WHICH IS BETTER : SAN FRANCISCO or PARIS ?

While I was curious to compare the surface of San Francisco with that of Paris, I found on the internet this interesting study about what would make Paris or San Francisco a more enjoyable city to live in.

I picked up a few arguments pros and cons that I wanted to share with you.

EQUIVALENT FACTORS  
- The surface is eerily similar. : 120 Sq km for SF vs 105 Sq km for Paris. But I am not suprised after three weeks going around the city, I realize it was not that big for it stands on a peninsula. Paris is almost as big as SF is.
- The unemployment rate is rather similar at circa 7,7% .
- The average age is 38 for both cities. They are rather young considering they two are developed countries.

PROS SAN FRANCISCO 
- San Francisco is by the sea
- It has lakes
- It has mountains nearby
- It has an appreciably lower population density : 6600 people / km2 vs 20 700 in Paris, that makes you feel you can breathe !
- It has a lower level of air pollution : 27 vs 40. Yes Paris is polluted, and the fog of SF is not pollution !
- It has a higher average temerature : 18,4°C vs 15,5°C in Paris.
- It has an overall lower cost of living:
    * one monthly public transportation ticket is 71$ vs 90 $ in Paris.
    * the litre of fuel is 1,09 $ vs 2,2 $ in France, can you believe that ?
    * the big mac is 4,09 $ vs 4,93 $ in Paris, which is THE criterion truly reflective of the cost of living.

PROS PARIS
- Paris has significantly less people infected with HIV : 0,23 in Paris vs 0,6 in SF. No wonder, SF is well known for being a gay area. Gays are the population the most impacted.
- It has a much lower income inequities : 0,32 in paris vs 0,8 in SF. When you have crossed the Tenderloin and Nob Hill in SF, you understand !
- It has a public health care. When you have crossed the Tenderloin, you understand !
- It has clearly much more museums : 152 in Paris vs 48 in SF. Strangely enough, once you have identified the 4 most important museums in SF, there is not much left ! In Paris, it is endless...
- It has clearly more prestigious Think Tanks : 8  in Paris vs 0 in SF. As surprising as it may sound!
- It has the possibility of drinking alcohol in public places, which SF has not. It seems to be a sign of a more thriving night life ! But I am not a specialist of this matter...

And I would personaly add:
- You are allowed to smoke on a restaurant's terrace or in a public park in Paris. It is forbidden in SF and however you would just feel like the last pariahs ! So SF is not for you my dear smoker friends !
- Book stores are no longer (almost) on the ground of SF, they has been swallowed by the internet economy (Amazon), the still living bookstores in SF look like antique stores that survive an earthquake!
- The selection of movies in the SF theaters is as poor as my grandmothers' selection of video games.

SAN FRANCISCO won 510 points over 463 for PARIS!

http://versus.com/en/san-francisco-vs-paris



SF has THE Golden Gate Bridge.



SF has a lower density of population, people live in houses.



SF is surrounded by the sea.



SF is by the Pacific Ocean.

Bike ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. 10/04/2014

I met with Naoko on  saturday morning to do this famous bike ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. We took this very touristy cable car from dow-town to Fishermen's Wharf and rent a bicycle there for the day, rode on the Golden Gate Bridge, and from then down to Sausalito where we took a ferry back to Fihermen's Wharf. It was very sunny and hot. We've had breathtaking views on the bridge all the way long. We had a very nice time with Naoko who is a very sweet japonese girl.

Nothing much to say, just look at the pictures...

Bloody sunday ! 09/28/2014

The little adorable Roxy made pancakes this morning. They seemed to be very good. But that was not for me!

However, I went downtown taking the Muni (Metro) up to Powel station to find out the location of St Giles school. Once I got there and found my way through a bunch of tramps, I realised I had forgotten to take money which I needed to buy the necessary plug adapter I needed to charge my computer that was running out of battery. So I had to return home and once there go back to downtown...which took me two hours.

By the time I got to Union square, the very center of dowtown, I was very hungry, it was 3 pm. I looked for a place to eat and went into this restaurant. And there I felt like beeing transported in another time space: which means 20 years ago in a US dead end with straight people (no gays) watching an american football match on a giant TV screen ! Yes this can also be a reality in San Francisco ! So you can hear the men (real men!!!) growling at every good or bad movement of their team beetwen two sips of pint of beer. I 've had the worst caleslaw ever in this restaurant!

 

At diner time, I played a game with my hostess, the vocabulary test:

"So guys, I propose you to set a rule, if you agree", and then I can see Cristina staring at my in a gasp thinking "you are not the person who can set the rule here!"

I continue " I want you to tell me anytime I make a mistake, ok?" Everybody nods.

"By the way, I want you to be indulgent with me, or may be "to me" or "towards me", what do you think ?" And I see the 3 faces squinting at me, asking me"but what does indulgent mean?".

And Cristina replies "If you want to be a teacher, you have to use more simple words, otherwise your students won't understand you".

 

I definitely felt I couldn't stay very long in this utterly positive environment!

 



A sound diet. 10/01/2014

As previously said, I had to escape the witch and her barbarian's house on wednedsay morning in a taxi  that took me to St Gille's School with my two big suitcases. Kitty arranged with my new temporary family that I could go there one day ahead. So I arrived in the evening at El Serreno street, on the slope of mount Davidson, the highest hill of San Francisco, even higher that its Twin Peaks sisters not far. There I met Jane and Jerry (not to be confused with Tom and Jerry), an old retired couple, the healthiest persons I have ever met - by the way I wish them a long, long deserved life. They eat ORGANIC, drink ORGANIC, go to SWIM every morning at 7 am, go to WALK every night at 9 pm, don't waste water or energy... They actually are retired teachers, they are really SWEET! He is the combination of Charlie Chaplin mixed with Sacha Baron Cohen, was teaching math, arts (is a great painter) and put on plays with his students! She looks like a cartoon's Character with her white curly hair, is feminist, democrat, active in all kinds of associations, and also good pianist! I have not smoked one cigarette nor drink the tiniest glass of alcohol since I 've been here. I switched from a crazy poisonous psychomaniac family to a sound sustainable benevolent one. Thank god!

I am very sorry this might get very boring if these people occur to be very nice ones !

They took me up to Mount Davidson this week-end, it was really hot (29°C) quite unusal for the beginning of october, a breathtaking view on San Francisco from up there, even nicer than the one from Twin Peaks which is filled with tourists.

Class outing in the chinese district. 10/03/2014

We 've made this cultural outing with my general English class: one entire morning visiting the Chinese district next to the school, isn't that great!

Shane is our teacher, the guy with a cap, barely 30 years old. We are 7 students, 2 from France (me included), 2 from Switzerland, 2 from Korea, and 1 from Germany. There is an extra student from Soudi Arabia, but she is fasting because of Ramadan so she did not come along.

 

Most of the sudents are here for a short period of time, one or two months maximum. The Korean girl (striped shirt with sun glasses) whose name is Kate (easier to say than her real Korean name) has been in this class for two years! She is amazing, she is married to a Korean guy who is currently working in a bank in SF, she has worked before as a consultant in Korea, but it was so "stressful", so she is now taking this general English classes, also attending cooking classes because she loves to cook, not worrying about finding any job,  trying not be bored, probably waiting to have children, she reminds me of a 19th century Bourgeoise of Maupassant's Novel!

 

We went to visit the fortune cookies factory which is a very little factory in a little pedestrian street. The Chinese district actually has the tiniest and probably the oldest Streets of San Francisco. There you can see three women workers sitting on a chair, picking up the cooked pasta on metal plates with their hands, and rolling it with this little written paper (including a fortune message) in the form of the famous fortune cookie , which I guess is as unknown in China as it is famous in the US. The visit is free, but be careful the picture is worth 50 cents!

After that we had the chance to visit this chinese temple on the third floor of a building. You feel like being in China when you are there. Even more when you listen to the explanations of this old Chinese lady you can barely understand!

 

 

 

We ended up having a quick rather American lunch in this trendy newly opened restaurant, outside from the Chinese district: ORGANIC sandwiches and salads with a tiny ORGANIC apple as a desert. This is a San Francisco typical lunch!

 

 

Rosh Hashanah Yoga celebration in the Grace cathedral. 09/23/2014

Manuela, one of my house mate, proposed to go to a Yoga class which takes place every tuesday evening in the Grace Cathedral down-town.

So we met with Naoko and Manuela after school to go to this yoga class. AMAZING: This living cathedral (where mass is celebrated), is equipped with changing rooms, bathroom facilities and a cafeteria down stairs. Hundreds of persons gather there on tuesday evening to attend this free yoga Class. And there is this man leading with a microphone the people spread out in the alleys, the choir, everywhere, with their little matress on the floor. This guy wishes us a good Roshashana celebration in a Christian Church ! He reminds us that it was designed to people in struggle, and that is why we are here, to deal with our struggle in life doing yoga. Americans in SF are definitely open minded!

 

 

Nearly murdered ! 10/01/2014

I have not written for a while. It is that I 've had a near murder in my sleep experience which let me emotionaly quite upset. I am recovering....

For the good comprehension of the story, I have to mention what happened last sunday evening, when I went back from my little dowtown tour. I asked Cristina if I could have a cup of tea, because I was very thirsty and I was NOT GOING TO GO TO THE MALL for that ! She winced but accepted to boil water for me, provided I actually had my own tea bags. Then I took the cup in my bedroom, because I was not welcome in the kitchen, and there is no living room. Doing that I actually broke two rules in a row; a student is not allowed to make a cup of tea, and is not allowed to have a drink in his bedroom. However...

 

Monday was my first day of school. The school is located in the center of dowtown, next to all the shopping stores you could dream of. It is settled on the four first floors of a tower. It is a little bit outdated and narrow, but well organised. And the staff seem to be quite serious, professional, and comprehensive regarding my personal host family situation. Kitty , the person in charge of students ccomodation, found another host family for me I could join in the next couple weeks.

All the new students had a written test to evaluate their level in the morning and I had my first English class in the afternoon. The sudents are mostly young under 25, we are very few over 40. Most of them come from Japan or South Korea in Asia, Germany or Switzerland in Europe, Saoudi Arabia in the middle East. As you can see mainly rather economically privileged countries.

I had dinner with my two house mates at night at Cristina's. Manuela, a very sweet and easy going girl in her 30s, is from Switerland. And Naoko, an also sweet girl with a very low level of English, is 29 and comes from Japan.

Naoko was treated like rubbish when she went home and had a hard time with the key, not being capable to open the door.

Tuesday, Kitty told me she had Cristina on the phone who complained about me, and that I was to move next thursday to a temporary family.

In the evening we attended this Yoga class that Manuela told us about. Manuela texted Cristina to tell her we might be late for dinner. So we arrived home at 8.30 pm instead of 8 pm expected. We supposed Cristina would be angry and would make us wait for the dinner to be ready.And guess what, not only the dinner was not ready, but there was none, so she sent us to the mall because we were not clear about the fact that we would come back for dinner! We ended up eating tasteless lasagnas at the mall and came back home at 10 pm nearly after the curfew!

At 11pm, I heard somebody knock at my door. It was Cyrus, Cristina's husband,  I had not met him yet. "Hi Cyrus, nice to meet you!" And I see this tall, wild black haired and wild shouldered guy telling me : "You upset my wife, I want you to leave my house... tomorrow morning. You are Lucky I do not ask you to leave now!" That was a nice introduction! He is this kind of guy you always agree with, so I said "ok . I understand." And I packed my actually unpacked stuff (because I felt at the first sight the stay would not be long). No need to say I did not move a toe during the night, fearing the anger of the big guy, who I felt capable of murder...The next morning, I went to the kitchen to have my last breakfast, and Cristina popped up to tell me "You are leaving today so breakfast is not included, you cannot have breakfast here". That was the last benevolent intervention of Cristina. When I said goodbye to them, Cyrus told me something like "when you ask for a blanket, you get a blanket, and when you ask for a pilow you get a pilow" I did not get wether this was supposed to be philosophical or merely practical (I had actually asked the night before for a blanket and a pilow because I was cold and uncomfortable). And Cristina did not even turn her back to say goodbye.


How I ran away from the wicked witch and her barbarian's house...

Well I am making fun of it but I was actually very upset the whole day. I felt like having been mistreated, being thrown out like rubbish. It was not that cool!