On the Scene in California - Background about my situation

I know that it has been a while since my last post, but I am finally in California and am comfortable with my situation. Therefore, it's time to get back to blogging! This article sets the stage for my current living arrangement.

I am currently staying in the Mission District of San Francisco, which is typically just called "The Mission." As you might have guessed, it got its name from Mission San Francisco de Asis, an early spanish mission founded in 1776. During March I will move into an apartment close to work and the SF Giants baseball stadium to a neighborhood called South of Market or SoMa for short. This is another one of those inventive names because it is the district situated immediately South of Market Street.

The weather in San Francisco is very mild compared to anywhere on the east coast. During the winter (the rainy season) days are typically in the 50's/60's while nights are in the high 40's. The spring and summer however, warm up to 60's/70's by day and 50's at night. Mark Twain is often quoted as saying "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco," but as long as you layer it seems pretty nice to me. San Francisco is so mild because of the Pacific Ocean's cold Alaskan currents and the high heat of California's mainland. It is exactly this combination of temperatures that creates the fog that San Francisco is so well known for.

The topography and physical location of San Francisco create a unique system of "microclimates" where each neighborhood can have radically different weather at any given time. Lucky for me, the neighborhoods that I live and work in are on the sunny side of the city and are therefore clear more than 2/3 of the year.

*Most of the facts in this article are confirmed by wikipedia.