30 Aug San Francisco: Part 1 – Food, WiFi, & Various Sleeping Arrangements

So, this is the first blog post in a series I’ll be doing throughout the year in relation to studying abroad in San Francisco as an international student from the U.K. It’ll include the highs and lows, the differences and the similarities and whole lot of other babble about my life and time here.

Let’s start with the truth about it all… It’s hard. Studying abroad or just being away from home and the cultural comforts that come with a city you’re accustomed to is hard. But, as I naively took the ten hour Amtrak (turned 16 hours because of delays and the train hitting a truck and general engine failure and all that fun stuff) from Los Angeles to San Francisco, I was shocked, panicked and totally and completely unprepared for what the next few weeks of International-student-without-accommodation-and-a-far-too-low-budget life is actually like. And that exact situation is far more common and dire than anyone really wants to talk about.

 
 
It seems to me that my University either didn’t know how it was really going to be out here or had just decided somewhere down the line that it wasn’t worth trying to explain all the nuances and difficulties that the city offered and stuck with the: ‘it’s going to be expensive and we don’t get on campus accommodation for you so you’ll have to find your own’ explanation – paraphrasing to the max. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful we got at least that, at least I knew it was going to be the most expensive place in the country to live and had forewarning about lack of housing so I didn’t turn up without any guidance. But the whole experience was ten times more difficult than I had anticipated. This is just my personal experience though, you can get lucky and find somewhere great pretty early on and without much hassle, and people did. I got lucky too, it just took a little longer.

I spent the next 11 days in a whirlwind state of living in the top bunk of a hostel dorm room with a toilet that loved to be blocked and a wonderfully steep 8 flights of stairs to get me there. Then to half a sofa bed in a beautiful, must have cost a small (large) fortune apartment in Noe Valley with sweeping views of downtown and the bay; it’s perfection only tainted by a hill of mountainous proportions to get there, but hey at least that must have knocked a little off the asking price. Then I moved onto half a double bed in the basement bedroom of a friends new housing arrangement, in which I got fed the home cooked food I’d been missing in the last month and a half of travelling and got to spend a couple of days a little more relaxed (other than the incident with the mouse, which after a little airing will become a thoroughly amusing tale (tail – sorry)) and all the while I attempted to fix half my classes and attend the others.

 
All of this moving about with too many suitcases, a guitar, forever aching calves, and later a right ankle double the size of the left from the wondrous hills that are     inescapable in this city was all worth it once we found ‘the’ house! … Which we lost precisely a day later and proceeded to go on a craigslist (a.k.a new best friend and arch-nemesis combined) rampage, looking at 3/4 houses a day strewn across the city. This was an extremely stressful and draining time, mentally and physically, but it was also a great way to get to know different areas of San Francisco. Because of this I can now direct you to a fantastic vegan food and smoothie place to go to right on the N line by Ocean Beach (you can see it here), a little place called Mission Edge Cafe in Daly City which is all organic, free range and healthy, (here) a Kink Cafe and Boutique in SoMa, (here) and even where to go if you’re in the Castro and need a cheap, quick haircut or all the stationary you completely forgot about acquiring the evening before classes start. This exploration is something I am extremely grateful for.

When we did find a house, people to live there and sign the contract, the attempt to pay made it all fall apart again. Here’s some advice: sending money takes time, especially internationally, if you’re setting up new recipients on your online banking and need a code by phone and don’t have that phone any longer because you live here now and kind of forgot how online banking really works anyway, that takes even more time. And when you forget to put in the area code so when you try again three days later and the same thing happens you probably need to revaluate what exactly it is you’re trying to achieve in life (and employ someone to do your banking for you).

Sidenote: travellers cards are basically just gift cards to America, you can take out cash, buy things with them, but anything else is impossible.

… But, again, in spite of  all this panic, I gained some knowledge. I can tell you that McDonalds wifi is infinitely better here than in the U.K. (even if they do nothing but fries for us vegetarians, not that the veggie burger was ever really worth it anyway). I managed to phone home, which you can do for free on Facebook, Skype or Whatsapp if you both have a good wifi connection, and talk for at least half an hour with no trouble. I can also tell you the exact spots and specific store’s wifis to use in Stonestown to call home once again when you end up crying in the middle of the mall because you’re just so exhausted with it all.

BUT! We eventually managed to secure the house and move in to its empty shell and out of the various shared rooms, beds and air mattresses we were utilizing. This was both a relief and a strange feeling of being in limbo, it felt so odd that after almost two months of spending no longer than three days at a place that this is where I’ll be living here for the next ten months. Right now my roll mat in the wardrobe is the place that feels the most like home, it’s a little messy and unconventional, but it gives me some of the privacy that a shared room lacks and makes me feel a little more secure. This is going to be an interesting year, and one that I can’t wait to experience, I’m starting to find my way more and getting back into the swing of my usual working in coffee shops for hours upon hours (mainly this one), a trait that any of my friends can attest to and have experienced, willingly or not. Right now I’m happy to say I’m feeling more at peace in general, and as I get to know more of the city and find places I love, I’m ready and decidedly optimistic about what’s to come.

– Georgia Tomlinson-Spence
(@georgiarts)