SassyGirl in California – Day 1

Eight days ago, I arrived in San Francisco, ready to be awed by its beauty and wonder. We rode on cable cars, strolled around Chinatown, and even walked along The Embarcadero at sunset. But I was confused. What made San Francisco so famous? It didn’t seem that special a city to me. The downtown area was composed of a shopping district, a financial district, and a few cultural districts, which is exactly like the downtown area of The City (and I’m sure many other metropolises). Sure, the weather here is nice, but it wasn’t that sunny or warm. To be honest, it was quite chilly, always a little windy, and the heavy fog of morning often wouldn’t lift until past noon. Sure, it was surrounded by ocean on all three sides and had two bridges, but the bridges were about as spectacular as any feat of human engineering.

But as I came to realize, the appeal of San Francisco lies not only in the morning fog that shrouds its mysterious charm, nor in the succulent fauna, everything from leafy palm trees to majestic oaks – no, its charm lies in its singular ability to capture very different environments very close to each other.

At Fisherman’s Wharf, we’re transported to the era of the fishing colony, with food stands selling bits and pieces of the day’s catch, and the air stinking of the sea and its creatures¹.

Just a short ride away on the historic cable car, we’re taken to Chinatown, which runs along two streets, Grant and Stockton.


The “Grant Chinatown” as I like to call it, is the tourist trap of “cultural and historical trinkets,” overpriced tea houses and dim sum, and more Caucasians than Asians (the Asians that are there are tourists, like myself). This is also the clean Chinatown, the one that’s meant to be seen when tourists come looking for the infamous SF Chinatown.









Then, a block over on Stockton St, I found the Real Chinatown, the one lined with grocery stores and fruit stands, packed with Asians who are pushing and shoving to get to the fruit stands, and then spending an eon scrutinizing each fruit and wondering if they can’t get a better price for it next door at the next supermarket. This is the Chinatown that is noisy, smelly, and dirty, and the kind of Chinatown that I’ve come to expect. I gleefully threw myself into the crowds and bought a couple pounds of enormous peaches for only a couple dollars. Before I left, I also made sure to buy some steamed dumplings for the next day.

My second day in San Francisco, I was still on my own time (which is three hours ahead), so I woke up at 4:00 am and walked around our hotel. Our hotel was situated a small block away from the harbour front, so I walked along The Embarcadero and took pictures of Bay Bridge. All lit up, it looked magical.


San Francisco felt like a different city at night. Although not as dangerous as many big American cities, I did feel the need to be much more cautious at night. The tourists were all asleep in their hotels, and since I was on the edge of the Financial District, all the bankers and associates who worked in the area were absent as well. Instead, I was left with the distinct smell of urine only a block south of the hotel. I also ran across a couple homeless people, some of whom were shouting obscene things into the night. Since I was alone at 4:00 am on my first night in a foreign city, I quickly avoided those streets.
By 6:00 am, I returned to my hotel and had some breakfast. I found that I was still quite restless, maybe from the excitement that I was finally on the trip I’d been planning for months, so I went for a jog. In the morning light, the pier was transformed from a mysterious and forbidden place to a golden stretch of fresh air and other morning joggers. I jogged about a mile from my hotel, which took me past the Bay Bridge all the way to the AT&T Park. I hadn’t brought my camera with me on the jog, so I took pictures with my cell phone. The bridge looked glorious in the early morning light, and there was no fog at all that morning (I was lucky – the next four days, I realized that fog was an inescapable characteristic of this city).

When I returned to the hotel, my mom had finally awoken, and we went over the day’s events. We decided to go to UC Berkeley in the morning, then spend the afternoon in the renowned SF MOMA.

1. Of course, now this is a major tourist trap brimming with people and their cameras, as well as gift shops boasting the most postcards, key chains, post cards, etc. than any other. [↩]