As I said, I went to Chinatown a few days ago while in San Francisco. I still find it very weird that I am a West Coaster now. I still get stumped when I have to fill in the blank CA instead of KY. So, being in San Francisco (and the fact that it is only about 3 hours away) is still kind of a bizarre concept to me. If you had told me 2 years ago that I would have been living a life just a drive away from San Francisco and L.A., I prob. wouldn’t have believed you.

So, visiting Chinatown was a bit surreal for me. For me, my only point of reference for such a place was something I saw in a movie (I’m thinking Gremlins and I’m thinking that was New York’s Chinatown) or on TV. I had no clue what it would really be like. It is a mixture of things as I experienced it…I saw a lot of fruits and vegetables that I never knew existed as well as congregations of people just doing their daily thing (it was fascinating seeing the groups of men and women congregating in the park playing cards and chess). It was neat to see the little slices of other peoples lives that I had no clue about. I also saw a lot of commercialism and stuff just to make a few bucks emblazoned with American logos and popular cartoon charaters. I’m sure this is the less than authentic part, but I guess that’s a part of that culture just like the traditional stuff is now.

Anyway, here’s a few pics I took. If you want to learn more about San Francisco’s Chinatown, click here. Enjoy 🙂

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa