Muni's blog

On saturday’s playful city adventure, my group set out with only a vague plan. We would go to the sculpture garden, then figure out from there what we wanted to do next. On the way to the art museum, we stopped at the Rodin museum’s garden, to check out the sculptures there as well. We spent a little bit of time at each, mostly quiet, pointing out expressions and abnormally large hands. We took some pictures, mine mostly of the fountain, and set off to the other sculpture garden.

Over the summer, I worked at a summer camp in Point Reyes National Seashore, a few hours North of San Francisco. It was my second year working at this camp, although I’d been a camper for around six or seven years. Point Reyes Summer Camp is a nature science camp, so the campers do a lot of learning about local plants, wildlife, and natural processes. We often integrate this learning into games and activities, and the kids (aged 9-12) seem to really retain the information they learn in that way. 

Every time someone at Bryn Mawr asks me where I’m from, I get excited. I alway smile as a sense of pride and gratitude wash over me, but say “I’m from San Francisco,” as if it’s no big deal. It is a big deal, though. I’ve been told countless times that I’ve lived in a bubble my whole life, and I believe it. San Francisco and the whole Bay Area have a vibrant and accepting culture, but unlike a lot of bigger cities, San Francisco tends to be more relaxed and happy. Besides its attractions like the Golden Gate Bridge, it boasts the highest minimum wage in the country, and is one of the leading cities in environmentalism in the U.S. It’s a haven for every type of person imaginable.

Although I didn’t always take advantage of all San Francisco had to offer, there was something exciting about having everything I could want within reach. I took everything the city offered for granted: food trucks with obscure fusion foods; the Haight Ashbury with its thrift stores, hipsters, and hippies; milk tea and boba in The Sunset; people(intoxicated or otherwise) talking about who-knows-what to no one; compost bins and 3 different types of recycling everywhere I went; Taquerias in The Mission; flyers telling me to go vegan; and many more.

I am a city girl. I've lived in a city for almost my whole life, and was taking public transportation by the time I was in preschool. Where I'm from, our transport is run by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, known by locals to be called Muni. Most San Franciscans have a love-hate(mostly hate) relationship with Muni rooting from the changeable train schedule and the crowds that often come with riding a common route. One reason people love Muni is that is provides them with something to complain about. I chose this username because Muni is how I accessed all that my city had to offer, for which I'm very grateful. Despite this, I couldn't bear to put an image of one of those trains as my avatar (See the distaste shining through?) so my image is a combination of some other things I love. It's a small piece of a digital painting of mine, and shows my love of art and my love of horses at the same time. I'm looking forward to finding my way on some new public transportation!

Fun fact: The title of this post is similar to a line from a song by Journey, a band from SF.