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Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco vs Toronto, California life vs Canadian life

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So it’s been over a year that I’ve been living in California now and I’m really loving it. San Francisco is definitely a nice change of pace from Canada, and I feel the city is much more alive and there’s much more to do and see. Here is a summary of what I think.

Things that San Francisco has that Toronto doesn’t
-Beautiful sunny, sometimes foggy weather all year round
-Slightly cheaper gas (yes even in Cali)
-Mild temperature (15-25 degrees C) all year round
-Rarely rains here
-No snow, no snow shoveling, no freezing in the cold
-MUNI/BART system is vastly superior to TTC, including telling you when the next bus / train arrives, and speaking in multiple languages, all at a lower price (TTC doesn’t have any of that and charges $3.50 per adult). It also takes you around the metro area (Toronto’s TTC doesn’t take you to Richmond Hill or Vaughan or Brampton, etc).
-10% sales tax (Toronto’s is at 13%)
-A bigger Chinatown
-Japantown
-Surrounded by the Ocean
-A park as big as Golden Gate Park
-Wide variety of fauna, including palm trees
-Availability of stores such as Quicksilver and J.Crew, restaurants such as In and Out and Carl Jr’s, and faster availability of items such as the Macbook and iPhone (which often get released months later in Canada)
-A top marginal tax rate of 35% as of the Bush tax cuts (Toronto has 47% top MTR)
-Cheaper fast food (a dollar menu item in SF is $1.40 in Canada, chicken nuggets are 8 for $10 there too)
-Generally cheaper everything, clothing, electronics, cars, etc (Canadians get hit with import taxes and duties on everything)
-Free shipping on a lot of items (a lot of merchants don’t ship to Canada at all)
-Generally a higher salary for Software Engineers and IT people
-Houses that reside on mountains
-Booze gets sold in grocery stores (this may be a shock to Canadians, who have to deal with LCBO all the time).
-Numerous scenic views of mountains, lakes, beaches, forests, bridges, sloping hills, and the drives are never boring because of this. (Toronto has flat land around it)
-Lots of tourist destinations within a few hours away like Napa Valley, Marin County, Monterey, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Silicon Valley, etc (Toronto doesn’t have such a variety of scenic places around it).
-Everywhere is walkable by foot (You have to drive everywhere in Toronto)
-Numerous online services you can get in the US but not in Canada, such as Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, LivingSocial, + many startup apps.
-LOTS of job / networking / conference opportunities for tech people.

Things I miss about Toronto
-My Friends and Family (obviously)
-Less homeless/crazy people (SF has too many of those)
-Poutine and Sausage snacks
-Less demonstrations/protests
-Free walk in clinics and generally simpler healthcare system (Americans have a very complex healthcare system)
-Cheaper rent (getting closer to SF’s rate tho)
- ketchup potato chips
-Tim Hortons
-A higher minimum wage (Sf’s is around $10/hr)
-Driving (it’s much easier in Toronto than SF)
-Places close later ( Starbucks closes at 6pm in SF which is crazy)

And that’s about it. In general I find SF to be a much better place to live, despite not having a green card here. If my family and friends were in the Bay Area then it would be perfect. I hope my family/friends can come visit me around Christmas!

Here are some pictures expressing the beauty of SF and California:

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

Napa Valley

Napa Valley

Big Sur

Big Sur

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley

Santa Monica Beach

Santa Monica Beach

17 Mile Drive, Carmel by the Sea

17 Mile Drive, Carmel by the Sea

Bay Bridge from Treasure Island

Bay Bridge from Treasure Island

La Jolla

La Jolla

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks

Los Angeles Sunset

City of Angels

Point Reyes

Point Reyes

Stanford University

Stanford University

I think these pictures highlight why I’m not keen on going back to Canada anytime soon :) .

Ponderings I

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You are the music while the music lasts. – T.S Eliot

Finding where you fit in the world – that’s the most difficult thing to do isn’t it. How do you know where you’ll fit in, and who cherishes you the most? Even though I haven’t made many friends here yet, I think that California is the place I would to stay for the long term. It is a very exciting, and dynamic place.

But why do I like change so much? Why dynamism? The answer to that is what motivates me to do new things: the notion that you only live once. If you only live once, it is always worth it; to meet new people, discover new things; be unique and different; leave a lasting legacy; do something you haven’t done before. I have always used this to boost my confidence even when I’m feeling shy. Because in the end – you have nothing to lose by trying.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. – E.E Cummings

Therefore we should always live life to the fullest – and achieve great things, such that the next generation can remember us by the gifts we have given them. Thereby those things that enrich and inspire humanity, can also preserve and advance it. I will leave off this short post with a passage by a human, like every one of us, who decided to give humanity something of lasting value, before shuffling off this mortal coil before the age of 30.

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love and bear, to hope till Hope creates;
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This like thy glory, Titan, is to be;
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory.

Life after moving

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The Bay Bridge

The Bay Bridge

So I’ve been working in my new company, ezRez Software, for a few weeks now, and been in San Francisco for roughly a month. How do I feel about things? Well, they say that the grass is always greener on the other side. I do think that there is truth in here. I came to California expecting my life to have a significant upgrade, learn new things, make new friends, enjoy nice weather, etc. I now have to revise my expectations downwards a bit. While working at the new company is exciting, people are friendly, and I have a place close to work, there is a few things that disappointed me about moving here.

  • Weather is colder than I thought. Living in SF can get cold in the summer. While Toronto is currently experiencing a heat wave of ~100 degrees, SF is a cooler 50s-60s. This takes some getting used to. So much for hot California weather… maybe I was thinking of SoCal. 
  • Immigration here is difficult. The US makes it as hard for people to immigrate here as possible. Canadian credit doesn’t matter here, so I had to begin a new. Everything expensive requires your SSN and a security deposit if you don’t have credit. Also, since I’m on a TN visa, if my employment situation ever changes, I have to leave the country and apply for a new one. I also cannot apply for a green card while on a TN.
  • Cost of Living. SF must be the most expensive city in the US to live in. I thought Toronto was expensive, but California has the same tax rates, and some foods like cheese, are even more expensive. I don’t get it… aren’t a lot of foods produced in California? Why does it cost more here than in Canada? Rent prices in the city range from $1000 to $3000+ for a studio room. Yeah, there goes a significant portion of my paycheck…
  • Loneliness. I never thought about how lonely it would be here. No family and friends here. I always thought I could make new friends, but I miscalculated on how exactly I could do that. It’s always fun to go to new events and meet people, but you can’t exactly ask them to hang out with you after meeting them once. There are only a couple co-workers around my age, and I’m unsure of whether I can just ask them to hang out with me either. And being the shy guy I am, I’ve never considered going to bars or clubs to meet people…
So yeah. The working life… it seems depressing when you think that you’d be working and/or looking for work the rest of your life. Currently, I don’t have any social life due to just moving here, and so my life is just working right now. But I guess that’s what I signed up for when I moved here. Hopefully things will improve as time goes on.