Crackheads and Automatic Cars

tee heee

One week into American Living and I can only conclude that San Franciscans really are a friendly bunch and they love to chat.

The Elevator Chat

We live on the eight floor, and from stepping into the elevator to reaching the lobby floor, a short journey of no more than a minute, most of our neighbours have already introduced themselves, shook my hand and asked some polite questions about where my accent is from.

If the same thing would have happened in London, my natural reaction would have been to check all my pockets to see if I had been mugged and reply in one word sentences whilst starring down into the floor to avoid confrontation.

Here, I find myself happily shaking their hand and exchanging polite conversation. I can almost see our London friends shaking their heads and shouting 'told you so' as they're reading this - and I do realise its a slippery slope from this sort of behaviour to full on high fiving and picking up an american twang & expressions and I promise to tread carefully from here on :-)

The Corner Shop Weirdos

A couple of steps outside our building, on Market Street, things are a little different. People like chatting there too, but you often find that they are in actual fact asking you for money or worse, talking to themselves or some made up person. I've never seen so many crackheads and lost souls in my life. Going to the corner store is a bit like visiting an mental facility,  with equal numbers of staff and patients although you can't be sure who's who until they start having an argument with themselves.

Needless to say, we're not loving this area as its rather dodgy and we've already started looking for flats in the Marina, Cow Hollow and even Hayes Valley. There's not much on the market though, so it will probably take a while.

Alfie on Ocean Beach

In other News

I've had a driving licence since I was eighteen, but apart from a couple of driving lessons this summer in London I haven't really had much reason to drive in the last ten years or so. 

So this weekend I had a crash course in driving American cars with Jelte and today Alfie and I set off on our first trip to the beach on our own, a 20 minute drive from here. And I'm proud to say we made it back safe and sound. Driving an automatic is really like driving bumper cars though, but if I'm honest - I much prefer it now that I've tried it!