san francisco
Yesterday night, I've just come back to Chiba after visiting San Francisco for 6 days (5 nights).. So tired, the flight took about 9 hours from Narita to San Francisco International Airport.
At first, I worried about the security check in US, I thought it would be sooo strict that it would be so troublesome. However, when I entered the immigration section at San Francisco Int'l Airport, my bag was just passed through a metal detector, just like the usual way in Narita Airport. The officer in the immigration section was asking me about my visiting purpose and how long I will stay in US. That's all and I'm glad about that. But then I realized that the airport security check in US is really strict when I took the flight back to Narita. Not only that I had to take out my laptop from the bag, they also checked all the things inside my bag, and I even had to take off my shoes (I hoped the officer didn't think that my shoes smell bad coz I haven't cleaned it ever since I bought it 2 years ago :p )
The view in San Francisco was great. I could see seals at the bay near Pier 39. Oh right, the roads are up and down, lots of hills and really steep.. that's why sightseeing by feet was really tiring. On the first day in SF, I reached the hostel safely. I didn't get lost on my way from the nearest train station to usa hostel :D But then after I checked in and took a walk around the hostel, I was lost. I walked for about 5 to 7 blocks away from the hostel.. It was all because I read the street name incorrectly. (Usually in Jakarta, the name of the street written on the mouth of the street. However in US, the plank written name of the street is parallel to the street. It was so confusing at first.)
On the second day, I joined a bus tour. We went to twin peaks and golden gate bridge, but the fog was so thick that we couldn't take a good picture of pacific ocean from the twin peaks and the golden gate bridge. Oh right, the bus also went through Castro, a gay area.. There are colourful flags showing that it is the gay area.. though the tour guide said that it doesn't mean only gays live there. And there is also a city hall for the gay wedding ceremony :D
On the third day, it was the first day of the conference that I attended. The conference was called the IASTED conference on Computational Intelligence. My presentation was on the last day of the conference. I think I played & did sight seeing a lot more than learning something from the conference :P :P I didn't even attend half of the sessions held in the conference. In the afternoon at 4 PM I went shopping and ate dinner with my sister & her friend, Karin in a vegetarian restaurant called Green Restaurant.
On the forth day, me, my sis & Karin went to China town and we ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant at the China town. [Click here for picture of me & my sis near the Colt Tower.] And then I went to the Mark Hopkins Hotel where the conference was held. We had a dinner banquet at night. The food was good, but it was a little bit boring. The conference manager didn't open the banquet officially. I mean, we just started taking the food and returned to our seats and ate the food. After we almost finished the dessert, eventually the conference manager stepped up on the stage on gave a speech and gave rewards to the keynotes presentators. The dinner banquet even ended faster that what is planned on the schedule. It ended at 10 PM though it was written 11 PM on the schedule (started at 7.30 PM). Also, I didn't like the idea of having the dinner banquet on the second day of the conference. We still had one more day but we already had the dinner banquet. And just like what I thought, not so many people came to the session on the third day.
On the fifth day, I presentated my paper and I am soo happy that my sis came to watch and gave me support for the presentation. Then we had dinner at another vegetarian restaurant, the Millenium restaurant. The restaurant looks so high class and well, the prices were expensive too. The waiter even asked as if we had a reservation. Of course we didn't, so we had to wait for about 7 minutes and seated on the bar table. But coz of that, we could see a cute bartender :D My sis even took a picture of him. I hope my sis will put the pic on her blog as soon as she returned to Nashville. And the food was sooo delicious. We chose 1 dish from the main menu and 1 salad. But I forgot the name of the dishes.. too long :P
On the sixth day, I had my last pancakes in the hostel. Then me & my sis took the BART train to SF Int'l Airport. We hugged and I parted with my sis on the gate to the security check. I will be missing my sis.. but well I will meet her again in another 2 months soo.. it's not a problem. The flight from SF to Narita took about 11 hours.. I still feel a little pain on my back coz of sitting too long in the plane. Now I am still resting and enjoying my weekends.
At first, I worried about the security check in US, I thought it would be sooo strict that it would be so troublesome. However, when I entered the immigration section at San Francisco Int'l Airport, my bag was just passed through a metal detector, just like the usual way in Narita Airport. The officer in the immigration section was asking me about my visiting purpose and how long I will stay in US. That's all and I'm glad about that. But then I realized that the airport security check in US is really strict when I took the flight back to Narita. Not only that I had to take out my laptop from the bag, they also checked all the things inside my bag, and I even had to take off my shoes (I hoped the officer didn't think that my shoes smell bad coz I haven't cleaned it ever since I bought it 2 years ago :p )
The view in San Francisco was great. I could see seals at the bay near Pier 39. Oh right, the roads are up and down, lots of hills and really steep.. that's why sightseeing by feet was really tiring. On the first day in SF, I reached the hostel safely. I didn't get lost on my way from the nearest train station to usa hostel :D But then after I checked in and took a walk around the hostel, I was lost. I walked for about 5 to 7 blocks away from the hostel.. It was all because I read the street name incorrectly. (Usually in Jakarta, the name of the street written on the mouth of the street. However in US, the plank written name of the street is parallel to the street. It was so confusing at first.)
On the second day, I joined a bus tour. We went to twin peaks and golden gate bridge, but the fog was so thick that we couldn't take a good picture of pacific ocean from the twin peaks and the golden gate bridge. Oh right, the bus also went through Castro, a gay area.. There are colourful flags showing that it is the gay area.. though the tour guide said that it doesn't mean only gays live there. And there is also a city hall for the gay wedding ceremony :D
On the third day, it was the first day of the conference that I attended. The conference was called the IASTED conference on Computational Intelligence. My presentation was on the last day of the conference. I think I played & did sight seeing a lot more than learning something from the conference :P :P I didn't even attend half of the sessions held in the conference. In the afternoon at 4 PM I went shopping and ate dinner with my sister & her friend, Karin in a vegetarian restaurant called Green Restaurant.
On the forth day, me, my sis & Karin went to China town and we ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant at the China town. [Click here for picture of me & my sis near the Colt Tower.] And then I went to the Mark Hopkins Hotel where the conference was held. We had a dinner banquet at night. The food was good, but it was a little bit boring. The conference manager didn't open the banquet officially. I mean, we just started taking the food and returned to our seats and ate the food. After we almost finished the dessert, eventually the conference manager stepped up on the stage on gave a speech and gave rewards to the keynotes presentators. The dinner banquet even ended faster that what is planned on the schedule. It ended at 10 PM though it was written 11 PM on the schedule (started at 7.30 PM). Also, I didn't like the idea of having the dinner banquet on the second day of the conference. We still had one more day but we already had the dinner banquet. And just like what I thought, not so many people came to the session on the third day.
On the fifth day, I presentated my paper and I am soo happy that my sis came to watch and gave me support for the presentation. Then we had dinner at another vegetarian restaurant, the Millenium restaurant. The restaurant looks so high class and well, the prices were expensive too. The waiter even asked as if we had a reservation. Of course we didn't, so we had to wait for about 7 minutes and seated on the bar table. But coz of that, we could see a cute bartender :D My sis even took a picture of him. I hope my sis will put the pic on her blog as soon as she returned to Nashville. And the food was sooo delicious. We chose 1 dish from the main menu and 1 salad. But I forgot the name of the dishes.. too long :P
On the sixth day, I had my last pancakes in the hostel. Then me & my sis took the BART train to SF Int'l Airport. We hugged and I parted with my sis on the gate to the security check. I will be missing my sis.. but well I will meet her again in another 2 months soo.. it's not a problem. The flight from SF to Narita took about 11 hours.. I still feel a little pain on my back coz of sitting too long in the plane. Now I am still resting and enjoying my weekends.
posted by studeep at 7:39 AM
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