Category Archives: Cityseeker Stories

Most Memorable Food Moments

We asked people around the office to tell us about their most memorable food experience while abroad. We got a variety of answers and learned that food can help you to assimilate and explore a new culture, or comfort you when you are homesick. 

Alex, Hungary

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To deny a Californian a burrito is to deny them a basic staple of their diet. My first experience with Mexican food in Budapest was a limp quesadilla from a mall food court, a completely cheese-less tortilla topped with wilted iceberg lettuce, tomato wedges, some starchy corn kernels and a squidgy blob of tart ranch dressing. I felt a bit lost over the next few months. There was no reliable standard to fall back on when zsemletrappista and radish sandwiches got dull. Vegetarianism was seen as a medical problem in the city (No meat? Are you feeling sick?), leaving me to miss what had always been a foolproof option. Continue reading

Back in Time – City Lights Bookstore and Vesuvio Café

The spirit of the beat generation and legendary publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti are cause for inspiration as our intern explains in this final part of the series. Books, history and culture are just the beginning of her adventure in North Beach.

I’m Janis from Beijing, China, and I am working as a summer intern for Wcities. San Francisco has always been an attractive city to me, maybe because of a few glimpses I have seen of it in the movies or because of the song by Scott McKenzie. This is the second time that I’ve been to the US. I joined a summer camp seven years ago, and we traveled from the West Coast to the East Coast but missed San Francisco somehow. So, I’m here this time.

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California Girls

In our ongoing series written by our interns visiting from Hong Kong, Tiantian explains what it feels like to be a California Girl. Culture-shock, delicious food and good times exploring with friends are all possible in the Golden State.

 

This summer, I spent two months in California traveling and interning at Wcities. I study in Hong Kong and was born in mainland China, so this has been my first time working and traveling in the United States. Along my journey, I found many cultural differences between the East and West which sometimes were beyond my grasp. Nevertheless, I enjoyed being a California girl!

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Foodie in San Francisco

The first of our three-part series, our bubbly, foodie intern from Hong Kong describes her culinary adventures in San Francisco. Peruvian food, excellent seafood and a bit of a misunderstanding are highlights of her experience in one of America’s best food cities.

 Hi, I am Eliza! I am from Hong Kong, and I interned at Wcities this summer. This summer in San Francisco has been unforgettable — I have to write something about it. Among all the memories I have made and the things I have seen, I love the restaurants in San Francisco the most.

If you ask a Chinese person what his or her impression of western food is, most of the answers you receive will probably be “steak,” “potato,” “fried food” or “nothing to eat.” But this is not true. I am going to tell you how San Francisco, a city with an international collection of food, proved this kind of stereotype wrong. For a foodie like me, eating in San Francisco has been amazing. I am going to introduce three restaurants that really impressed me. Continue reading

Books are Great Travel Companions, Not Flotation Devices

Two summers ago, my family took a trip to Liberia, Costa Rica. It was supposed to be a bonding experience, something we could fondly look back on after my siblings and I went off to college and our parents went back to their office jobs.

If you were to ask my dad what his favorite part of our trip was, he would probably say spending time with the family. My brother would say it was renting ATVs or going zip-lining. Mine? I’d have to go with the endless hours of reading I enjoyed as we drove our rental van around the country, stopping at murky beaches and tropical fruit stands.

Apparently our rental van was not designed for off-road adventures. Continue reading