I think one of the novelties of being in a foreign country is that I feel twice removed from my Chinese heritage. It is very a surreal and disorienting "out of body" "out of character" "out of comfort" state. It puts into perspective for me what it means to be Chinese. What it means to be the child of immigrant parents. What it means to be the child of Taiwanese-born Chinese parents. What it means to be American-born Chinese. What it means to be an American in a foreign country. A Chinese-American in a foreign country. A tri-lingual Chinese-American in a foreign country. And it makes me wonder how much or how little the people in that place understand this layered identity. How do they process me? All the nuances, the politics, the prejudices, the social constructs, my multi-cultural values, the pieces of my heritage that I choose to wear and the other pieces I've chosen to shed-- They can't they possibly understand any of that, but what do they see instead?

Monday, May 24, 2010

Haight on me, haters

Day 8 | Wednesday

Breakfast at Squat & Gobble in the Haight with Victor and Albert. I had the Mamma Mia crepe, but the whole menu looked delicious!


Then we headed to the California Academy for Sciences. It's the greenest building on the West coast! or something like that...


That night we stayed over at USF with Albert. It was a nice change of pace I suppose. It was a fun night.


Day 9 | Thursday

Lunch with Monica! We went to Katana-ya for Ramen, and it was yummalicious.


Also a pit-stop at Cako for a delish raspberry lemon cupcake!


More shopping in downtown, then we headed to Alamo Square to see the 'painted ladies' which are 4 authentic Victorian houses, often featured in postcards.


Then we bussed over to the Haight, which is the center of the hippie revolution by the way, to explore the little shops and also a pitstop at Escape from New York for some 'U Say Potato' Pizza!


Evening at grandma's house. Fried Rice!

Day 10 | Friday





Went to In-n-Out Burger and had a hamburger & animal fries. Just as good as I had expected. The bun is super crispy which I like a lot! Animal fries are okay. I'm not a saucy fries kinda gal.



Then Ghiradelli Square for sundaes! We had the Cable Car, aka. rocky road. BEST rocky road ice cream I've ever had!


Then we rode the cable cars back to downtown, soooo much fun. So relaxing, I was just standing on the side, with the wind blowing against my face, just cruising down the hill, watching the city go by, and I felt so great!


Then we took a street car to Castro, home of the LGBT movement. Also a cool area to poke around.


Finally, after dinner at dad's side grandma's house (we had bun riu which is a seafood stew that is really intense to make and very yummy) we hurried over to the CalTrain station where I took an 8:40 train to Santa Clara and met up with Izzy. We immediately headed over to a Beatles party. It was pretty fun. Some marshmallow roasting and toasting.


Day 11 | Saturday

Alas, I bid farewell to SF. In the morning, Nghia picks me up to grab my last supper, Viet food, always good. Then I'm off to San Jose airport.

Overall a wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable week on the West coast. I am a little sad to be back in hot and (uncharacteristically) humid Texas.

Hugs and hella hippies,
Angela
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