I mentioned in the last article that I would write something about once a month, but I'm already writing it. Because there is a lot of time on my hands right now...

San Francisco International Art Festival

Before going to Brazil, I stopped by San Francisco to see the "San Francisco International Art Festival". It had been about five years since I had been to the U.S., and it's my first time in San Francisco.
At the festival, I saw some dance, theater, and touring performances. The theme of the festival was "Diaspora" which is about (almost) Immigrants. And various artists presented their works based on their backgrounds (hometown, race, culture, etc.), and I saw several works.

On the first day, I saw a stage performance by a group of Asian people, they were telling stories about the situation of Asian Americans in American society and their own experiences. The piece was seemed more like a discussion based on "confession" and "sharing" than what I would consider a "work of art".
After three (or four) episodes, they asked someone from the audience to speak, and several people did it.
Many stories of them were based primarily on racist experiences. It was an eye-opening experience for me to know the difference between the society I live in and that in San Francisco in terms of situation, importance and feeling.

Mission District

I stayed at the house of a man named Luis. In a neighborhood called the Mission. Many of the neighborhood were Latino and they spoke Spanish. Luis was from Colombia.
It's comfortable for me to be surrounded by Spanish as I was heading to South America. I am actually not very good at native English, so I was relieved in that respect (although I understand English better than Spanish).

Heading to Lima

After staying in San Francisco for 5 nights, I'm supposed to fly to Lima, Peru via Los Angeles. My grandmother lives there and I would be staying with her for 9 days. I haven't been there since 2019, so it will be my first visit in about 4 years. My grandmother is about 95 or 96 years old and she is far away from fine. My suitcase is heavy with souvenirs for her.

But...I am currently stuck in Los Angeles for two days. That's why I mentioned at the beginning that there is a time. The flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles was delayed that I had to take a substitute flight, however there was also a problem with yesterday's substitute flight, so I couldn't get on it...