Photo: Nick Starichenko/Shutterstock

20 Signs You Went to School in San Francisco

San Francisco
by Julia Kitlinski-Hong Sep 7, 2016

1. You did all your shopping at the Stonestown Galleria.
Including your weekly haul of groceries at Trader Joe’s.

2. You were fueled by caffeine in West Portal.
Whether it was Peet’s or Starbucks.

3. The M was your lifeline.
Downtown, Embarcadero, or the Castro were all possibilities when you wanted to get out of the Avenues.

4. You blew off steam walking around Lake Merced.

5. You felt like the entire city was your campus.
With MUNI everything felt accessible.

6.  You partied around bonfires on Ocean Beach.
And took shots of whisky to keep warm.

7. Beep’s Burgers on Ocean Avenue was the meet-up place for your crew.
Where you always got your standard order of a burger and Twinkie milkshake.

8. Almost everyone you knew lived off-campus in the Sunset or the Richmond.
With a minimum of five other roommates.

9. You never took off your down jacket or beanie.
Unless on the rare occasion that the fog cleared.

10. You had to climb hills to get to class.
And were always out of breath when you got there no matter how fit you were.

11. You went to The Mayflower Restaurant for weekend brunch.
This Vietnamese-American hybrid diner was the only place that could cure your pounding head.

12. You lived on cheap take-out dim sum from Good Luck or Wing Lee’s.
Shrimp dumplings were the cure-all for any college-related woe.

13. English wasn’t the only language you heard throughout your campus.
Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Tagolog, and Spanish were heard on the daily.

14. You knew the best parties were at the Park Merced Apartments.

15. Your classes were in Chinatown, Civic Center, Downtown, the Mission or in the Sunset.
Depending on the courses you took that semester.

16. You had student organizations for every cause and background.
From Feminism in Action to the Hmong Student Association.

17. You often found yourself at The Village Market & Pizza at 12 a.m.
Nothing cured the midnight munchies like a slice of cheese pizza or a side of garlic fries.

18. You made the mistake of going to City Nights when you were a freshman.
It felt like you were back in high school with throwback hits and too much Calvin Klein One.

19. You went to more end-of-the-semester BBQs in Golden Gate Park than you can remember.
Always with PBR and veggie burgers.

20. You went to free movies in the Coppola Theater.
Thanks to the School of Cinema for hosting.

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