San Francisco - the foggy city by the bay
When I think of San Francisco – the misty city of rolling hills by the bay, my mind flashes back to a beautiful sunny afternoon.
While hovering in the clouds, the plane suddenly turned sharply, swerved towards the bay and hovered around the Golden Gate Bridge for a while. Looking out the plane window at a blue area, I smiled and said to myself: I have finally arrived in San Francisco - a place I have always dreamed of.
Leaving the airport, I took another taxi back to the city center, carefully watching the streets. Passing by houses built like mini castles, a mix of Gothic and contemporary architecture, admiring the elaborately decorated slanted windows, winding paths hidden behind wooden railings and green tree canopies… I felt like I was stepping into the movies I often watched in theaters.
During my stay there, I stayed at the Touchstone - an old hotel on Geary Street, about a 2-minute walk from Union Square. I don't know how long the hotel has been there, but as soon as I walked in, I could smell the oldness.
The rickety elevator was narrow, only big enough for four people, and it shook slightly every time it opened. The neighborhood had the same old and mysterious tone.
Red, yellow or brown brick buildings lie peacefully on the streets that crisscross in a checkerboard pattern. Every street has the same color, it is easy to get lost while walking but there is no fear of getting lost.
I find myself wandering like on full moon nights immersed in the space of Hoi An ancient town, leisurely strolling around without knowing where I am going, suddenly turning, suddenly turning around, suddenly sitting down at will.
Suddenly, the two cities have many similarities in urban planning in the style of “old inside, new outside”. No matter how much development occurs, the core area is still kept intact. No matter how fast people move forward, they still intentionally retain and preserve the timeless beauty.
While I was lost in the strange scenery, my phone vibrated, a text message came in: “Is that my friend in America? I think we just passed each other, would you like to meet?”
It was Sy Phu, a son of Hoi An, a friend I hadn't seen for a long time. Phu left his hometown a few years ago and is building a new life here. Just thinking about Hoi An, I passed by Phu. What a strange and precious fate.
Promised Land
I met Phu, and we walked around the central area. The typical architecture here is old apartment buildings with exposed iron stairs on the facade, sometimes zigzagging and curving, close to the house. In some places, I came across half-closed windows hidden under a trellis of vines.
I pointed, “Look, it looks like a nostalgic movie!” No wonder so many movies were shot in this city. You said, those old studios are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Right below those expensive apartments, homeless people stood, lay, and sat… on the sidewalks. Some had newspapers, some had nothing. Some of them held out their hands to ask for coins from passersby. Some just sat there, staring blankly at the people passing by, seemingly not thinking about anything at all.
Not only recently, since history, San Francisco has been a "promised land" welcoming many diverse immigration flows.
Around the mid-19th century, people from all over the world flocked here to find gold. That’s why San Francisco has a special name in the Asian community: “Cuu Kim Son” - meaning “old gold mountain”.
Following the gold rush, these waves of immigration created a city of cultural and linguistic diversity. Each person, each family or small community group is like a mosaic, contributing to the colorful city, from the past to the present.
Walking among those cinematic streets with a few homeless people, I remembered the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) set here.
A realistic film depicting the life of a homeless person, from despair, trembling before consecutive failures and tragedies to bursting out when reaching success. Who among the people I just passed by will one day rise up and change their lives like the father and son of the character Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith), who will remain so miserable?
Wandering about happiness
I asked Phu, “Do you miss Hoi An after coming here? Are you happy with this decision?”. Phu pondered, it was difficult to answer yes or no to that question.
Nothing is absolute in this world. Phu left his hometown, left the old town by the Hoai River, left behind a comfortable life in Saigon, and put aside an interesting career that was on the rise.
You came here, stayed in an old house by the bay, enrolled in Computer Science at the University of California - Berkeley, learned to code at the age of 30, and started a new path.
“Oh my gosh, who doesn’t miss their hometown? But life here also has its own interesting things. Like the roads we just passed, mixed in with the dreamy streets, are unpredictable lives…”.
The scenes that just passed by, the answer of my fellow countryman in a foreign land also evoked in me a few seemingly “philosophical” questions: So for those who were born luckier than others, what will be the true happiness of their life? And what about me? Am I truly happy with what I have?
But what is true happiness? Is it the desire to move forward and constantly conquer new heights, or is happiness the feeling of being at ease, accepting and appreciating everything that happens? Or is happiness an abstract concept that no one can clearly define or grasp?
I had to leave my endless questions there, when Phu offered to take me to visit his school, the University of California–Berkeley (UC Berkeley) - one of the 6 most prestigious universities in the world (according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings).
“Here, we have an outdoor music club meeting, with members from many countries and of different ages. At this age, being able to wear a student uniform, return to school and start over, taking the first steps on the journey to conquer a completely new field of study for me, is the happiness of my life” - Phu shared.
I nodded, feeling a joyful cry in my heart. Why worry about happiness when just take a second to slow down, look around, look back at yourself, you will see that you are receiving too many privileges. Like the unexpected fate of meeting a fellow countryman in this faraway foggy city, is already a happy thing.
The next day, Phu drove me through long, steep slopes, so long and steep that standing at one end I couldn't tell what was at the other end.
Driving through those winding up and down roads is truly an experience that should be had in life, driving on the road is like sitting on a Roller Coaster. Especially the Lompard road with its sinuous curves, driving or walking is equally enjoyable.
After winding around the slopes, we reached the wharf area and crossed the legendary orange bridge. We ran up to a nameless hilltop, looking back at the city center, only seeing magical, blurred spots of light like bokeh, I suddenly had a vague idea of my city...
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