SF Diaries, #01/2022 – About kicking off the year in isolation, planning trips for 2022 and finally applying for a CC
Happy New Year 2022! I hope you are all fine, safe, and well and had some lovely holidays, and are already on track to fulfilling your New Year’s resolutions, ha! I, for instance, have decided that I will write in this Expat Diary weekly, to keep track of all we experienced here, and also to have an up-to-date exchange with you, which has once again proved to be very valuable in the last couple of days. So 2022, bring it on, and let’s go!
The first week of the year has started low, for obvious reasons. That’s why, although the CDC had just decreased isolation time to five days, we opted to stay home pretty much all week. The weather wasn’t great either, and since I had so much work to do on my blog, I actually embraced the self-adhered prolonged isolation time. Who would have thought that the person who was constantly being afraid of catching not the virus but the quarantine order while would ever say that?
I used the time to continuously work on my blog and Instagram and have built up an extensive trip scheduled for 2022. Of course, we’ll have to see whether we can cross off all I’d had in mind (prob not, lol), but writing about all our travels from last summer and looking at the pictures we took in the various countries made me finally catch the travel bug again. I want this to be our year to explore America with its versatile States and obviously also the beautiful area. That’s why I am currently planning a trip to the beautiful Napa Valley, just about a 1.5 hours drive north of San Francisco. I can’t believe that after living in the bay for almost six months now (and drinking Californian wine daily, admittedly…), we haven’t made it to one of the countries most reputable and excellent wine regions yet?
Spending so much time at home also finally gave us time to apply for a credit card (thanks again for all your help and recommendations on Instagram). Eventually, we decided to go with Capital One for now (that was named #1, followed by secured cards that would have been our plan B), and I am curious to see how fast we will be able to build up a credit score. The actual aim is to join travel perks credit card soon, so hopefully, we will get there soon. What do you think? Is it better to apply for multiple (or at least two) credit cards now that we likely have a hit in our score anyway?
At the end of the week, we finally felt ready to go out again. That’s when I also got to pick up my Christmas present (Santa couldn’t come to our house during isolation, you know): A very American college sweater from Anine Bing, claiming myself to be a full-blood local now! We also got to explore more of San Francisco when we stumbled across Alta Vista Park (can’t believe I haven’t been there before?) and the (so far) best croissants in all SF that we found at Le Marais Bakery in Hayes Valley. Luckily, after weeks of gloomy days and rain, San Francisco showed itself off from a very sunny side, too. Life is good!
Speak to you soon xx
POST COMMENT
Related Posts
Work permit / Visa in Singapore
In order to be allowed to live and especially work abroad for a longer period of time, you need a visa that exceeds the normal tourist visa. We are not very spoiled by how the German authority offices handle things but in Singapore, we were amazed about how comfortable and easy the proce
Singapore Diaries: Light at the end of the tunnel
I wasn't exactly raving about Singapore, particularly not at the beginning of this year when we were about to settle into our "new home" and keen to explore the city but were forced to stay in our four walls instead. Not the best timing to see Singapore in its best colors, to say the least. But now,
Life Update: Living in San Francisco, Travel Authorization, and Home Trips
It feels like it’s been ages since I last wrote in the Expat Diary. Life just kept moving forward, and with things slowly returning to normal, I struggled to come up with new topics to write about. Meanwhile, we settled in San Francisco, made some great friends, worked a lot, and spent our wee
Approval from Singapore
Expat Diary about life as German expats in Singapore – Another important milestone to move to Singapore is the approval of the work permit. Today, we received the approval for the Employment Pass which will allow the pass holder to work in Singapore. Now, the adventure of moving abroad can proceed
Singapore Diaries: Living in Limbo
Today marks ten months in Singapore. When we came here in October 2019, we were fulfilled with anticipation and excitement about what was to come. We never expected that just a short time later we would find ourselves in a worldwide crisis and pandemic that would bind us to our new home
We have left Singapore
I know. It has been quiet here for a little while. There was a good reason for it, though, and you might have guessed it already after my last post. We have left Singapore. For good!