Category: My San Francisco Chronicles

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My San Francisco Chronicles weather

Rainy San Francisco Day

Ah, the weather today is so rainy and rather depressing! A lot of rain–to be exact, 100% chance of rain. It has been going on since last night I believe. While I enjoy listening to rain while indoors, I do not enjoy walking around in the rain outside. I had to go out earlier this morning for a conference, and my poor pants got a little soaked at the hem.

I wish I didn’t have to venture back outside again today, but I have to go to an interview in a few hours. I am hoping the rain will not affect my travel plans later in the week–according to the forecast, seems like there will be a lot of rain for the whole week. Sigh.

It just feels strange to have rain here in San Francisco–rarely have there been rainy days since I moved here. A lot of sunshine, some cloudy days, some windy days–but that’s about it. Well, others have told me that winter is the rainy season here, so I guess that’s how it goes. There’s no snow, thank goodness–just rain. And not so much that we’re flooded, I hope.

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money My San Francisco Chronicles

San Francisco Minimum Wage for 2008

Well, it seems like San Francisco’s minimum wage will go up to $9.36 effective January 1, 2008. I think it’s crazy how high the minimum wage is here–when I was working at the cafe a few months ago, I was paid $9.14, the current minimum wage. I remember telling my friends back home about the minimum wage here and they were all very shocked. Minimum wage in Virginia is $5.85, which is around the range of the federal minimum wage.

The state of California itself has a minimum wage of $7.50 increasing to $8.00 in 2008. I can’t believe how much more the minimum wage is in the city of San Francisco–I guess it shows how much more expensive it is to live here in the city!

A few days ago, my friend and I were talking about this minimum wage increase and then were curious about what other states’ minimum wages were. So we went searching on the Internet, looking for the lowest minimum wage. Kansas definitely takes the cake on this one–$2.65! That’s a huge difference from San Francisco. I think it’s just interesting to see the difference in the cost of living from area to area. I never thought San Francisco was so pricey until I saw these comparisons. I guess it can be a good and a bad thing for me.

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American Culture Busride Observations My San Francisco Chronicles rant transportation

Woman on the bus.

I was on the bus today, on my way downtown to meet with one of my mentors for a holiday luncheon. The bus ride usually only takes about 15 minutes, so I zoned out for a little bit. After awhile, though, I noticed that there were more Chinese passengers than usual on this bus line. I watched a couple older Chinese women board the bus and sit near the front.

There was a Caucasian woman sitting right next to them; I didn’t know how long she had been there, but what I saw next really offended me. I guess the Chinese ladies had a bit of that “Chinese” smell about them (maybe they just came from Chinatown shopping?), because the Caucasian woman started to cover her nose with her turtleneck and act as if she were about to suffocate from the smell.

I was really offended by her blatant behavior and was tempted to yell at her “You can move to the back of the bus if the smell bothers you so much!” She was being so incredibly rude and offensive; if I were in her place, I would have either masked my disdain or just remove myself from the situation. It’s not that hard! It wasn’t like this woman was very elderly and needed to sit in the front of the bus; she was perhaps in her 40s, early 50s. She looked still very fit and youthful.

It just made me feel very disappointed in her behavior–I would have expected for a younger person to do something so immature, but not someone like her. If the smell of Chinese people bother you so much, then why are you here in the City?

Ugh, sometimes I wonder about society really.

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friends Japanese music life My San Francisco Chronicles

Life in the City by the Bay.

Well, it has been five months since I moved to San Francisco. Time has passed by so quickly that I forget how I ended up here. So much has happened as well–it’s all been a blur.

Times are still rocky, but I am feeling more and more that this is my new home. I didn’t even realise I had been here for so long until a few weeks ago, when I took my first trip out of the city since August.

I have met a few people so far, but there are still so many people I haven’t met yet. I have become used to the sights and sounds though; I walk around the neighborhoods like I’ve lived here for years. It’s amazing to see how much a person can adjust to in such a short amount of time.

I watch myself kind of shedding away layers of my former self as the time goes by. For one, I seem to be growing distant from the J-music world. Sure, I still listen to a lot of J-music, but I don’t really care to keep up-to-date with the latest news anymore. I also find myself distancing from J-music fans…maybe I feel we can’t connect anymore due to how different our lives have become.

I guess this is how life goes–they say, as you grow older, you end up losing more and more friends until all you have left are your closest friends (and family, of course). I don’t mind that really. I find myself growing tired of trying to seek out too many people.