How bout that article, "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior," huh? Ask anyone on the street if they read it and they've had, to the point where I'm thinking Amy Chau deliberately wrote that piece in the Wall St. Journal to draw attention to her book. I saw 2 people in front of me during class today on their laptops checking out "Tiger Mother," Chau's most recent book. Gets me thinking, what if I wrote a piece on "Why Chinese kids are superior?" Cuz for every Chinese parent who's imposing her parenting prowess, there's gotta be a willing Chinese kid who gets the parenting imposed on him/her, right? I got plenty of material. Actually, stay tuned for that: that will be a title of my next post, coming soon to a blog near you.
Anyways, a few weekends ago, I visited my friends in The City By the Bay, "Frisco," "Fog City," "The Golden Gate City," (nicknames lifted straight out of Wikipedia), a.k.a. San Francisco, CA.
I gotta say, I've been to Frisco like 3 times in my life, and each time I'm even more impressed.
The Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, but it's not just the tourist scene. San Francisco's the city where I've always pictured myself growing up, the perfect dichotomy to the flat, mundane surbaban community that I grew up in. Don't get me wrong, I loved where I grew up in friendly Darien, IL: A good place to live. San Francisco, though, offers just the opposite of my homely little neighborhood: large urban atmosphere, mountains in the background, city by the ocean, large Asian community, fine arts, professional sports teams within reaching distance.
The view of San Francisco is just absolutely beautiful, especially in the early summer: from scenic spots like Angel Island, you can see sprawling views of virtually the whole city, most of the bridges, and the bay leading out to the vast expanse that is the Pacific Ocean. I LOVE that about San Francisco, the fact that you can wake up in your neighborhood and take a trek to the Golden Gate Bridge and just be literally on top of the ocean; or that you can go to a quite beach and just take in the day; or you can go to the markets and street stores in downtown and shop for awhile without worry of the time. Basically, many of the qualities of Los Angeles, except more of a city feel. (L.A. has a city line of about 3 buildings standing next to each other). O and AT&T Park is a GREAT place to watch a baseball game, ESPECIALLY with the World Series champ SF Giants. The fans there are proud of their teams and are avid fans.......something I can't say really about L.A. fans, except maybe Lakers fans......during the playoffs. They really know when to show up.
Also, allow me to introduce to my viewership the concept of letterboxing. For those who have witnessed me espousing the virtues of The Amazing Race, it's basically The Amazing Race for the average citizen, or anyone who has the time for it ( without the $1 million cash prize at the end of it, just the satisfaction of finding the letterboxes, which some may argue is worth more than the mone).
Basically, people around the country hide "letterboxes" in locations around the country, usually hidden in little crevices or crannies not usually accessible by most people. The letterbox consists of a "mark" or "stamp" that represents the location that it's hidden in. the objective is to find this letterbox using a set of clues that are presented online by the originator of the letterbox. It's fun stuff, and the search for these guys have taken me to some awesome locations throughout the world. It's basically "The Amazing Race" without all the emotion and stress-related drama prompted by the producers, and I'm getting hooked. There's little treasures hidden all around the country that most peoel don't know about, including parks, bridges, recreation centers, truck stops, mountain passes, and some of the best-looking places in the world. I did some letterboxing in San Francisco, and found some of the finer parts of San Francisco. Give it a shot.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
Anyways, a few weekends ago, I visited my friends in The City By the Bay, "Frisco," "Fog City," "The Golden Gate City," (nicknames lifted straight out of Wikipedia), a.k.a. San Francisco, CA.
I gotta say, I've been to Frisco like 3 times in my life, and each time I'm even more impressed.
The Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, but it's not just the tourist scene. San Francisco's the city where I've always pictured myself growing up, the perfect dichotomy to the flat, mundane surbaban community that I grew up in. Don't get me wrong, I loved where I grew up in friendly Darien, IL: A good place to live. San Francisco, though, offers just the opposite of my homely little neighborhood: large urban atmosphere, mountains in the background, city by the ocean, large Asian community, fine arts, professional sports teams within reaching distance.
The view of San Francisco is just absolutely beautiful, especially in the early summer: from scenic spots like Angel Island, you can see sprawling views of virtually the whole city, most of the bridges, and the bay leading out to the vast expanse that is the Pacific Ocean. I LOVE that about San Francisco, the fact that you can wake up in your neighborhood and take a trek to the Golden Gate Bridge and just be literally on top of the ocean; or that you can go to a quite beach and just take in the day; or you can go to the markets and street stores in downtown and shop for awhile without worry of the time. Basically, many of the qualities of Los Angeles, except more of a city feel. (L.A. has a city line of about 3 buildings standing next to each other). O and AT&T Park is a GREAT place to watch a baseball game, ESPECIALLY with the World Series champ SF Giants. The fans there are proud of their teams and are avid fans.......something I can't say really about L.A. fans, except maybe Lakers fans......during the playoffs. They really know when to show up.
Also, allow me to introduce to my viewership the concept of letterboxing. For those who have witnessed me espousing the virtues of The Amazing Race, it's basically The Amazing Race for the average citizen, or anyone who has the time for it ( without the $1 million cash prize at the end of it, just the satisfaction of finding the letterboxes, which some may argue is worth more than the mone).
Basically, people around the country hide "letterboxes" in locations around the country, usually hidden in little crevices or crannies not usually accessible by most people. The letterbox consists of a "mark" or "stamp" that represents the location that it's hidden in. the objective is to find this letterbox using a set of clues that are presented online by the originator of the letterbox. It's fun stuff, and the search for these guys have taken me to some awesome locations throughout the world. It's basically "The Amazing Race" without all the emotion and stress-related drama prompted by the producers, and I'm getting hooked. There's little treasures hidden all around the country that most peoel don't know about, including parks, bridges, recreation centers, truck stops, mountain passes, and some of the best-looking places in the world. I did some letterboxing in San Francisco, and found some of the finer parts of San Francisco. Give it a shot.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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