WE GOT THE APARTMENT!!! We are ecstatic. The last two days, I have been sick to my stomach from the stress of thinking about it, and now I feel like I could throw up from excitement which I didn't even know was something my body could feel!
I had planned on calling the landlord again today just to touch base, make sure he remembered who we were and tell him again how much we want the apartment. I was waiting until 2pm to call, not exactly sure why, but I felt like that was a good time. I had been nervous all day and wanting to call him sooner but telling myself I needed to wait. Finally it was 1:45pm, and I couldn't take it anymore. I was getting ready to call because I was sure he was probably getting ready to give it to someone else.
But then Victor called me and told me the landlord had just called him and said he wants to move forward with us! I just started sobbing. I don't know if I've ever been so relieved about anything before. I had been mentally preparing myself to hear that he was giving it to someone else. I'd been setting up more appointments to see other listings and looking at Craigslist constantly. Just to know that we can stop looking and know where we're going to be in two weeks and know it's a place we love and are excited about is the biggest blessing. God is so good.
Now I can tell you all more about the place since I can think about it without having an anxiety attack! It's a top floor unit in a Victorian style 4-plex in the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland. It has hardwood floors and a fireplace and big, beautiful windows that make it so light and airy. It's 725 sq. feet so it's plenty of room for us. It has several storage closets and a big enough kitchen that we'll be able to fit all our stuff. There's a front entrance as well as a back entrance that goes straight out to the shared yard. Yes, a YARD. It's so cute. There are lights hanging in the trees and everyone has patio furniture out there. There's also a shared shed in the yard for more storage. The parking is just street parking, but I don't think we should have a problem with that. There seems to be plenty of street parking available. We'll probably have to get an Oakland parking license to be able to park in some certain areas, but that's only like $35/year.
The Rockridge neighborhood is a lot more of what we're used to than the neighborhoods in San Francisco. There are trees and landscaping everywhere, and even though houses are still pretty close together, there's just a lot more breathing room than in the city. The apartment is a block from the main downtown which has all these cute shops and restaurants and a thrift store (which I'm super excited about). It's less than a 10 minute walk to Trader Joe's and about a 15 minute walk or so from the BART station which goes right into the city. From door to door it will probably take Vic about 40 minutes to get to work, but it will be an easy commute because it's a train instead of a bus. It will be a lot more expensive to commute from the East Bay (about $7.50/day), but Victor's commute allowance from work will cover most of that, and since the apartment is on the low end of our budget ($1,825/month) it will all even out even if I'm commuting every day as well.
The landlord seems really great. Most of the landlords we've come across are super rushed and don't seem to care about the tenants or the property but just how much money they can get. This landlord knows his tenants by name and was very interested in getting to know us. He said he has a maintenance guy come by the apartment twice a week just to check on things, and he himself comes by as often as he can.
The one downside is there's no laundry, but going to a laundromat (which there are several of those close as well) is a small price to pay for a place we love so much.
We haven't signed the lease yet, so it's not technically official, but we're setting up a time to meet with the landlord on Monday to go over everything and sign it. It's also available in two weeks, which is exactly when our temporary housing expires!
Thank you all so much for your prayers. God is so good. We're so excited to be able to move into this beautiful apartment, to be able to relax and stop looking for places to live and be able to enjoy our Labor Day weekend!
Friday, August 29, 2014
Thursday, August 28, 2014
More Apartment Hunting
These last few days have been much better and more encouraging. Coming off the weekend, we were so stressed about the housing situation. We got offered one of the apartments that we saw but didn't really want and decided not to take it. Victor had a hard time with that decision because we don't know if we can get anything better, but his coworkers told him to definitely not jump on the first thing you see because you're afraid there's nothing else out there. They said a lot of people make that mistake when they first move here and that it's totally ok to pass up an apartment if we don't want it. Also just seeing new listings pop up every day is encouraging and reassures us that we will find a place to live eventually.
We didn't get the cute apartment in Oakland that we fought for which was disappointing. HOWEVER, we went to an open house last night for a very similar style apartment in the same neighborhood, and it's even better than the first one we saw. It's so cute and homey and has a shared yard and pretty flowers, and it's a block from the downtown area with all the nice shops and restaurants. I can't even talk about how in love we are with this place because we're so afraid we won't get it. But we had a good 20 minutes of one-on-one time with the landlord because we showed up before everyone else, and we also called him last night and basically told him we'll do whatever it takes to secure this place. He said he'll decide by tomorrow or Saturday, but he seemed to like us.
Either way, we're already calling more places and setting up more showings, so we're feeling better about our housing situation. AND we're going out with Victor's boss and his fiance tomorrow night. Hurray friends!
Now, two very uncool pictures of Victor's very cool office.
We didn't get the cute apartment in Oakland that we fought for which was disappointing. HOWEVER, we went to an open house last night for a very similar style apartment in the same neighborhood, and it's even better than the first one we saw. It's so cute and homey and has a shared yard and pretty flowers, and it's a block from the downtown area with all the nice shops and restaurants. I can't even talk about how in love we are with this place because we're so afraid we won't get it. But we had a good 20 minutes of one-on-one time with the landlord because we showed up before everyone else, and we also called him last night and basically told him we'll do whatever it takes to secure this place. He said he'll decide by tomorrow or Saturday, but he seemed to like us.
Either way, we're already calling more places and setting up more showings, so we're feeling better about our housing situation. AND we're going out with Victor's boss and his fiance tomorrow night. Hurray friends!
Now, two very uncool pictures of Victor's very cool office.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Victor and Rebekah and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend
Well... I don't even know where to start. After Victor got home from work on Friday, we left the apartment to go exploring in our neighborhood. And instead accidentally locked ourselves out of the apartment (which automatically locks behind you every time you close the door) and spent the evening waiting for someone to come let us back in.
Saturday we looked at a few apartments. One was a half basement of someone's house in a really ritzy, million dollar home neighborhood. However, the apartment was only half finished and had no overhead lights, two tiny windows, and the ceilings were maybe seven feet high, and that's being generous. Then we looked at two places across the bay in Berkeley and Oakland. The first one was ok but not in a great neighborhood. The one in Oakland was lovely. Absolutely lovely. But there was a line of about 50 people waiting to get into this open house when we got there, and I think almost every person applied. They were all crowding the landlord, trying to shmooze him over. By Midwest standards, this place would be small, a little odd (since the bedroom is off the kitchen and the kitchen is quite small) and overpriced. But here, it's huge (one bedroom, 720 sq. feet), charming and a steal at only $1,750/month. But even though we liked it and applied and talked to the landlord along with all the other applicants, we didn't realize how awesome this place was until yesterday...
Yesterday we met with the real estate agent that Expedia hooked us up with, and she had set up about 6 listings for us to go to, all in San Francisco. The night before, our first one got canceled because they gave the apartment away already. So the first place we actually saw was just straight up disgusting. We moved on to the second, and it was ok but not in a neighborhood we liked at all. At this point our real estate agent drove us in her car for the rest of the afternoon.
We drove through traffic for over an hour to get to the third listing, and when we got there, the open house had been canceled. We drove through traffic for another hour to get to the fourth, and the landlord called us on the way and told us she'd just given the apartment away.
We finally got to the fifth, and it was ok. The bedroom would be right off the kitchen again. The kitchen had two cupboards and about a foot of counter space and just enough room to stand in the middle and turn in circles but not enough room to take a step to the left or right. The toilet was in a closet by itself while the rest of the bathroom was in a separate room. It had very little storage space. No laundry. No parking. Super long commute to downtown because it's not near any train lines. And once again, there was a long line of people trying to talk to the landlord to rent this place at $1,850/month. However, it was literally feet from Golden Gate Park, which would be pretty cool.
The last place we saw was in a more residential area south of downtown. It's extremely hilly there, like mountainous hilly. We were driving there, and when we would get to the top of the hill, Victor would have to stick his head out the window to see if anyone was coming before we drove down the hill because it's almost a straight drop. We just about had heart attacks. This apartment was also the basement of someone's house. Victor liked it a lot more than I did, mostly because the view out the back of the apartment was spectacular. It looked over the entire city down below. Also, it would be a really fast commute for him. The kitchen was really big, even for Midwest standards. But the bedroom smelled like cat, and the only storage space was the one closet in the bedroom for our clothes so I have no idea what we'd do with any of our stuff. I also didn't really like the guy who lived upstairs who was renting it out. He was just awkward. That one was $2,100/month. Then we drove back to our temporary apartment about 45 minutes through traffic.
So that was our day. Seven hours to look at only four apartments, two of which aren't even options, and the other two have such huge strikes against them that I don't even know if there's any way we could make them work. All the while our real estate agent was trying to get us to go higher on our budget (we're trying to stay around $2,000/month), and telling us that even if we like a place, there's a good chance we won't get it because there's so many other people who want it too.
So we jumped on the competitive train and emailed the landlord from the lovely apartment in Oakland we saw on Saturday and offered to pay 6 months of rent up front for the apartment (a tactic our real estate agent told us to try). He emailed us back and told us that a lot of the people are offering him up to $1,900/month instead of his original asking price of $1,750/month but that he will make a decision by tonight. We emailed him again and told him we would be willing to pay above the asking price as well but didn't give him a number.
Everything we've been told is that we need to be really aggressive, even if we don't really want a place because we can always decide not to take it if they do offer it to us. And we also need to be ready to make a decision instantly because you can't have any amount of time to think about it or they'll just give it to someone else. So that's what we're trying. It's just so strange. And stressful. I cried for about an hour when we got home last night. Sigh...
Good things: We got to see a lot of San Francisco and a bunch of different neighborhoods yesterday when our real estate agent was driving us around. We ate at an Indonesian restaurant in Berkeley on Saturday. We survived our first earthquake.
Here's some pretty pictures from hiking to Land's End on Thursday.
Saturday we looked at a few apartments. One was a half basement of someone's house in a really ritzy, million dollar home neighborhood. However, the apartment was only half finished and had no overhead lights, two tiny windows, and the ceilings were maybe seven feet high, and that's being generous. Then we looked at two places across the bay in Berkeley and Oakland. The first one was ok but not in a great neighborhood. The one in Oakland was lovely. Absolutely lovely. But there was a line of about 50 people waiting to get into this open house when we got there, and I think almost every person applied. They were all crowding the landlord, trying to shmooze him over. By Midwest standards, this place would be small, a little odd (since the bedroom is off the kitchen and the kitchen is quite small) and overpriced. But here, it's huge (one bedroom, 720 sq. feet), charming and a steal at only $1,750/month. But even though we liked it and applied and talked to the landlord along with all the other applicants, we didn't realize how awesome this place was until yesterday...
Yesterday we met with the real estate agent that Expedia hooked us up with, and she had set up about 6 listings for us to go to, all in San Francisco. The night before, our first one got canceled because they gave the apartment away already. So the first place we actually saw was just straight up disgusting. We moved on to the second, and it was ok but not in a neighborhood we liked at all. At this point our real estate agent drove us in her car for the rest of the afternoon.
We drove through traffic for over an hour to get to the third listing, and when we got there, the open house had been canceled. We drove through traffic for another hour to get to the fourth, and the landlord called us on the way and told us she'd just given the apartment away.
We finally got to the fifth, and it was ok. The bedroom would be right off the kitchen again. The kitchen had two cupboards and about a foot of counter space and just enough room to stand in the middle and turn in circles but not enough room to take a step to the left or right. The toilet was in a closet by itself while the rest of the bathroom was in a separate room. It had very little storage space. No laundry. No parking. Super long commute to downtown because it's not near any train lines. And once again, there was a long line of people trying to talk to the landlord to rent this place at $1,850/month. However, it was literally feet from Golden Gate Park, which would be pretty cool.
The last place we saw was in a more residential area south of downtown. It's extremely hilly there, like mountainous hilly. We were driving there, and when we would get to the top of the hill, Victor would have to stick his head out the window to see if anyone was coming before we drove down the hill because it's almost a straight drop. We just about had heart attacks. This apartment was also the basement of someone's house. Victor liked it a lot more than I did, mostly because the view out the back of the apartment was spectacular. It looked over the entire city down below. Also, it would be a really fast commute for him. The kitchen was really big, even for Midwest standards. But the bedroom smelled like cat, and the only storage space was the one closet in the bedroom for our clothes so I have no idea what we'd do with any of our stuff. I also didn't really like the guy who lived upstairs who was renting it out. He was just awkward. That one was $2,100/month. Then we drove back to our temporary apartment about 45 minutes through traffic.
So that was our day. Seven hours to look at only four apartments, two of which aren't even options, and the other two have such huge strikes against them that I don't even know if there's any way we could make them work. All the while our real estate agent was trying to get us to go higher on our budget (we're trying to stay around $2,000/month), and telling us that even if we like a place, there's a good chance we won't get it because there's so many other people who want it too.
So we jumped on the competitive train and emailed the landlord from the lovely apartment in Oakland we saw on Saturday and offered to pay 6 months of rent up front for the apartment (a tactic our real estate agent told us to try). He emailed us back and told us that a lot of the people are offering him up to $1,900/month instead of his original asking price of $1,750/month but that he will make a decision by tonight. We emailed him again and told him we would be willing to pay above the asking price as well but didn't give him a number.
Everything we've been told is that we need to be really aggressive, even if we don't really want a place because we can always decide not to take it if they do offer it to us. And we also need to be ready to make a decision instantly because you can't have any amount of time to think about it or they'll just give it to someone else. So that's what we're trying. It's just so strange. And stressful. I cried for about an hour when we got home last night. Sigh...
Good things: We got to see a lot of San Francisco and a bunch of different neighborhoods yesterday when our real estate agent was driving us around. We ate at an Indonesian restaurant in Berkeley on Saturday. We survived our first earthquake.
Here's some pretty pictures from hiking to Land's End on Thursday.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Vic's First Days at Work & Apartment Hunting
Well we've made it halfway through our first week. Victor is really enjoying work so far. On his first day, he had orientation at 9am with a few other new Expedia employees and mostly just got his email and stuff set up. The Mobiata design team took him out for lunch at yet another French restaurant where he ordered the same ham sandwich type thing he ordered the last time they took him to a French restaurant because he can't read the menu, and I wonder why they like French restaurants so much. The team also went out for coffee twice during the day. It seems like they like to take a lot of breaks.
The last few days, Victor has been going into the office at 10:20ish. Most people at Mobiata go in around 10:30 or 11 and stay until about 6:30, but there are no set hours. As long as you get your work done, people don't care what time you come in or what time you leave. Apparently one guy comes in around 11 and leaves at 4, and nobody cares. So that will take some getting used to because Victor definitely prefers having more set hours and someone telling him what times are appropriate to come in and leave, but once he gets used to it I think it will be really awesome to have such flexibility. So for the first couple weeks, he's going to follow the schedule of everyone else and go in around 10 and leave around 6. But after that, I think he's going to go in much earlier and leave earlier because we just like that lifestyle better. This week we've been waking up at 7:30 or so and just have to kill 2 1/2 hours before he goes into work, and then we stay up super late at night. It's just a very strange schedule for us.
Other benefits of the job include free breakfast and unlimited snacks, which, of course, Victor is extremely excited about. They have oatmeal and cereal and all kinds of fruit and Doritos and candy bars and protein bars and beer on tap (which Victor asked about, and apparently people really do drink it at work).
We also got our first Clipper card from the company which is the card that you use to ride the BART, so we have 10 rides for the rest of this month and unlimited rides for September. After that, all months will just have $120 worth, I think. Someone just messed up for September and accidentally got him unlimited or something. I'm not sure. I'm a little confused about it.
But Victor is really enjoying the people he works with. They're so nice. Everyone is giving him advice about where to live. One of his coworkers, who is a San Francisco native, even made him a map of the neighborhoods and pointed out which ones were safest, closest to train lines, etc. They've just been extremely helpful and welcoming.
The project Victor has been assigned at work is the Expedia app for Android. So he'll be designing the whole thing. He's pretty excited about it.
In other news, we found a new grocery store that's so much cheaper! Praise Jesus, because I was about to have a heart attack. The grocery store is about 1 1/2 miles from us so we made a 9pm trip with the rental car (because driving in San Francisco is actually not scary at all if it's not during rush hour). It's a more warehouse-y kind of grocery store, and it's still a little more expensive than we're used to, but nothing like Safeway. It's a bit ghetto, but we're so not above that.
Other than that, we haven't done a whole lot in the evenings. We've walked down by the water and the bridge some. We explored our little village complex and found the gyms and the little deli, and, holy cow, if we thought Safeway was expensive! This little deli is outrageous. Fifteen dollars for a jar of spaghetti sauce....needless to say, we'll never be buying anything from there.
We got in touch with the rental agent person that Expedia set us up with to help us find apartments. She'll be taking us around some neighborhoods we're interested in on Sunday and promised to show us 6-8 apartments within our budget, so we're really hoping this will help us get a feel for what we're looking for. I've emailed/called/texted a few other listings we've seen on Craigslist or other, and only one person has contacted me about a condo in the East Bay. We'll go see that one tonight. (People at work have also told him that he can leave at any time during the day to look at apartments if he needs to because they understand how hard it is to find an apartment).
Today Victor only has to work for an hour or two because there's some big Expedia meeting, and Mobiata people will be flying up to Washington. We're not exactly sure, but I guess there just won't be much work to do today so he'll hopefully be home soon, and we're going to explore some more.
Days 3,4 & 5=big success for Victor. I'm lagging a little bit because I can't figure out how to navigate around our neighborhood because all the roads are diagonal. I tried to walk up north and accidentally made a giant loop back to our apartment. But hopefully I'll catch up soon.
 |
| Downtown close to Victor's office |
The last few days, Victor has been going into the office at 10:20ish. Most people at Mobiata go in around 10:30 or 11 and stay until about 6:30, but there are no set hours. As long as you get your work done, people don't care what time you come in or what time you leave. Apparently one guy comes in around 11 and leaves at 4, and nobody cares. So that will take some getting used to because Victor definitely prefers having more set hours and someone telling him what times are appropriate to come in and leave, but once he gets used to it I think it will be really awesome to have such flexibility. So for the first couple weeks, he's going to follow the schedule of everyone else and go in around 10 and leave around 6. But after that, I think he's going to go in much earlier and leave earlier because we just like that lifestyle better. This week we've been waking up at 7:30 or so and just have to kill 2 1/2 hours before he goes into work, and then we stay up super late at night. It's just a very strange schedule for us.
 |
| The shuttle that takes Vic to work |
Other benefits of the job include free breakfast and unlimited snacks, which, of course, Victor is extremely excited about. They have oatmeal and cereal and all kinds of fruit and Doritos and candy bars and protein bars and beer on tap (which Victor asked about, and apparently people really do drink it at work).
We also got our first Clipper card from the company which is the card that you use to ride the BART, so we have 10 rides for the rest of this month and unlimited rides for September. After that, all months will just have $120 worth, I think. Someone just messed up for September and accidentally got him unlimited or something. I'm not sure. I'm a little confused about it.
But Victor is really enjoying the people he works with. They're so nice. Everyone is giving him advice about where to live. One of his coworkers, who is a San Francisco native, even made him a map of the neighborhoods and pointed out which ones were safest, closest to train lines, etc. They've just been extremely helpful and welcoming.
The project Victor has been assigned at work is the Expedia app for Android. So he'll be designing the whole thing. He's pretty excited about it.
In other news, we found a new grocery store that's so much cheaper! Praise Jesus, because I was about to have a heart attack. The grocery store is about 1 1/2 miles from us so we made a 9pm trip with the rental car (because driving in San Francisco is actually not scary at all if it's not during rush hour). It's a more warehouse-y kind of grocery store, and it's still a little more expensive than we're used to, but nothing like Safeway. It's a bit ghetto, but we're so not above that.
Other than that, we haven't done a whole lot in the evenings. We've walked down by the water and the bridge some. We explored our little village complex and found the gyms and the little deli, and, holy cow, if we thought Safeway was expensive! This little deli is outrageous. Fifteen dollars for a jar of spaghetti sauce....needless to say, we'll never be buying anything from there.
 |
| Bay Bridge all lit up at night |
We got in touch with the rental agent person that Expedia set us up with to help us find apartments. She'll be taking us around some neighborhoods we're interested in on Sunday and promised to show us 6-8 apartments within our budget, so we're really hoping this will help us get a feel for what we're looking for. I've emailed/called/texted a few other listings we've seen on Craigslist or other, and only one person has contacted me about a condo in the East Bay. We'll go see that one tonight. (People at work have also told him that he can leave at any time during the day to look at apartments if he needs to because they understand how hard it is to find an apartment).
Today Victor only has to work for an hour or two because there's some big Expedia meeting, and Mobiata people will be flying up to Washington. We're not exactly sure, but I guess there just won't be much work to do today so he'll hopefully be home soon, and we're going to explore some more.
Days 3,4 & 5=big success for Victor. I'm lagging a little bit because I can't figure out how to navigate around our neighborhood because all the roads are diagonal. I tried to walk up north and accidentally made a giant loop back to our apartment. But hopefully I'll catch up soon.
 |
| Also a giant, terrifying pelican |
Monday, August 18, 2014
Days 1 & 2
Hello framily!
We've created this temporary space to keep you updated on the first few weeks of our move as efficiently as possible. Without further ado:
We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to get to the airport in Des Moines for our 9:45am flight. We said goodbye to my parents and boarded our teeny airplane to Denver where we were seated next to twin babies which also happened the last time we flew to Denver. Neither time was a bad experience. I just found it interesting.
Over Denver, we waved to Skabbey and then went straight to our next flight to San Francisco. Fun fact: Victor and I sit in the very back of the plane 4 out of every 5 flights we take.
Once we landed in SF, we got our bags and took the airtrain to the car rental place where I guarded our bags from the hundreds of angry people trying to get cars and Victor waited in line for 40 minutes. We got our car (which the company had reserved and paid for until our car gets shipped to us) and drove to our temporary housing by Bay Bridge.
Our housing is fine. It's one of those large complexes with a gym and a pool and a parking garage. It looks kind of like a resort. It's comfortable, and we have everything we need, but it's definitely not somewhere I'd want to live permanently. Our room faces the pool, which is almost always filled with bros, and since we need to keep our windows open for airflow, it can get pretty obnoxious.
By the time we got to our place, picked up our keys and found our parking spot, it was about 3pm our time. We unpacked and relaxed for a little bit before venturing out for some food. We decided on a nearby place called Super Duper Burgers, and it was, in fact, super duper. It's pretty much like a Meatheads except everything is free range and organic and compostable.
We walked along The Embarcadero for awhile before going back and going to bed.
Sunday morning we went to Epic Church. When we were researching churches about a month or so ago, this is one that we'd looked at because it's a plant of Francis Chan's church in Southern California, and it ended up being just a few blocks from where we're staying. It was in the basement of some office building, and it was fine. I wouldn't go as far as epic, but we got free mugs.
After church, we ventured to Safeway because all we had to eat were the Slim Jims Mom sent with us. The Safeway is about 3/4 of a mile from us so we emptied our backpacks and walked there. It was pretty difficult deciding what to get because we had nothing but could only buy what we could carry. Also, we knew things would be more expensive here, but we definitely had sticker shock. Even with the savings from our new Safeway club member card, it was still $60 for our very basic groceries that we could carry in two backpacks and two plastic sacks (that thankfully we remembered to bring with us because you have to pay for bags here).
After getting groceries, we decided to drive around some different neighborhoods to get a feel for where we might want to live. We ventured across the bay to Berkeley and Oakland North. Both were nice, more residential and Midwest. We came back into SF and drove to Cole Valley/Twin Peaks area, and I fell in love with SF for the first time. This area is so incredibly beautiful. You can see the entire city and the bay and the mountains, and the fog is rolling across the top of the hills all the time. It doesn't feel at all like anywhere in the United States. We walked around this area for quite awhile.
We came home around 6, made dinner, watched Mrs. Doubtfire and went to bed.
Days 1 & 2=moderate success
Also, Victor on his first day of work this morning!
We've created this temporary space to keep you updated on the first few weeks of our move as efficiently as possible. Without further ado:
We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to get to the airport in Des Moines for our 9:45am flight. We said goodbye to my parents and boarded our teeny airplane to Denver where we were seated next to twin babies which also happened the last time we flew to Denver. Neither time was a bad experience. I just found it interesting.
Over Denver, we waved to Skabbey and then went straight to our next flight to San Francisco. Fun fact: Victor and I sit in the very back of the plane 4 out of every 5 flights we take.
Once we landed in SF, we got our bags and took the airtrain to the car rental place where I guarded our bags from the hundreds of angry people trying to get cars and Victor waited in line for 40 minutes. We got our car (which the company had reserved and paid for until our car gets shipped to us) and drove to our temporary housing by Bay Bridge.
 |
| Rental Car |
Our housing is fine. It's one of those large complexes with a gym and a pool and a parking garage. It looks kind of like a resort. It's comfortable, and we have everything we need, but it's definitely not somewhere I'd want to live permanently. Our room faces the pool, which is almost always filled with bros, and since we need to keep our windows open for airflow, it can get pretty obnoxious.
By the time we got to our place, picked up our keys and found our parking spot, it was about 3pm our time. We unpacked and relaxed for a little bit before venturing out for some food. We decided on a nearby place called Super Duper Burgers, and it was, in fact, super duper. It's pretty much like a Meatheads except everything is free range and organic and compostable.
We walked along The Embarcadero for awhile before going back and going to bed.
Sunday morning we went to Epic Church. When we were researching churches about a month or so ago, this is one that we'd looked at because it's a plant of Francis Chan's church in Southern California, and it ended up being just a few blocks from where we're staying. It was in the basement of some office building, and it was fine. I wouldn't go as far as epic, but we got free mugs.
After church, we ventured to Safeway because all we had to eat were the Slim Jims Mom sent with us. The Safeway is about 3/4 of a mile from us so we emptied our backpacks and walked there. It was pretty difficult deciding what to get because we had nothing but could only buy what we could carry. Also, we knew things would be more expensive here, but we definitely had sticker shock. Even with the savings from our new Safeway club member card, it was still $60 for our very basic groceries that we could carry in two backpacks and two plastic sacks (that thankfully we remembered to bring with us because you have to pay for bags here).
After getting groceries, we decided to drive around some different neighborhoods to get a feel for where we might want to live. We ventured across the bay to Berkeley and Oakland North. Both were nice, more residential and Midwest. We came back into SF and drove to Cole Valley/Twin Peaks area, and I fell in love with SF for the first time. This area is so incredibly beautiful. You can see the entire city and the bay and the mountains, and the fog is rolling across the top of the hills all the time. It doesn't feel at all like anywhere in the United States. We walked around this area for quite awhile.
We came home around 6, made dinner, watched Mrs. Doubtfire and went to bed.
Days 1 & 2=moderate success
Also, Victor on his first day of work this morning!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)