Mardy, the saviour of the nearly homeless!

So as I've mentioned, last week or so I was literally nearly homeless for a while with every hostel in San Francisco being completely booked out for the Friday and Saturday night. Thankfully my new friend Mardy came to my rescue and I have been staying at his apartment ever since. Sweet!

Mardy is from Taiwan and is a video director, originally coming to San Francisco about a month ago to shoot a film clip for a really famous Chinese female singer... cool! I can't find the link for the video, but I watched it and it was actually really impressive. After the video was finished he decided to stay in San Francisco for a while and begin a 2 month English language course.

His apartment (that he is sharing with 3 others) is literally on a tiny island that sits in the bay of San Francisco called Treasure Island. It is awesome! Even cooler simply by the fact that it is called Treasure Island ha!

San Francisco skyline as seen from Treasure Island

I spent over a week at Mardy's place, and looking at the pictures I took during that time it appears we didn't really do much? Which is strange because I remember enjoying every single day immensely. I think it was just one of those times that when you are in good company it doesn't matter what activities or adventures you get up to, it can still be a counted as a great time anyway.

Although there was this memorable moment, depicted in the photo below.

See that really nice looking motorcycle? Well the big red tour bus came around the corner, clipped the front wheel of the motorcycle ever so slightly... and knocked the motorcycle over! HA! It was insane. The tourists on the bus were taking pictures, the bus driver was freaking out as he tried to pick the bike back up and assess the damage, then the driver tried to drive away but the motorcycle was literally wedged tight between the side walk and the bus so he couldn't move! Hilarious.

Yeah so... other then that, not much happened. We drank beers and cooked dinners at home a lot (to save money), hung out with some new friends we made, had a great dinner and drinks with Mardy's friend Tim and his girlfriend, and yep, that's about it. But seriously, it was an awesome week, we actually are very similar and have a lot in common, plus I thoroughly enjoyed our conversations about cultural differences (he is from Taiwan).

Some market that was on Treasure Island

In return for his hospitality I showed him how to make my legendary toasted sandwhiches (which he thought were brilliant ha), and spent hours upon hours helping him with his English (he already speaks it well, but needs a few small tweaks here and there). By the end of our time together he was almost starting to sound Australian.

I really can't thank Mardy enough really, so I hope this post will help at least a little. Without Mardy I most likely would have ended up sleeping at the airport for a night or two, yet he was cool enough to offer his place despite the fact that we had met only once before, thus barely really even knowing me. The amount of money I saved by not paying for hostels was immense, and it was awesome to have someone cool to chill out with, especially now that all my previous San Francisco friends have no left.

I had originally planned to stay at his apartment for at least two weeks or more, as Mardy was to be staying in San Francisco for another month until his English language course had finished, and he enjoyed having me around. But alas, plans change, and out of no where Mardy got a call from a TV producer in China, offering Mardy a really great work opportunity (remember Mardy is a video director). The next day or two were a whirlwind of activity as Mardy tried to finalize the work contract with the producer, and book tickets to fly to China immediately. Two days later he was all packed to leave San Fancisco, and I was back to staying in hostels in the city once more.

We had an awesome last day. I showed Mardy the computer game Age of Empires 2, a game he enjoyed immensely, so we played that for about 6 hours straight ha. Followed by some final beers in the city.

As we were saying goodbye we got talking about the fact that Mardy will be back home in Taiwan in July, 2013, thus I have promised I will visit around that time because he made Taiwan sound too awesome to miss out on really. To mark that moment I took a photo of where we were standing when we made these plans so I won't forget the promise made.

To-Do: Visit Mardy in Taiwan in July, 2013

He was an awesome friend to have made, easily one of the best on this trip so far, and despite my wish that it didn't have to end so soon I guess it seemed rather fitting to end in this way. San Francisco is becoming far too hectic for my liking actually, hostels prices and the population in the city have skyrocketed over the last week and a bit as America enters their high-season, also now with Mardy leaving it essentially leaves me with no good friends in the city now. Plus not to mention the fact that I have now been in this city for 6 weeks! So with all that combined I feel there is a big push from the Universe telling me that it is time for me to move on also. A message that I couldn't agree with more!

Where to next? No idea!

And I will leave you with this hilarious quote from Mardy in where I think he tried to say, in his Taiwanese English, that he was glad that we had met...

"I err... I just wanted to say... like. Umm... you being my friend, it makes me feel really good that you are my friend. Oh man... I don't know how to say that in a cool way. That sounded so awkward... I'm going outside for a smoke"

Haha!

Goodluck, thanks for everything, and I'll see you next year buddy! =D

Mardy and Me in what was meant to be a cool shot of the San Francisco skyline behind us... but the Chinese man who took the photo was terrible ha...