Report - In the San Francisco Bay Area
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In the San Francisco Bay Area
In January 2012 I was working in sunny → San Francisco, California. In the winter with temperature around the 18 degrees around the city (as San Francisco is called colloquial) there were some nice motifs. In this city, it was really only the → Golden Gate Bridge - this masterpiece - that I really liked.
What connects San Francisco to the silicone?
Now I had landed in the “Land of Unlimited Possibilities”, in which one’s own churches can be founded and above all is exalted. Oracle has a headquarters here in the Silicone Valley, and others of the appointed grandmas who fit into my pocket in the business card format. What the hell. Actually, I wanted to show up here as a retiree to measure Highway 66 from North to South America. The latter is a dream of mine - and dreams one should have.
The flight lasted over 11 hours north of the Polarkreise, then over Greenland, Canada and the snow-capped Rocky Montains along the Pacific coast to the south. Four hundred kilometers south of here lies Hollywood - the dream of every acting superstar.
After the landing here began my tour by rental car on one of the huge highways. Watch out! Everyone drives here as they wish, on the trail of his trust. And it is constantly going in all directions. A Garmin-Navi without lane assistant is no good. On equal crossings does not drive right before left, but who was first there. Turn right at red traffic lights even without green arrow. The traffic lights stand behind the crossroads and not before (!).
A “renegade” German met me - the hotel manager - from Erlangen and 30 years ago emigrated. Nice to hear German words sometimes. According to the American dream of the dish washer, the German has worked to become a hotel owner of a luxury hotel. Money is everything here.
It is not a stereotype - most Americans have in the first place the life setting to work for virtual money. On average, you work here as long as one’s feet wear a day. Holiday takes you only 1 week to 10 days a year. The Americans have their holidays and extended weekends. Leave is frowned upon, as long as you are not retired. It is not called Holiday, but you are in Vacation, because you just clean up. But, there can not be purchased. Money and fortune - whatever it is meant to be - must come from.
Apart from that, the Americans are mostly nice and, moreover, quite as you see it in American everyday films. If one belongs to the beggars, it goes so. But woe to him who falls through. The American-Way-of-Life offers very fast traps. Then it goes under the bridge - faster than you know. Who then wants to help you. And bridges are enough here. How the images then resemble each other - as in the middle of Europe. Here, too, they exist - the damned of this earth under the bridges with the signs to the breast “Help me!”.
The abundance seems to swell from all corners and ends - at least it becomes so clear to the outside, if one does not look under the bridges, behind the scenes or into rural regions. Ultimately, the entire system as well as the individual lives only on pump.
The streets are endless, the public and company buildings are huge. Mostly everything is spread out - perhaps also because of the earthquake danger. Miles-long bridges and many highways can be found in all parts of the large Bay of San Francisco. A lot of being, but also appearance everywhere.
Huge prefabricated industrial areas, where a company has its headquarters here and there. The “For Sale” sign is always present. Infinitely long malls (shopping centers) everywhere. They are also mostly visited - after all, the average citizen has between five and ten credit cards. You do not have to have any mice in your account to spend money. Virtual worlds create unlimited possibilities.
In the shops I am interested in only one - a Levis shop, perhaps an outlet shop for particularly cheap. San Francisco is the home town of Levis - or “Liveis”, as one says here.
North of the City and Golden Gate Bridge, there are beautiful traditional wine-growing areas towards Sacramento. Strange sights are also popular here: From the zoo for bisexual animals to the most notorious high-security prison in the USA (on the island of Guantanamo) on the Alcatraz peninsula (in the Bay of the City). In 1964 it was closed. It was later occupied by Indians, who were forcibly expelled in 1971 - nothing new in the West. To date, no one has apologized for the genocide of Indians.
Even the Steakhouse is oversized. In it a huge fireplace - for what actually - winter is not here. What’s for lunch? Of course - an American bleeding cattle steak. The nice service tried to devote myself completely still to the service still everything to the steak for sale - from the iced tea to the paper basket for the used napkins. Business is legitimate - not just in America.
On the second day of the stay it was very quiet in the hotel four o’clock in the morning. I could not sleep anymore. I still do not get used to the nine hours time shift. Outside you can only hear a dark, deep rumbling of the engines of the oversize, PS-strong, spritaufsaugend off-road vehicles at regular intervals.
Located in the south-west of San Francisco Bay in Silicon Valley, the Silicon Valley. Modern IT and semiconductor technologies began here. Major graduates of the local Stanford University and former electronics engineers founded companies such as Intel, Google and Apple. Of course they all took their start without any means in scrapped garages.
All in all, the west coast seems to be somewhat different from the east and north of the USA. Here one is less dogmatic, among other things. San Francisco is supposedly the most beautiful city in the USA. The population is a colorful mix. Of the nationalities and religions of this world, almost everything is represented here.
One understands and lives with each other - well so.
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