Awake after a cold night of tossing and turning. Not the best sleep to have before meeting execs and recruitment agents from all the big local and LA studios. I look like junk in the mirror and have aged 20 years overnight. I hope the interviews are brief.
We head out to retrun the car and drive with no problems (thank you navingator!!) to the Hertz office and are met, as expected, by simple rudeness, ignorance and stupidity. Fortunately, there's no thievery this time and we seem to manage to pay the quote from the beginning of the rental. They don't even question the 'maintenece required' light that's been on for the past 4 days. I'm not sure, but it's possible that Hertz might be the worst possible rental agent. I never rented a cross-country car before, so I can't be sure, but it's possible.
We stop at a diner for breakfast and I have the 2 eggs bacon jobby again. There's much map scrutiny and analysis and we decide to head towards the financial district and figure out how to get the subway to Emmerdale for the job fair. When we find out that the subway costs 6 dollars per person and look at the clock the navigator gets asked directions on foot to get over the bridge. There's 2 hours to spare afterall. Watching the seagulls dive in and out of the bay we wait for the calculation... final verdict 9 hours. Turns out you can't walk to Emmeryville using a bridge.
The BART subway is nice. I'm taken aback by all the carpeting and upholstery, cause everyone know's that's just not sanitary, but people seem decent and polite and commuting in a civilized manner. When we arrive on the other end I eavesdrop on a conversation between 2 tech guys for games companies and I laugh to myself. California.
Get to the AM headquarters and fill out my first of 20 nametags for the week. Start the office tour, but am too distracted to follow it properly. The headquarters seem like a very cool place to work and be. All of the staff are super friendly and nice and I get to meet a load of people I'm only until now seen on the internet. I also watch people play guitar hero and for the first time ever am not deafened by thoughts that it's a generation-ruining passtime. I am very impressed by the scores that people get up to. Saw a guy sing at 100% to Billy Idol's White Wedding.
During the break we head over to a food court for lunch and I can't, of 23069 options choose something. It all looks gross. We settle on the most restauranty of the bunch and I have muscles and clams in a coconut sauce.
At the hotel I chat with a few people and then plonk myself into line with the others. The truth is my heart's not in the interviewing process, but I'm having a GREAT time chatting with the people I'm waiting with. It's a little like the x-AMers from Annecy, everyone's up and excited and on form. There's humour everywhere. I drop my reel in a load of boxes and shake a whole bunch of hands.
Exhausted so it's back to the hotel for a bit of a lie down and then off to explore San Francisco. We walk for a little while before lining up for a tram to 'don't know where'. It's an experience. At first we're inside but the conductor teels us to get off and walk around... there are 2 spots on the other side. The spots are hanging off a 4 inch platform up 85° inclines and decents. It was crazy! Scary. A clichè, but in a good way. The tram takes us to Fisherman's wharf where we wander and then explore a bit. I'm still super tired, but keep going. Just when we decide to go home I convince Fabri we should hop on another tram that goes 'we don't know where'. It takes us to a nice area where we look for a vietnamese restsurant owned by Don Johnson. We can't find it but do find a wine bar and taste a load of wines. Then we get to the restaurant (at 8:30pm) and the bouncer (why does a restaurant have a bouncer??) tells us the kitchen is closed. Turns out we're not cool enough to eat there, but the good news is we go to a fish restauraunt instead and have the most beautiful view of the bay and golden gate bridge during our meal. Maybe one of the best views of the whole trip. And the food is great.
We get another tram on the way back but get off the wrong stop and walk through one of the worst neighborhoods in San Francisco. I walked the whole way back to the hotel with a yard between my feet and my arms bent up at the elbows like they taught me in the self defense classes I took in the spring. Sure I looked really stupid, but if anyone wanted to mess with me they'd for sure think twice!
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