Absolutely", "I guarantee it", "you bet" to "I'd love to" or "I agree"...

- I'm little weary of what's in the tap water here, since I've started seeing so many ads for the number you should to report any water quality issues, "so we can keep our delicious water delicious...". I don't know if it's just me being cynical, but if there aren't any problems with the water, why are you working so hard on making sure we know where to call to report a problem? Hmmm...

- After our general health and safety talk on Friday, I'm really glad that I live in the EU, because the US is like the wild west when it comes to regulations about what chemicals they use in everything! There's absolutely no testing on chemicals and their method for deciding what's harmful to the population is to put it in circulation and then wait to see if anyone keels over! But because there's no regulations on the chemicals, they've put in place ludicrous health and safety rules for the workers to compensate, so if you want to wear a face mask for example, the law says that you have to get a medical certificate first to prove that a face mask won't impair your breathing! Of course, that's what health and safety says, then whether we choose to follow it or not is another thing...

- Finally, my hair style is extremely popular over here. I've had people stop me in the street and call out to me from cars just to say that they like my hair. I'm loving all these unsolicited compliments, does wonders for my self-esteem :-)

La Cocina and the BodyArt Expo

So this week-end I'd made plans to meet up with a couple of friends I'd met at the international students orientation, Carlos and Manuela, for lunch. Carlos has been to San francisco a few times before and seems to know everyone that's worth knowing and everything that's worth doing, so I thought he was taking me to some nice cafe or something... Little did I know... Instead I turned up at 24th & Folsom in the Mission District, where he told me to meet him, only to find myself swallowed up in a throng of people in what looked like a crazy street party!



Anyone want me to bring them back a mexican wrestling mask?



It turned out I'd been invited to La Cocina, San Francisco's yearly food street festival, http://www.sfstreetfoodfest.com/about.php. It's a great festival in support of women entrepeneurs and independent food vendors, covering 3 or 4 blocks of street which get closed down for the occasion. They have over a hundred food stands with food from all over the world. Each stand offers small portions of their most representative food that they sell for between $3 and $8, so you could go from one stand to another and taste a bit of everything. I got to try some columbian, vietnamese, peruvian and ethiopian food as well as a Seoul spicy sausage and lemon cookie ice cream made with rice milk. Yummy!



Seoul spicy sausage



Columbian food vendors

 This was my first visit to the Mission district and what really stood out for me, once again, were the beautiful murals everywhere. I still can't get over how many there are and how beautiful! Maybe I should switch from sculpture to murals... (Note to self, must work on my drawing skills...)

  After lunch, we headed out to Cow Palace to see the BodyArt Expo http://www.bodyartexpo.com/MAIN.PHP, a tattoo convention in town for 1 week-end only. I only found out about it by pure chance cos they had a big advert up just where I get my morning bus, so lucky! It was only $20 to get in, so totally worth it and with my ticket I get 20% off the entrance fee to next month's weed convention... What more could you ask for? :-p

It was really amazing to see so many talented artists all gathered in one place and I thought the people getting tattooed there in front of everyone were so brave! I saw some really beautiful tattoos and would have been quite tempted if I'd had the money. One of the stands was actually giving away free piercings! I was very tempted by a free lip piercing, but I hesitated for one moment and someone else got it instead... Oh well... I've only just got my eyebrow pierced, so i guess the lip can wait...  

This guy just looked like the typical tattooed, burly biker you see in the movies, I had to take a photo...

As a bonus, we got to see a show by The Enigma, renowned freak show artist, who used to tour with the Jim Rose Circus. It was the first time my friend Manuela had ever seen a freak show and it was hilarious to watch gradually going very red and starting to sweat! I told her she didn't have to watch the show, but she said she just couldn't stop watching! :-)


The Enigma



His assistant Serena Rose




Kiss of death...



Serena Rose contorting herself through a stringed tennis racket



Popping a sword through her tongue...





Swallowing a sword...




Swallowing a lightsaber... Oh yeah! (I don't think there were too many Star Wars fans in the crowd though, cos it definitely didn't get the desired reaction...)



And the final party trick... The tube goes through one nostril...



Round the neck, through the other nostril and down into the stomach...

He has a drink...



Then brings it back up through the tube, ready for Serena to drink... Yuck!

After the tattoo convention, we went to a gallery closing party where a bunch of artists who'd graduated from SFAI were exhibiting their work. They were handing out root beers at the party, which I'd figured were non-alcoholic... I was wrong! After just one, my head was spinning and i was feeling really drunk. Turns out the beer was home-made by one of the artists and was really strong. Goes to show, art students can turn their hand at anything over here... But that's the last free drink I'm accepting at an exhibition... It was lethal!

Photos of the city and first days at school

  So wedenesday, I was going to go visit some of the art galleries and in particular the MOMA, but to my disappointment, I discovered that a lot of the galleries are actually closed on a wednesday. I actually found out since that it was a good thing, because a lot of the galleries here are outrageously expensive (between $15 and $25), but with my SFAI student card, I'll get free entry or at least a lot of money off, so I'm glad I had to wait. Instead I went to do a bit of shopping and wandering around the streets. One of my favorite things about San Francisco are all the beautiful flowers and exotic plants:

Impromptu piece of percussions on pots and pans, the guy was very talented!

I found an art store on Market Street, which is very convenient for me. As it turned out, it wasn't exactly what we'd call a store in european terms, but more like a warehouse... It was huge! Security even made you check in your bag at the front desk to stop you stealing anything. But at least I'm sure to find absolutely anything I need. Going clothes shopping next, I discovered that the States have a different take on shopping assistants. Instead of just identifying themselves then waiting for you to come and see them if you need them, American shopping assistant have more of a stealth technique. They dress in a totally non-descript manner then side up to you, acting like they're just looking at clothes like everyone else before opening up with a "How're doing?". At this point, I'm thinking it's just an over-friendly shopper and give a vague answer before they pounce and start asking if I need help, have I seen this special promo or can they offer me a bag to carry my purchases? It was very disconcerting, a bit like having a shopping stalker...

I had to take this photo, because in a world where everyone's being told to quit, this looked like the smokers' last bastion of defense :-)

 A few first impressions on my school SFAI... It's realy close by to where I live, only a 15 min bus ride, which is great, or at least I thought so until I saw the hill I'm gonna have to climb up every morning to get to the school...

It turns out my school is on one of the tallest hills in San francisco, so there's really no escaping it, whichever way you try to get there, there's always a hill to climb...Oh well, at least i guess I'll get fit... :-s

I realised how steep the hills were when I started seeing these signs around the school. Apparently, a few days before I started school, someone parked their car wrong or forgot to put their handbrake on properly and it rolled down the hill and smashed into another 3 cars...

The entrance to the school. The school looks like a big italian villa, it's really beautiful!

  Entrance courtyard and the fountain actually has gold fish in it! My first thought was that anyone coming to the Glasgow School of Art on exchange from SFAI is gonna be in for a big disappointment if they end up in our crumbling old sculpture building...

  The school is full of murals, it's really beautiful! They treat it like an exhibition space, so you can apply to paint a mural and it stays up for a set period of time.

These are the sculpture facilities, they have a woodwork, metal and ceramics department and more. The only downside is that you don't get any dedicated studio space, so it'll be interesting to see how we're gonna manage space issues.

During orientation, they took us through everything from school schedules to how to get a mobile phone or open a bank account. It's surprisingly easy to open a bank account over here... All I had to do is show them my passport and visa along with a bank card! No need for any proof of address... When i think how long it took me to be able to open my first UK account, this was a dream in comparison! My favourite bit of the orientation was the earthquake bit in the safety presentation. Apparently most people around here have an earthquake kit near their desk and at home, which is meant to allow them to survive any catastrophy for up to 72hrs without assistance from the authorities. We got given this website http://72hours.org/index.html where we could find advice on how to put together our own earthquake kit. Apparently one of the faculty members has a bottle of whisky in her earthquake kit, so she can trade it on the black market if necessary. I hope it's some of the good stuff :-)

Courtyard outside the school's cafeteria, I love these skylights!

Last, but not least... The view from our school with Alcatraz peaking out of the fog... Nice!