Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sanfransisco

International Rock Tour Date One of One (or Two)

armoured-ant — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:13:32 -0800

As per this MeTa post, I'll be over from London to San Francisco for the third week in August. Where can I gig when I'm there? Being, as I am, a fairly active electroacoustic soloist and London Underground busker, I'm looking to find one or two venues in the evening that have acoustic showcase nights or open mics that I can either book a slot at, or walk up and play. Any suggestions?

Thanks guys!

3 Hour Tour of San Fran

lilkeith07 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:43:07 -0800

My parents are going to Hawaii for their 25th wedding anniversary. They have a 3 hour layover in San Fransisco. They are going to be getting in around 1ish. The question is do they have time to get out of the airport and see anything in San Fransisco and still make their flight? My parents have already seen the Golden Gate Bridge so thats not really high up on their list but is there anything else they can see in that time span?

Pregnant, Chinese, and Frustrated with the System

saysthis — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:54:13 -0800

Immigration law, pregnancy, and aid: I've got a Chinese friend living in San Fransisco, about to have a baby, with a visa that expires in April, a due date somewhere in June, a boyfriend with permanent residency (also Chinese) who doesn't really want to get married (neither does she at this point), and unappealing options back in the home country. So San Fran residents, China law experts, and California lawyers, we need ya. Ah, the joys of trying to live your life in a mire of immigration laws.

My friend, who I met back in 2005 in Tianjin, moved to San Fran to be with her boyfriend in 2006. He was a graduate student, and then went into importing/exporting. I'm honestly not sure what kind of visa she's on, but somehow she's managed to stay for this long without breaking any laws, and she's not too keen on doing so now. Her visa, which is a "b1b2" (I myself am completely ignorant about any of this visa stuff in the US), expires in April, and I'm not sure of possibilities to extend it, but I'm in the middle of researching that and will post updates as I find info. They're still together, and as couples are wont to do at times, they've managed to generate a baby.

The problem is this: if she comes back to China to have the baby, and they're not married, and she has a baby, it's against the law, and what they'll do is both fine her and deny her child (and possibly her, depending on the nature of the "infraction") a residence permit (there's a residency system in the PRC called the hukou, which determines where you're legally allowed to live and get social services from). Based on what I know about the law, the fines are steep and not having a hukou sets the kid up for a lifetime of administrative grief and paying out of pocket for things people with hukous get for free (like public school). Essentially, this could cripple the kid's opportunities, because the parents aren't awash in cash, nor will they be anytime soon, what with parents to take care of (gotta love that children-as-social-security thing they do over here). I also am not an expert in these laws, but as soon as I get in touch with my lawyer pals over here I will be. As far as I know though, if the child is born a US citizen, he'll qualify for some resettlement programs the Chinese government has for overseas Chinese and be able to get his hukou or equivalent social benefits that way.

They don't really want to get married yet, because, well...there's a whole host of personal issues that might make it a bad marriage and they're trying to work that out. At any rate, she doesn't want to settle in the US, but she does want to give this relationship an honest try, and I commend her for that. She also basically only speaks survival English. Between that, the pregnancy, and the unpermanent nature of her visit to the US, getting a job and the accompanying work visa isn't an appealing option either.

In addition to all that, there's the fact that hospitals in the US are expensive ($10,000 for all the necessary care, she tells me) and she never got insurance. The boyfriend's remitted most of his savings to his parents so they can buy a house. So once we get this visa thing settled, she's also looking at massive hospital bills.

Is there any way out of this debacle? Any aid she can get? Any advocacy groups we can put her in touch with? Something?

Like the movie Road Trip, but with less Tom Green.

vernondalhart — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 20:06:47 -0800

So we're thinking about a road trip south from Vancouver to (maybe) LA... A few classmates and I are considering (well, depending on vehicle considerations) taking a jaunt down south this coming week, in the time-honored tradition of doing crazy, reckless things on your spring break.

The plan is pretty vague, which I'm fine with: Leave Vancouver and start driving south along the coast, and just to end up where we end up. If we make it as far as LA, that's cool. If not, we'll find somewhere else to be.

My question is this though: Is there anything along that drive (that is, along the pacific coast through Seattle, maybe via Portland, etc) over the next week (that is, beginning around the 12th) that you would consider an A++ two thumbs up thing to see? Are there any particular restaurants or hostels you'd reccomend? Any shows, clubs, pubs, museums or art galleries?

I realize this is a pretty open-ended question, but really, we don't have any fixed plans and it'd be nice to have at least a few ideas of what to see along the way, since none of us have been down that way (well, not since I was 9 years old, in my case).

Thanks a lot.