For Europeans thinking about moving to SF/San Jose (San Diego: buying, high school)

[striker]

Here is my story about Frisco (as I like to call it:-)

Originally from Milan (known as the Fashion Capital of the World, great sophisticated night life and beautiful friendly people but not so nice weather as it’s cold in the winter).

Grew up in Milan until the end of high school. Decided to do my university studies in the US. Moved to Austin, TX to attend college at Univ. of Texas where I played soccer for the school. Great 4 years of fun and good friends. Always wanted to live by the beach, so moved to Tampa to get my Master at Univ. of South Florida. Another great two years. Life style similar to Austin but night life more sophisticated and more things to do. The beautiful Tampa Bay Area. That is the real “Bay Area” to me.

Visited often Miami during that time and absolutely fell in love with the Magic City and South Florida. A mix of Mediterranean, South American and European influence. Amazing city where I would have liked to move at the end of my Master for my first job. Lots of real Italians actually from Italy in South Beach compared to most other cities in the country where there are only Italian-Americans who don’t even speak the language. In South Beach there are actually lots of Italians from Italy, French from France, Germans from Germany, etc. Hottest women on the planet, friendly latin/caribbean culture, better night life than Milan, London or Paris. After all even Italian pro soccer players love South Beach. Oh and great soccer too for being in the US thanks to all the super friendly and “party lovers” latin people (mostly Argentineans, Colombian, Brazilians and central Americans).

Unfortunately, what seemed to be the best job for the beginning of my career (high tech as I am an electrical engineer with a Master) came up in San Jose, CA also known as the Silicon Valley. Visited during the interview and didn’t like the area from the start. However, I thought I could live close to San Francisco which sounded cool at least at the beginning. Some people had even told me that for some reason it was very European.

So I moved to Redwood Shores 8 months ago (as close as possible to SF as any further up north would have been too far from San Jose). Let’s just say that I am already trying to move back to Florida again. San Jose is a ghetto ass town which should belong to Asia. Beside the ghetto, it is just bunch of Asian engineers wearing white socks with dark pants and leather shoes. I'm a young professional, and bored as hell in this suburban lifeless tech jungle of the South Bay. The South Bay is boring, sterile, expensive, and impersonal. I have minimal friends here, and they're mostly homebodies. It's totally illogical that a place with no substantial cultural value, transportation, nightlife, or other urban benefits should have living costs as high. A true cultural wasteland by any European standard. The “frisco” bay area as a whole is the most boring place a young person could ever choose to live in. You need to be driving at least two hours to find anything interesting.

And now about SF: hate the weather (cold and rains all the time), hate the people (dirty and but ass ugly hippies), the bums, the junkies, the calling “The City” (while SF is not a city by any mean when compared to NYC, London or Milan), the keep on hearing “Bay Area” here, “Bay Area” there.

The night life is pathetic to say the least by any European standard. Truly, there is not a worse and more overrated place I have ever been to. Always liked the US, but the 8 months here are making me wanting to move back to Italy. There is no Latin friendly atmosphere, just ghetto ass Mexicans (nothing to do with the friendly South and Central American culture of Miami), Asians (lame and boring, wearing white socks with dark pants and leather shoes, cheap as hell too), and WASPs who think this is great place to live at segregated in their areas. Did I mention it's always cold? Fog in the summer too!

The young crowds here have no idea what fun life is like. They seem to enjoy dirty cheap bars while tasting some draft beer. That’s what SF has to offer. The dance clubs are laughable here. The people here seem to enjoy never being able to wear a bathing suit cause it’s too cold to lay out, the lame night life, and the spending hours commuting in the car. Instead of going to the gym trying to look nice, they smoke out. That's the theme of the city of SF: Pot heads and gays!

Truly the worst place I have seen in the US, although some of the areas around are pretty to the eyes. LA and San Diego seem much nicer to me (in fact more Europeans are found in Santa Monica or San Diego) although now I know my dream is called Miami Beach and that’s exactly where I will move to ASAP.

[ComfortablyNumb]

See, racism exists outside of America, too. Damn, though, that post is really judgemental and racist. You sound like a *****.

[ComfortablyNumb]

From my experience, SF isn't about getting drunk at night as much. SF is all about learning other languages, and becoming multi-cultured, even if it is in a kind of shallow, fake way.

You mainly rip on Mexicans, calling them ghetto, and you also just generalize to the max. I've been to Miami, if you want ghetto, that's about how ghetto it can possibly be. To generalize like you, it's a bunch of ghetto-ass drug-dealing cubans with guns.

[Tallysmom]

I will agree on one point -- we've been out here three years and we don't have any really good friends at all -- people don't seem to do that here....

[striker]

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

I will agree on one point -- we've been out here three years and we don't have any really good friends at all -- people don't seem to do that here....

Of course, most WASPs have no friends or keep to themselves. The only friends I could make in the US have always been other international students when I was in college (mostly latin ones).

[ComfortablyNumb]

Sriker. Sei un uomo molto cattivo!

I haven't taken Italian for a year... I'm going to Firenze in the Spring of 2008 though

[striker]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

Sriker. Sei un uomo molto cattivo!

I haven't taken Italian for a year... I'm going to Firenze in the Spring of 2008 though

Have fun! Although Firenze is not a big city like Milan or Rome, you'll see what Italians mean by "Night Life" as in comparison to SF. Enjoy!

[ComfortablyNumb]

I actually thought San Francisco had pretty good night life (although I don't live there). I'm not sure, though. From what I've heard, Italians are extremely social, friendly people. So I'm excited to go there, although it's actually still a preliminary plan. I'll be graduating college and I'm either going to Italy or buying an HDTV... not sure which.

[sfist]

You sound exactly like the type of person native San Franciscans try to avoid at all costs: shallow Eurotrash whose best response is "you idiot". If you dont like Asians, Mexicans, gays and hippies, please, do us all a favor, and hurry on back to Milan (you know, the fashion capital of the world?!). This city is strictly for people who appreciate the diversty of its fabric (wasp's and all).

[Sandpointian]

Sriker,
You must be the stupidest guy to post on this board.

1) "Frisco, (as I like to call it:-)" Yikes!! RedNeck alert! It is San Francisco, moron.

2) Friendly people in Milano? Are you kidding me? They are the most uptight in all of Italy!

3) Univ. of South Florida? Wow, really world class. PLEASE, do all Valifornians a favor and move back to Florida. Really, it is all yours.

4) LOL!! "Sophisticated" You probably need a dictionary to know what that means. Sophistication comes with education, knowldge of the arts, and appreciation of talent. Your world is one of technomusic, gold chains, mamoni, and cheesy pick-up lines on girls half your age. REALLY, sophisticated! Like I said, go back to Florida. I'll take Stanford and Berkeley women anyday. The thong culture of Miami was great when I was a young college student. Clearly, your level of sophistication or what you call "culture" has yet to go beyond child's play.

6) Euros crack me up. They are all lemmings. Their entire world is football. Talking about boring and sissy. Unidimensional in everyway.

7) Your move to SF. LOL!! What a bonehead! Only a moron would mistake Redwood Shores for San Francisco. Please. Why would SF want to be "European?" How backwards and cliched!

8) Ay, yes, Stanford, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Woodside, Cupertino, all so boring and "ghetto."

9) Asia vs. Italy? Italy is poor and getting poorer. In twenty years, per capita income in half of Asia will have surpassed that of Italy, which has been on a downward spiral for the past 500 years. The balance of power shifts daily to Asia. You are laughable with your faux sophistication. Why you are in the USA reflects how disorganized our immigration policies really are. I would let in 10 illegals from Mexico who can go from poverty to being millionaires in one generation than a European whose idea of sophistication is spending his parents money on clothes and going to discos into his 30s. Please, you probably know only the bare minimum of your own cultural heritage.

10) Boring lifestyle in Silicon Valley? LOL!! Grow up, "Striker." ROTFLMAO! It is called responsibility and adulthood. That same Asian with the dark pants is sending his kids to Harvard, to the Sorbonne and to a lifestyle you could could only dream of. This is why Italy remains a backwater and Asia is dominating world trade.

11) You have no iea of what "culture" is. LOL!! Most Bay Area professionals I know have lived in several countries and have traveled at the highest circles. You and your ilk are more at the level of our valets. Sorry, pal, buying the clothes does not make the man... Quit comparing a suburb with a city.

12) If you need to be driving at least two hours to find anything interesting, perhaps you are speaking about how boring YOU are. You need the techno be-bop to have anything interesting or "cultural" to say. Please. What cracks me up is that I am sure Euro wannabes actually swallow your b.s. Europeans are far stupider, far less global, and far less culturally sophisticated that anyone can every imagine. Incredibly narrow minded, arrogant, backward looking, and petty.

13) LOL!! You hate the weather? Now I know you are desperately searching for criticism. The weather in the Bay Area, has probably the most perfect weather in the US if not the world. Rain is 50cm a year. Perfect. Tem average is about 23*C. Perfect. Year round weather for outdoor hiking. At the same time, skiing at Tahoe, only four hours away, is good for 5+ months.

14) LOL!! Junkies and Bums. Are you sure you are not talking about your hometown? Dirty, Smelly, Garbage Strewn....Druggies, bums...here SF is just like the great cities of Europe. Trying walking in Roma, Firenze, Siena, Milano without walking bird and dog crap.

15) Nice try. Milano does not belong in the same universe as London or New York. These are the twin pillars of global finance, Milano is an inbred backwater in comprison. Sorry, but you are far too superficial to appreciate the subtleties of San Francisco as a cultural force. While I am a huge fan of Italian fashion and tip the hat to the role of Milano in that arena, San Francisco as the anchor of the Bay Area has so much more to offer that it is a laughable comparison: wine, banking, venture capital, high tech, great universties, sailing, Pacific Rim, Redwood groves, skiing, scientific research, think tanks, etc. But, I forgot, you want techno music and the freedom the bed the naive? Please...

16) "European standard." LOL!! Right, Striker. So laughable...Americans don't emigrate to Europe, amico. The traffic is strictly one way.

19) "Always liked the US, but the 8 months here are making me wanting to move back to Italy. " Please do so. I would consider it my duty to see you off. Go back and be our guest to mired in an archaic political system that leaves even the 75th precentile Italian about as well off as the average Thai. But hey, you do have your sidewalk cafes and bird-**** filled piazzas!! Culture, right?

20) I get the feeling that you truly are EuroTrash. Your points of comprison clearly indicate a poor education, lack of family sophistication and a miniscule income. I take it you don't sail, drink wine, etc. Hmm...so your point of reference for SF is skid row or Broadway peep shows? LOL!!

21) "Instead of going to the gym trying to look nice, they smoke out." Wait, I thought you were from Italy? You guys smoke to keep in shape...

22) PLEASE, PLEASE, leave our fair city.

23) I will leave on a positive note. I am REALLY happy that you found your, "...dream..." and it is "...called Miami Beach." Wow...that says it all. Miami? Kitch capital of the Northern Hemisphere. We are so happy that you have found yourself. If only would would continue another 5000km east across the pond. Leave adulthood and 21st century culture to those here who are in the process of defining it. We'll be sure to send you the latest strobe light for your disco. Culture? Ha!! LOL!

Ciao brutto,
S