WELL, more specifically ‘anyone who lives in the Bay Area’, which depending who you ask can stretch up from Silicon Valley to Sonoma County. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to take ‘the Bay Area’ to be anywhere that actually overlooks San Francisco Bay, because otherwise this could get long.
Calling the state ‘Cali’
California is a big state—geographically, it is longer than Ireland and there are more people living there than in all of Canada. There is a rather noted cultural divide across the middle of the state, and everyone has an opinion about which side is superior: Northern California (NorCal – the obvious choice) or Southern California (SoCal). Don’t call the state ‘Cali’ in front of anyone who is from north of Big Sur. You sound like a wannabe surfer type from SoCal, and no one wants that, even people from SoCal. It’s the one thing we can universally agree on.
It’s not ‘Frisco’ or ‘San Fran’
This is the one that makes every list, but that’s because it’s so annoying. ‘Frisco’ is similar to ‘Cali’ in terms of cringe worthiness, though it calls mind that time your annoying stepfather was trying to be hip with the local lingo rather than chill hippie types. San Fran is just lazy and will earn you a well-deserved eye roll. If you want to shorten the name, do what the locals do and call San Francisco ‘The City’ (everyone will know what you’re on about, don’t worry), or S.F.
Berkeley is Cal, and it is the only Cal
Maybe we’re over sensitive about our toponyms, but at the same time, they are a great way to distinguish locals from tourists. I have already established that I am very proud of my alma mater (as well I should be), but we’re a little prickly when it comes to how we’re known. People have an unexplainable desire to call the State of California ‘Cal’, as well as ‘Cali’, which is honestly almost worse. Berkeley was the first of the UCs, which gives it special privileges in the naming department. However, it’s not Cal Berkeley, that’s redundant. But you can’t call any of the other UCs ‘Cal ___’ either. It’s not Cal Davis or Cal Santa Barbara.
Berkeley is in the Bay. Berklee is in Boston.
Speaking of which, the Berkeley in California is not at all related to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. They’re pronounced the same way, but are obviously spelled very differently.
San Rafael is not pronounced how you think
Neither is Vallejo. California has a habit of completely butchering Spanish words, but you learn to just go with it. A true Bay Area master knows which towns are actually pronounced correctly, and which ones aren’t, though that’s a process of trial and error (By the way, it’s “San Raf-el” and “Val-e-o” if you want to sound local).
Wine is serious business
Just to the north of San Francisco is Sonoma and Napa counties, which make up the California Wine Country. We are very proud of our wine (my high school actually had a programme that allowed student to grow and cultivate chardonnay grapes for Kendall Jackson and the school got an incredible amount of money for it). I know that California wines are still reasonably new to the wine scene, but every self-respecting Californian has a favourite California Wine Country winery, and we probably have more of their wines than we’d care to admit in public conversation (but we get bonus points if we’ve actually been there). Of course, since we’re also in earthquake country, we also lose a fair bit of wine every year because the bottles get smashed if it’s a bad enough quake. And then we are all very sad.
We might hero worship the San Francisco Giants, but we don’t care
So, I’m not a sports person. At all. But you say one bad word about the Giants, and you’re dead to me. And anyone who lives in Northern California feels the same. Any time the Giants win the World Series (which happens with some regularity), San Francisco completely shuts down because there are parades and celebrations and the entire town is coated in orange and black. It’s actually pretty cool.
We know everything is expensive. Stop whinging about it.
We know that spending $5 on a small cup of coffee is ridiculous, and that parking fees are actually insane, and that you could buy a house in a less nice part of the world for what some people pay for rent on a monthly basis. This isn’t news to us, and if you don’t like it, go somewhere else.
Earthquakes are no laughing matter
Seriously, we all live in perpetual fear of the next ‘Big One’ because if the last time was anything to go off, the destruction will be unbelievable. While most buildings are retrofitted to make sure they don’t crumble during an earthquake, there are a lot that aren’t and most of the infrastructure of the area will just crumble. The football stadium in Berkeley is built right on the San Andreas Fault Line (which is pronounced how you think), and will likely get ripped in half during the next big earthquake. So you really are taking your life into your own hands by living there. But honestly? Most of us wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
Related articles:
