August 28, 2011

Commandeered...

This is “Stud,” which is a great name by the way. I have commandeered my beautiful bride’s blog for a bit to update family and friends on my activities in San Francisco. For those who are interested in food and not San Francisco, I plan on eating here if it’s any consolation. I’m here for a month doing an away rotation in emergency medicine (the best medical specialty). I already did a month in the ED at UL so hopefully I won’t look like a moron out here. I will likely still look like a moron. Anyway, after breaking the new sunglasses Alex bought me for my birthday by snagging them in my 50 pound bag at the airport, I finally made it to the house where I will be residing. My cabbie was a great tour guide. He had a Phd in some sort of art field and drove cabs to help pay the rent. The “glass is half full” part of me: wow, even the cabbies have Phds here. The “glass is half empty” part of me: wow, even Phds have to drive cabs here to pay the rent. My landlord is an ex-hippie named Harold who has dreadlocks to his knees. The house reminds me of my old frat house, campus gas, but it’s a roof over my head and a comfy bed to sleep. I decided to jump head first into the whole bus thing and head downtown. The bus driver kindly walked me through the bus-riding process without laughing at the newbie…I was very appreciative. I made it downtown, tried to get my glasses fixed, then decided to walk to Chinatown. After a little hike I finally made it and found the place that had the most Chinese people eating and plopped down at a table. What better first San Fran meal than Mongolian beef? I didn’t take a pic so I found this one online…



Now if you know me, you know I LOVE spicy food, but if you order this, do NOT eat the red peppers included unless you want to die. This is for your own safety. I’m pretty sure they are there for garnish and a good laugh when a tourist decides to come in and doesn’t know any better. Please learn from my mistakes. I then decided to walk off the burning pepper from Hell that was in my stomach by walking up to Coit Tower for a nice view of the bay.


Amazing views. The walk down to the bay was very unique. It is a public set of stairs but goes right through peoples’ gardens and backyards. It’s about 1000 feet down wooden steps through gardens and thick vegetation. I didn’t take a picture but I felt like I was in the jungle. At the bottom, I walked past the piers back to Market street where I hopped on the bus and headed home. The people in my house: Roland from Holland doing research at San Fran General Hospital, Andrea from Romania who is a dental student, Toby from Pennsylvania doing an away rotation in trauma surgery, Deana from Germany doing research at Parnassus, Mupina from Mississippi doing a rotation in Surgery, and several other people I haven't yet met. We had a party for Deana’s birthday and some Dutch, Romanian and German people came over… Toby and I were the only ones speaking English.
Today, I scoped out the routes to get to Parnassus and General Hospital, and then headed back downtown again. That bus route goes right past Alamo Square and the "painted ladies." I didn't see Bob Saget



I then walked over to Nob hill to buy a used bike at a store where you can sell it back after a month...only to find the store had moved to Fisherman’s Wharf. I walked the 2 miles down the hill only to find that the new location hadn’t opened yet. Guess I’m bussing it this month. Great views though...

At Fisherman's Wharf, I was starving so bought a clam chowder bread bowl and then scarfed it before the pigeons could eat it/poop in it.

So good. I took the old historic cable car most of the way home and then walked the rest. For a parting thought, I passed my neighborhood Laundromat “Get the Funk Out” on my walk home in Haight Ashbury. Love it.

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