I've been to San Francisco twice in my life and I hope my third time becomes the charm!

My first time was in 1995 when I was going there together with a photographer's assistant to prepare interviews with various restaurants, hotels, farmers and dairies for a magazine we were doing at the advertising agency, where I worked. We flew to Los Angeles and then drove around California to Bakersfield, Monterey and Sonoma, including a couple of days visiting SF. I especially remember driving down The Crooked street, The Steepest Hill and of course over the Golden Gate bridge. I also remember the breath taking view on Nob Hill and how I exclaimed it would be the perfect place to be proposed to. We laughed and decided to get married there if neither of us had, ten years from that time. Well, it didn't become that way, but I do hold that memory and wish, dear to my heart.
My second time was two years later, in 1997, where I went myself on a combined vacation and job seeking trip. It was my first time living at a hostel, where I met some wonderful people - a guy from Texas, another from South Africa and one from Germany, besides a group of college girls. (The German guy later came to visit me in Sweden with his friend and the South African guy and I were pen pals for a while, with our e-mails.) I went to see all the sights, such as the Alcatraz and Sausalito, a jazz club and a movie about Howard Stern. I went shopping in Ashbury Heights of course, besides the regular department stores, wanting to look a little like in Melrose Place. As a copywriter, it would naturally be hard to work in the United States, not being a native in the English language, but nonetheless I went to two go-sees, to show my portfolio. At McCann, which Swedish sub-agency I was freelancing for, we talked about that and how becoming a Creative Director when I became more experienced would possibly be a good route. The other meeting was at a Swedish internet firm called Spray, then working with producing games, that I had connected with through an Art Director friend of mine. They offered me to come and work and he could possibly get me a green card. But, internet and computer games? Isn't that just for geeks in that cellar address? Oh, well... my biggest regret in life is not taking up on that one!
Now, decades later. We all know what happened in Silicon Valley, but to me San Francisco is about the size of the city, the beautiful architecture, laying next to Pacific Ocean and being the native place for many good things like the founding of the United Nations, the eco-friendly and women liberation movements, and Isadora Duncan was born here! I can also practice Hula here. San Francisco has milder temperatures than Sweden, yet still have the seasons. And, it's as close to Hawaii I can get but still live on the mainland, being able to go there for vacations. A house with a view with a window nook... please? It's also here I would like to start my business, building an eco-friendly wellness center for dancing, lifecoaching, sacred circles, healing, yoga, qigong and meditation. And to finally create my own designed lei made of bamboo. It also so happens that my webhost Wix and the freelancing platform Upwork I'm on, doing translations, are in San Francisco.
See you next year, I hope!
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