Happy Birthday Jordan!

The view from my apartment complex of San Francisco in the distance, on a non-foggy day!

Jordan turns 23 day and I wish I could have been in Boston to celebrate with him. Luckily his parents went to visit for the weekend so he wasn't all alone. I did enjoy a very sunny weekend in California though, which was nice since last week was coooold. Like, colder than Michigan! On Saturday I headed over to Walnut Creek early to go watch the USA vs. Ghana game at a local bar with Kimberly and Jason. Unfortunately, the game did not go our way so we cheered up by spending the rest of the day at the pool.

Today was another gorgeous, sunny and 80 degree day. I headed over the the Farmer's Market this morning where I got some goodies to make a salad with and then ordered a delicious wood-fire grilled pizza that I had been eying last weekend. Mmmmmm...


I had thought about taking a kayaking class today but when I went to sign up for it, the class was full. So maybe I'll have to settle for just renting a kayak for an hour by myself sometime. I did notice today that they have a special discount if you take your dog with you on the kayak. Look how cute this is! If only Reba was here with me :) She would love it!

After that I drove over to Alameda and went to their outdoor shopping center that has both a Safeway (the Kroger of the West) and a Trader Joe's. I've spent the rest of the day cleaning up, doing laundry, and cooking (attempting at least). I've got a four day week coming up and I'll still be in the office doing more orientation type stuff and an intern group project. Then on Thursday my mom is flying in, yaaay! She would be proud that I caught this grammar mistake today on a Domino's ad...not that it was hard.


Really? Two topics? That sounds delicious.

Week One = Done!

I finished my week of training today. The week started off a little rough, but it got much better as time went on. On the first day, all of the interns in the SF office were together in a big room, and it seemed like everyone else knew each other from home, school, or recruiting events. It was more of an orientation day, so we did kind of silly group activities all day. Starting on Tuesday, we were broken up into much smaller groups that would be permanent for the rest of the week, so I actually got to know a few people. So for the past few days I've been going through actual audit training and I admit, it was hard to pay attention sometimes because the view outside our training room was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. My office is in the Financial District close to the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge. From our training room, I was constantly staring at the Bay, a cruise ship docked at one of the piers, Navy ships and submarines going by, and Coit Tower on top of Telegraph Hill. I don't think I'd ever get work done in an office with a view like that. Here's a glimpse, but the picture doesn't do it justice.

As for the other interns, nearly all of them are from California and go to to school in the area. They're also all a grade lower than me, because California has different requirements than Michigan so students can be CPA-eligible after only four years of school, whereas I have to do the final fifth year. The ones I've had the chance to talk to seem like nice, fun people! The only problem is that everyone is so spread out (living at home, school, or someplace random like me), so I doubt there will be much socializing going on once we're all out at clients. I won't actually be starting client work until after the July 4th holiday because next week we will all be back in the office working on an intern case project. They do this since so many of their staff take the week off for vacation, so it would be hard to send an intern out to a dead project.

Besides all the boring training stuff, I did some fun things this week too! On Tuesday, as a social event for all the new Assurance interns, I went on a scavenger hunt around the city to find clues at certain locations. Here's one of the clues we had:

"From where the father of our country meets the power source behind a hard-charging rabbit, head south towards a bridge. Before you reach the "Castle" that's paired with a pachyderm, you'll find "treasure" at your feet. What's buried here?"

Translation: At the corner of Washington and Battery streets, head south until you reach the bar called "Elephant Castle". Look down and you'll find that the General Harrison ship was unearthed here. We ran around for an hour and a half trying to solve these clues, and it was pretty fun! At the end we all met up at North Beach Pizza for dinner, but sadly my team didn't win.

On Thursday night after work I actually met up with Kimberly and Melissa (Jordan's cousin who lives in the city) for happy hour at a little bar on Pier 23. It was super fun! We got to talk lots about weddings since Melissa is getting married in August, and about different things to do in the area. Hopefully we'll all be able to meet up again before I leave! Since training ended today, a bunch of the interns went to a restaurant/bar nearby for a few drinks after work. I didn't stay for long because I wanted to get back to Oakland while it was still light and have time to catch up on things (blogging..), but I think the internship is off to a pretty good start!

A Conversation

Other Intern: What school do you go to?

Me: I go to Michigan.

Other Intern: Oh! But where are you from?

Me: Yeah I'm from Michigan.

Other Intern: Ohh. What made you come out to San Francisco?

Me: Well, I'm getting married next year...this is usually followed by some variation of exclamation like ooo, awww, whoa!, or for one girl, screaming...and my fiance is a computer engineer so the jobs he wants are all in the Silicon Valley area. Plus, we both thought it would be fun to experience something new since we've both always lived in Michigan.

Other Intern: So where is he working now?

Me: Well he's actually in Boston right now, interning for Qualcomm.

Other Intern: Oh wow. You guys are far apart. Are you getting married here or in Michigan?

Me: Umm, neither, we're getting married in North Carolina on the beach.

Other Intern: Ohh...

At this point they just look at me and smile with a slightly dumbfounded look on their face. I think I've had this conversation 20 times in the past 3 days (usually with girls). Oh well, I'm fine being the intern from Michigan whose fiance is in Boston and is getting married next year in North Carolina :)

Festivals and Farmers' Markets

I had a pretty relaxing weekend! Aside from making sure all my dress pants and shirts were ironed, and dropping a few things off at the cleaners, I did a lot of wandering at the Danville Wine and Art Festival and the Jack London Square Farmer's Market. Kimberly and her husband, Jason, let me tag along on Saturday when they went to Danville for the art fair. It's a really cute town about 15 minutes south of where they live in Walnut Creek. We wandered around the art fair for awhile until they got what they had come for - buying a new patio set! They ordered two unfinished wooden Adirondack chairs, a bench, and a coffee table. We headed back to Walnut Creek and spent the night watching movies!

Some cool sidewalk chalk artists at the art fair

On Sunday morning I headed over to Jack London Square to check out the farmer's market. It was impressive! I wasn't really prepared to buy a lot but next week I will definitely do the bulk of my grocery "shopping" there. They had everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to homemade pasta, meat, jams, breads and pastries, and beautiful flowers. Not to mention the food tents they had that made me wish I hadn't eaten such a big breakfast. It was fun to wander around for awhile and get free samples! I also stopped in the California Canoe and Kayak store and found out that they're offering one of their Kayak Basics classes next weekend, so I'm thinking about signing up for that.

I spent the rest of the day figuring out all the logistics for work this week and making sure I had everything in order. Orientation & training are this week, but I'll update more on that later. Too bad I can't be a bum all summer!

The Rock

Yesterday I ventured into downtown San Francisco again. I had big plans to ride my first cable car, visit Ghiradelli Square, and then breeze through Fisherman's Wharf to take pictures before heading to Pier 33 to catch the boat to Alcatraz. I got off the BART at the Powell stop near the cable car turnaround and much to my dismay, there were already hundreds of people in line. The line stretched clear to the next block. Bah. I've been to San Francisco on three separate occasions now and still have not ridden a freakin' cable car. I tell myself that someday I will, but am I ever going to be patient enough to wait in that horrible line? Probably not. To make matters worse, it took so long to figure out how else to get to the waterfront that I ate up most of my pre-Alcatraz sightseeing time. So I eventually hopped on the right bus and just went to Pier 33.

Then I took a 15 minute boat ride over to Alcatraz Island. After getting off onto the dock, they gave us a short spiel about the history of Alcatraz and how to proceed with the tour. Instead of making groups of people walk around together with a tour guide, they give everyone a little mp3 player and headphones to listen to a pre-recorded cellhouse tour at their own pace. I enjoyed doing it this way, especially since I was there by myself and wouldn't have had anyone to talk to anyway. Hearing the accounts from actual prisoners and guards who lived on the island and seeing the cells as the way they were decades ago was so interesting. It was almost eerie to look at the cells where guards were held hostage and shot during the Battle of Alcatraz. I also never realized that at one time Native Americans occupied the island as part of their civil rights movement and that originally the island had served as Fort Alcatraz to protect the Bay during the gold rush. The thing I was MOST surprised about though was that one of the four rows of cells within the cell-house was nicknamed Michigan Avenue, but I haven't been able to figure out why. The others were Broadway, Seedy Street, and the D-Block.

A typical cellSolitary confinementThe shower roomLeftover symbols of the Indian occupation

I spent over two hours on the island, touring the cell-house and watching a video on the history of island. But by then my back was killing me from being on my feet for two straight days so I boarded the ferry to go back to San Francisco. I should have offered to drive it, since I have so much experience driving ferries on Janelle's island! I made friends with a South African guy on the way back who had been on the same pace as me throughout the whole tour. Too bad he left for work to come to the US during the World Cup!

After that I went back to Oakland and eventually headed to Kimberly's so I could get up very early this morning to watch the US vs. Slovenia match. It was heartbreaking, but a good game to see. After this weekend my sightseeing will be less frequent..I start work on Monday, woo!

They Weren't Kidding About the Hills..

I'm not naive, I've seen pictures and heard stories about the hills in SF before. I've driven up and down them, and seen how steep they can be. What I did not realize was how tiring it was to climb up all of them, and how many stairs there were too! Today I ventured down into the city, taking the BART from Oakland into downtown and then walking all around the city. My first stop was the Ferry Building. The building reminds me of a smaller, indoor version of Pike Place Market in Seattle. It has a huge farmer's market three times a week that many restaurants use to get fresh produce and meat from farmers in the greater Bay Area. Next I headed to Pier 39, where the Alcatraz tour boats take off from. The tours were all sold out for today so I bought a ticket for tomorrow afternoon.





As it's name suggests, the Ferry Building is also the dock where the ferry takes off from, going to Sausalito to the north and Oakland to the South.








One of the many piers on the Bay, with a view of the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island.






After that, I wasn't really sure what to do. I could have continued on down the boardwalk and gone to Fisherman's Wharf, but Jordan and I walked through it back in October and it seemed overly-touristy and chintzy. So instead I decided to walk up to Coit Tower, which I could see in the distance. Notice how it's high on top of a hill? Yeah, I didn't think about that.


So I started my trek through the neighborhood called Telegraph Hill and climbed what seemed like 1000 steps and three giant hills. Because the streets are so incredibly steep, many of the sidewalks are actually just giant staircases. I think the purpose of that might be to control people going down the hill as much as it is to make it easier to go up the hill.







Ahhh, I'm getting closer!











Finally I made it to the top, sweating and out of breath. I decided that if I had made it that far, I should just pay the $5 to take the rickety elevator to the top of the tower. I must say, it was worth it. The views from the top are spectacular and I went on a very clear day. Here are some pictures to prove it!

In the distance you can see Lombard Street, "the crookedest street in the world". They had to make it zig-zag because it would have been too steep for any cars to drive down.

The infamous Alcatraz. I'll be visiting there tomorrow!


And the Golden Gate bridge! You can tell it's a little foggy, but still a beautiful view.

After I descended Telegraph Hill, I was a bit hungry. I walked around North Beach, which is like a Little Italy. On every corner there's Italian bistros and cafes, meat markets or coffee shops. I stopped in Cafe Puccini, a little hole-in-the-wall where I ordered a salami sandwich and a Coke. They had a TV propped up and a bunch of old Italian men were sitting together watching the Uruguay vs. South Africa World Cup game. They were adorable. When the ref gave South Africa's goalie a red card and Uruguay a penalty kick, they started shouting in Italian and mumbling amongst themselves. Oh, and did I mention we were watching it on the Italian channel? So I couldn't understand a word the announcers were saying. I so badly wanted to take a picture of them but I didn't want them to start yelling at me in Italian either, so I just smiled and left.

After that I walked through Chinatown, Union Square, and into Yerba Buena Gardens. It seemed more like a fancy park to me, unless I was missing the "garden" area. By that time I was exhausted so I decided to head back to Oakland. I'll be going back tomorrow anyway!

My Temporary New Home

Since my internship doesn't start for another week, I'm using the next few days to get settled in and do some touristy things. Today I had the chance to walk around the neighborhood, an up-and-coming waterfront area of Oakland called Jack London Square. It seems like there won't be a shortage of things to do on the weekends. They have an artisan's market on Saturday, a farmer's market on Sunday, bike and kayak rentals, boat cruises, and even outdoor yoga classes. I'd have to learn how to do yoga first, but maybe they're friendly to beginners. There's a bunch of fancy restaurants, but I probably won't be dining in them too often! Just beyond the Square are a few more stores that will come in handy as I'm getting settled it. There's a Bed Bath & Beyond (good thing I brought coupons), a Cost Plus World Market, and BevMo, which is a chain store out here that sells any beverage you could possibly want and snacks to go with it! My apartment, which is also on the water, is just a 5 minute walk from all the festivities.


The water you see here is actually an estuary that flows into the Bay. The land mass to the left is an island called Alameda. Just beyond that would be downtown San Francisco. If it weren't so foggy downtown I'd be able to see the skyscrapers! Just a little geography lesson for you :)
















While I was nervous about finding an apartment on Craigslist, I really couldn't have asked for much more (without depleting my bank account). The complex is gated and has a beautiful pool area and gym. My room is bigger than any room I've ever had, and I even have a walk-in closet! The girl I'm subletting from left all her furniture and cooking utensils, so all I really had to bring were clothes, shoes, and things to keep me entertained. Considering I fit almost everything I brought into the trunk, I'd say I packed pretty light. There's even a washer and dryer right in the apartment, which is a first for me since heading off to college! Check out my spacious room and slightly disorganized walk-in closet:

2400 Miles Later..

I MADE IT! Thanks to my future sister-in-law Pamela who drove out with me, my little Ford Focus that trucked through nine states, and a decent amount of caffeine, I am finally sitting in my new apartment for the summer! Google maps predicted the trip would take 38 hours, but even with some rainy weather slowing us down at times, we made it in about 35 hours including stops! And no Mom(s), we didn't speed too much. At least neither of us got a ticket :)

The road trip ended up being a ton of fun, although I think it will be a few weeks before I eat any more fast food. On the first day, we left Rochester around 9am with the intention of taking the day easy. We took a detour into Naperville, IL, to have lunch with my good friend Jessica. The conversation mainly focused around Seattle since Jessica is moving there shortly to work at Microsoft and Pamela, of course, lives there! We drove for a few more hours and then stopped in North Liberty, IA, to stay for the night at one of Pamela's high school friend's houses. They were so gracious and made us a delicious taco dinner, a nice break from fast food!

Day 2 was all driving, 1100 miles of it. We got through Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming before we finally stopped for the night. We did run into some rainy weather, but the drive itself was so easy. No traffic, a speed limit of 75, and only one highway the whole time! We saw lots of grass, fields, cows, horses, and even a truckload of the cutest baby pigs. Nebraska was probably my favorite to drive through because we had gorgeous blue skies the whole time. We got to the hotel around 9:30 and after watching a couple episodes of Say Yes to the Dress, we rested up for Day 3!

The next day we drove from Evanston, WY to Walnut Creek, where my other future sister-in-law lives. We made it in 12 hours and along the way saw the salt flats, a lot of Nevada casinos, and the Tahoe National Forest. We got to Kimberly's just in time for a real dinner! I am so grateful to both Pamela and Kimberly for all their help in getting me out here and making the trip so much easier. Today, on my first full day in California, I spent the day at the pool and then finally met up with my new roommate Abbey to get into my apartment. So far so good! I will post more details about that and photos of the place over the next few days. For now, I'm going to get some rest.