Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
I live in Portland, Oregon, which is a relatively small city. I recently spent a week in San Francisco – which is a big city. It’s not as big or New York or LA, but it’s definitely a lot bigger than Portland. I really enjoyed my time in San Francisco and I’ve got some recommendations for anyone who plans to visit in the future.
Read on to find out how to best take advantage of your time in San Francisco (or any big city in the U.S.).
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
If you’re visiting an American city, you should take advantage of the public transportation systems. San Francisco has both a light rail train and an extensive bus system:
BART www.bart.gov
BART is an easy, convenient and inexpensive way to travel around the Bay area. BART goes to both the San Francisco airport and the Oakland airport, and connects several of the cities that border San Francisco, such as Berkeley, Richmond and Fremont. Fares range from $1.25 to $4.00.
MUNI www.sfmuni.com
BART is good if you’re going from town to town in the Bay Area, but if you just want to get around the city of San Francisco, you should take a MUNI bus. MUNI will take you to every corner of the city and every place in between.
In order to take advantage of all the fun things there are to do in San Francisco, you need a good guide. There are many different kinds of guides. Here are the three I used:
Lonely Planet www.lonelyplanet.com
The Lonely Planet guides are my favorite travel guides. I’ve used them to travel across Europe and throughout Japan. The Lonely Planet San Francisco guide will help you find good places to see, stay, eat and drink.
Flavorpill sf.flavorpill.net
Flavorpill provides a weekly email newsletter that contains information about lots of exciting cultural events in the city. There’s no better way to stay on top of all the coolest films, performances and parties.
The Guardian www.sfbg.com
The San Francisco Bay Guardian is an alternative weekly newspaper. When I was in San Francisco, I read lots of good articles in the Guardian and learned a lot about what was going on in the city culturally, politically and artistically.
Quizzes
Lesson MP3
The iTEP® test
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Discussion
San Francisco is an amazing city! If you haven’t been there yet, I hope you get a chance to visit someday soon. If you’ve already been there, I hope you get to go back soon. And if you’re there now, have a great time!
Have a great week!
Your American Friend,
Miguel