| I'd like to add a few points from my own experience: Cars: In America/Golden Gate Park, people take their car into the park! They even park it right there, right next to where they have their picnic. Odd but understandable. In Europe cars are antithetical to nature and relaxation, something industrial you hide out of sight, while in the US they are (apparently) integral to it. Hours. In the US/SF people 'like' to be in the office. It is practically their home when they are not commuting or sleeping. While on the weekends they go on trips to be away from home/the office (I could not imagine raising, rather than merely producing, a family in the US). (all you say about the weather is true, unless you live in West SF. National parks are fabulous indeed!) Poverty. Without being a Republican who believes the poor / racial minorities are to blame for their own d*mned fate, it is not possible to enjoy central San Francisco. Never seen so many homeless people in such horrible states of existence (and I am not a Republican but a social democrat, so I was not comfortable with US society...). (the US is this odd mix between rich and modern and a 3rd world country... also with regard to infrastructure) Traffic lights (and a lot of traffic) at almost every corner in the city. Perhaps nice if you are driving, but very annoying when you want to enjoy an uninterrupted walk. Grid-pattern (mostly responsible for the former). Cities look like they were built on a chess-board. Nice if you want to go straight, but not good when you want to go diagonal (in Paris they solved this with diagonal avenues). And forget building diversity or atmosphere, especially in the suburbs (which are 97% of the city). Houses are indeed quite flimsy. But in East SF there are at least some lovely pre-war houses that have atmosphere (I lived in a room in one, loved it...). Business / startup opportunities; indeed, nothing beats California (never seen so many things bordering on the silly, fully funded...). On balance, after a year in the US, I chose to go back to the old world when a great opportunity came up there. I'm a European again :) |