Tag Archives: Castro street

Loving random American holidays

It’s already been two weeks since I got here! I really can’t believe it. Time is doing that annoying thing of smiling wickedly at me and turning its hourglass to hyper speed.

It’s been a pretty busy week – I had a lot of reading to do at work but I got it all done and now I get a three day weekend! Yay random American holidays that I don’t understand! (I think it’s Memorial Day, but I’m not sure what we’re memorial-izing). Other than work, nothing too exciting happened to me this week. I did have a super long chat with one of my girlfriends at home about life and love and work and school and pretty much anything else that slightly pertained to our lives, which was actually really nice. We vented a lot and decided that if all else fails, we’re becoming wedding planners. It’s a solid backup plan, right?

I was also pretty happy this week because some of my friends from last summer started work at Google, so I have more familiar faces around me. A lot of people I know are starting to float back to the Bay Area now, so I don’t feel quite so alone down here anymore. I went to dinner tonight with some of them and we tried out a Vietnamese place (Pho Garden) on Castro street. I shared a seafood clay pot and garlic noodles and chicken with my friend and it was delicious! I really love our Friday night Castro street dinners, because Castro street is usually pretty lively and it’s nice to go out after basically living at work all week.

I think my only complaint (and it’s very small, more of a peep rather than a complaint really) is that the weather’s been very up and down. Last summer, I arrived in June and essentially lived in shorts all summer, so when I packed for this summer I forgot all about the month of May and didn’t pack very many long pants. Not a smart move. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not really that cold, but it’s been pretty windy this last week and I’m running out of jeans. I need that hot California sun to make its return ASAP and drive away all this pesky wind business, so I can get on with the all important business of getting the tan I can’t get in Vancouver.

Like I said though, a long weekend means more time to do exciting things – like shop! I’m shopping, having a sleepover, tanning, going to a farmer’s market, and making dinner this weekend, among other possible things. I foresee good times ahead.

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Return of the Sunshine

Oh, my god. I’ve forgotten how much I’m in love with the sun. I’ve just had the most beautifully sunny and gorgeous weekend ever, and it’s really all because of that giant ball of fire up in the sky. (Yes, I know it’s not really made of fire, but close enough).

I started it off really well by having dinner with my friend on Friday night. Last summer, we had a tradition of Friday night dinners on Castro Street in Mountain View, and I think it’s going to be continued. We went to Barracuda, a Japanese place, and had calamari, sushi and this amazing miso rice bowl with a ton of seafood. The fish in the rice bowl was some of the best white fish I’ve ever had – it was tender and flaky and oh so droolworthy.

Saturday morning I went for a run and ended up at a farmers’ market at the Sunnyvale Caltrain station. I love farmers’ markets – they’re always so fun and the food you get is so fresh. I mostly wandered and checked things out, but I picked up some fruit (which disappeared the same day…into my stomach) and bread. I think my favourite thing about these markets is the vibe – everyone is just kind of bustling around and talking and it gives you a really cool sense of community.

I then proceeded to spend my afternoon at my pool.

I really couldn’t resist. I haven’t seen proper sunshine since last summer sometime. My book and I spent some quality time together, I got a bit of a sunburn, and life was glorious.

I went for dinner with some of the other interns at a southern Indian restaurant. It was pretty interesting because (according to my knowledgable friends) I’ve probably mostly eaten northern Indian food at home, so the food was different from what I was expecting. It was good though! All vegetarian and a lot of rice-based dishes. I couldn’t pronounce anything.

Today, my roommate and I checked out another farmers’ market, this time at the Mountain View caltrain. I could probably go to farmers’ markets every day of the week and not get bored. I picked up some dried fruit and sampled something from almost every stall.

A funny thing happened to us though – we were sitting on Castro Street drinking bubble tea when all of a sudden a random parade began to go by. It was bizarre because there were girls dressed up like Disney princesses mixed with random older people wearing suits or yoga pants and small kids in fancy wear. We couldn’t figure out what it was for, but it was fun to watch it go by. I think it might have been Portuguese-related because this lady came by and handed us cards for Portuguese Day (or something).

I’m also really excited for tonight because I’m reuniting with some of my favourites from last summer, who I haven’t seen in forever! I miss them big time and can’t wait to see their pretty faces.