21 Feb 5 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Coming to San Francisco

Written By: Alexine Prentignac

Moving abroad alone in your twenties is a great journey and a lifetime experience. However, discovering a new culture, totally different from what you are used to, can be difficult and lead to weird impressions and awkward moments.

I arrived in San Francisco two weeks ago for the semester. I am originally from Normandy, in France, from a little town close to Paris. I must say that I truly LOVE Paris and its incredible energy. Thus, when I needed to decide where I would study for my exchange, I never envisioned nothing but a big animated and multicultural city. San Francisco was an obvious choice to me, as I thought it would be similar to Paris and France. But, surprise, it took me only one day to discover that I was wrong! And I am glad I was wrong, because being here is a chance to discover another way of living, another culture to get out of my comfort zone. So, please, let me tell you what are the five things I wish I had known before moving here:

• THE WILDLIFE CAN BE DIFFERENT FROM YOUR OWN COUNTRY
  • This story is probably the funniest moment I had since I arrived in the U.S. Let me introduce the context: I was in my kitchen, eating with my two French roommates when we suddenly heard a weird sound. We first thought it was a little mouse agonizing, so we tried (absolutely frightened!) to find it. We didn’t find anything in the house and, all of the sudden, a powerful burnt smell overruned the house. Consequently, we imagined that a mouse had been electrocuted in our garage, which was explaining both the noise and the smell. But the smell became stronger and stronger so we decided to ask for help from our American neighbor. He came to our house and immediately told us: “Don’t worry, it is only a SKUNK!”. There are no skunks in France so we never imagined this could happen! Although we were very scared at the time, it is a very funny anecdote in the end.
• THERE ARE NO ELECTRIC BLINDS IN THE U.S.
  • You can’t even imagine how difficult it is for French people to sleep well here! I was so surprised when I discovered that the majority of American houses don’t have electric blinds to darken the room.
• AMERICAN PEOPLE DO NOT EAT CREAM DESSERT
  • As a Frenchie, I am definitely a BIG foodie. Going to an American supermarket for the first time was a super funny and unexpected experience! There are many differences compared to French food, and many things that are impossible to find. I went to five different supermarkets to find cream desserts, before realizing and admitting to myself that this is not a common thing here. Indeed, I noticed that, contrary to French people, Americans mainly eat yogurts such as Greek yogurts, skyr or fromage blanc. Tell me if I am wrong, but I could not find any rice pudding, crème brûlée, chocolate mousse or pistachio cream but in France, supermarkets are full of them. After this big failure, I did my research and discovered that cream desserts are more a French habit (which, I recognized, is not healthy at all), while in the U.S., people prefer to eat plain yogurt with granola and fruits for instance. I think this is something I will probably not get used to. I swear to you, guys, you should absolutely taste our cream desserts!

• AMERICAN PEOPLE MOSTLY USE THEIR CAR
  • Another thing that jumped out at me is how much people use their car here. I went for a 20 minutes’ walk and only met 3 people walking. This is really different from Paris, where people almost never use their car. There are various reasons for that: first, the traffic is always stuck and it can sometimes take 30 minutes to drive 5 kilometers. The second reason is that public transportation is super developed and very well structured in Paris, which explains why Parisians almost never even have a car. But as public transportation is also well developed in San Francisco, I was surprised not to find many pedestrians like me in the streets while in Paris, sidewalks are always full of people.

• COFFEE SHOPS AND BARS CLOSE SUPER EARLY
  • The last thing I was really surprised about is how early coffee shops and bars close here. In France, brasseries where you can stroll and chill for hours and drink your coffee all day long are an institution. You will always, at any time of the day, find a coffee shop to drink or eat. Last weekend, I wanted to have a coffee with my friends but it was 5pm and three different coffee shops we tried were about to close. It was so surprising to us! Moreover, in San Francisco, there are not many terraces to sit and drink. This is so different from Paris where you have terraces everywhere (there are more than 12,000 terraces and more than 18,000 brasseries in Paris!). I miss terraces a lot, because they always represent good moments where you are chilling with your friends after work. But I also enjoy discovering American people’s way of living which is so different from what I know!

I guess this is it for the moment! I have only been in San Francisco for the past two weeks but those five big differences struck me directly. However, I am open to discovering this new way of life and Americans’ habits, as I think this is what exchanges are made for.

For your exchange to be successful and a life lesson, I for one believe that it is crucial to always stay open-minded and to welcome the changes and differences with goodwill. There is no one culture that is better than another, or one way of life that is better than another. Lifestyles are simply not universal, and it is extremely important to adapt to the countries you discover, to immerse yourself in their culture and, for a time, in their way of seeing things. I am really glad that the U.S. and San Francisco have welcomed me, and I will take everything there is to learn from this experience!