Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore....

Greetings to all Suzanne Armenian Kiva Adventure groupies and followers! Tomorrow is the beginning of Kiva Fellow Training in San Francisco. I arrived yesterday afternoon to adjust to the environment and get my bearings straight while participating in the tourist experience. San Francisco is its own experience--a quirky, vibrant, eccentric, eclectic and international city. Never have I seen so many tourists invade one place; this makes for a separate experience of people watching. Being an observer of San Francisco is like a trip to the zoo--"Who is watching who?" Are the locals catering to the tourists peering out or are the tourists gazing into the fishbowl? My growing smashed penny souvenir collection would definitely suggest who is winning the zoo debate--the locals' earnings from tourist dollars.

Being a tourist amongst many tourists has been rather bizarre. Seeing so many cultures collide and somehow meld together to witness a moment says something about the human condition. A genuine warm smile crosses cultural boundaries. Being a Midwesterner provides one with a healthy dose of schooling in "polite." In the Midwest being nice is not a luxury but a demand we place upon each other, its our way of life. Our life hum is politeness.
Tourists find the same amazement in watching a silver body painted street performer along side the charismatic street dancers next to the steel drummers. I am not sure this life hum would work in the Midwest--we are too reserved. My short time here feels like sensory overload.

San Franciso is a mixed bag of nice with a healthy dose of the unusual being expected. I like that--being unique in Frisco is expected. Freedom of expression is demanded. Those demands can be seen in the high end art galleries, street performers of every sort imaginable, and in the character of the locals. San Fransico is a city of extremes and contradictions. It is a place of high culture and high raunchy all converging on one tiny little penisula jutting into the sea.

More observations about training surely to come later in the week. This is one carnival ride I do not want to miss!