Spring Break - San Francisco

I had an interesting Spring Break to say the least. Instead of getting down with the rest of my friends in some questionable part of Mexico, this year I opted to do a service trip during my Spring Break to none other than San Francisco! Originally, I was super excited to go to San Francisco because it has been deemed the New York City of the West Coast. However, we stayed in a super sketchy part of San Francisco and I saw things that no one should ever see. Fortunately, all of my mishap adventures make for a really fun story to tell! 

I went with a group of 14 students through an organization we have on campus and each day we volunteered at a different place in San Francisco. It was such a fun trip overall, despite (or should I say because of) the things I saw in the Tenderloin District (you know it's a sketchy area when it's called the Tenderloin... should have seen that one coming)! Here are some pictures from the trip!

We packed a lot of fresh vegetables and food at the SF-Marin Foodbank on our first day!

Amateur photography while waiting for our bus to come pick us up! I am super into public transportation now, it's super convenient and environmental-friendly. 

At night, we decided to go down to the Fisherman's Wharf using the classic trolley. 

For the trolley you can stand the entire ride out the side, it's just up to your pole holding skills whether you stay on the trolley or not. After 5 minutes, my ass was down on a chair since I do not have the upper body capabilities to hold on for the whole ride and I didn't want to die. But this is a nice photo capture my 5 minutes of fame while standing! 

The swiggly street in San Francisco - Lombard Street - was the perfect near-death photo opportunity. It is an actual street despite what many might think, so cars are constantly driving through for fun. I almost died taking this picture, but super worth it!

One of my favorite areas in San Francisco is Clarion Alley. It is this small alley that has a lot of different graffiti murals that contains very meaningful message. Here are some of my favorites! 

Another one of our volunteering sites, Muttville. This organization is designed to help rescue older dogs and provide them with really great care, they have a crockpot to cook the food for the dogs since their food is made daily! These dogs were so adorable, in this picture is Kyla one of the older dogs she is completely blind due to cataract, but she is the sweetest dogs anyways regardless of that! 

Another one of our volunteering days! On this day we helped with the upkeep of Muir Woods National Monument. It was such a fun day getting to be away from the Tenderloin and being in nature and breathing fresh air. 

After volunteering we drove down near the Golden Gate Bridge. Even standing before the bridge, I still felt like I was looking at a post-card. It is super picturesque!

We hiked down a hidden trial to find Kirby Cove, one of the park rangers told us about this secretive place or else we'd never find it. It's a long hike down, but you get to be right at the beach super close to the Golden Gate Bridge! This is supposedly where all the photos of the Golden Gate Bridge is taken (heavy emphasis on the supposedly part). 

I also visited the University of California San Francisco Medical School while I was in San Francisco! It is in such a good area of San Francisco and their library game is on point. They are in a higher-up part of San Francisco so the windows to their library is looking out to the beautiful scenery below and it's definitely breath-taking. I didn't get any pictures out of respect for the library-goers but it's definitely worth a check out if you are in San Francisco! Next time when I'm back to San Fran I will definitely make sure to stay out of the Tenderloin, but other than that San Francisco is a beautiful place to visit and/or live!