Three Months In!

As of a few days ago, we've now been living in San Francisco for THREE MONTHS!!! It's gone so quickly, yet also feels like it's been decades since we saw Sydney. There are definitely things that we've really been loving, and things that are less desirable. 

Things I/we love have included:

~The convenience of this city and country. Robert's developed an Amazon addiction; he's bought a lot off there so far, and I guess I can't argue with their slightly cheaper prices and quick delivery! But aside from online services, there's just everything right outside our door. Literally. 

~BALLET!!! As I've mentioned before, it's something that I simply thought I'd never do again as there aren't really any accessible adult classes in Sydney. It has really been a small dream come true for me. 

~The city's diversity. Regardless of your racial background, your gender, sexuality or whatever else, San Francisco is pretty accepting of anyone. Which is very important to me and can make or break a place for me. I've had a few experiences in my life of very non-diverse places and they've just been horrible for me. I'll never go back to that. So it's great to be living in (probably) one of the few cities that don't support Donald Trump "values". 

~SNOOPY!!! Most people know how much I love Snoopy. More of this to follow when I've finished going through some photos..!

~It's been amazing to see Robert in the hub of his industry. I can definitely see how much more opportunity is here for his career. (If anyone's interested in a hilarious parody of SF and the tech industry, watch Silicon Valley. The humour can be pretty crude at times, but it's hilarious, whether you're a techie or not! It's the only thing I watch on a weekly basis!)

~Arts support! I love, love, LOVE how SF tries to really value the arts and artists of various types. I feel like things I do and love are actually legit here. If we do stay here, I look forward to (hopefully) building myself a career in a place that might actually take me seriously!

~The Kids' Creativity Museum. This place is a few blocks away from where we live, and it's basically been a second home to our toddler and me! Since I'm (still) not really confident enough to drive on my own, he and I walk everywhere during the week. This place is awesome.

~The playgrounds here are so great. They're all gated (anyone with a toddler would understand how useful this is!), and the equipment is mostly awesome! 

~The real estate. OK, the prices of real estate here are HORRIBLE, but I like the style of the homes around here. We don't live in one, but the old Victorian style I really like. 

~It's similar to Sydney, but also different. This is good because I wanted/needed an adventure, but I'm not adventurous enough to live in a place that's too different to what I'm used to. I didn't want to have to learn another language or bring a family up in a place that's just completely foreign to me. 

~THE LACK OF GIANT BUGS AND SPIDERS!!! As someone with a big phobia of bugs, I'm much less afraid of nature here. Haha!

~The weather. It's so much more temperate than Sydney. We're in the middle of Spring, and most days are quite cool.

And then on the other hand, less desirable things have been:

~As mentioned above, the real estate costs here are AWFUL. Whether you're buying or renting. We thought Sydney was expensive; Sydney is cheap in comparison.

~Coffee and cheese are terrible here. I don't think Americans understand either.

~Being so far away from family. This was always going to be an obvious one. Sure, we've regularly been Skyping my family, and Robert's mum's learnt how to use her phone to message him. We share videos via Facebook chat with my sister in law of all our kids, and we also use TinyBeans (a calendar for privately sharing photos and videos of your family) with our immediate family, where we upload pics and videos daily. But it's not the same as being able to see them in person. And I miss them a lot. (Can someone please hurry up and make teleportation a thing?!!!) Plus, if something happens to someone, we obviously can't rush to help and vice versa. ALSO, and this is most important, WE DON'T HAVE ANY BABYSITTERS! Haha. I know there are apps and services available to find babysitters, but I don't trust people, let alone someone to look after my child! The only people I would have left him with in Sydney were my parents, my mother in law (if she lived closer), my sister and my sister in law (if she'd lived closer, also). And that was in Sydney! I just don't trust people. Ha...

~Parts of this city are rather dirty. Sydney wasn't perfect, but I think with the homeless issue here and the fact that so many people have pets, the place can get a bit dirty. I think they try to keep it as clean as possible, which is much appreciated, but there's only so much you can do sometimes!

~Driving. I dunno if I'm ever going to be used to everything being backwards!!

~The possibility of earthquakes. Don't think I need to say more!

I was going to post some pictures from our trip to the SCHULZ MUSEUM the other day, but I haven't finished going through them and my laptop's very slow at the moment, so I think I'll keep that for a separate post. :-) 

Three months. Time's flying by too quickly! 

xoxo