03 Mar San Friendcisco

One of the most profound and accurate things said this week was done so by an Uber driver. Some friends from my home university had flown out to see me, and were currently all faffing about in the back of the car as we drove back from Coach (we had to purchase an obscenely expensive handbag to prove a point to someone, which is arguably the most mature and justified reason for such a venture). As we were exiting the cab, the Uber driver turned to me and told me I had the best friends a girl could ask for, what with them flying all the way out on the eleven and a half flight to see me. I found myself with nothing clever or funny to say in response, because he was right. I do. I mean, they are pretty ridiculous. One of them, on said flight out, watched ‘Marley and Me’, because the logical thing to do before meeting the friend you have not seen in two months is watch a feature-length film about a family dog dying. She then proceeded to get in the wrong line at passport control, because she apparently thought she’d try her luck at passing for an American citizen. Safe to say visa control saw through her English accent and passport, and I was waiting at arrivals for two hours while she was sent to International customs.

All of them were fittingly excited about what American culture had to offer, from Taco Bell to Target. I pretended I was used to it all, and practically native to the Bay, but I feel the fact I still refer to the ‘sidewalk’ as ‘pavement’ and refuse to call a ‘loo’ a ‘restroom’ may have given me away. Plus, the fact that I was about as clued in on public transport as they were, just tapping my clipper card against anything that looked like it would make a beeping sound, it was like the blind leading the blind. If them being here taught me anything, it was that I do not pull off looking like I belong here as much as I thought I did. All the same, we did as much as we could cram into one week of activities. In ‘N Out Burger (three times for some), Ghiradelli (which is apparently a big deal), Target, an American Diner, Sephora, the pier, apple headquarters, sushi, the Castro, Hot Cookie, IHOP, stumbling around on the muni/bart, girl scout cookies and the SFSU campus (arguably the true gem of SF itself).

However, of all the activities we managed to do, there are two that stick out as real highlights. The first is ice skating. We went to the Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center, for for anyone looking for ice and skates I would recommend it; they provide both. They do not provide balance, elegance or years worth of dedicated training that would exhibit itself in any of us being able to actually skate. This lack of experience or any kind of expertise did not, however, stop us from deciding we could skate backwards or that races were a good idea. As it turns out, races were not a good idea. Saying that, I can never think of a time in my life that I have declared races were a good idea. I don’t think any of the people that competed in the racing portion of the day could really qualify as winners. I had one spectacular fall: picture a walrus hitting concrete on its back. One of the Rachels (there are two, it’s complicated, inconvenient and after knowing them both for almost two years we have yet to find a way around it) took home the award for most falls and getting stuck in a toilet cubicle. Other Rachel (the one who watched ‘Marley and Me’ on her flight and is most definitely not an American citizen) probably fared the best in the sense that she remained standing with some semblance of grace. Shannon didn’t even compete she was such a liability. We were awful. I would bet money on the fact that we endangered a lot of lives, young and old. It was amazing, I would thoroughly recommend.

The other highlight would be our trip to the Golden Gate Bridge. We hung around one of the picture-taking spots for close to two hours; taking photographs of the bridge, ourselves, other people (not in a creepy way– they asked us to take pictures of them). I have close to one-hundred photographs from those two hours alone. We truly embraced our tourist status and experimented with a variety of poses, from looking off into the distance at the bridge, to pointing away from the bridge like we had seen something a lot more interesting in the opposite direction. There were hugs, group photos and (upon my insistence) prom-style pose pictures. Looking back on these, the bridge and iridescent blue sky behind us does look a lot like a green screen. After mucking around at this point for a stupid amount of time, one member of our party suggested we should probably walk the bridge, which we did. It’s a pretty daunting task, the lanes of cars rushing by fast on one side of you and a 245 foot drop on the other side. But we made it half way across before turning around to walk back, so I like to think we did pretty well. We then spent a considerable amount of time in the gift shop–they have Golden Gate Bridge bookends.

To clarify, my studying abroad experience in San Francisco so far has been amazing. It has been one of the most terrifying, exhilarating, rewarding, mind-blowing and unconceivable events of my life (and I’ve only been here 60 days, I counted). But having my friends fly all the way out to spend one magnificent week with me made it more than that. It made it phenomenal. Mainly because they brought English tea and pretended to laugh at my jokes for seven days. Other than that I was happy to see the back of them at Oakland International Terminal 1, which is why I ugly cried in the airport for an hour after they left. Crying in airports is kind of my thing now, it seems wrong to not see the luggage claim and flight plans through the blurred sheen of tears. Some people knit, some play hockey, I cry in airports. It’s going to catch on, I’m telling you.

Anyway, the Uber driver was mostly right, I do have great friends. None of their names have been changed for the sake of their privacy or dignity, because it is not a priority of mine. Good luck finding the Rachels though, there are too many of them to make the task easy. We left Shannon stranded in the middle of the rink at Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center (750 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94107), but as previously mentioned she’s somewhat of a liability, so approach at your own risk. Bradie’s pretty great, but leave him be. Safe to say, that Uber driver (who will remain anonymous for discretion’s sake) got a five-star review.