I've been living in California for 12 years.
There are good things and bad things about it
but I love California
because of these five reasons.
One. Great Weather and Natural Environment.
I can't complain about the weather.
It has Mediterranean-like climate,
with average high temperature between 70 and 85 degrees.
California has many beautiful beaches
and fresh air year round
because it is bordering the Pacific Ocean.
You can find the mountains, beaches, lakes,
rivers, within about one hour of driving.
If you take Highway 1 from San Francisco,
you can have a great half-day tour,
driving along the coast
and visiting beautiful places such as Half Moon Bay,
Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Big Sur
which all provide fantastic picturesque views.
There are also many national parks in California,
including Yosemite Park, Redwood Park,
Kings Canyon, and so on.
Do you like camping or hiking?
Then these are the places that you must go to.
If you like wine, you must visit Napa Valley,
which is only about one hour driving distance
from San Francisco.
They produce wonderful California wines.
If you are visiting Napa Valley for the first time,
I'd like to recommend you to have a half-day course,
starting from Estate tour and a wine tasting
at Robert Mondavi because it is one of the oldest
and the most famous wineries in the area.
After that, go to Bouchon,
Michelin two starred French restaurant for lunch,
but skip your dessert
at the restaurant
because you must have macaroons at the bakery next door.
They have the best macaroons I've ever had.
The taste is so rich,
the balance of rustling outside and soft inside
is just perfect.
And the size is very generous about this big.
After that, you may walk around the town
and stop by another winery if you like.
Wherever you go in Napa Valley,
you will enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and beautiful views.
Two. Wonderful Higher Education System.
California has the best college education system
in the nation.
It has 116 Community Colleges,
which is the largest in the country.
23 California State Universities
such as Cal State University Long Beach,
Cal State University Fullerton, and so on.
9 UCs, meaning University of California,
such as UC Berkeley, UCLA,
which is also the best public university system in the US,
and 83 Private Universities,
including Stanford University,
California Institute of Technology,
also called Cal Tech,
and University of Southern California, so called USC.
According to 2020 best national university rankings
in the top 50 list, 10 universities are from California,
the most universities in the nation.
Stanford, Cal Tech, UCLA, UC Berkeley,
USC, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine,
UC San Diego, UC Davis, and Pepperdine University,
followed by Massachusetts, which has 8,
and New York which has 5.
From Community Colleges in California after two years,
students can transfer to UCs
like UCLA, UC Berkeley,
of course, they must have good GPAs.
But isn't it great?
Also continuing education system is well established.
If you are laid off, or quit a job,
or just too tired of doing your job,
it's not too late for you to attend the colleges,
change your career, and start a new professional life
by receiving new degree or licenses.
For example, my wife went to a nursing school
at her age 45.
She received a Bachelor Degree in Nursing
and passed the national exam.
Now, she is working as a nurse at a big hospital.
Three. Home of Silicon Valley.
This is the Center for Global technology and innovation.
A number of world best companies
are headquartered in Silicon Valley,
such as Apple, Alphabet, Facebook,
Oracle, Intel, Cisco Systems,
Netflix and so on.
If you are a college student in California,
you may have a better opportunity of becoming an intern
and later, full-timer to work for those great companies
by attending job fairs and getting inside information
and referrals from the insiders in your network.
The Silicon Valley is also a great place for entrepreneurs
to start businesses
as the support system is well developed,
it is called Silicon Valley ecosystem,
which has a great collection of famous venture capitals.
universities like Stanford University, UC Berkeley,
startup incubators and accelerators,
local government, and top human resources
from all over the world.
There is Sand Hill Road near Stanford University
where so many world leading venture capitals
are located along the street.
It is like 'Wall Street of the West Coast'.
Also there are so many success models
that entrepreneurs can learn from
in order to grow their businesses, like 'Unicorns',
which are startup companies valued at over $1 billion.
According to CBInsights,
as of today,
there are more than 400 Unicorns around the world.
In San Francisco Bay Area only,
how many unicorns do you think we have?
174,
including Uber,
Airbnb and Zoom.
Overall, I think this place is great,
because Silicon Valley itself
motivates not only young students to dream big,
but also entrepreneurs
to keep trying to realize their dreams.
If you have a business idea,
this is a perfect place for you to come to test your idea,
transform your idea into real business quickly,
launch your products and services in the global market
and succeed.
I was a mentor for some startups from outside the US.
They said Silicon Valley
was the main reason why they came here.
Four. Best Place for International Cuisine.
The culture is very diverse in California.
According to 2018 Census Bureau,
California's population was 39% Hispanic
37% White, Non Hispanic,
15% Asian,
6% African American.
So California offers almost all international foods
you can imagine.
It has the oldest Chinatown in the world in San Francisco,
Little Italy right next to it.
Oh, there's one restaurant, Tony's,
they have the best handmade pasta I ever tasted.
You can find 60, six, zero
Michelin star restaurants in San Francisco Bay Area alone.
That's a lot.
Ask yourself,
how many Michelin star restaurants you have in your area.
You can enjoy the best quality of Italian,
French, Thai, Chinese,
Japanese, American, you name it.
Since the Asian population is big,
Asian markets are great places for you to go shopping
for cooking and foods.
For example, if I like to have live, fresh seafood,
such as lobster, shrimp, fish,
I go to Ranch 99,
a Chinese market,
because I can pick them up right from the water tanks.
They are much cheaper than American markets
and they provide cutting, frying
and steaming services for free.
Also if I like to have
some Japanese sushi, sashimi and bento,
Mitsuwa, a Japanese market, is a must-go.
I can buy the fresh products at a much cheaper price
than Japanese restaurants
and enjoy them with sake at home.
My favorite is tuna otoro,
the best part of tuna belly.
It is about $15-$20 for a pack in the market
about this big,
but you must pay the same price
or even higher for just one piece, this big
at most of Japanese restaurants.
Five. Major Sports Teams are Here.
The four major sports in the US are baseball,
football, basketball and hockey.
California has the most number
of major professional sports teams in the country.
So if you are a sports fan,
you can enjoy all of these sports
all year around in California.
In basketball, the NBA,
these are four teams we have,
Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers,
Golden Gate Warriors, and Sacramento Kings.
This is Warriors.
I was so sad when they lost the championship two years ago.
I'm so excited the season has recently restarted.
I really hope Lakers will win the championship this year.
In baseball, the MLB,
there are five teams,
Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers,
Oakland A's, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants.
I love going to AT&T Park, the Giants' Stadium
to watch their games.
It is such a beautiful stadium, to not only enjoy the game
and the ocean view,
but also their famous garlic fries and beer.
In football, the NFL, these are four teams,
Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers,
Oakland Raiders, and San Francisco 49ers
I was a big fan of 49ers
when we had one of the best quarterbacks in history,
Joe Montana and the wide receiver Jerry Rice.
In hockey, the NHL, we have three teams,
Anaheim Mighty Ducks,
Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks.
Okay, this is it for today.
If you are in California, or lived in California before,
you may have different ideas from me.
Please leave me a comment below.
I'd love to hear from you.
If you'd like to know more about
Silicon Valley business culture,
check out these videos.
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Thank you very much.
See you next week.