It's my last week!

So I'm in the middle of my final week in San Francisco. It has been a good run, and I am really going to miss this lovely city. But then again I'm looking forward to travelling around so like.. half-half lah.

I am planning to visit Haight Ashbury later to get some souvenirs. I have to run my errands alone because

1. Shen's going to be out of town, and she's always working anyway
2. Roman, who said he will be "totally free" during his spring break, now has to go to work for most of the day
3. Janis has class
4. SzeMing has stomach problems (wth that's such a ZimSen-ny excuse)

I seriously wish Natalia was still here so she can accompany me with all these things that I don't feel like doing but have to do. Blehs.

Some random pictures since last week

Yerba Buena gardens and its cherry blossom trees. So pretty

Checked out the Cartoon Art Museum. Total ripoff. It's better to go when they have free entrance day. Otherwise... bleh.


Walked around the Financial District. Even when there wasn't really anything to do, I loved walking past the looming buildings with its amazing architecture, listening to John Mayer and whatnot

Had clam chowder at Boudin Bakery & Cafe. Apparently it's quite popular here in San Francisco... But yeah it's hella good

Financial District again


WAIT Rancangan tergendala sebentar. My dumbass roommate is cursing to himself and he just called his girlfriend a dumbass over the phone. WOW. Kids today I tell you. Wait a while so I can pause typing and glare at him kejap

Okay back to the photos

Some weird protest thing going on in front of the Metreon. I was chilling at Starbucks since Roman had issues with his phone (hence us not spending the weekend together as planned dayumnn) and ZimSen had some other issues to attend to, so SzeMing and him would only be spending dinner with me. Walao. I walked the entire Financial District alone because NO ONE was available to teman me FML

So I walked to Chinatown too. Ahh I'm gonna miss this place... It's so colourful and tourist trappy that there's so much to see at every corner.

So karrerfu

Then we had Indonesian at Borobudur Restaurant then headed to 4th Street Bar for some green beer

Okay so it was only ZimSen who had it. Apparently it tastes like... *drumrolls* beer. Heh. It's just a few drops of colouring, said the bartenderess. She looked at us funny when we kept insisting on ordering one.. until she gave in to us Asian-folk



Then on Saturday I finally got a hold of Roman (who finally got himself a new phone) and we went to Fisherman's Wharf cos I hadn't had crab at Pier 39 before

While waiting for the old school train to get us. Or in Andy's terms, The Gay Train. HOW IS THIS TRAIN GAY YOU TELL ME

Waiting for more than half an hour for the stupid train. Roman was getting extra jumpy because there was one train that came and didn't let us on board because it was too full, so we had to wait for the next one.

He finally snatched the camera out of my hands so he could take a picture of me with "Americans" in the background. I love how people are so big size here. It makes me slimmer in comparison hecks yeahhh

The train finally came! :D

The crabs were too expensive (I'm figuring the season's already over FML) so we grabbed some clam chowdahh in a bread bowl. It's like the Frisco version of Malaysian roadside cendol... only this one warms you up on a windy day.



We were hungry so we found a classy diner on the way back from the pier. He had sliders, I had grilled chicken sataaaaaayyyyyy! Kinda sucked cos it's too dry, so I let him finish it


Met up with Janis on Monday and we tried the Jap fusion restaurant on the bridge connecting the two JapanTown buildings. I had scallop curry with rice.

Nomnomnom

After that Janis and I chatted over roadhouse onions and beer at Shen's workplace. Gosh I miss those yummy fried things!

Walked to Alamo Square ALONE since Roman had to go in for work. It was nice though, looking at the old fashioned houses, this time listening to Adele. I wonder how much people pay to live in those houses. And won't it be fun to have tourists taking pictures of your house all the time? So rockstar wei.


Aaaaand finally (phew that was a lot of pictures) last night Roman felt like eating in, so he cooked me some spaghetti and prepared bruschetta and poured red wine. Then we had Cherry Garcia for dessert mm-mm-mmmmm..

Yeah the whole time he was cooking, I just stood there blocking the way. I found his sink to be stacked with dishes so as to not look like a useless person, I proceeded to washing the dishes. Then later found out those weren't even HIS to begin with, it was his housemate's. FML

The food was niiiice. :) Fresh mozzarella FTW

The treacherous flight of stairs up to my house that I'm going to miss. Thanks to this old school exercise track, I have a smaller butt (or at least I hope it is)


Okay time to go out. Till next time! :)

Last Day Of Work

I went to work last Friday and Julissa told me they weren't opening for Spring Break as planned. So it was my last day that Friday. With a heavy heart, I wiped down the counters and the refridgerators for the last time, stocked the forks for the last time, drank Bombay Chai for the last time, and swept the floor for the last time.

I really wish I started working there earlier, because they are heaps of fun! It really felt like a family to me, since the cafe was so small and the lines cooks, Ruben and Cesar were really really nice to me. Plus Julissa and Robert were lightyears better than my previous manager. Even my replacement, Megan, was really nice. Gosh. If only I could extend my visa for a few more months!


Candace, Ruben, Cesar and I.


Candaaaaaace! Every time I see the word "hella", I'm reminded of her. I am really going to miss her wacky sense of humor and her whiny singing. Haha!


Ruben! No matter how limited his English vocabulary was, we bonded a good bit over his crush, and how he wanted to ask her out on a date, to how he confessed to her and stuff. He's super nice!


Cesar came a week after I started, since the previous line cook got fired for being too slow (which kinda freaked me out a bit) and he's been calling me "Beauty" or "Double Beauty" HAHA. To which I will respond "guapo", which means good looking guy in Spanish.





Robert and Julissa! Which reminds me, I should get a gift for their baby. Julissa's due in May, and it's really too bad I can't be there to see the newborn :(


It's been so much fun working with them, that when I hugged each of them goodbye, I almost burst into tears. They really turned my mood on the working part of my trip around. I used to hate going to work at Buckhorn, but at Jessie's, I look forward to boarding the Muni to SF State. Unless it's raining that day. Because who wants to travel to work in the rain.

Arrgh I love you guys to bits!

Yosemite Park

So about three weeks ago, I went to Yosemite Park with Andy and Giuseppe, my German speaking housemates. I basically went just to be the "gaybreaker" of the duo, and since I had my weekend off I must as well just tag along.

Giuseppe rented an Audi to drive us four hours up to the mountains. He said that there wasn't any fixed plans, and we were supposed to just go with the flow. "If you don't plan anything, you won't have expectations, then you won't be let down," he jested as he steered up the winding road. So when we got there at 11 something at night, most of the inns were closed or were full. Thank God we found one set deep into a camping site, because Giuseppe almost wanted us to sleep in the car T___T

The morning after:


The view from outside our room.


The sun was shining, so we chilled at the parking lot after packing our stuff into the trunk (or kaufelaumb in German) so that Andy and Giuseppe could have a smoke before setting off into the park.



Snow, glorious snow!



I love how it reminds me of my trip up to Banff in Calgary. Although this time it's less cold. Cold, but not as cold as I remembered Calgary to be.



Barren trees.




We stopped at the side of a road to take pictures (and so that the boys can have a cigarette break) while I chucked snow around. Like a kid.



It was pretty misty everywhere, so a lot of pictures didn't come out well. :(




See what I mean?! But it still looks pretty impressive. Not as pretty as the Canadian Rockies, but still gorgeous. It's views like these that I am reminded of God's pure awesomeness.



We stopped at a waterfall because... we were sick of sitting in the car. LOL. So up the short trek we went.



The Bridalveil fall. It was COLD up there. And I was wearing Converse sneakers while the other experienced angmohs were in snow gear. Literally. Snow boots. And this Malaysian girl wore rubber soled shoes like a noob.



Sweet silent serenity. Too bad the boys weren't much of picture takers, or else I would do a Multiple Leeza picture or something.



There was this polite angmoh lady who told me to be careful as I hiked up the hill to the waterfalls. She even helped me up when I looked like I was going to slip. I love polite angmoh ladies!


Pretty impressive, huh.


Oh then something very unfortunate happened after this picture. You see, I'm not much of a gadgety person (I didn't know how to use an iPod before buying one for myself.. which explains why I didn't get a touch screen phone before my Nokia E63) so I COMPLETELY FORGOT to charge my camera before this.

Yeah.

So like.

SADS.

But Giuseppe took a lot of pictures on his DSLR.. though he hasn't given them to me yet. Bah. :(



All in all it was a very relaxing trip. The guys were pretty contented with only driving around for the day, so we made our way back home instead of staying another night. That and also because we sort of got lost and found ourselves driving down the mountain instead of being on another route in Yosemite HAHAHA

It's funny cos I didn't really want to go to Yosemite because I am not a very nature-loving person (city chick born and raised babeh) so of course I felt content even though we didn't get to see as much as there was to offer.

Dad would like Yosemite fo-sho.

St Patrick's Day + Other randomness

YEAHHHH FINALLY my pictures can be uploaded to this otherwise sad wordy blog. Heh.

So yeah.. I got myself an iPod touch after years and years and years of wanting one. I finally get to buy one with my hard earned money! *overjoyed* But then that meant that I didn't have enough money to buy food for the next two weeks.. but it was all good. Investment, no?

And then I got this Hipstamatic app to play with... and it does take really pretty shots. I think I'm going to restart my Tumblr just for the Hipstamatic prints. Like Harry! :D Then we can like compare Hipstamatic pics like the geeks that we are.

Wait digress abit. I Face-Timed with Harry that other night, and the first 20 minutes of our conversation was ALL ABOUT APPLE AND IPODS AND MACS AND APPS. I'm turning into that kind of person. :/

At the UN Plaza during the St Patrick's Day fair.

I really wanted to get some typical Irish food since it was St Patty's, but like. Look. Italian sausage. Greek Gyros. Garlic French fries. Polish sausage. Even the fish and chips are from the UK!

So Zimsen and I got ourselves an Irish potato knish, which is sort of like a potato patty with spinach. Good, but overpriced. What to do right.

Decked out in green garbs, chugging on some Irish beer.

Random float we found on Market Street on the way to Union Square where I was supposed to meet Roman


Shuttle bus to Haight Ashbury, the hippie spot in San Francisco. SzeMing, ZimSen and I were sunning ourselves on the steps of Union Square for more than an hour. Apparently there was a car accident that stalled many Muni trains, including the one Roman was in. -___-"



Yeah. That was all last week.

It was ZimSen's 23rd yesterday, so SzeMing brought us to Kome's for dinner. We had super delicious crabs and sushi and oysters... and then we watched Battle: Los Angeles. It was a boring movie to me.. I didn't feel like there was any connection to the characters whatsoever, and the action scenes were just that... action. No emotion. I spent $11 on an action flick where I almost fell asleep. Aduh.

We also had a farewell party for Andy the night before, which was in conjunction with Gordon's brother's birthday and the actual St Patrick's Day. I've hadn't had such good food for such a long time, even though it was only hot links, corn beef and mash potato. But like. RICE. The only time I eat rice now is when I go to Hawaiian Drive Thru for the BBQ chicken combo, or like. If Sandra has dinner parties. :/



I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to Andy :( He's still hanging around in San Francisco though, so I might get a chance to see him again. I hope.

I will leave you to some random pictures I took on my way back from work.

While waiting for the MUNI outside San Francisco State University. I'm going to miss walking in every week day, scurrying to Jessie's Hot House, avoiding looks from other students just in case they jump me and ask me for a discount lol


Walking home. This stretch of road is the worst when I'm really tired, but I guess it really works out the hamstrings. I hope I get compliments on how toned my ass is when I get back. Ngeehee


Okay I'm off to spam Roman's phone with missed calls. What good is there if you have an iPhone but you drop it so many times that it isn't even capable of receiving calls and texts you tell me. Graargh. If this keeps up I'm heading over to his place tomorrow to drag him to the Exploratorium. I'm not going to go to that kid place alone okay!

Please excuse the lack of images

Uh... yeahhh..

LMAO.

I was supposed to upload some Yosemite pictures, but after countless failed attempts on uploading it with Blogger, I gave up and stuck them into the Facebook album instead.

It's been a while since I blogged, and well. I'm finding it tough stringing words together. Or maybe cos it's late and I need to sleep now so I can function properly at work tomorrow... but well. Work has been very slow lately and I find myself slowing down the pace of cleaning my worktops just so I have SOMETHING to do instead of spacing out and looking at Ruben prepare chicken tenders or Cesar peel prawns.

Yeah. There's nothing much to say, except that I am beginning to feel nostalgic every time I walk to the bus stop in the morning, because I know that I am going to miss all the quaint, pastel coloured houses and the chill in the air that I'm accustomed to.

And of course, the people. I'm already missing Natalia and Takahiro to bits, and Andy will follow soon after. Our favourite Gay Pooh partner is leaving us this week, and it won't be the same without having him say "Hello," in his deep voice everytime he comes up to the kitchen. Heck drinking at home won't be the same without us clambering down to his basement room for some drunken parties. :(

It's not the same without Natalia saying "Read the tickettttttt!" every time I wake her up in the morning. Or having her countless bottles of facial products littering the bathroom counter. Or having her say "It's impooooosssiiiibllleeeee" or "It's terrible" or "It's beaaaaauuuutiiifuuuullll" every time she needs to describe something. It's not the same going about town without her tagging along, or me tagging along while she does some whirlwind shopping.

I miss Nat a lot :(

Ok back to what has been happening around here.

Found a boardgame shop in West Portal so I went there with Janis two Friday nights ago. I am going to buy back a Fluxx game, that's fo sho. I highly doubt I'm going back to another game night, since I found out that one of my least favourite persons here in San Francisco (her name starts with Deb and ends with orah) hangs there frequently. The reason why I don't like her will be told in another post. Or maybe I will not even write why I hate her because she is not even worth the blog space. But yeah. Other than that the night was fun. Janis is super sporting and like. Wow. What I would to without her T3T

I went to the Oakland Museum of California two weekends ago with Roman, since it was raining so our plans of biking across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito has to be scrapped, and SzeMing didn't want to brave the hour-long ride to Oakland.

The museum is SUPER AWESOME. It's JUST what I wanted, history of California, works of art that isn't super modern (I cannot stand minimalist pieces because I have trouble dicipher(?)ing its meaning) and like. Wow. I LOVED IT.

Then Roman brought me to the movies so we can watch I Am Number Four (it sucks btw.). Had a few rounds of DDR while waiting for the movie to start, and yeah. A Polish guy beat me at DDR. And it's supposed to be like, an Asian game. Oh gosh Juan, I have let you and MeiShi down *hangs head*

On another day, SzeMing brought Frank and I to Lombard Street (the crookedest and most wuliao-est street in the world) and we got to ride the cable car :D It wasn't that pretty so I think I need to pay it another visit before I leave, since flowers are beginning to bloom.

Oh and last weekend I went to the St Patrick's Day parade at Civic Center with SzeMing and Zimson (I hope I got your name right). Then we hung out at Union Square, waiting for Roman for TWO HOURS. But that was sort of fruitful because we got to see random, and I mean RANDOM nude cyclists. It's some group where they just cycle around on bikes... nude. I saw so many penises, bare asses and boobs that day... T___T Then I brought Roman to Japantown to hang out before ending the night with sakebombs. Keyphrase: I brought Roman. Dude has been staying in San Francisco for three years and I seem to be the one bringing him around -___-" But I love Japantown. It's like. Thank you Janis for introducing me to that place. The place of good Thai tea and crepes... and Palty hair dye and Pocky sticks T3T




I must have just bored you to tears with this wordy post. Sorry. Pictures will be up... if I'm hardworking enough to photoshop it and webshot it.

But yeah. I'm fine here, and I am super looking forward to coming back to friends and family. Fo'shizzle.