Raúl Hervás Díaz, Spain
I have been living in San Francisco for nine weeks. My purpose to be here is studying
English because I want to work abroad in the future. I finished Civil Engineering five
months ago in the city I was born and raised: Madrid, capital of Spain.
I chose San Francisco because I wanted to go to America for first time in my life, and
the East Coast of the U.S. didn’t attract me so much for living there. I was told that San
Francisco was one of the best cities for living in the U.S. and you could find a lot of
bridges and the headquarters of the biggest technological companies in the world. As a
Civil Engineer, I love everything related to infrastructure and transportation. I am crazy
about bridges, railways, trams and cable cars.. so, which is the best city to check them
out?
I arrived in San Francisco on March 19th. It was a rainy and windy day, but I felt
positive and settled in my homestay easily although the weather didn’t change for two
weeks.
I went to school the first Monday and I could check that there were people from all
over the world, so I thought it was a perfect chance to learn a lot about those different
cultures they have. Korea, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Germany… I love learning the
customs of people coming from other countries and I have enjoyed a lot doing this at
the same time that I have been learning English.
As a city, San Francisco is very special. The respect and politeness of the people are
awesome. They are very quiet here, even when the Muni has a delay in the morning
or when it’s so crowded that they have to push each other to outboard. That really
impressed me. In the neighbourhood I live, most of the inhabitants are Asian and there’s
no sign of discrimination in any place. Homeless can be seen in the downtown, there
are a lot of them hanging around Civic Center Station; but there’s no problem if you
ignore them. Actually I was told that most people think that they chose that way of life
and you have to respect them if they do the same. So this is the paradise for homeless
because the winter is not as cold as in the East Coast and they are accepted by most of
the population, including the government, that has created some institutions to aid them.
The peninsula where San Francisco is located makes the city beautiful and nice for
living (in spite of the windy, foggy and not very warm weather). Naturally, I visited the
bridges, parks, walked up the horrible slopes of some streets of the city, rode the cable
car… and I got fascinated. This city shines by itself. I love skyscrapers, and here you can
find a very cute central business district with all the highest buildings drawing the well
known skyline of San Francisco. Try to take a picture of it at night coming from the
other side of the bay, crossing the double-decker bridge originally called Bay Bridge…
just one word to describe it: charming.
I don’t know whether I will work here or not in the future. Nevertheless I can say that I
will come back, without doubt.