It’s been nearly a month and so far, I still love it here. Very occasionally I miss the Netherlands because it’s exhausting to constantly have to adapt and arrange practical things such as housing, but everything is slowly coming together. The weather has been great, the sun shines almost every single day and the city is just absolutely stunning. Life here has also been crazy fun, so I've fallen behind a bit on writing.

Bike like a dutchie

Yesterday, I picked up my new bike from Richie (if you ever need a good bike, let me know I'll share his contacts) a guy I found on Craigslist that fixes up bikes for a living and does a good job at it too. I got a pretty good deal and paid $425 for a bike with an aluminium frame, a Shimano 105 groupset and a carbon fork in great condition and fully tuned.

The first thing I did was head over to Sports Basement for a Kryptonite U-lock because bikes and parts seem to get stolen here way more than in the Netherlands. If you ever visit and walk around the city, you'll notice a lot of wheelless and seatless bikes or just a single wheel tied to poles, so I am also planning to buy a cable to attach to my wheels.

First I headed over to Nob Hill for tea with Nathalie, a Dutch woman that's been living in San Francisco for over 20 years with whom I was connected via LinkedIn. I realised that it was great to have a contact person in the city that understands Dutch culture, as well as the Bay Area culture (although the move had been quite a long time ago for her). There are quite a few cultural differences at work and in my social life, that I am trying to figure out, so having someone to brainstorm with and give advice is really useful.

Afterwards, I decided to go on an adventure and explore the city and biked past Fisherman's Warf, which is indeed very touristy, all the way down to Embarcadero and past Mission Bay and Dogpatch. I thought it would be a good idea to bike home once I was in Mission Bay, because I could take 16th or 22nd street all the way down to Guerro, but forgot to factor in the hills. Namely, Potrero Hill. In all honesty, I walked up parts of the hill 2 or 3 times (and walked down once too), because I was not used to going up inclines over 25% (the Netherlands is very flat) and didn't shift on time to bike up. I did see someone in front of me zigzag bike his way up, which I tried, but didn't work every time. The views were amazing though, and I'd recommend to anyone to hop on a bike and explore the city. The view from nearly every corner is just stunning.

Culture differences

You might be wondering what the major differences are that I have noticed between SF and NL cultures. Well, one of the first things I've noticed is: people have time. By that I mean, people don't seem to be in a constant rush and people don't seem to be endlessly busy. Most weekdays and weekends, I can just text people on the day or a couple of days in advance if they want to hang out, and people will have time. In addition, some of the friends that I've been making, are people that I met on the beach, on a bus or just randomly on the street. People actually take the time to talk to you, show interest and help you out.

This is in contrast to the Netherlands, where I have to "book" my friends over a month in advance (see my article about planning). At the same time, if you run into people you know in the city, even close friends, it always feels as though people are rushing off somewhere. Although I have to say, these things are a little less prevalent in Brabant, where people often are up for a chat and have time to spontaneously grab a coffee. At the same time, I feel that the chance that I'm going to randomly strike up a conversation with strangers in the Netherlands, let alone share my number with them, is a lot smaller. Even though I have done this a few times in the Netherlands, meeting people in parks or at the beach pre- or post-surf, it seems to be more of an exception.

So far the thing that has most positively surprised me is that people seem genuinely friendly and interested, as opposed to the stereotype we have in Europe that Americans are very superficial and only friendly on the surface. In the Netherlands, I've struggled a lot with the feeling of being an outsider. This is partially due to race because everything I do seems to somehow be accredited to the fact that I'm Chinese or grew up in China, which is often emphasised in conversations. On the other hand, my personality type is a lot more bubbly and warm, meaning that I get energy out of meeting new people and making connections. This is sometimes more difficult in the Netherlands because of our Dutch pragmatism and directness, which sometimes rubs off on me as cold.

SF is giving me a similar feeling to Shanghai (and Mexico or any backpacking trip), where people are more open to meeting and making new friends and are interested in your story. From what I've understood it's because most people here are "transplants", which means not native to San Francisco or the Bay. Since the US is so large and multicultural, most of the people I've met are from other cities/states/countries, meaning that everyone is basically an "expat" but then in the American way. They know what it's like to be new to the city or to a country and willing to help out others and fortunately, all speak the same language.