After “settling in” on the first full day in San Francisco by visiting Alcatraz island and walking through downtown, we had a bit of less-structured time. 11th and 12th grade still had some of their classes online and also with the teachers, but most classes were done (all for us 10th graders) and the Project-based WeXplores had not started yet.
On my second full day in San Francisco, my parents, brother and grandmother visited me and we did some things together – the highlight of which probably was the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. We were lucky, because the weather was nice and as it was winter the sun had already started setting, providing a very nice light.
From the bridge there is also a pretty neat view of San Francisco itself.
It turns out we were quite lucky with the weather that day, because the next day it was overcast and rainy most of the time.
By our fifth full day in San Francisco, our free time had ended – from now on, we were supposed to visit various different colleges. The first university we visited was UC Berkeley, but unfortunately we had to do a “self-guided tour”, as they called it, meaning that we were simply supposed to wander around the campus. Although it is certainly a nice university, I don’t know whether I’d enjoy studying there much. We also visited an all girls college called Mills (for some reason us boys had to waste over half the day there). And then, of course, also Stanford. Stanford has an impressive campus, in fact it is considered its own city, with a postal code, their own police force etc. etc. Compared to Berkeley, I would much prefer to study there. They are also a lot more international and have scholarships for international students.
It is located quite a bit outside of San Francisco (although it is connected by BART – the Bay Area Rapid Transport, which are trains that connect San Francisco to the rest of the Bay Area), so you have to pass through the picturesque suburbs on the way. 
And THIS is Stanford:
Oh yea – in San Francisco, we lived in the “bad part of town”, the Tenderloin (read more about the Tenderloin and other neglected parts of major world cities in my article here). One morning towards the end of our stay, we had to remain inside the hostel because outside there was a ton of police – later we found out that a man had walked around threatening people with a gun. He was arrested. At night, we were allowed to leave the building (until 9pm) only in groups of 4 or 8, so that if we were attacked there would be enough people to take care of getting help and staying back.
Most of San Francisco is quite a nice and an extremely tolerant and diverse city, with neat architecture – the majority of which was built in the years after the disastrous earthquake of 1906 and the following fire which destroyed most of the city.
And in downtown, especially the financial district, San Fran is also a very modern city with a number of skyscrapers and impressive buildings.
After being in San Francisco for almost two weeks, a couple friends and I decided to go to the waterfront at night – a decision we didn’t regret, as we did have quite a bit of fun and there were sweet photo opportunities there. Here is a selection.
The waterfront, especially in the Fiserhman’s Wharf, is also very nice during daytime, though and there is a variety of different restaurants in the region, including some with really neat clam chowder. Just watch out that the sea gulls don’t steal your food!
Overall, I must say that my stay in San Francisco was quite an experience – although it is also “western”, the city is quite a bit different from its European counterparts, and was definitely worth the visit and the exhausting, but fun, three weeks.