WEEKENDTRIP YOSEMITE

Saturday, 5:30 am my alarm clock rang and all I wanted was to sleep more 😂.

At 7:00 am sharp, we arrived at the car rental. We were very curious about the car we would get, as we were a group of seven people. At 7:30 am, we could finally start driving.

A Frenchman, two Germans, two Dutch, a Swiss woman, and a Taiwanese (?) set off for Yosemite. It took us about 4 1/2 hours plus breaks. Along the way, we listened to Dutch and French music, as well as German classics like "99 Luftballons", and let's not forget Swiss après-ski hits 😂.

We were lucky because we didn't have to pay an entrance fee for the national park, as it was "Earth Day 2018" on Saturday.

Before we reached the gate, which is basically the entrance to the national park, we drove through an area with an incredible number of burnt trees. It was very shocking for me to see so much nature destroyed at once. This morning, I read that there was a major forest fire in Yosemite in October/November 2017, which is the reason for the "dead"/burnt trees.

Our destination was Yosemite Valley, as according to the Internet, it has the most beautiful hiking trails.

After finally finding a parking space, we filled our bottles with ice-cold water, straight from the mountains/rivers, and set off on the Mist Trail.

The route was quite exhausting as it was steep uphill from the beginning. But when we reached the top, we quickly realized that it was definitely worth it. We were soaking wet because the wind blew the water from the "Vernal Waterfall" towards us. At 25 degrees, it was more pleasant than cold. Right at the beginning of the waterfall, we took a one-hour break and had a snack. Everyone brought their own food for the entire weekend.

After walking back to our car, we drove for over an hour to our Airbnb.

Although we didn't find all seven beds right away, the Airbnb was very nice and "affordable", as everyone only had to pay €30 for one night.

The next morning, we went back to the national park. Again, we didn't have to pay for the entrance because one person in our group has a pass for national parks in the USA, which is valid for all occupants of a car. We hiked to "Mirror Lake". However, it was not quite as expected, as the water level was very low, so the mountains didn't reflect in the water.

Sunday evening around 9:30 pm, we were back at "the Hub". I don't think I've slept as well as I did last night in a long time.

Yosemite was incredibly impressive, even though I didn't see a bear, so I didn't regret the weekend trip for a second.

This morning, my class started at 8:45 am.

For example, we watched a 3-minute-long video while my seat neighbor had to wait outside the classroom. After the video, the task was to explain to the seat neighbor what we had seen. Not so easy when things happen in the video for which you lack the vocabulary 😂.

In the afternoon, I visited Castro Street. Castro Street is also known as the gay district. The colorful flag hangs everywhere, and even the pedestrian crossing is colorful. I went into a bookstore because it looked very interesting from the outside, and there, too, you could only find books about feminism, homosexuality, and human rights.

Afterwards, I took the metro and the bus to Chinatown. I think I've never had as much fun grocery shopping as I did today in Chinatown 😂. No one spoke English. Someone was constantly shouting something in Chinese, probably offering fruit and vegetables. Since today I wanted to cook for the first time properly and also healthy, I bought fresh vegetables in Chinatown. However, it was challenging to figure out what exactly was in front of me (cucumber, zucchini, or something else?) since everything was only described with Chinese characters, I didn't realize that 😂.

Back at "the Hub", I cooked for my roommate Janne, my friend Nina, and of course myself.

This week, I have to do some laundry and organize things because unfortunately, it is already my last week in San Francisco.

But I'm incredibly excited about the next two weeks with my family 😊.