Some Observations About San Francisco

In no particular order:

- there are dogs EVERYWHERE! On the bus, in trains, grocery stores, offices, my chiropractors office, in almost every apartment, drug stores, malls, bike baskets, baby carriages, everywhere. It's a bit much sometimes! Luckily I'm neither allergic nor scared or dogs, but for people who are SF must be a difficult city to be in.

- People wash their cars all.the.time. There's a do-it-yourself carwash next to my office and it's always busy. On the weekends gas stations set up car washes and there are lines around the block. I don't get it! There's no salt on the roads even! Benoit says maybe it's because it doesn't rain much here? I don't know.

- There's a heavy Spanish influence here (street names, for example) and I'm butchering them. I've finally learned how to say "Embarcadero" though (it's the big street that runs along the bay to the north of the city)!

- Having a stick + hills = I close my eyes and go to a happy place when Benoit drives up the big ones. I have gotten over my complete panic of hill starts because the brakes hold the car if the angle is big enough, but it's still stressful in general for me. Fun for Benoit though!

- It's pretty warm here, for me (which is saying something!), and yet I see loads of people wearing big puffy down coats. It's 50F people, not 15! It's really amusing to me still.

- Most people drive the speed limit on the highway. The vast majority of people aren't in a rush - it's stressing me out.

- There's compost collection everywhere! It's great!

- Our new licenses will have our height and weight. Heh. I'm not impressed, CA.

- There are so many very distinct neighborhoods here. I'm having trouble keeping everything straight! And sometimes the city feels very small while other times it's so big and overwhelming. I bet any new city is like that.

- So many homeless people. So many. It smells like pee in most places. Yes, we live on the forefront of gentrification in our neighborhood, but there's lots of homeless people everywhere in the city. Most are crazy and harmless, but it's still a huge problem.

- I know I've thought many more thoughts but of course I didn't write them down. I'll add as I think of more.