BUS 449 Post 19: San Francisco, California

San Francisco – my favorite city by the Bay! I lived there for five years and spent another three summers there after that. In fact, I am planning on living there in the years ahead, because I truly love that city! 

            The city is about six miles square, so if you are visiting you can see most of the city in a day. Go to Fisherman's Wharf on Pier 39 to check out the sea lions that lounge on some wooden planks. Walk around North Beach, the formerly Bohemian part of the San Francisco. While you’re in the neighborhood, going to Mama’s for breakfast or lunch is surely a good idea. The Coit Tower gives good views of the city. Inside the tower, there are paintings that were completed in 1933 and are great fun to look at. If you have visited the tower, you should take the Telegraph Hill stairs down and observe some beautiful houses, gardens and brightly colored flora. Hop on a historic trolley car on the Embarcadero and hop off at First Street for lunch at Sam's Grill, a classic fish place. Haight-Ashbury, the neighborhood hippies used to live in, is filled with high-end boutiques, chic restaurants and hip cafés. Walk around Haight Street or continue on to discover Hippie Hill, a place where a lot of people hang out and enjoy the sun. Make sure to discvoer Golden Gate Park, because is huge and absolutely beautiful. The Conservatory of Flowers and the carousel on Kezar Drive are some cool places to stop by. The Exploratorium on Pier 15 is San Francisco's legendary science museum, which has some great things you can discover and appreciate. The Presidio is a really nice neighborhood with eucalyptus trees and yawning lawns and it takes us near San Francisco’s biggest attraction and one of the most beautiful walks in the country – the Golden Gate Bridge.
            There are many other spots I can suggest, because San Francisco is full of things to do and places to see, but I will leave it at that for now, because I can seriously go on and on about how amazing this city really is.

The famous sealions

A photo I took with a view of the city and GGB is far in the back

Hanging out on Lombard Street

BUS 449 Post 2: Culture Shock

Hello Fellow Bloggers!

Last time, in my very first post, I briefly introduced myself and mentioned that I have lived in a few different places. I will now extend on the bibliographical information about me and tell you about the culture shock I had to go through, not once, but a couple of times in my life!
            I was born in a small town in Bulgaria, but only lived there for about ten years, because when I was eleven, my mom won a Green Card through the visa lottery and her, my dad and I immigrated to the US. The year was 2003 and I had barely finished the 4th grade when we moved to Detroit, Michigan. We chose Detroit, because we had some family friends living there and they lent us a hand in the beginning and showed us around. The change was dramatic! Everything was completely different from I had been used to. Although we were in the suburbs of Detroit, the city and its surroundings were much bigger than my home town. Everyone traveled by car and nobody ever walked. There was no public transportation and we couldn’t even go to the store without getting in a vehicle.

When I started school I barely spoke any English. I had to take special English as a Second Language classes and mostly hung out with one Bulgarian girl. She had moved there about half a year before me and was my very first friend and my mentor.  We were often observed by the other students and were known as “the Bulgarians, who barely speak English.” Talking to her in Bulgarian when nobody around understood us was kind of fun, I must admit. We could gossip all the time!  :D
            But even though I had picked up the language pretty quickly and had started to make some friends at school, the truth was I was very unhappy for the most part. I was feeling homesick, I missed friends and the rest of my family and it was very hard to get used to the new life.

Two years later, when I was finally starting to get used to the school and the city, my parents announced to me that we were moving, again! This time to California! Initially, I had mixed feelings about it… It wasn’t like I loved living in Detroit all that much, but starting from scratch all over again? Really?! I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea; I was scared and worried, but thank God my parents came through with the move, because moving to San Francisco was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me!
            At first I had no idea that I would end up loving it so much. I mean I always thought the city is extremely beautiful, but living there took quite a bit of getting used to. New state, new school, new people… it was pretty big of an adjustment, but it might have been a bit easier the second time around. Finishing middle school there was alright, but I really started loving it when I went into high school. Suddenly, things were getting better in every perspective. The language barrier was gone, I had become a fluent English-speaker, I made some great friends, I am still very close to today and the high school culture was much more fun in general. Every year was more exciting and fun than the previous one and by the time I was a senior I had completely fallen in love with San Francisco and the Bay Area. Now that I’ve said that you might wonder, how did I make the decision to move back to Bulgaria for college? Well, I will save that for my next post! J

Thank you for following!  

Going downtown on the ferry.

My parents and I by the Golden Gate Bridge.