San Francisco May 2013

    Took me 5 trips to Russian visa place to get my visa, 3 hours to get a Chinese one.  And China is multiple entry for one year. Russia is very date specific. Still. 

    Enjoyed the city from house sitting at dear friend Nancy's. Concerts, friends, wandering. The city bus talk in three languages: English, Spanish and, Chinese. At noon a horn goes off AND talks-very sci-fi. Spooky in my book. 

   Tour of  Chinatown. Walter Ulum Place is only street in US named for a Chinese. From Canton were brought the first 50 immigrants  for mining, food prep., laundry. That worked out so well it grew to 70,000. 39 men to a woman. So flowed the sex slave trade. 40% of women that came were forced into prostitution, and very young. In the SFChinatown  were 8,000. Most families lived in a room either: 4x6, 5x7, 10x10. No kitchen, shared toilet. Tough. 

    There were so many street people, too many, the drunks are a big problem for the city. Many times in a restaurant or in the street there would be a person screaming obscenities or gibberish. Sad for the best city in the USA.