1 post tagged “cirque”

The final paper is finished, the exams are done, and I'm here in San Francisco on Day 3 of a four-day house-and-job-finding trip, or as my dad called it once, the "exploratory mission" (makes it sound official).  I have, in fact, been successful on the "house" part, and found a room to stay in over on the west side of town.  It was the second place I looked at, which both makes me think I've been slightly hasty, and makes me glad that I cut out all of that running around town to look at crappier rooms.

Although I've been running around the city anyway.  Yesterday I came up with some spare time and was a tourist for a little while in spite of a constant, cold drizzle and blustery wind that frequently turned my (cheap) umbrella inside out.  All so that I could bring back pictures:

...and the Japanese Tea Garden, also in the rain...

Then I went to the Circus Center, even though it's closed for the holidays, just to stand there and go "Wow!  I'm at the Circus Center!"  It worked.

(sorry about the raindrop in the middle one.  I had to prove it was actually raining.)

And guess who else is in town?

Since I'd gotten all my business done, I made a last-second trip to worship at the shrine of Cirque du Soleil.  I'd never seen Kooza before (it's new) and though I'm still not thrilled about the name (makes me think of koosh balls-- remember those?) it was pretty good.  They didn't have silks, but they had a swinging trapeze act that made me think "maybe I'll look into some trapeze stuff at Circus Center..."

I still have another day and a half here in town, and almost no plans.  So maybe I'll go play the tourist and take some more pictures... especially since it stopped raining the moment I got back to the hostel yesterday (but I'm learning all about microclimates!

Incidentally, anyone thinking of moving or even visiting Sa Francisco would do well to invest in the Not For Tourists Guide.  It's already saved my life about nine hundred times, as it contains lots of information about where to get coffee, or catch the bus, and is fairly frank about the quality of that coffee and how late your bus is likely to be.

And look at that discreet black cover. Every other guidebook has a big ole picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on the front that screams "I'm a tourist!"  Now you can pretend not to be a tourist, until you bust your cover by not knowing where to put your money in the BART ticket machine.  Or you whip out your camera every ten seconds to take pictures of rain-sodden landmarks...