San Fran, Day 1

Well, all of you romantic obsessed people will be glad to know I picked up on my first half day here! That's right, his name is Gary, he thinks I'm very pretty, and he's sure his mother will like me. Unfortunately, he's also over 50, homeless, wanted in 8 states, not allowed into canada, missing his exgirlfriend, and an alcoholic, so I'm not sure how long it will last...
Any way, I left melbourne this morning (kind of) and had a terrible flight to sydney. Turbulance and an insanely annoying beeping sound that went for half the trip that they wouldn't work out made it not so fun, and I also discovered that I get travel sick in planes as well as cars! I thought maybe it was just the turbulance, but when we were coming in to land in San Francisco I discovered it was just me, because the second flight was very smooth, although very long. Since then though, my diet has improved when I walked into a convenience store and found hershey's and reese's and all sorts of other fabulous things! I totally forgot about them until I walked into the store, so it was a very nice surprise!
Anyway, I'm jumping all over the place! I finally got to San Fran, having had several nice people next to me on the long flight who were keen to talk, and having got a little sleep, and found the train that took me to where I needed to go without any hastle. I showed up at the hostel about 130, but they told me I couldn't check in until 2, so I lugged all my stuff off again and went and found a park to sit in, which is where Gary came over and introduced himself to me. It was quite an entertaining conversation, although I think he felt a little threatened by all the gays here- I gather they had a big event last weekend, and he was feeling pressured by them to become gay. There does seem to be a large gay scene here though; there are lots of ads around, and I picked up a newspaper in the hostel and then discovered that it was all about the gay community. They have also recently allowed gay marriages, so that could be part of it.
Once I got checked in, I went for a wander, off to find the shoe shop that Al loves. Took me about an hour to get there, and when I got there found it was under a different name, although still has very cool shoes, and when I asked if the owner brock was still there I got brushed off and ignored after that, so it seems it is no longer what you had dreamed al- sorry! It was in a great street though, with lots of little creative and unique shops, so I really enjoyed the walk! I then went back through the center of the town to the Bay Bridge and some of the wharves, so all in all about 5 hours of walking, and now my legs hurt!
It seems like a great city though, with so much culture and diversity, and LOTS of homeless people around who love to just come up and chat to you. Really enjoying it. I think the strangest thing has been the pedestrian crossings- they change without making a ticking noise, so I keep standing on the corner and missing half the crossing time! It's so cool though, because when they do go to the red flashing man, they have a countdown, so you know how many seconds you have to get across! I thought that was funny. The next few days should be interesting with the rescue mission- I saw a few people holding "Jesus Loves you" and "Stop unlawful sex" signs that I'm a little scared will be them, but I know that I'm starting off tomorrow in their soup kitchen which should be fun!
Hope everyone's doing well, and anyone else who's been to San Fran should post a comment about what they thought!
Laura
PS I had the most beautiful nectarine today- I love summer!