WHAZZUP AUGUST

Oh... hey y'all! Here I am, still in San Francisco! Still the most amazing city ever, still never want to leave! Every day I see more awesome things... ok ok get ahold of yourself.

HIIIIII ok I finally have an hour to chill and write something! Because I really wanted to write stuff for a long time! And I have a special feature for you... that could even be interactive. It's called, "Being Canadian in Amurika."

Ok, let's play. So, I've been in the States for two years now. Mostly I go unnoticed, and if someone finds out I'm Canadian (or re-finds out, that happens a lot too), their reaction is usually: "But you don't have an accent!!" And my reaction is usually: "........."

Do Canadians have accents? Can someone help me out on this one? I mean sure, Newfies, Maritimers, Quebeckers, people from Northern Ontario... do people from B.C.? Because most people around here are more familiar with the part of Canada directly north of here. Iiiii dunno. Moving on.

So ok. I say "out" weird. I guess. I can definitely hear it now when I talk to my friends and family from Canada on Skype, so, alright. And some Americans say soda, and jelly instead of jam, or whatever. But what other fun things have I learned living here that I was not aware of previously?

1. They say "real" instead of "really" as an adverb. As in, "I'm just going to tie my shoe real quick and then we can go." This used to bother me. Now I say it. Hum hum....

2. They don't use "aft" as an abbreviation for "afternoon". At first when Dan couldn't believe I said that I thought I was just weird. But then I googled it and apparently it's Canadian. You can get paranoid living out here.

3. I was riding in the car with Emily and mentioned someone was going to make me pasta. She was like "wait... are you saying it wrong or is the person in your story saying it wrong and you're making fun of them?" I was like... "saying what wrong?"

So I say "pass-ta" and she and everyone else around here says "pahs-ta". Oh. Someone else said, "oh yeah, that's a Canadian thing." 

My real question is HOW DID I LIVE HERE FOR TWO YEARS AND NO ONE TOLD ME I WAS SAYING PASTA FUNNY?!

4. Apparently they don't say "brek" or "brekky" for "breakfast" either. I might just be weird on this one though.

5. Another pronunciation giveaway is saying "soe-ree" for "sorry" instead of the American "saw-ree". I didn't notice that one for a while.

6. It's not KD, it's not Kraft Dinner, it's "mac and cheese". Well yeah... or... wait... is it?

It's just funny when someone looks at you and is like "wait... did you just say...?" Anyone else got anything?


Ok so that was "funtimes in Americaland". Now moving on again to San Franciscoland.

So I went to visit Michaela in East Palo Alto (it's a thing, and it's dangerous) not this past weekend but the one before that. FUUUUUUUCK Palo Alto (and the peninsula in general) is HOT. Here in SF we've been getting a ton of sun since I've been here, but it's always nice and fresh and breezy and sometimes goddamn cold and misty. Palo Alto was hot. We wandered around the cute main street and checked out the Stanford University campus. It's gorgeous and green and huge and is so clean and well-planned-out that it seems like an amusement park. They have their own (good) art museum that's FREE, nice.

Stanford Campus.

Took the Caltrain there and back (Ah! Commuter trains, how convenient). Then, on:

Monday - ran with the Hash House Harriers (http://www.sfh3.com/sections/1/pages/2). I went today as well. Basically, you follow a trail marked with chalk and flour for around an hour and then get to a keg at the end. And a ton of chips. The amazing thing about it is they change location every time, and you get to explore different bits of the city. We ran up Mt. Davidson and then through a verrrrrrry well-to-do area last week, and then today we ran through the Presidio park and got incredible views of the Bay, the Bridge, and the ocean. Absolutely.... fabulous. 

View from Mount Davidson! Not my picture. I was running, you remember.

Coastline, we spent some time on a trail along here today. Also not my picture!

So yeah. I will keep up this running shit just to get to see the city.

Tuesday - Went to a San Francisco Giants (baseball) game with Drew and two other girls. We bundled up and ate gourmet leftovers. Drew is moving away... or has already moved away now, so, bye Drew :( Off to Yale with you! Oh, and Giants won against the Mets!

Wednesday - down to the Independent on Divisadero to see a mashup band called the Hood Internet. Went with a bunch of guys from ultimate, got cheap beers at this amazing café called the Beanbag, danced the night away. Did not sleep enough that night.

Thursday - Went to Nightlife at the California Academy of Sciences (awesome museum with a living roof, aquarium, four-storey rainforest, Planetarium that I think is better than IMAX), which is when you can only come in if you're over 21 and pay less than half price to get in because you can drink alcohol once you're there! It was pretty packed, they had ping-pong and a DJ as well but I didn't get to stay long. I DID, however, get to see the BABY OSTRICHES which, as Kevin said, were wayyyy cuter than I was even expecting. THEY RUN AROUND AND THEN THEY LAY WITH THEIR NECKS ON THE SAND!!!!!

Friday - had a movie night and ate Indian pizza. (It exists!) Saturday worked, and Sunday hung out in the sunny sunny Mission for Sunday Streets with ultimate peeps, and drank milkshakes that were... THE BOMB. And so ended my crazy week. 

It was so crazy because we had a "by" week with frisbee. Games resume this week. Yeah so, normally what I shoot for is playing ultimate Tues and Thurs nights and Sat mornings, and climb twice a week as well. Work-wise, I try my best NOT to work in the evenings, and preferably not on weekends. But I do the latter sometimes. Sometimes I just need an afternoon off during the week, and that means I have to find other time to work if I want to be financially responsible. 

Haven't been climbing as much as I'd like to because Brian's been so busy with work/car craziness. Hopefully we'll get back in the swing soon. This past week was awesome, but I need my exercise.

And work is going well! I'm definitely getting enough, and I think I've gotten better with managing everything. I usually have work set up for days in advance, so I don't have to stress about missing emails offering me work. I aim to start work at 9 and finish at 5 and have a lunch break, and mostly it works out.

So yeahhhhh! Things are good! I love SF! (Shut up already....) I wish for all of you to come see me! Thanks for reading and/or skimming... :)

DA JUICE