“It is amazing living here,” says Erfan, who came to Mountain View when her husband got a job as an engineer at Google, “but it’s not a place I want to spend my whole life. There are lots of opportunities for work, but it’s all about the technology, the speed for new technology, new ideas, new everything.
“We never had these opportunities back home, in Iran. I know that-I don’t want to complain. When I tell people l’m living in the Bay Area, they say, ‘You’re so lucky-it must be like heaven! You must be so rich.’
“We really pay too much for it all,” Erfan continues. “Not in physical costs, but in emotional costs. We are sometimes happy, but also very anxious, very stressed. You have to be worried if you lose your job, because the cost of living is very high, and it’s very competitive. It’s not that easy- come here, live in California, become a millionaire. It’s not that simple. The cost is too much.”
