We've been here in Santa Barbara for exactly 1 week. The city, the county and the campus all deserve their reputations for charm, peace and beauty. The weather is LOVELY, the scenery is most charming, with mountains on one side, the Pacific Ocean on the other, and the city full of charming Spainsh-Mexican-style housing.
There are bicycle tracks for one to get to most parts of the county safely by bike, so we've been biking around quite a bit. I told friends that the VERY FIRST thing we'd do after we land would be to buy bikes. And that's exactly what we did. Childhood dreams come true. ;)
Are there downsides? Yes, of course. Finding housing was extremely difficult. I consider ourselves extremely lucky to be able to find a small (very small and expensive) studio apt after only 3 days, a few dozen phone calls and a hundred miles of biking. It was a HUGE relief!! And housing is expensive. Not quite as expensive as in S'pore, but still very expensive. Things here are also more expensive than in LA. Some things are even more ex than in S'pore! And cheap, fresh fish and pork are very difficult to find (we haven't found them yet).
More downsides: things are very tough for foreigners here. And I'm not just talking abt getting jobs and scholarships etc. It goes even to simple things like getting a Social Security Number. They don't give SSNs to foreigners anymore unless we're getting paid or getting a drivers license. Without the SSN, I couldn't apply for cable TV, nor get power over the phone etc etc. Also in Cal, it's very difficult to get by without a car, not even in lovely Santa Barbara.
The good news is that so far, none of the problems we faced were unsolvable. Many of them are irritating, stressful, and all, but all were solvable. There isn't the feeling of total helplessness and powerlessness I had when in Singapore, even though I was materially A LOT more comfortable back home.
Have lots of thoughts to share. But they'll have to wait. Got some important stuff to settle. Write again in a few days....