Hooray I'm back and have survived my most grueling two days of this week. I think by far this semester has been one of the most difficult of my academic career -____- I've never felt so much stress and anger simultaneously; at times I just wanted to tell my professors to shove it... but you know I wouldn't have the balls to say that. Anyways I'm excited just 2 semesters away from finishing my undergrad! This semester I packed on 5 classes two of which are research classes .____. which meant grant proposals and policy memos... basically a shit load of papers that amount to one 25-30pager per class... the mere fact of it was daunting, but I am quite proud of how far I have come. On top of the two research classes I am taking kinesiology, special education, and play development. I don't know how many people can figure out my major but I'm a Child & Adolescent Development major. Simply put I want to work with children and families, my ultimate goal is to be able to obtain my masters in Occupational Therapy... Oy vey I know, but I feel this would be such a rewarding field to work in.. Well we'll see where my future takes me :]
On another happy note the SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS are World Champions!!! The City has been filled with so many celebrations and excitement. I don't want to sound like a square bear, but I barely miss class unless necessary... This was definitely an occasion to miss class for... Rather than just one class; I missed three!! I felt guilty, but its not everyday your Hometown wins the World Series! Especially since the team moved here in 1958 and did not win a series since than..CRAZY I tell you. Yeah I was never the biggest baseball fan. Things changed when I met the boyfriend, he opened a new appreciation for sports and I've been loving it since! Anyways back to my update... So with this post I want to show you all, my experience of the past week celebrating the team's success in the lovely city by the bay.
Monday November 1st, 2010
So I have an evening class on Mondays, but our professor also a local girl was dying to watch game 5 of the Giants vs. Rangers. Attended class for a short period and got out around 5:30pm, the boyfriend and I rushed to get to the BART station and scurry down to Civic Center where the chaos had already began, this night the people of San Francisco knew we had to win. There was a large screen placed in front of City Hall for everyone to watch on... Upon arriving all that one could see was black and orange everywhere, you could feel the excitement in the air. The boyfriend and I locate his friends, and we stand alongside the other thousands of fans and spectators surrounding the City Hall premises. The innings run quickly, and our boys win it 3-1! The crowd goes insane, people cry, everyone is hi-fiving one another... strangers hug one another and rejoice... At this very moment at the last out, suddenly it processes and I jump up and down alongside the bf, his friends, and his friend's gf. It is sheer madness,excitement, and shock. Right next to me was a camera man, I paid no attention because I assumed he was focusing else where; funny thing is he recorded my reaction along with the everyone I witnessed the game with... Here are some pictures I took that evening.
the boyfriend anxiously waiting for BART to arrive, he was looking at his phone for updates on the score. At the time we were traveling from my class to City Hall, we were 1/3 of the way through the game.
ready with some of our Giant's support, I made the foam #1 for the bf as part of his Halloween costume, he was the Count this year :].
getting off at Civic Center, other enthusiast rush to get off work to get to City Hall.
the boyfriend walking across the street with the crowd of fans.
Liz, one of my friends- also the bf's friend's girlfriend
the bf and one of his friends, the crowd surrounded us on all sides and went far far back.
the crowd cheers as our team scores.
City Hall had a beautiful orange glow
another shot of the massive crowd, there were more people beyond this photo.
one loyal fan dressed up as a panda :]
and the t-shirt hustling begins! i swear right when the Giants won, these men popped up everywhere with merchandise.
the t-shirt the boyfriend got me the girl gave him the wrong size, luckily we spotted her immediately in the crowd to trade for a new one.
the crowds spread like wild fire through the streets. the sound of cars honking, everyone chanting and screaming, the large groups of people dancing everywhere... the City celebrates the night away.
we decide to head back to the boyfriend's neighborhood and luckily we had the opportunity to avoid the chaos of public transportation and caught a lift with the bf's friend... funny thing is riding through traffic felt like we were in our own parade... the following scenes do not begin to describe the chaos we had to get through just to get back to the boyfriend's neighborhood -____-
the bf's friend decided to take the streets instead of the freeway, and this is what we ended up in for a good 15minutes, the man you see walking got out of his car at every brake possible running up and down the lane hi-fiving people...
in order to avoid being stuck in the traffic, we decided to turn and head south on Valencia.little did we know...
little did we know we would end up stuck on the street with a crowd of people for 40 minutes -_____- it was such a sight to see and experience, it felt like we were famous and the people were a group of crazy fans.. A man had a stash of sparklers and was lighting them and passing them out to everyone.. People danced and took pictures, and one of the most amazing sights was a little girl no more than 10 years old sitting on her mother's Mercedes roof hi-fiving everyone while her brothers stuck their heads and bodies out the sides of the car... this really was a scene that felt surreal, you could really feel the love and excitement everyone was expressing. The City came together as a big family.
So after the boyfriend and friend had a little session to celebrate, we head back to the house to switch out DSLRS since my battery pack died. We headed down to the AT&T Ballpark Stadium on King & 3rd... we parked in the back of the stadium near the new luxury condos and homes, walk over towards the park. The magnitude of noise, people, and police bombarded the streets; it was indescribable. As we walked closer to the stadium the crowd size became evident, the mass of people was insane!
we located the boyfriend's friends and hung around while people drank and rejoiced. The celebration was nice down at the stadium until people became reckless, smashing glass bottles, setting things on fire, and climbing structures... At one point patrol cars and a firetruck rolled onto the closed off street and a mass of people climbed the vehicles... people were literally setting off legit fireworks in the middle of the streets, it was quite scary because there was no warning before they were shot off, and I swear it felt like they could have hit people. -______- at this point the boyfriend decided it was not safe to be around so many drunk and raging people, we leave with a couple friends.
just as I thought my night was over, the boyfriend gets a call from a friend who just got off work and wanted to take in the celebration, once again met up with his friend and drove back down to the Mission.. the scene had already died down when we arrived, but what was fascinating was seeing the ridonkulous amount of riot police blocking off the streets...
bf's friend J. standing in front of the many fires drunken people set on Mission, notice the drunk people watching the firefighters from above on the railing.
the riot police blocking off anyone attempting to walk across the street
more and more riot police walk up from Mission
onlookers taking in the mass of police.
while walking back to the car, a large group of people and a jazz band come parading down the street with people dancing and cheering.
well seeing how long this post is, I will save the Giant's Ticker Tape Parade footage for another day. Hopefully as school begins to wind down for the holidays I will have more opportunities to blog :]
goodnight!
Shirley
Your photos of massive crowds and excitement reminds me of when the Olympics were in Vancouver. The atmosphere was completely transformed. I miss how everyone came together and were full of pride. It was definitely an experience to be a part of. Congrads to your hometown!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a crazy time!!
ReplyDeleteMarcy,
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