San Francisco

Wow...only one day and it has been quite full! Am trying to figure out how to download my photos/videos from the video card, and once I do, I will have some pix up. Flew over what I believed to be the Salt Flats of Utah....very dry and white!

Once we were finished with our orientation at the hotel, they brisked us away to the Consul General's house for dinner. The bus ride (as you will see on the video) was ok, until we got into San Francisco proper. Being from the flat, horizontal plains of the midwest, going up the street felt like the roller coaster ride when the car goes "click...click...click" on the way up. Gravity pulling you into the back of the seat as you ascended...I was in a complete anticipation mode, waiting for the top ready to go down fast. Try to imagine that sensation in a bus, and you will know what it is like. It was great to see the mountains and the fog slowly rolling in off the coast, which apparently happens every night. I also saw the Golden Gate bridge at night, but it surprised me because there are hardly any lights on it to show the "outline" of the top part of the bridge...just street lights lining the road.

Cable cars! There are wires all over, above the streets for these transportation devices. To me it looks "cluttered" with wires for cable cars and street lights above

So, what did I eat? Well, Japanese food of course, including sushi and shashimi...I stuck with the tuna roll- but they did have raw beef and pork, lightly seared....ewwwww! But the servers were in tuxes and white gloves...a couple of them looked exactly like California surfers...all suntanned, bleached out, wind blown hair. Like serving us at the Consualte was their night job, as they could have been surfing during the day. Hey students...find out if they surf around San Fransico for me, ok?

I have met people from all over the U.S. already from all walks of life, one of the more interesting was a gentleman who has lived and taught school on the Pine Ridge Reservation in SD. In Denver, all the midwesterners converged to catch a flight to the west coast...people from ND, SD, NE, OK, IA, MO. The accents were obvious from the different states, and only 3 people said "I love that movie"...when they heard I was from Fargo. LOL.

I got information about who my host family is. It is an older family - the parents in their mid-fifties with 3 kids, 2 at home ages 24 and 26, and a 28 year old who lives in Osaka. The momma-san likes to garden, papa-san likes to fish, one boy likes baseball, the other girl at home karaoke. They didn't tell me if they speak English or not...hopefully they will a little :).

Well, I am going to pack it up for now as the buses are coming to bring us to the airport. If someone out there wants to make a power point movie of my stories and photos (once I get those downloaded) go right ahead. I have provided lots of information in just this one blog that you could map out things like where I have been, where other people have been, or answer the question I posed to you a few paragraphs above!

Well, I will be on the longest flight of my life to date- approximately 10 hours!! I am lucky to have this opportunity, and will get the pictures up ASAP!

Later,
KW