I'm not sure why I felt inspired to write about this, probably an article I read a few weeks ago about a young woman and a city- that made me feel very nostalgic, but yes, here it goes, a little (or a very big I should say) part of me on this post and a few photos from long time ago, in a place that has never abandoned, neither my mind nor my heart.
It was the summer of 1999, one week before my birthday (and maybe that's also why I'm writing this, my birthday is coming up, 14 years later though, and memories are coming back with it) when I packed a huge suitcase -it was really huge- got in a plane, traveled many many hours and moved to a place located 4,000 miles away from home. I was happy, deeply happy, Oh my God, so happy. I was going to start a new life, with my brand new husband in a brand new city, a city -btw- that I loved with all my heart since the very first second I landed on it. And how could it possibly be otherwise, I landed on August 6th. 1999 in San Francisco, California and my love affair with that city started right away.
It was the summer of 1999, one week before my birthday (and maybe that's also why I'm writing this, my birthday is coming up, 14 years later though, and memories are coming back with it) when I packed a huge suitcase -it was really huge- got in a plane, traveled many many hours and moved to a place located 4,000 miles away from home. I was happy, deeply happy, Oh my God, so happy. I was going to start a new life, with my brand new husband in a brand new city, a city -btw- that I loved with all my heart since the very first second I landed on it. And how could it possibly be otherwise, I landed on August 6th. 1999 in San Francisco, California and my love affair with that city started right away.
We lived in a teeny tiny apartment that my husband rented for us right before I arrived that summer. He was getting a master's degree in SF, and had lived there by the time I got to the city for almost a whole year. The very first thing he said when he picked me up at the airport was: "You are going to love this place", my goodness was he right. Our tiny place was located on Golden Gate and Arguello boulevard, one block away from the gorgeous Golden Gate Park and not very far from the Ocean, the impressive, amazing, mysterious, Pacific Ocean.
Our lives in San Francisco were kind of a mix between very exciting and very calm and simple. In three years we did so much there, we saw and learned so many things, as a couple, living together for the first time and as individuals as well, we grew so much. We also were able somehow to kind of detach ourselves a little from our previous beings and soak up all the new information and experiences we were fortunate enough to live on a daily basis in that very important time of our lives. So much art to digest in that city, you know, so many good movies to see, so many museums and galleries to visit, so many good bands to listen to. Unbelievable food, so many accents and colors and stories to be told and to be heard. So much freedom to breath. Its architecture, its streets, the parks, ITS BEAUTY, such a powerlful experience for all our senses. -I sure can keep going forever with the list-. And then, tolerance, that one thing that really made me fall in deep love with San Francisco. Everything accepted, no questions asked. To me, coming from a very conservative Italian family, tolerance, acceptance, the possibility of really being yourself, made that city even more beautiful to my eyes. And we, my husband and I were experiencing all that.
Our lives in San Francisco were kind of a mix between very exciting and very calm and simple. In three years we did so much there, we saw and learned so many things, as a couple, living together for the first time and as individuals as well, we grew so much. We also were able somehow to kind of detach ourselves a little from our previous beings and soak up all the new information and experiences we were fortunate enough to live on a daily basis in that very important time of our lives. So much art to digest in that city, you know, so many good movies to see, so many museums and galleries to visit, so many good bands to listen to. Unbelievable food, so many accents and colors and stories to be told and to be heard. So much freedom to breath. Its architecture, its streets, the parks, ITS BEAUTY, such a powerlful experience for all our senses. -I sure can keep going forever with the list-. And then, tolerance, that one thing that really made me fall in deep love with San Francisco. Everything accepted, no questions asked. To me, coming from a very conservative Italian family, tolerance, acceptance, the possibility of really being yourself, made that city even more beautiful to my eyes. And we, my husband and I were experiencing all that.
I have always felt like I became the woman I am today because of those days. Well, maybe that's not completely true, we are who we are because of lots of experiences or the lack of them, but for sure during those years in San Francisco I learned a few important things about who I wanted to be and especially who I didn't want to be in life. I feel I became for the very first time my own person, the person who -somehow- was hidden inside myself. I also became the mother I am today. The wife I am today. The friend I am. I needed that, in that very moment of my life, and I found it in San Francisco.
Being there felt almost like I was going through a process, a process that lasted pretty much the whole time I was there. There was not a day I didn't learn something new in San Francisco. A new language, a new culture, met new friends, new way of life, a new job, new flavors, new sights. It was almost like a liberating experience that would probably take a whole chapter on a book -and not just a silly post on a blog- to explain it in deep perspective.
During all these years, after we left San Francisco, I have had hard time finding a good group of words that can actually describe the whole experience of being there for those three years, but maybe I could say without exaggerating a bit that it was a rich, meaningful, amazing and life changing experience that probably will stay with me for the rest of my life. I haven't found either any other city on the map that I like more than San Francisco, and I've seen and lived in whole bunch. No city I have ever known makes me feel that special rush in my whole body, no city warms my heart the way San Francisco does, no other place has that sensual influence on me. No place smells as San Francisco does, maybe that's because it smells like home to me. And as cheesy as this can sound I really think that, that famous song about a lost heart in San Francisco was probably written to me, I'm sure.
We have been back many times after we left, but to be 100% honest with you it hurts a little to be in a place that was home and still feels like home, but now you really are just a tourist, oh well.
In a very naive way I asked my husband a few days ago: What if we retire in San Francisco, in a teeny tiny apartment, nothing fancy? Do you think someday in the future we could do that? He looked at me, his sweet eyes shined, he gave me a beautiful smile and replied: "who knows Tina, maybe we will".
I say, Who knows SanFran, maybe we will.
Today, on a summer day of 2013, a few days before my birthday again, I still feel about you the same way I did 14 years ago, my dear city.
We have been back many times after we left, but to be 100% honest with you it hurts a little to be in a place that was home and still feels like home, but now you really are just a tourist, oh well.
In a very naive way I asked my husband a few days ago: What if we retire in San Francisco, in a teeny tiny apartment, nothing fancy? Do you think someday in the future we could do that? He looked at me, his sweet eyes shined, he gave me a beautiful smile and replied: "who knows Tina, maybe we will".
I say, Who knows SanFran, maybe we will.
Today, on a summer day of 2013, a few days before my birthday again, I still feel about you the same way I did 14 years ago, my dear city.
