El Dia Ultimo

The beginning of the end. Today is the last day of the San Francisco trip before we have to go back to Indiana. Tomorrow will basically be spent in the hotel lobby and on airplanes. Today though, ended up being one of the more memorable days out of the entire trip though. The day began with a trip to UC Berkeley, in the rain, where I was fortunate enough to peruse the comic book and graphic novel collection in the student bookstore. Soon after a hike through what seemed to be a tropical depression we feasted at Chez Panisse. Insane. I haven’t eaten that good in a long, long time. Afterwards we went to Mission Dolores. It was here I had my most special moment of the entire trip. I am Catholic, although now I may be a bit of a heathen, but I was able to pray in the actual Mission Dolores itself, the oldest building in all of San Francisco and immediately after that I visited the church adjacent to Mission Dolores. This was special. I was all alone in there, the lights were turned off and it was lit basically only by candlelight. Here I was able to reflect, pray, and think without being self-conscious with others around. It was a spiritual moment for me and I’m very thankful that the chance circumstances allowed me to have that exact moment. I was quite privileged in that regard. The day ended with dinner in Chinatown and the mandatory card games. This was a great trip, even though the rain was constant and didn’t allow for much skating at all, but I feel as if everybody in the group bonded, I know I made friends that I didn’t have before, and even though we didn’t do everything we planned and wanted to do, we still did so much and experienced so many different and new things that I am truly thankful that I was able to go on this trip and I appreciate all of the effort that went into making this class trip to San Francisco possible.

Not only is the song of the day the song for the day, but it’s also the closing song for the trip. It was a special trip and a special song is the only thing this trip deserves. I believe that the song by Public Enemy titled He Got Game, is the best song for this situation. It has that feeling of conclusion or of an ending and it samples a song by Buffalo Springfield, a folk band from the sixties. The song sampled, For What It’s Worth, is actually a song about the clashes of cultural revolutions in the sixties, which is perfect for the city of San Francisco.

Day 4

Cannery Row aquarium was awesome. I loved it. Learned so much from observing the animals. Got lunch at a fast food Indian restaurant where the food was great and the bones in the chicken curry were quite prevalent. Steinbeck center left a little to be desired, as well as tonight’s dinner at Duartes. Point Lobos and the sunset at the beach were amazing. I’ve never seen anything in nature as powerful as those waves crashing over the rocks at Point Lobos. Sea otters were a welcome addition as well, adding their own unique aspect to the experience. The other three quarters of the day was spent riding in a small travel bus. It wasn’t too comfortable and sleep was hard to attain, particularly in the middle of the back row of the bus. Ended the day by getting the number of a college junior. Yee.

Today’s song is Walking on the Moon by The Police. If I was an aquarium, I think this song would best articulate the atmosphere I’ve created, while Mmm Mmm Mmm by Crash Test Dummies defined rides.

Day 3

Did not sleep well at all the previous night. Bed mate kept snoring and rolling onto and was impervious to any attempt of mine to be woken up. That made the beginning of the day a bit rough, especially with the constant downpour of rain for around three or so hours. It was nice to volunteer for some people and to help them out with one aspect of their facilities that they really and genuinely needed aid with. At the time I wasn’t in the greatest mood to say the least, which made the hour and fifteen-minute ride back to the hotel that much worse. I needed a shower and a quick nap, which I got. That made the rest of the day much, much better. The rest of the day was actually quite awesome. First there was the cool trolley ride with the South African girls. They were pretty interesting and just as I was about to get a number and get a point on Chuck, Mr. Priest totally encroached my style. The low I was feeling after that was quickly remedied by seeing the Castro and my tacos at La Cumbre in the Mission. There seemed to be like an invisible line of demarcation that separated the districts at around the park at the Mission. My highlight of the day definitely occurred at Rasputin’s Records. I had just purchased Pest Shop Boys Greatest Hits and Mother’s Milk by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I didn’t plan for this to happen, but I ended up getting my cashier’s, Nika’s, number. She was beautiful and had a great vibe about her. Unfortunately, she lives here and not Indy. It was a great day.

The song that best represents the atmosphere of the morning is 96 Quite Bitter Beings by CKY. It’s totally post-grunge late nineties skate anger music. Needless to say, I was a bitter being until four o’clock. The afternoon can be most characterized by either West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys for its smooth, relaxing, and romantic tone or Today Was A Good Day by Ice Cube, because today definitely was a good day.

Day 2

The first notable activity of the day was going to the Farmer’s Market and picking out lunch items for our trip to Endor later in the day. Loved the falafel and the four avocados I got, but what I think was important to the day was the combination of meeting the Adriannas and the girl from the cheese stand. Help me naw! Next, we went to Muir Woods. It was raining, it was cold, and it was quite windy, and although I may not be a big fan of the outdoors, I am very glad I went to this. It was literally awe-inspiring. These trees are so tall and so ancient that it puts your own existence into perspective. Whether I become a clerk at Wall-Mart or the next Albert Einstein, these trees and this world will still be the same as it has been in the past and will continue to remain that way for a long, long time. Afterwards, we took quick hot showers at the hotel, attempted to watch Shaq bout with Oscar de la Hoya, and visit City Lights Book Store. At first, I was a bit put off by the atmosphere of this place, I got the sense everybody was more well-read than I, but I did find exactly what I was looking for, which were writings from Che Guevara. There was no particular reason as to why I wanted specifically Che, I just wanted something I couldn’t get at home and Che is a figure that I have been longing to delve more into. After a quick appetizer of Chinatown, we all headed to Park Chow. Classy, artistic comfort food. The burger was delicious and I learned a lot from the speaker at the end of the meal. All in all, the day was much better than anticipated.

The song of the day is 93 til Infinity by Souls of Mischief. They’re a San Francisco rap group from the early nineties. The song is smooth and starts a little bit slow, and then the pace of the song remains the same. It’s not slow but it’s not fast and that’s how I feel the day went.

Day 1

Got up really, really early for the plane ride to San Francisco. Tried to sleep, but that didn't work too well. Anxiety is setting in, due to fears of having room mates. When we actually got to San Francisco though, I thought that it was quite surreal, in that I have always dreamed to come to California and now I had finally arrived. This is definitely the first of many trips to the Bear State. It was so insane to see some of the most famous skate spots in the entire world, most notably EMB or Embarcadero and the pier directly across the streets. Skated on the Golden Gate bridge and bombed a hill in that park, which was hella tight. Also, I dropped my board and it hit a car, but that wasn't a big deal. I don't think the guy found out, but he came out and watched me skate for a while and he himself was a skater. Homeys gotta look out for each other. Later on, we went to Coigt Tower and the view was breath taking. I would have to say my highlight of the day though was either skating in San Fran, not necessarily the spots I was at, but just skating in the birthplace of modern street skating or the view from the plane over a mountain range near Salt Lake City in Utah. That was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

One of the songs of the day are Young Turks by Rod Stewart. This song has the appropriate tempo for the hectic travel schedule and the surrealness of landing in California. My skating though deserves its own song of the day and I would say Heart Attack Man by the Beastie Boys because I had to get aggressive to bomb that hill and I actually didn't do too much skating, which is similar to the relatively short length of the song.