City by the Bay

This semester is a bit different from the others. I have taken a semester off and am doing a software development internship at an online advertising start-up in San Francisco. I spent a few weeks towards the end of summer and right before the beginning of my internship looking for a place to live. I scoured Craigslist, visited a few places that were either too expensive or unsatisfactory.


During my last tour, I stopped at a Starbucks near Daly City, about to settle for a windowless room carved out of part of a garage, and went through the listings one last time, and found a promising room for rent near Ingleside. Interestingly, the landlords only spoke Chinese, which was not a problem. I visited the place, and was glad to find that the house was clean and neat, and the room was brightly list and priced reasonably. I moved in a few days later.


I've been to San Francisco many times throughout my life, but never really thought about living here. Normally accustomed to driving, I am now adjusting to taking public transportation and walking to get around.


A unique characteristic about the suburbs here is that the houses are small and packed together. There is little front yard, and little back yard, and a whole lot of street. Another common theme that I seem to find is that most of the living space is upstairs, and it appears common to rent out parts of the first floor.


There are two strips of stores nearby, one along Ocean Avenue in Ingleside, and the other along Mission Street in the Excelsior district. After living here for a few weeks, I have more or less gotten used to the neighborhood. It is nice, but I am a bit unsure as to whether I would like to live here long-term in the future.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Through the Fog

Image
It takes about forty-five minutes to walk home from SFSU. I took the M-line bus a few times, which takes much less time, but recently walked more often to save money. The walk isn't really that bad. I've gotten more or less used to walking a few miles, as long as it does not take too much time. It is a good work out after all. Entering the Ingleside Terraces. From campus, I go through the Ingleside Terraces, a relatively affluent neighborhood. The houses here are pretty nice, and are not all packed right next to each other like those in the area around here. It is pretty quiet today. The fog tends to make everything more still than usual. The fog makes everything quiet and still. The sidewalk underneath the trees (and sometimes power lines) are always wet. This is because the trees and power lines are raining. Yes, the trees and power lines are raining. The fog condenses on the leaves and wires until enough droplets collect to drip down. The trees are raining. I ...
Read more

Chinatown

Image
Today after work, I stopped by San Francisco's Chinatown. I haven't been here, or any other chinatowns for that matter, for quite a long time. I started walking over along Montgomery from downtown. San Francisco's financial district never ceases to intrigue me. It is really something walking among the skyscrapers and fancy architecture. Passing the office buildings of a couple of banks, I reached California Street. A few blocks further and uphill, I started to see the distinctive Chinese-stylized buildings and the crowded street-level stores. Chinatown has certainly changed from what I remember. I remember the last time I was here, the area seemed to be a lot grittier. It still has the characteristic grittiness, but it seems like many more gift and souvenir shops with exotic looking sculptures and jewelry and nicer restaurants have cropped up. I was trying to find grocery stores. There was a reason why I came here for a grocery store rather than just go to one that ...
Read more