Before arriving at IGN, we all had to arrive in San Francisco. For many of us, that was an adventure in itself. Luckily, IGN set us up with a group on Yammer that allowed us to introduce ourselves to each other - and, more importantly, organize housing for everyone needing it. For those not "in the know", the Bay Area is currently oblivious to the housing depreciation experienced by much of the rest of the country due to the explosive technology market. Yep. Thanks, social and mobile development! Because of the ever-increasing demand for lodging, the rent (especially for short-term residents) is just TOO DAMN HIGH. Many of the 'Foo Crew, including myself, came from lands far, far away - so even after a ton of research, the idea of finding affordable housing anywhere close to IGN's headquarters seemed like an impossible dream.
Luckily, due in no small part to efforts by a couple of semi-local Code-Foo participants (@kirbdee and @kikin81, thank you), ten of us managed to secure housing together at a hostel-like startup community just a few blocks away from IGN. Though the living conditions aren't the greatest, they're adequate. We're provided with a warm bed, showers, a place to store our stuff, and a respectably fast Internet connection (as long as everyone doesn't attempt to pile on simultaneously - which, unfortunately, does happen fairly often - especially at night).
After our initial meet-and-greet, we set out on what would become the first of many travel adventures that would await us over the next few weeks. Many members of the group were excited to see the sights of Chinatown and chomp down on some delicious, authentic Chinese food. So, we plugged in the location of Chinatown into our mobile devices and set off walking. Little did we know, there was one painfully obvious oversight: cell phone navigation systems like Google Maps do NOT take height into account when mapping out routes. Under normal circumstances, this isn't really a problem. But these weren't normal circumstances: this was San Francisco. Google Maps managed to lead us straight to the foot of what seemed to be one of the Bay Area's tallest populated hills. It became really obvious that all the non-tourists sure knew what they were doing a lot more than we did, because as we began our slow, excruciating ascent, the sidewalks emptied completely. Looking down into the urban jungle just a few blocks away, the streets were packed with people milling about. But on the hill? Just us.
Oops.
After scaling the concrete mountain, we descended on Chinatown.
One thing I absolutely love about San Francisco is that it appears to be a physical embodiment of America's melting-pot blending of cultures. Every section of the city has a flavor and attitude all its own. It's like a "Patchwork City" - a city built by people of different racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds, all interwoven together into a mass of controlled chaos. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's refreshing, in fact.
The food in Chinatown was indeed delicious, as well as authentic.
During this entire experience, we ended up finding out a lot about each other. Which technologies we preferred, where we came from, what we wanted out of the program, and more. It's going to be a fun few weeks.
Michael Migliacio
@angstygaijin
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