48 Hours in San Francisco: First 24 Hours

This morning began before the sun had awoken from it’s slumber at the early hour of 4:30 AM. My father, such a beautiful human, picked up my mother from her late flight the night before and thus only got like 3 hours of sleep, so shoutout to you Pops!

I got on the plane in a fog but was gracefully awakened by the precise moment that the plane ascended over the clouds. From my window seat in coach I was hit with this understanding that although the morning over Portland was dreary and cloudy there was another beautiful side to this story and I was blessed enough to witness both.

Once I arrived at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) I immediately pulled out my phone and opened the Lyft and Uber apps to compare prices for a ride from the Airport to Hotel South Beach. I then ordered my Uber and walked to the terminal to meet the driver. When the driver was 2 minutes away I had a realization that perhaps I would get to experience more of a genuine experience of San Francisco I should take public transportation. I cancelled my Uber and found the Airtrain, with lots of help of course, which led me to some thing they kept calling the BART. ‘What in the world is a BART?’ I asked myself. When the train finally arrived I mentally had a realization that BART is the San Fran what the Max is to Portland. DUH.

I made a mistake while riding BART, I had my headphones in and my head down. In order to make learning how to use BART worth it for the cultural understanding of San Fran I should have been 100% alert to my surroundings- I will remember for next time.

When my stop finally did arrive I stood inside BART like an idiot staring at the underground terminal until the door were half closed and I nearly knocked a woman out as I ran by her yelling ‘excuse me. sorry ‘bout that-” The next mistake I made was immediately putting on what I like to call the New York City Crown. It’s a mix between being cocky, uninterested in others, and completely focused on the destination rather then the trip. I think it may have been the amount of people on the street or perhaps the underground transit that turned on that unconscious group of mannerisms and behaviors but I have learned that I need to be conscious that that is instinctually what my body goes to when in a new place.

I sat in a Starbucks and worked the morning away completing a project remotely until I was able to walk over to Hotel North Beach and drop my backpack off. Feeling light because I finally didn’t have that weight on my back I left to walk to Pier 39 and got lost, distracted and my phone died. It was a beautiful 5 hours of my life, I opened an oyster at a little shop and was the first one to hold my beautiful white pearl. The woman cleaning my pearl told me that if it remained white even after they cleaned it then that was a symbol of innocence, beauty, purity, and new beginnings.

Let me tell you now, I knew my phone was going to die and I purposely did not bring my portable charger from my backpack. I did this intentionally because I thought it could be good, but the benefits of being without a phone that has directions, camera, Snapchat, time, or any other contact with people who were not in my immediate vicinity far surpassed my expectations.

I expected this disconnect from the virtual to be a possible beginning to self-realization pertaining to who I am without the unconscious expectations that I feel people have of me or the ‘face’ I need to maintain but this separation was much more then that. I realized that the world can indeed slow down if I let it and I can truly enjoy each moment if I am not constantly focused on the outside world or this concept of time. I also realized that there is a beauty in being in a tourist site, for example I heard at least 10 different languages today that I recognized NOT including different dialects.

Next realization I had was that having a physical map is NOT the same as having the Maps app. It is hard to navigate a physical map! I was lost for a good 20 minutes before I gave up and walked into a Starbucks to charge my phone and grab a double shot espresso.

After my coffee and the energy boost I continued on what turned out to be a very scenic trip to my hotel. I arrived, checked in to room 78 and realized that this was unlike any hotel I have ever been in. This room is probably 12' x 6'. It has a sink, mirror, bed, lamp, bedside table, desk, foldup chair, mini fridge, microwave and a very small closet- needless to say I was immediately taken aback, it is way smaller then I had pictured it. The more time I spent in my room (after checking for bed bugs, cleanliness etc) the more I came to adore the little room. It’s not fancy but it doesn’t need to be.

As the sun began to set I ventured around the corner from the hotel and found a little restaurant called ‘bund Shanghai Restaurant’ and got their sweet and sour chicken with rice and let me tell you, it was FANTASTIC.

All in all today was an adventure but alas I have been awake for 17 hours and am quite frankly exhausted and need to sleep.

Tomorrow is a big day at the Consulate General of Spain so I am going to say goodnight, but first an explanation of the photos:

The first is my attempt at capturing the beauty on the flip side of the dreary morning in PDX, the second was taken across the street from Hotel North Beach (although it is not shown in the picture), and the third is my acquisitions from Pier 39: a beautiful shell box to hold a future gift, a beautiful ring from an amazing little boutique and the pure white pearl- my pearl.

Until next time,

♡ E