Day 1- San Fran Style

Today was my first full day in San Francisco. I toured the city in three inch heals and a full suit, in the rain no less. Well it only rained in the morning and in again late evening, but still it rained! I was a trooper...can you tell I am proud of myself? The day started at 8:15 when we left the hotel for the office. As you read this, keep in mind that I was a follower during this adventure to the office. With 12 people going to the office together, you really can't have more than 2 people leading you. Of course the two people picked (they were chosen because they brought their maps down from their rooms), got us lost. One took us to the wrong Academy building, and the second one missed a turn while in route to the correct building. Needless to say we left our hotel at 8:15 which should have been about a 5 minute walk (10 minutes tops) and got into the correct building at 8:43, GOOD ENOUGH! That meant that we were still 2 minutes early. Not as early as I would like to be, but at least I wasn't late. HATE HATE HATE being late.

First things first...ID badge! That seems like a great idea after having spent 28 minutes walking in the rain (of course I didn't have an umbrella). I got my ever impressive ID badge (I actually got a good picture) so its now official. I am actually employed, I didn't think it counted signing the new hire paperwork...it was all about the badge. You can't get into any of the buildings without a badge and now I think it is safe to say that I will get student discounts when I get back to Denver. After all, I have a student ID, so why wouldn't I get the advantages of a student discounts? We met with three department directors today. All of which are extremely passionate about their department and the school as a whole. I am very excited about taking a class or two, taught by these most impressive artist and industry workers. They have such a firm grasp on the real life, and they incorporate real life scenarios into the class. No two classes are the same, even if taught by the same professor semester after semester. It was refreshing and extremely liberating!

Towards the end of second department director meeting, we came down the stairs to look at faculty bios and sample work that they post. The director asked if we had had an earthquake because all of the art work had fallen off the wall. It was really strange, but I thought she was kidding. All the artwork was up when we entered the building an hour and half earlier, and I had been in the building the entire time. One would think that I would be able to feel an earthquake. Well apparently there was a little rumble in the earth today. I talked with the other 12 people training and they all confirmed that yes the building did shake. At one point during the meeting, it the room we were in acted like a fast train went by and shook the building a little bit. I immediately remembered thinking that there must be train tracks near this building and I thought it was odd that I hadn't remembered seeing them on my way into the building. Never would I have ever thought we had an earthquake. Silly me!

After our three department director meetings, we were set to go explore the city. Six of us decided to make the 15 minute journey to China town...man those hills are steep! Chinatown seemed to be a little bit of a let down for me. I was really expecting fake coach purses, bargaining for stuff I don't really need or want, but I buy because I never get to bargain in anything else. It was nothing of the sort. Quite a few restaurants (no one spoke English) but that was pretty much the extent of everything. We did a little shopping on our way back to the hotel, but again no bargaining...it was 1 price take it or leave it! Talk about disappointing. We did happen to walk the wrong way home (roughly 5 or 6 blocks out of the way), but I am sure we could use the exercise. After all, it wasn't like we didn't already walk about 3 miles during the day. :) Right before we reached our hotel, I stopped and got a 6 pack of Anchor Steam...how could I not get a beer from San Francisco? I figure it was my way of giving back to the local economy.