# 28 An Outsider’s View of the USA in 7 Observations

On robot cars, gummies, and a visit to the IRS.

Daniel and I ended last year by walking the hills of San Fransisco. Two days in a row, we logged 8 miles. Not that much, you might say, but with all the steep climbs, it was enough to pleasantly tire us out.

Our tired shadows in the Marina District

We went on scenic routes along the water front and around Fort Mason. We took in the trendy Chestnut area, the ever-hip Castro, and shopped for second-hand clothes on the more down-to-earth Polk street. We made our way from North Beach to Union Square and enjoyed roaming Chinatown, but I must admit that since I’ve been to Bangkok’s Chinatown, the one in San Fransisco appears limited and tame.

We also witnessed the shadier side of San Fransisco when we passed through the Tenderloin District where so many lives have taken wrong turns. Homeless people were standing, sitting, and sleeping on the sidewalks. It was so terribly sad to see how drugs and poverty had ruined bodies and minds. This fight for survival is America, too, I reminded myself.

Just as the sun was setting over 2024, Daniel and I entered the famous City Lights Bookstore. I love browsing book shelves, as so many of us do, but at times it makes me anxious, because while I get excited I also realize I’ll be able to read only a few of these wonderful books in the near future. So I went home quickly and took an hour on the couch in silence before starting the NYE’s festivities, reading A Girl’s Story by Annie Ernaux, making notes and learning from her genre-bending style of memoir.

This morning, as I greeted the new year rather sleepily, I collected my notes on the USA thus far. Here are 7 observations.

1. Food and Drink Prices Are Outrageous

US salaries are higher than in most parts of the world, so living expenses can be higher, too. But these past weeks I kept feeling offended by what retailers were charging. A small bag of grain-free pretzels costs $10.50 at the airport and a tiny one with potato chips is $4. How is this not extortion?

In Florida supermarkets, the most basic vegetables such as squash cost $3 per pound. That’s more than twice as much as what we paid for our fresh produce in Italy. In a stylish local market in San Francisco, they charge $9,49 for a container of dried dill. Who needs dill that badly?

At a joint in Hollywood, we ordered three beers at the bar and received three unopened cans. No table service. No glasses. No snacks. No bar stools. The bill was $33, yet we were charged $40 because of the obligatory 20% added gratuity. How is this acceptable? And who can afford to go out for these prices?

Fortunately, the portions in most restaurants are still large enough for us to share a meal, so this can keep our costs down when we don’t cook at home.

For more on this subject, read

Kimberly Anne

’s post “Why I Left the USA and Won't Ever Return: The High Cost of Living.”

2. European Chocolate Lives Behind Bars

Stealing anything below $1,000 was more or less decriminalized in San Fransisco for a while. This led to a huge rise in shoplifting and the necessity for stores to lock up their wares. I’ve been told the law has changed again to protect merchants, but in the Walgreens in North Beach, most products, even toothpaste, are still locked away. A staff member must come with a key and hand you the product you want. I’ve never seen European chocolate behind bars before.

European Chocolate Behind Bars

Tony’s Chocolonely, by the way, is originally from the Netherlands and their chocolate bars in a Dutch supermarket cost €3.65 instead of $6.99, with the euro at nearly the same value as the US dollar.

3. Trader Joe’s Saves the Day

I’m not sure Daniel and I would survive a month in the USA without Trader Joe’s. This grocery store chain sells real food for reasonable prices and is filled with kind personnel and considerate customers. We were even pleasantly surprised with the brut cava we bought for NYE’s and their gluten-free Norwegian crisp bread is delicious. I’m serious: We look at Trader Joe’s locations before we commit to staying somewhere in the US longterm.

4. Nice People Everywhere

Speaking about kind personnel and considerate customers, I must note that the vast majority of Americans I’ve encountered, either in Republican Florida or Democrat California, were nice people. Polite, generous with greetings and small talk, helpful, and smiling. I benefit from being privileged, people don’t always show their true face, and the places were I encounter people are limited. But I count myself lucky to have avoided the haters who believe their happiness will increase by taking rights away from others.

5. Robot Cars Are Real

Ride share services work very well in the USA—a huge plus. Elsewhere in the world, this is not a given. And San Francisco now has a new service (Waymo) that uses robot cars. Have you ever seen operational unmanned vehicles on the street? They’re kind of eerie, as though a ghost is driving the car: There’s a driver’s seat and a steering wheel, just no body.

Michelle Richmond

wrote me the following after I posted a picture of a ghost car: “I’ve never ridden in a Waymo but I know women who use only Waymo, at least at night, because they feel safer in a self-driving car than with a stranger. But Waymo traffic jams, where the cars get confused, are a thing.”

6. Visiting the IRS is like Time Traveling

I write for American publications who often ask me for my ITIN number, so I thought it was wise to request one. An ITIN is a US Tax ID for people like me, non-residents for example, who don’t qualify for a social security number. Along with a form, I had to submit a certified copy of my passport, which I could obtain at a Dutch embassy. But the embassies in Rome and London (were I recently passed through) had no appointment slots available this fall, so I came up with the bright idea to visit the IRS office in San Fransisco in person, on New Year’s Eve.

The instructions for my 1-page form were labyrinthian. If A, then also B, but not if X, and when Y, then never Z, etcetera—16 pages of this in tiny script.

“Don’t worry about it,” Daniel said, when I mentioned that I probably needed more documentation. “They want you in the system.”

Did they? They let me pass through security at least and welcomed me inside the very large and official looking building on Golden Gate Avenue. The IRS office within that building, though, looked like what a city hall of a small Dutch town would have looked like in the nineties. Silicon Valley’s innovations must have entirely skipped over this corner of San Fransisco: It was a haven of outdatedness. Old, dirty chairs for the waiting. Low, fake ceilings with overly bright lights. A clunky metal desk in a corner of the grey-carpeted room for the receptionist, who checked me in by letting me fill out my name and appointment number on a piece of paper. (An appointment I had to make by phone, because doing so online was impossible.)

Daniel and I were the only visitors. When my number was called, I had to slide open some sort of grey plastic wall. Behind it was a cubicle and in it, a man behind a desk. It all reminded me of the improvised office of the tailor in Vietnam who had turned himself into a visa-fixer during the pandemic.

The man in his cubicle glanced at my form for a perfunctory second before telling me I did not qualify. “We don’t just hand out ITIN numbers, you know,” he said, as though I’d asked him for a loan.

Street music and street art, on the other hand, is handed out everywhere.

7. Gummies Are Too Strong

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? So when in California, we ought to take a THC gummy on New Year’s Eve. We bought a sativa dominant version in the Castro and expected to be happy and energetic. We took one gummy each at 6pm, had a glass of Trader Joe’s cava, ate some snacks, and felt little happening. Perhaps we ought to expect a mild elation instead.

“Let’s go out to dinner,” Daniel said.
“Okay.”
An hour later, we found ourselves at the bar section of a popular restaurant, looking for a table.
“Grab one when one becomes available,” was the waitress’s advice.
And so we did.
As I read the menu, the gummy took effect: None of the food appealed to me and we appeared to be on a movie set. Only the two of us were real. Everything else was background noise. Where were my feet?
“Let’s order a Cobb salad,” Daniel said. In the twenty plus years we’ve been together, he has never suggested that. What’s a Cobb salad?
“Okay.”

I couldn’t swallow the chicken—my mouth was too dry. The house wine tasted like the most magnificent potion in the universe. So rich and intoxicating. Each bite of cherry tomato was a delightful gustatory explosion. And tasting the blue cheese was like entering another world.

We took over two hours to finish our one salad with two forks. I regularly burst out laughing, crying, couldn’t stop for minutes on end. Our dialogue made no sense at all, because three quarters of it happened only in our minds. I felt so conspicuous, so vulnerable. Yet we seemed to be totally invisible inside the bar. Maybe other people were equally drunk or high or otherwise preoccupied with their realities. In any case, we were lucky to be in a space were they let us be. When the restaurant closed down, we were somehow able to get up and walk home safely. We were just in time to see the massive fireworks from the window. Just in time to welcome the new year.

Author News

2025 will be the year in which my flash fiction collection Woman of the Hour: Fifty Tales of Longing and Rebellion will be published by Vine Leaves Press. Please get in touch if you’re interested in writing a review, interviewing me, or featuring me in your newsletter or podcast. Digital ARCs (Advance Reading Copies) are available at Booksirens.

One of the many city views from one of San Francisco’s many hills.

Time to Say Goodbye

2024 was the year of Bali, Sri Lanka, Hoi An (Vietnam), Japan, Brittany, Amsterdam, Italy, and the USA. 18 days from now, when a new American president is taking office, Daniel and I will fly to Quito (Ecuador) to start our South American adventure in The Galapagos. After that, we will likely head to Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. I hope you will be coming along.

All my best,

Claire

P.S. Happy New Year! I hope that 2025 will bring you whatever you wish for most.