California girl

Apparently I'm living the American dream--I live in Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area.  This city has been designated as being one of the most expensive, dangerous, and unfriendliest cities in the world.  I hit the jackpot!  Really I did...

The Bay Area is...colorful, crowded, loud, gritty, beautiful, diverse, and sunny.  Before arriving here a couple of weeks ago, I had never set foot in northern California.  Living in California had never crossed my mind.  I was much likelier to live in a foreign country than here.  I only knew what I had heard--California is a land filled with liberals, hippies, and self-centered people who drive Priuses.  Life is expensive, highly regulated by the government, and lived without God.

Yes, those descriptions are true in many ways, but there's also more to the story, as I am slowly discovering.  I've met incredibly genuine co-workers, neighbors, and strangers.  The streets are a mix of so many nations and languages-- all I can do is picture heaven and the nations gathered around Christ's throne.  The area is filled with growing churches, amazing natural scenery, incredible restaurants, and creative citizens.

One word that jumps to mind every day, however, is scarcity--a result of millions of people competing for limited resources in a tiny geographical area.  There isn't enough water, housing, transportation options, or space for everyone.  That's why over 30 people must compete for one apartment, why I was put on the waiting list at number 1,792 for a parking spot at the nearby light rail station (which means I'd get a spot in, oh, about 90 years), why plastic bags are nearly nonexistent at stores, why I live on top of a mountainous hill that is perpetually at high risk for fires (and where 25 people perished in the 1990s), why my rent is $1200/mo. for a 350 sq. ft. studio apartment, why tempers boil over into riots and looting (really), why poverty is rampant, and why my job is even necessary in the first place.

But in the face of scarcity comes a unique community.  On one city block I can see African Americans, elderly people who look like they walked right off the streets of China, Middle Eastern women in veils, stylish Europeans, people who dress like it's still the 1960s, and hipsters wearing cool sunglasses I've only seen in magazines.  People bike, walk, and take public transit.  They shop at farmer's markets and go hiking on the weekend.  They live in old, tiny, art-deco apartments.  They create community gardens in vacant lots next to the rubble of run-down buildings.  They speak so many languages!  They are able to spray paint graffiti in the most seemingly impossible to reach places.      

So I don't know if I can or will want to ever be a "California girl."  It's too expensive!  But for now, I'm settling in nicely, thriving in my job so far, and engaging in a culture far different than any other I've ever known.  It will be a challenge living here, but I know that I do best with challenges, so I am happy...

One last glimpse of Kansas sunflowers on the amazing 1800 mile drive out West with Mom!

 Some of Wyoming.  Smallest state population in the country and I understand why...

The Great Salt Lake in Utah.  Nevada doesn't deserve any pictures, unfortunately.

Driving on the nearly 80 year old Bay Bridge to San Francisco, just days before they permanently closed it and opened up a replacement.

 Pretty trails near where I live in northern Oakland.

Not a bad view of the Bay from my neighborhood!

The cutest little library that ever existed.  This is located about a mile hike down from my house.  I already got a library card and think I will probably read everything in this tiny place in only about 2 months.

Just a little bit of what I see from my office window in Oakland.  I don't know where all the people and cars were when I took this...

View in the morning from the San Francisco office.

San Francisco's Chinatown smells just like China!