My internship with the Fair Housing Law Project (hereinafter FHLP, pronounced "flip") is going very well. There are 13 of us law clerks, so they have a formal training program for us, which is awesome. So far, I've learned about housing discrimination, predatory mortgage lending, reasonable accommodations of persons with disabilities, legal ethics, interviewing clients, landlord-tenant law, and working with clients with mental disabilities. Also, I have had opportunities to sit in on a client interview, a deposition, a mediation, staff meetings, conference calls, and a meeting of the Northern California Fair Housing Coalition (NCFHC). As much as I've loved my past internships, it's nice to be at a much larger organization (~50 attorneys) with more resources. I am very impressed with the work that the Law Foundation does, and am so glad to be a part of it this summer.
The nice thing about the summertime is that I don't have homework, so there is more free time for reading, studying Spanish, and--wait, that sounds a lot like homework. Whoops. Well, I've also done a ton of fun things in the past couple of weeks, including attending the Sunnyvale Art & Wine Festival, battling
Alan in Scrabble, seeing Alissa before the NCFHC meeting in SF, checking out the San Jose
Music in the Park with Robert, and enjoying happy hour with my fellow law clerks at a
pizza place across the street from
San Jose City Hall.
On Saturday, Robert, Tiffany and I took a trip to San Francisco. We had planned this out ages in advance, to take advantage of San Francisco's
Dine About Town, by making reservations at
Campton Place. Before dinner, we went to the
Legion of Honor. We didn't spent too much time there, because we were trapped in traffic on 19th for ages, but I enjoyed the exhibition on Impressionist Paris. I also liked that we were there during an organ concert, which could be heard throughout the museum. I always enjoy the architecture of the building, a three-quarters scale imitation of the
Palais de la Légion d'Honneur in Paris.
(Photo courtesy of Tiffany.)
After the museum, we walked around Lincoln Park for a little while, and then made our way downtown. We were early for our reservation, so we had a drink in the bar area of the restaurant. I had a lovely riesling, Kabinett Von Hovel Oberemmeler Hutte Mosel 2002, which tasted like green apples. The restaurant itself has a lovely ambiance, with low lighting, high ceilings, and a beautiful modern chandelier. They had delightful, warm bread to start the meal, followed by a foam palate cleanser that tasted of peas and limes.
For my first course, I had roasted carrot soup with fine herbs and hazelnuts. Robert and I were rather bewildered when the waiters brought out very large bowls containing only a small pile of peas and nuts. We eyed each other nervously, silently asking, "Where's the soup?!" Then, more waiters bustled out, carrying little pitchers, with which they proceeded to pour the soup around our little piles of peas. I suppose it was so as to prevent our peas from getting soggy?
All three of us ordered the same main course: slow cooked flat iron steak with truffled Yukon, savoy spinach and veal jus. I ordered my steak medium well, while Robert and Tiffany went with the chef-recommended medium rare. They may have made the better choice; while my steak was delicious (especially the seasonings in the rub), it could have been juicier. The potatoes and spinach complemented the flavors of the steak nicely.
For dessert, we all had chocolate parfait with vanilla cream and almond praline. The rectangular chocolate parfait was in the center of the plate, while the cream was presented in little, cloud-like dollops placed asymmetrically around the plate. The almond praline was crushed up and sprinkled throughout. The heaviness of the chocolate parfait was offset by the lightness of the cream. While I appreciated the presentation, I will confess that I was a bit concerned about my ability to maintain a proper parfait-to-cream ratio as I ate it; indeed, my fears were confirmed when there was not quite enough cream for the concluding bites of my parfait.
Overall, I rather enjoyed the dinner. What most appealed to me about it was the idea of dinner as an event, carefully choreographed by a large waitstaff with an eye for finesse. There were little touches throughout, such as providing me and Tiffany with little cushions upon which to place our purses (in lieu of the floor or back of our chairs). The waiters were all attentive and courteous.
One thing I can say with confidence: I'm pretty sure, among all of the middle-aged patrons at the restaurant, we were the only diners who went out clubbing afterward. I had never officially been to a dance club, so Robert and Tiffany took me to
Bootie (as in pirate booty). I wasn't sure that I'd enjoy clubbing, as I don't like "clubbing music," but Bootie plays music to which I would actually be willing to listen. Specifically, they are known for their mashup bootlegs, which is where "the vocal track of one song is mixed over the instrumentation of another." (E.g.,
Come See About Down - Jay Sean vs. The Supremes.)
In addition to a DJ playing mashups, they also had a fantastic house band, Smash-Up Derby. The band was my favorite part of the night, and I want to go back and see them play again. The other thing I liked about Bootie was the unassuming nature of the crowd; as Robert observed, our fellow dancers just wanted to have fun. I was glad they weren't really "cool" people taking themselves too seriously, because that's no fun, and kind of intimidating. All told, it was a lovely afternoon and evening in the company of good friends.
P.S. - How are we already halfway through June? I'm completely flummoxed.
Our first book on the docket is Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince. Now, I know what you're thinking--that sounds boring, difficult, and/or just plain old. But, just because it's not some fluffy recent work of fiction endorsed by Oprah, it does not mean that we can't have some fun with it!
