Day 6: Fitting into the lifestyle

Finally my body get used to the time differences. Jet lag is torturing, having no energy for everything. But now I'm filled with energy and start liking 'the' San Francisco.

Besides working as a bug reporter and building my bubble, I managed to have some time in between to see around. Especially in the weekend, Lesley, our host even took us for a sight seeing trip. Well before that I was terrified by being in San Francisco. Whose fault? Market Street.

It was my first day ever being in the city of San Francisco and we ended up in the Market Street. What I saw were scary homeless people and smell of pee all over the world! Imagine the scenery: one woman sitting in a wheelchair took her boob out, which was bigger than my head, and start cleaning it in the middle of the sidewalk! Another crazy woman, whose face was smashed down as if she came out from a hunted movie, looked us into the eyes and said with a broken voice: ' They...killed...my...dog...on...my...birth...day....!!!'

WTF! I was scared like hell.

Luckily Lesley took us to a nice place, to somewhere near the sea and we could see Golden Gate. We drove up and down hill, it was incredible! A bit scary too, those bikers were definitely out of their mind! You have no idea how steep it is unless you see it. Unbelievable.

Lesley also took me to the Asian store, where I totally went nuts. I cannot believe that they sell more Asian stuff than in Asia! I mean, there are a lot of things that I have not even seen them before. I am in love with the store. I told Lesley that I could easily move to SF just for the Asian store. A bit unrealistic though, but you have no idea, in Finland you don't get these things! 

We also went tot the normal store and everything is just big and cheap compare to Finland. There are all kind of fresh vegetable, fruits, meats, breads and anything you can name of. I was hipper active just to be in the store. I was so impressed!

Sunday Riku took me to the Pomponio State Beach in Half Moon Bay. The view was just amazing! The waves coming from the sea were huge. I don't think I've seen any cliff in my life before, it was breathtaking. Riku and I sat on the cliff and listened to the sound of the sea. It was very calm and romantic.

The weather is still bad so far. I'm looking forward to warmer days to come. Hopefully soon, then there will be more joy and fun things for me to write about.

Day 2: Spending half a day at Stanford

Went to bed before 10pm when Riku was working, woke up at 5am and Riku was working again. Wow, what a man made of metal! First time eating American breakfast ( if those food I found from the fridge was typical American):
brewed coffee, cereal, bread, cheese and ham. Well I have to say that all the American style is big! Everything is bigger than what I have seen. Big bread slices, big carton of milk and juice, big doors, big ham slices, just name it they are all big! :-D I find it difficult to finish a slice of bread without Riku's help, seriously!

Riku and I went for a walk to the Burlingame Avenue. Oh, I'm so in love with these beautiful houses and all the plants they grew. There are lemon trees full of lemons, big roses, big money trees, and all kinds of craziest flowers that I've never seen.

We went to have lunch in a Burmese and Chinese restaurant. 7,95USD per meal including a glass of lemon water and soup. I had the Burmese Curry Chicken and Riku had the Basil Spicy Chicken. They were soooo gooood... ... Good service too, thumbs up this time for Riku's recommendation!

After that we went to Vans store in Burlingame to shop for some shoes for comfort. Riku and I found our favorite shoes within 20minutes! Mine was 60USD (42e) and Riku's was 40USD (28e). Not bad at all with that kind of a quality. Loved it.

We took a train to Palo Alto Station, and jumped in a free bus that goes to Stanford University for a meeting with Christ, our PR. Wow, Riku was not kidding about Stanford campus at all, which is bigger than the size of Kannelmäki! We got lost with the bus, walked for around 30minutes before we found our destination.

Along the way, I smell something really fresh and nice on the sidewalk. It turned out that those smell came  from the field full of rosemary! I also saw lemon trees, roses and unknown gorgeous flowers and trees all over the campus. Walking in Stanford campus makes me feel like Harry Potter somehow. Unbelievable, I wish we have the same in HAAGA-HELIA too.

I can understand that with a tuition fee of 50,000USD per year you get your own Mac store, library, cafes, post office, restaurants, bus connections, a store selling lots of Stanford branded products and souvenirs in your own school. It's nice when you have a bike or a car, otherwise I'm pretty sure that you will definitely lose weight to study in Stanford, it is way too big!

At this time nearly 8pm this cafe Coho is still packed with students and visitors like us. It has been two pianists performing already, what a cozy yet fancy cafe. Of course, it's Stanford.

Day 1: Arriving to the land of San Francisco

Well with 2 hours sleep plus 18 hours of flight is really unbearable! I was extremely tired and felt like a zombie when I got off the plane. The worse thing is that when Riku and I walked through the immigrant check point, we were asked a lot of questions. Not only that, we were sent to THE ROOM, where we spoke to an officer while he was checking our data and 'examinating' us.


 Luckily I was not the problem. They only suspected Riku about his visiting to the United States, since he has gone there many times on business. It was quite a silence during the conversation, but guess what, the officer eventually got excited about bublaa.com! He also thought that it is going to be the next facebook. How proud, Riku turned his face from red to excitement when he was telling how he is going to launch the service.

We were safe after all. They couldn't charge Riku because he is really not working in the US. Well, sort of, but his company is based in Finland and he is only having meetings and organizing events in the states. But I think it might become an issue in the future concerning the visa.

We took a cab and headed to Leslie and Masa's home to Burlingame, where we live. What I saw through the window from the cab was, it looks like I'm in Malaysia, or Cancun. Couldn't really tell the big differences. But when I got the Paloma Ave, I am in love with the style of the houses! They are so cute like toy houses!

I went to bed immediately. I might have missed a day already. I met Leslie, a wonderful woman who has made dinner for us too. Riku kept on working like an robot while I slept the rest of the day away. 

I just wanna get more energy for this new start! :-D