Hello San Francisco!

All good holidays have to come to an end (unless you are retired!) and SF is the place that we chose to end ours.

Armed with Matty's new working visa, we said farewell to Vancouver and hello to the foggy City!!

We managed to score ourselves a nice room in a five bedroom place in The Richmond (which is near Golden Gate Park and kind of like Marrickville being very multicultural). There are eight people in our apartment all up, which means we are never short for company(although luckily there are four bathrooms as well so we are never waiting too long for a shower either). There are two couples (US/Japanese, Russian/US) and two single people from the US.


Our house, in the middle of our street

We have been settling in and making a new life for ourselves. We have met up a couple of times with one of Kate's friends from URS, Teresa, who we have done a lot of random things with like play Frisbee Golf and tour the City's dive bars with till 3am. Also have been going out a bit with some of Matt's work friends (lots of expats being a UK based company) and have also been playing in a softball competition with them once a fortnight. We caught a baseball game with Fiona, from matt's work, where we got into hot dogs, garlic fries, and super sized sodas. We saw some big hits (into the bay) and our team won, but I was a little surprised how slow the game was, not unlike cricket in that respect!


Seeing the Giants and getting into US sized beverages

We really get along well with our flatmates Matt and Mitchio and have met up with a lot of their friends who are good value. Also did the Bay to Breakers with them (which is like the City to Surf but with pretty much everyone dressed in costumes and starts drinking way too early in the morning, also quite a few nude people but usually not the ones who you would like to see naked!!). Have also caught up with one of Matt's friends from Sydney, Andrew and his wife Susannah, who are working in San Fran for a few years.

At the start of the 'race'


Colourful costumes at the Bay to Breakers

We have also been getting a little bit healthier, we have both bought new bikes and have been going on some scenic rides through the City and across the Bay to Sausalito. Matty is planning on riding to work just as soon as he gets a locker for his bike so it doesn't get pilfered. Just bought tennis racquets as well so we can take advantage of the free tennis courts across the City.



We are starting to get used to some of the things which shocked us a little bit at first (like all the homeless people). We are still surprised how cold it gets here with the fog which drops the temp down to about 10-15 deg C. It is really funny how much the weather varies across the City, sometime when Matt calls me from work it is sunny downtown but foggy and misty drizzle in The Richmond. Like the locals we have realised that you NEVER leave home without a jacket.

I have been doing job hunting fairly intensively for the past month but I have pretty much contacted all the companies I can. I have had one face to face interview and two phone interviews so things seem to be going well. I expect to have a few more as my applications filter through. From now on though, I think I will need to find a few more ways of filling in my time while waiting, planning on joining the gym and also maybe doing some volunteering. Matt has been working for just over a month and is really enjoying the projects he is working on even if he is really busy.

We have managed to get out of the City to Santa Cruz which is on the coast down south (a nice beach with amusement park and all but the water is too cold to swim in without a wetsuit).


Some great coastline at Santa Cruz

So all in all, things are going really well, and we're even starting to feel like locals.

All the photos here.