Wednesday

Happy Friday! I am writing from the windowseat overlooking my street. It's another beautiful day, albeit chilly! Riley is asleep on the couch in front of "House." Poor guy works nights, 11:00pm-7:00am.

Let's see, we left off on Wednesday morning. Riley and I hopped on the Muni, my first time on SF public transportation, to head into town. He had some errands to do, so I accompanied him. We walked all around, up Market street to the Ferry Building. We saw some pretty cool streetcars; I guess a lot of them come from other cities. We saw ones from LA, Cincinnati, and Milan. My main focus of this walk was to look for pitches (the word buskers use for the places they play). Over the course of the day we saw a tap dancer, a harmonica player, a guitarist, a man playing that Asian stringed thing (embarrassing, as a busker, to not know the name), a trumpeter, and...wait for it...a bagpiper!! Very cool. I kept meaning to approach them and talk, so ask about pitches and permits and stuff, but I still felt like a tourist rather than I busker so I didn't. I did, however, like some of the spots, and will try them out. The ferry building was cool, with lots of shops, and it's right on the bay. It was really nice to see water. Riley pointed out all sorts of stores, restaurants, bars, etc. that he likes, and I got to see his cute little apartment.

I had Wednesday afternoon to myself, since Riley worked at 3:00 that day. George, the old cleaning man, suggested playing at the corner of 18th and Castro, which was only about a mile away, so I decided to wander around my neighborhood, making that my destination. There's an certain excitement of going out alone for the first time in a new city. My experience most comparable to my move here is Sevilla, since both moves will last four months, and they're both cities that were completely new to me. The difference, of course, is that I fit in here; I can pass as a local a lot more easily (until I open my mouth and say "wicked"). I chose to leave the camera and guidebook at home, as walked as if I knew where I was going in my new boots (boots also make everything more fun).

One hindrance to wandering a foreign city on my own is that I have a pretty much negative sense of direction. I was under the impression that my road ran North-South, and that it was perpendicular to the road we had had Sushi on, my other point of reference. It turns out that neither of these is true, so it took a few laps around my block to start to alter my mental map. Luckily, in my area, the roads are numbered, with non-numbered roads alternating, so my destination was not hard to find. It was, however, hard to access because it is up, and then down, a very large hill. All of the local image I had gained by wearing cool boots and donning a cool leather purse and walking with confidence disappeared when I chugged up that hill, panting, clutching my side, and stripping off all my sweaters. Real locals jogged past me as I wondered to myself why I hadn't brought my water bottle. My knees made all sorts of crazy sounds. Imagine what it'll be like when I do this walk with an accordion!! Finally on the downhill the Castro neighborhood appeared before me (maybe it's not THE Castro neighborhood, but it's on Castro street). It immediately seemed like a good place to play, with ample foot traffic.

I was stopped by a young woman working for Greenpeace, and struck up conversation with her, as I wanted to do with as many people as I could this night. She was super nice, and a great saleswoman, and right when I was about to suggest she get whale earrings, I saw them dangling from her second holes. I should have signed up in exchange for sleepovers and pedicures. Alexis--if you're reading this, be my friend??

I saw a guitar player tuning in an alley, and once again chickened out of talking to him. Finally 18th street was upon me, and it in fact looked like a great place. I will definitely be going back there. A thing about the streets: in addition to the street signs, the names are engraved into the sidewalk at intersections. Riley explained that this is for the event of an earthquake, since the signs would all be down. They also enable newcomers such as myself to keep oriented without having to look around and find the right angle to locate the street signs. I decided to turn around at that point, rather than get lost on the other side of Market Street. I was feeling a little lonely, and wanted to talk to people, but didn't really know how. I hoped that my confident boot-walking would convince another newcomer to town that I was worthy of asking directions, then the two of us would explore the city together. No such luck. I headed back up the hill, which actually gave a beautiful view of the city at twilight.

I kept walking along 24th street, near mine, where the Sushi place is, and who should I bump into but Daniel the sushi chef from the night before! It was amazing to have this completely chance encounter with the one person I had met in this city so far (well not really chance, since he was on his way to work and I was walking by his place of employment). He was speaking Spanish on the phone, so once he hung up we began conversation in Spanish. In addition to seeking an accordion student and someone to design my logo (for both Daniel had potential), I wanted to find someone to speak Spanish with. I had given him my card the previous night, and he accidentally sent it out with the restaurant laundry. He said he was just going to hope he ran into me. This was a good omen for making friends here. We agreed to meet up on Sunday, and I kept wandering.

I saw a ton of strollers, and really wanted to chat up those pushing them. I didn't, but starting planning what I'll say on my babysitting flier I plan to make soon. I thought of Sasha as I walked down Valencia street. My legs ached at this point, and I was happy to get back home and collapse on the couch with the ancient boxer, Arrow. I found an episode of How I Met Your Mother on TV, and it happened to be the one where Lily moves to San Francisco. Perfect! Still on East Coast time, I went to bed super early, resting up for more adventures the next day.