Global Awareness

A San Francisco Odyssey

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A photo journal of two dynamic days by the sea

Photographs by Raven Li, Thanh Tieu, and others

The juniors and seniors of Developing Virtue Girls School spent two days in San Francisco on the last two days of August, strolling through museums, sitting in on three plays, staying in a house by the ocean, stargazing by the Point Montara Lighthouse, searching for their favorite works of art, and sharing memories throughout their trip.

1 Legion of Honor: A fine art museum in Land’s End reminiscent of the Louvre. Here, we admired European paintings and decorative and ancient art, as well as two special exhibits: Early Reubens and Dadaism & Surrealism.

Though it was a cloudy day, the French-style architecture was still beautiful.
Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker meditates in front of white limestone columns.
Shelter on Montmartre, from a series of oil paintings by Vincent van Gogh depicting a French district near the countryside.
This regal exhibit, decorated with gold-bordered mirrors, neighbors the Salon Doré, a period room illustrating 18th century Paris.
Beautifully sculpted in marble, Monteverde’s Columbus as a Boy stares at you against dark plum-colored walls.
Giovanni Boldini’s boisterous Café Scene plays with red, black, white, and gold.
Juniors do The Thinker’s pose outside the Legion of Honor museum.

2 Hyde St. Pier: A pier with historic ships, lying at the end of Fisherman’s Wharf. We attended an evening performance of O’Neill’s plays — In the Zone, Bound East for Cardiff, and The Long Voyage Home — on two of the ships in the harbor and walked along the pier at night, with the city lights glowing in the distance, above the dark surface of the bay.

A flock of birds fly behind silhouettes of ships in the harbor at dusk.

3 Point Montara Lighthouse: A lighthouse on the Pacific Ocean where the waves lap against the shore endlessly. At night, we sat under the stars, looking for constellations, and in the morning, we hiked to the water’s edge, looking at the creatures in the ocean.

The Pacific ocean, silver in the morning light, stretches toward the horizon.
Where are the seals? Juniors and seniors trek along the coast before reaching the beach.
Students wake up to blue skies floating above blue sea.

4 Museum of Modern Art: A globally renowned museum of 20th century art in downtown San Francisco. We explored the popular Andy Warhol exhibit, which was filled with vibrant works of Pop art, as well as interactive rooms with metallic balloons, exhibits with dangling mobiles, and more.

Fun with the creative installations at the Museum of Modern Art.
Matisse’s Woman with a Hat frowns at you against a hazy backdrop of colors.
A palm tree flashes by, as if you were driving past it in a car.

…

During their two-day stay in San Francisco, in short, the juniors and seniors visited the Legion of Honor, stopped briefly at Japantown, watched three plays on the pier, spent the night by Point Montara lighthouse, hiked along the coast, and learned about contemporary art at the Museum of Modern Art.

Which was your favorite stop? After two days of San Francisco, the juniors and seniors returned home, carrying sparks of literary and artistic inspiration with them. In this way, the San Francisco odyssey began their school year.

Categories: Global Awareness

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