Our amazing journey of day two turned out fantastic, learning, seeing different cultures of the west coast and experiencing city life of San Francisco.

The morning started out great with us waking up on time, eating breakfast and talking about the day ahead of us. I talked with Nancy and Annie about the hippies times and how the music, philosophy, drugs and their movement changed the world. Nancy shared some of her experience being around the time of the hippies. She even went to Woodstock in 1969!
We were so excited for the day ahead of us that we left in a good mood on our way walking to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) which took us under water to the city. Entering the city, it was a bit chilly unlike around the country near CSDF. We walked around and I was so amazed and shocked by their culture and how different they were from the east. We walked around trying to find a bus that would take us up to Haight Ashbury, we struggled and struggled until we finally found the right one. Annie paid the ticket and we hopped on the bus. It was so much fun because the bus was crowded and every time the bus stopped someone would go forward or backwards crashing into someone else. We enjoyed the sightseeing on the bus.

We passed Haight Asbury and hopped out of the bus right across from the Golden Gate Park. We entered and walked around. One place that touched my heart was the National AIDS Memorial Grove. The park itself was made in 1996 to honor the people that died of AIDS. We walked through the trail and it was so gorgeous. It had stones and bridge which would be a river flowing with large rocks everywhere with carvings on it with some quotes and people’s names.

As we were about to leave the AIDS area, there was a woman who picked up a man who was in the wheelchair and wrapped his arms around her neck and she helped him up. She held him so close and they started to dance. Annie started to cry. That moment was so breathtaking. It could have been that the man was dying of AIDS. That moment I realized, was love. That is what it feels to care for someone, to live the rest of your life with that person. It was beautiful.

We continued into the park and stopped by the Japanese Tea Garden. Ironcially, we met a girl from Saipan who knew some teachers from ASD. We introduced ourselves and chatted with the girl and her mother. We took a picture all together. As soon as we started exploring the garden, it was so gorgeous and green. I even felt like I was in Japan. We toured the garden and took notes and pictures. We took a group picture on the bridge at the garden. Saw the Pagodas, the statue of Buddha and a Zen garden and we even settled down in the garden and had a cup of green tea and jasmine tea with some snacks talking about the hippie movements, cartoon movies and music of each generation.

Wasting too much time talking isn’t going to get us anywhere to see the rest of San Francisco so we paid the bill and left. We all walked back through the park back to Haight Ashbury and walked through the hippie village. We came across where the Haight Street meets the Ashbury Street which was the highlights of the 60’s. While walking through that street, we saw many different people with their own individual uniqueness which made me wonder who they were and know so much more about them. It was so interesting seeing something else for a change. They all seemed so layback, very relaxed while the east coast is always in a rush and so uptight sometimes. I liked that difference about them. They’re friendly. They’d smile and nod. It was different.

We caught the bus, this time no bumping into people or leading backwards or forward immediately. It was a relaxing bus ride back to the BART station which we hopped on and rode all the way back. I fell asleep for a short while on Annie’s shoulder while she talked to Darren and Angelina. I woke up shortly before we arrived and we talked and talked.

Now we’re back at CSDF working on our logs, investigation, journal and photos after eating a fulfilling dinner made by the teachers!

Tomorrow will be another day yet to look forward to!