While in SF, I of course made a date to meet up with my old friends, Sam and Alex. Not only did I get to visit their beautiful home, but I also got to meet their adorable son, Nathan. This little tyke has the most amazing blue-gray eyes and makes the most engaging and amusing facial expressions I've ever seen. I was impressed to the point of being nearly speechless as I watched Nathan get absolutely spoiled as his father gave him a full body massage (we should all be so lucky!) and then his mother gave him a bath.
After bath time, it was time to kiss little Nathan goodnight and to let the adults share in some wine and conversation. Alex's mother was staying with them, so I also had the chance to chat with her and get to see what an endearing and interesting woman she is. With a mother like her, no wonder Alex is so cool! And, I must say that I was very, very impressed with Sam's ability to speak French. He chatted away almost like it was his mother tongue. I kept my French practice mainly to listening, since just about every time I tried to open my mouth to speak French with Alex's mother, the only thing that wanted to come out was Chinese. Luckily, Alex's mother is multilingual, so we were able to enjoy our conversation by bouncing around between languages. Oh, and by the way, le poulet etait delicieux!
My friend, Adam, went all out on my visit to SF - even dropping off a little welcome goody bag complete with candy and maps highlighting severals spots of interest around the city. Now, most of those spots were his favorite bars, along with several parks offering expansive views of the city. As we talked about his life in SF, he dubbed it as a "city of views," and after visiting his recommended spots on the map, I'd have to agree.
Oh, and he also organized a day of bike riding across the Golden Gate and up to Sausalito and Tiberon. We duly ignored the directions of the cute Spanish girl at the bike rental place, whose enchanting accent sent us both into space, and got lost. But all in all it was a grand day of biking, sightseeing, and of course enjoying a few beers at the end - all topped off with a ferry ride back to the city.
I recently had the pleasure(?) of returning Stateside for a few weeks at the end of August/early September. My trip was a bit of a whirlwind tour, including San Francisco, San Diego, New York and Chicago, so it will likely take a few posts to really get through it all.
But first things, first. I arrived in San Francisco on August 28 and duly headed straight for Mountain View, where, rather than looking for a job at Google, I desperately searched the streets for a pay phone while carrying all my stuff and wondered if I had really left Asia, since most of the storefront signs were in Chinese.
A lack of working pay phones led me to the offices where my old and good friend, Nandita, works. I know Nandita from a TESOL certificate program we both took in Zhuhai, China, in January 2003 (in fact, she and I took a little side trip to Hong Kong at the time of the SARS breakout - we both survived). Nandita has traded in an exciting life as an ESL teacher to stay in Mountain View with her beau, Boris. But luckily they do still get out and travel the world together - in fact, he just took her home with him to Bulgaria to meet his family. I look forward to seeing you again next year, Nandita!
After bath time, it was time to kiss little Nathan goodnight and to let the adults share in some wine and conversation. Alex's mother was staying with them, so I also had the chance to chat with her and get to see what an endearing and interesting woman she is. With a mother like her, no wonder Alex is so cool! And, I must say that I was very, very impressed with Sam's ability to speak French. He chatted away almost like it was his mother tongue. I kept my French practice mainly to listening, since just about every time I tried to open my mouth to speak French with Alex's mother, the only thing that wanted to come out was Chinese. Luckily, Alex's mother is multilingual, so we were able to enjoy our conversation by bouncing around between languages. Oh, and by the way, le poulet etait delicieux!
