Bay Area!

One of the greatest weekends I have ever had happened on Friday, March 18, 2011, and ended on the following Monday morning. The week before, my friend, Ivanarae, who attends San Francisco State, texted me and a few friends about a dance showcase that was happening in San Mateo, up in North California. She really wanted to go, but had no ride. I immediately texted my brother, begging him if we could drive up to San Francisco for that weekend to see that showcase, as it featured many dance teams that I admired. He replied back with a "Maybe" and I got my hopes up. A few days later, my brother sent me a message that said, "It's a go. Kristen and Dar are coming also."(Kristen was my brother's girlfriend and Dar, short for Darlene, was Kristen's best friend.) At that moment, a big smile appeared on my face and I texted back Ivanarae saying we were coming up next week! She could not believe it, and I couldn't either. I was going to the bay area!

It was Thursday night. I had to spend the night at Kristen's house so we could all leave together, saving the drive of picking everyone up individually.We all woke up at 3A.M, on Friday, got ready, and packed everything into the car. We triple checked everything that we needed and then we left an hour later, starting the 7 hour drive to San Francisco. Other than only having to stop at rest stations occasionally so my brother could take a small break from driving or at gas stations to fill up, the drive itself was pretty smooth. The only brutal part was that I was awake the whole time to make sure my brother stayed awake, as Kristen and Dar fell asleep right when we left. But as we ventured further into NorCal, the weather seemed to get worse. The rain poured dangerously harder, almost blinding our view of the road, forcing my brother to drive much, much slower. But despite the horrible weather, we eventually hit San Francisco, where the rain was a lot calmer. We also made great time, arriving just before noon. We drove down the streets of the city looking for the apartments next to San Fran State. We eventually made it to the large housing part of the city and it didn't take us long to find Ivanarae's complex. Once we parked the car, I called Ivanarae, letting her know that we were finally here!

I helped my brother as we unloaded the car of our things and entered the building, taking the crammed elevator up to the apartment room. Ivanarae let us into the room, we set our stuff down, and got settled. She was also expecting another friend from Oxnard to arrive at the apartment also, Jennifer, who arrived a few minutes after we did. Then, those two left to meet up with another friend in town, leaving my brother, Kristen, Dar, and I to explore the city. We left the apartment and drove around, getting to know the streets and locations around us. This lasted pretty much that whole day.

On Saturday morning, we all woke up, showered, and got ready. It was the day of the dance showcase, and we still had a lot of driving to do since we had to pick up one last friend, Julian, in Davis, the next town over, before heading to the showcase. Once the car was packed with everyone, we headed to San Mateo, arriving minutes before the event started. Kristen and Dar took the car to go see their friend, not knowing when they would come back, but we hurried into the building. We took our seats and the showcase started. It was an amazing sight, seeing all my favorite dancers, live and in person, in a place I would've never seen myself at all with some amazing people I could ever know. The event went out with a bang, and the whole building erupted with applause. As people cleared out of the building, we couldn't get a hold of Kristen or Dar, leaving us with no ride back. Ivanarae eventually called for a taxi to pick us up. Then the driver took us to the BART station, which is a type of train, where we took it back to San Fran. Once off at our destination, we then took a bus to San Fran State, where we found Kristen and Dar waiting outside of the apartment building. We all headed back up to the room and rested from the extremely exhausting day.

The weekend ended with goodbyes. We dropped off Julian at the train station and Jennifer walked with Ivanarae to the bus station. We thanked Ivanarae so much for letting us spend the weekend in San Fran and letting us spend the nights in her apartment. We packed up our car and said our final goodbyes before starting the 7 hour drive. It was a great experience visiting a city that I've only dreamed of going to one day, and it was even better spending it with friends that I could rarely see because of the distance.