Hello from San Francisco!

Today we went grocery shopping and what an adventure that was! The plan: we ride the bus up the steep looming San Francisco hills as a group to the grocery store and then back with all of our wonderful food. Actual life: the bus arrives completely full, the second bus doesn't even stop for us because it is so full, so we start walking and as the slight incline becomes a strength training exercise a third capacity-reached bus passes by. What must come up must come down, so only half of our trip to the grocery store was an uphill battle. We passed by a church that looked like a museum, countless apartments and small businesses.        Shopping went well as we divided and conquered. On the way back we the buses were just as full as before, but this time we were prepared. Six of us forced our way onto the first bus. I have never been in a more crowed space in my entire life, and the experience drew my attention to the dependency the city has on public transportation. I am anxious to see what the buses will look like tomorrow when we take one to the Mission District.
We have done some general exploring of the neighborhood our Hostel is in, and got some Paples earlier this evening. We are much closer to Union Square than I thought we would be, and memories of my teenage years of shopping in Downtown San Fran started flooding back as I passed Powell.
We have gotten off to a fantastic start and I can't wait to see what exciting things come up during the week. We are getting ready for an early start tomorrow (we have to leave at 6:40 to get to our service location by 7:00!). I'm sure coffee will have nothing on our enthusiasm!

Bye bye for now!
Jennifer