30 Monday Sep 2013
Mr. Selfish and I are starting to settle down in San Francisco and are happy to be here for the next few months. It’s odd being in one place and being able to fully unpack our suitcases. We are definitely enjoying SF life thus far, especially our new view:
We can’t believe how fast this past selfish year went by and are truly grateful for all of the wonderful experiences we had.
Here are our top 60 photos of the past year. Enjoy!
10 Monday Sep 2012
Posted in Europe, Living Abroad
Tags
It’s been one month since we left the States and started this whole Selfish trip, and while we’ve only been in London for a little less than a month, it strikes me that “home” has changed meaning in the last few weeks. A few months ago, “home” was Orlando, but after packing everything into storage and renting out our house it’s safe to say that definition no longer applies. For now, home means our little studio in Highgate, but in a week, home will be a hotel in Scotland, and in a month, an apartment in Paris.
In the States (or maybe everywhere), we have a tendency to romanticize the European lifestyle. 35 hour work weeks! Amazing food and wine! Architecture! History!
Having spent a little time abroad now, I’ve definitely noticed a few differences between living in the States and Europe (or at least in England), which I will now present to you in rant form:
1. Doing Laundry is extremely time consuming. I used to think this was the case back home, but man was I wrong. In the States, a long time for laundry was 3 loads of laundry in 6 hours. Here, it takes a day for each load, which is due to the fact that England seems to have a massive shortage of dryers. So instead of throwing things in the dryer, you have to hang your clothes up to dry. After a few hours in the sun (if you’re lucky and it hasn’t rained), your clothes are ready to be brought in – only now they have a delightfully crunchy texture. This is due to either the water here, or perhaps because of the lack of dryer sheets – I’m not sure what to believe. To combat this apparently a lot of Europeans iron everything, including socks and underwear!
2. Semi-Wet Bathrooms. If you’ve never encountered one, you’re in for a treat! Instead of simply elevating the shower or adding a curtain, you have a delightfully open shower with a drain in the floor. Move ever so slightly the wrong way and water cascades off of your elbow and on to the floor (or worse, the toilet). To fix this problem, we use two different bath mats: one to sop up all of the water from the shower itself, and the other to wipe down the entire bathroom floor after we finishing showering.
