San Jose

My initial reaction on coming home was to leave San Jose as soon as possible. It is the exact opposite of everything I am, right? Prices are high, I am cheap. Life is fast, I just want to relax. Everything is convenient and fast, I just want time with people. Plus, why stay? Feels stale here.

But my first counter to that mindset was realizing how many different kinds of people are here in the Bay Area. I want to get to know and understand all the subcultures, all the different ethinicities represented in the area. There is an Oromo church in Fremont, and three Ethiopian evangelical churches here in San Jose, and one Orthodox church, too. And that's only Ethiopia!!

Secondly, I went to the Jazz Festival last Sunday. We're hanging around the main stage hearing this great Latin sounding band. They were nice- loud and rhythmic- and I am holding a glass of chardonnay and looking around at all the people grooving out to this crazy jazz and I was thinking, this is San Jose. Perfect weather on a Sunday afternoon, super casual people, some casual parts to our lifestyle, but beyond that, San Jose represents a lot of ingenuity, creativity, and plain old high tech genius. But we're all loving the jazz right now, and we're all sort of one blended culture that likes our diversity. I loved it, it felt like an electric moment.

And that represents our whole American culture in some ways, but in some ways we're just San Jose, just Bay Area.

Still not sure I want to stay here....