WHO'S CHARLES: 06.10

the ol' study group has graduated. we're no longer in the la, berkeley, or san francisco room until the early morning. but here in sf. adults. what else to do, but eat.

brothers restaurant. a korean joint chosen by none other than una, the korean of our group. laura drove us but I had to get down to reserve a spot. man was the line long! probably because the sister restaurant, brothers 2, was closed.

they said it would be a 15 minute wait. definitely not. and starving didn't help. but saw this car parked outside. asian driver? probably. -_-

lots of small bowls. good kimchee and bean sprouts.

laura shared her asian adventures while una grilled our food. smelled so good! (not to self: not good to blog about food while hungry)

una graciously ordered for us. we were to grill the meat ourselves.I can't remember the names of any of them. all in korean. one was marinated meat. the other, a baked stew. sooo good. no spicy cakes unfortunately. clear stir fried noodles (no pics -- it was devoured too quickly). spicy soup. and sweet rice water to wash it down. loved it all.

it was a little pricey, but well worth the price and wait. now, en route to find a place that serves this special mango dessert that laura was craving since back from asia and that una wanted. several phone calls led us to believe that one korean restaurant on fillmore was the place. started with an "a". arang was the place!

fail. they did it with sweet red beans, which was not the way una liked it prepared. but did find this grocery store inspired by slumdog millionaire.

and the world's most awkward booth. someone was to face a wall? really?!

no success left us with plan b. mitchells ice cream. back to my filipino roots. this place is really good and they serve up tropical flavors, traditional in the philippines.

I got mango and macapuno (sweet coconut). some of the best. I loved it so much, I want to go back soon.

peanut butter chocolate for ferris. again. both laura and una also decided to get mango as well. poor laura had to drive and eat.

got back to soon enough to laura's place, helped una with her luggage, and then chatted it up and watched some tv. thursday's bravo lineup. good stuff.

thanks y'all!

a trip to san franciscio with my pals grace and ferris. took a chance and hit the jackpot. with our busy schedules, we were able to find the time to meet this past wednesday, the 23rd. didn't expect it to get on the russian warship at pier 30-32 in SF though. it wasn't open to the public until thusday supposedly. not to mention, the Varyag hasn't been here in 147 years. but both grace and ferris got us in. as grace put it, we were the only non-ethnic Russian, non-Russian speaking people on board. out of place and it was by invitation only. but we still made it on!

backtracking a bit: before getting on the boat, included a casual 15 minute walk in the city. it's always pretty windy by the water.

ferris was really thirsty so we stopped at a cafe for drinks. I was a bit parched myself. outside were two cute dogs. the poodle ran away from us when we tried to pet it. I myself have been wanting a dog. a miniature schnauzer to be exact. it's not a toy dog, which I like. they're really smart too, 11th smartest according to Coren. not to mention, they have really cute faces. I'll have to wait until I get my own place though to get a dog. the parents aren't too keen on extra responsibilities right now, which I understand.

ferris got an iced chai, and I got a diet dr. pepper. grace wanted an iced tea, but they ran out. a cafe running out of tea?! ridiculous. then again, they were stingy store owners.

then a few pics before reaching the ship.

this was checkpoint 1. basically the gaurds were at the gate to ensure that no trespassers went through. they didn'e speak english. everyone was coming up to ask about getting onto the ship and their response was "10 to 1". basically, letting people know that tomorrow was the day that it was to be open to the public, from 10am to 1pm. grace asked however, if we could go closer to take some pictures. they said yes! don't know if they understood...

and a quick pic with them before we walked in.

you can see just how far away it really is...

and here's checkpoint two. ferris led the way, and basically we pretended that we knew what we were doing and just went aboard. it was a little scary as it was russian territory after all.

these kids were right in the middle of a performance, singing in russian. everyone including the sailors, were watching closely.

it was really so exciting! and of course, plenty of pictures.

after a picture with some of the crew members, back to the ferry building for dinner! also, we all badly needed to use the restroom, and wash our hands. the ship was pretty dirty. my hair had been blown out through all the wind. not a good look for me.