I left my <3 in SFO

I came across the blog of an old friend, and I just had to react. My friend had other interesting blog entries, but like I told her, her topic was what probably struck me the most. She was talking about having to leave the San Francisco Bay Area where she stayed for 2 years, I think. And there I was reading that blog entry, just a day after I "re-visited" San Francisco and Berkeley courtesy of Google Maps (also through Google Earth). Here is how my "conversation" with my friend went.


That blog entry:

lost

It's great to be home but I miss my home away from home.
It's great to be with family but I miss living alone.
It's great to be with old friends and loved ones but I miss small talks with friendly strangers and learning about other cultures from new friends.
It's great to be in familiar territory but I miss taking trips around the bay area and seeing new places.
It's great to be sheltered and secured but I miss the adventure of exploring...

I hope I can find my place... where I really want to be.

__________

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

- Cory George C. Jr. / Cross Douglass

The loveliness of Paris
Seems somehow sadly gay
The glory that was Rome
Is of another day
I've been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan
And I'm coming home to my city by the bay

I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me
To be where little cable cars
Climb halfway to the stars!
And the morning fog will chill the air

My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea
When I come home to you, San Francisco,
Your golden sun will shine for me!

My reply:

As you may already know, I've been visiting the Bay Area since '89 for an average of 2 months each visit (from short 2-week visits, and my last one, a 4-months break back in 2000-2001).

It's also actually my relatives there who are so loving that's why everytime I "come home" to the Philippines, I would find myself going boo-hoo on that long 12-hour flight, or even during the next few months back here.

But really, it's also the place. During those 11 visits there, we've stayed in Berkeley mostly. And Berkeley alone pa lang is something.

Thank God for Google Earth or Google Maps na lang, I sort of get to revisit Berkeley, the places, the parks, downtown Berkeley, its neighboring towns/cities (Albany, Emeryville) and then I get to cross the Bay Bridge and go around downtown SFO and even further down south hanggang the Boardwalk, and Monterey, and so on.

And then there's music from the Counting Crows and Green Day who are from Berkeley (or Oakland, I think) and whose music keep reminding me about the kind of place they're from. Well anyway, so I've been more of an East-Bay-er.

She then replied that she really misses the place, too, how she has to commute 3 hours just to "escape" from the very suburban Palo Alto to the livelier San Francisco and Berkeley, and how she misses the "independence" she experienced while living there (as a full-time grad student).

I then added:

I'm a suburban person - but i don't know how suburban Palo Alto is. Hehe. I thought that Berkeley is suburban. or at least that place where i lived in Berkeley.

Anyway, me, i didn't really get to experience full independence while in the Bay Area thanks to my relatives there, except for having to do my own laundry, and for my few trips by myself to downtown SFO, downtown Berkeley, and nearby towns of Albany and El Cerrito from where I lived.

I did get to experience "full" independence while in Japan. I did like the city where i was (Atsugi), and i think because it generally is suburban. Downtown atsugi was kinda high-tech na din though (i.e. lots of neon lights, shops, people, among others). I'd spend my weekends going places, mostly to Tokyo - which was around 2 hours commute by bus and train from my apartment in Atsugi.

I could really feel the "independence" when I was still stuck in Tokyo, and I needed the fastest ride back to Atsugi so that i could catch the last bus, and I have to choose between the express train (very few stops) that leaves in 20 minutes, or the regular train that leaves immediately and just transfer trains somewhere. I felt like I was in the amazing race.

Anyway, one thing I realized a few months ago was that I like suburban. I'd rather live in a quiet neighborhood and all that stereotypical suburban setting. But, I would also like to be conveniently just a few minutes away from a hustling and bustling downtown, ultra-urban setting with tall buildings, high-tech facilities, and huge malls with lots of shops to choose from. That's Berkeley and Atsugi for me.

Here in Manila, living in them private subdivisions or villages could give that effect, so long as the street you're on is not along a busy, major road. Here's to working towards that goal of owning my own home at one of them private villages or subdivisions. :-D