On $an Franci$co living.

I have been living in the city [of San Francisco] for just over 1 year now. I live in the Presidio, which means I live here...

But a lot of the time it looks like this...

But I really don't care because these things are in my backyard...

The San Francisco housing market is a nightmare, but I got very lucky and ended up in a nice (though dated) split level apartment on a lease that's over 5 years old, meaning that it dates back to a time when rent was semi-affordable. I'm actually only paying 1/3 of my income for my housing (which all the HOW TO HAVE GROWNUP FINANCES articles I read via the internets tell me is what I'm supposed to be paying), which is fantastic because I work in the nonprofit sector and love my job and would prefer not to have to leave my job or sector just to make ends meet in the city.

SO life is good, right? YES! Life is good. Except for one thing....San Francisco living (as most city living around the world) has a funny way of draining one's assets, no matter how "frugal" you think you're living. I've been pretty good this past year, taking a cheap trip to New York City last fall and still managing to save a bit in a high yield online savings account (shout out again to all those HOW TO HAVE GROWNUP FINANCES articles), but this summer has killed all my budgets and overspending has made my grownup savings plan in danger of arrested progress. Thanks to Justin Timberlake, Jayz, Beyonce, summer sales (DAMN YOU UNION SQUARE BEING SO CLOSE TO ME NOW) and one too many delicious foodie #treatyourself dinners out, July wasn't my best month for $$. 

So why am I blogging again about this, of all things, after such a long hiatus? Well, I have an idea about how to get myself back into the habit of blogging! I need to save money this month to make up for my overspending the past couple of months. To do this without having to resort to a hermit lifestyle, I've decided to do a 6 week FREE fun only challenge, and I think blogging about it will keep me honest and be a fun way to get me back into blogging. Starting this week and ending the 2nd week in September when I go on vacation to Turkey, I vow to only go to events that are free. 

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. 

it will be LEGEND....wait for it.....DARY!

well not really, but I think this will be fun. 

Things I have Learned from Public Transportation Travel this year....

A few things I have learned this year from taking Public Transportation....

• If you help a little old Italian lady with her bag on an Italian train, she WILL talk to you for the rest of the 5 hour train ride and you will not be able to study for your exam. BUT she will flatter you by complementing your Italian (even telling you that she thought at first that you were actually Italian...) and she'll tell you fun stories about her life in Liguria and how much Milano sucks. 

• Sometimes you just have to rely on the kindness of strangers. Getting on a train with your life packed into a giant luggage? This is not physically possible. But someone will help you, usually a man, and he will usually do it without even you having to ask. When I took a train with all my stuff from Bologna to Rome, I showed up at the train station knowing that if no one would help me, I'd never get my stuff on that train.

• Bring snacks. Always bring snacks. 

• The snack cart on Italian trains will run you over if you're in the aisle. (And "snack cart pusher" is one of the worst jobs I can imagine doing...)

• Just because you have an assigned seat on an Italian train, doesn't mean you'll get to sit there. Get over it.

• Pick and chose when you pay for bus tickets in Bologna. At night and on Sundays, don't bother paying. But on the weekdays on the buses that go to the train station, you better do it. I got checked 3 times in 1 month, and 1 time the ticket checker guy completely took me by surprise by sneaking up behind me dressed as a civilian (luckily I had paid)

• There are the same weird smelly people on buses in every country. But they can be fun to watch. But don't let them see you're watching them cause it can lead to awkward situations. 

• White girl on the mini-bus in South Africa? Foreigner Alert! 

• White girl on the 3rd class train in Cape Town? Again.... Foreigner Alert!

Things I've Learned From International Air Travel This Year

found this fun themed article a few months ago on jezebel.com and I thought I could do my own version of it since hers was kind of lacking in general knowledge and actually just focussing on travel within the U.S.

So here we go, a list of things I've learned during my 10+ international flights in the past year...

• Ryanair is a bitch. Any airline that requires you to stuff your purse in your carryon should have their ass kicked. The stress that Ryanair baggage limits puts me through makes me question whether or not the cheap airfares are worth the rise in my blood pressure when I have to deal with them. Other budget airlines are similarly a pain, but Ryanair by far takes the cake.
• Sometimes you get nice check-in people, sometimes you don't. I got an extra 5 kilos of luggage on my flight from Italy to Turkey this summer, but in Cape Town I counted on them treating me similarly and not weighing my carryon and boy was I mistaken. I had to take out my 2 precious bottles of wine I bought while wine tasting in Cape Town and she still gave me shit about how my small laptop backpack couldn't be my 1 "personal item" because it was too full and I already had a rolly suitcase carryon. I'm sorry lady but I've flown on a handful of international flights with my rolly suitcase as my carryon and my small laptop backpack with my purse stuffed inside as my personal item and haven't had 1 problem. Consistency is not a strong point of the check-in process. This is good when you get exceptions, but its a bitch when you don't.
• Having someone drop you off at the airport, or better yet to come with you inside to check-in, is a luxury not to be taken forgranted. After many a flight where I've had to make my own way to the airport, via expensive taxi with all my shit in tow only to arrive at the airport and have to lug heavy suitcases around to find my gate, I've had the luck of being able to be dropped off/picked up at the airport by friends lately. I mean I can do anything (I am WOMAN hear me roar and all that stuff...), but to have a guy push your luggage to the check-in counter is just so nice every once in a while.
• I look German enough to get spoken to in German while on Luftansa flights. It's awkward since I know absolutely no German, so my response tends to be a blank stare and then a quiet "um, English please?" And then hostesses on the Turkish Airlines flights get annoyed if you insist on speaking broken Turkish with them if you are not actually fluent in the language. (see my blog post on the airplane linguistic dilemma) But at least people don't assume I'm a loudmouth obnoxious American? Still strange to not be labeled as your own nationality while traveling.
• It is apparently a common practice in some countries to applaud upon safe landing of an aircraft after a 1 hour flight. I've experienced this in Italy most notably. I don't get it. I mean, is there another option? Are you applauding because you didn't die? The pilot is supposed to land the plane. And he can't hear your applause from the cockpit. 
• That whole "please wait until we've reached the gate to open overhead compartments" doesn't apply to Turks. Or Italians. Or to Spaniards. As soon as that plane lands, people stand right up and take down their carryons and start pushing to the door while the plane is still taxi-ing its way to a stop. It still makes me laugh. What's your hurry people? And what happens if some luggage falls on your head since the plane is still moving? OR do I just follow too many rules because I'm American...

That's what I have so far. Anybody else have any to add?? 

Happy [Fake] Thanksgiving!!

A few months ago, my half American friend and I came up with the idea that before we leave for travels in November, we should cook a big Thanksgiving dinner. (Yes, we were thinking about Thanksgiving dinner months ago, haha) A few days ago, this dream of a fake Thanksgiving came to be! We spread out cooking over 2 days (pies on the day before, everything else on the day of) and with [surprisingly] good time management, managed to put together an awesome and stress-free Thanksgiving Dinner on our last Wednesday in Cape Town before leaving to wander around the south of Africa. We invited a few friends and my roommates and enjoyed a lot of food that induced food comas just like real Thanksgiving.

The menu

Green Bean Casserole: green beans cooked in mushroom soup with onions

Corn Casserole/Corn Pudding: my favorite, this mix of canned corn and creamed corn with cheese on top turned out soooooooo good!

Mashed Potatoes: they were supposed to be sweet potatoes, but "sweet" potatoes in South Africa are not all that sweet in reality and we didn't have marshmallows (my roommates thought we were kidding about using marshmallows on our potatoes, lol) so we added curry powder instead

Stuffing: when I asked my mom for this recipe, she just gave me a list of ingredients, so I just threw a bunch of stuff together (including SAUSAGE of course) and cooked it around the Turkey and low and behold it came out DELICIOUS

Turkey: just a little Turkey loaf I got at the supermarket

Cranberry sauce: they surprisingly had it here!

Pumpkin pie: from scratch with real pumpkin

Pecan Pie: without corn syrup, but with a LOT of sugar

Happy Fake Thanksgiving!