Morning After the Storm

After that awful night of tossing and turning, I gave up trying to sleep by 6am. My body thought it was 3pm anyway. I got up, hit the toilet, and had a chill early-morning chat with one of my roommates. I ate an apple, walked to a local café, and called my mom.

I told her the truth: “This isn’t really what I expected... I’m not sure I want to stay the full time.” Big feelings, right from the start.

Chat With Paolo

Later, Paolo (a organizer and housemate) sat down with me to chat about what I wanted to build here while im at San fransico. Truth be told, I had no clue. I thought it’d be like Juice in Shanghai, but this time, there was too much freedom. No structure. No guide rails. Just… “do your thing.” It hit me: I’ve never really lived independently, let alone worked in a self-directed way from 9 to 5. It was overwhelming, and I started questioning whether I’d made the right choice.

12PM & Some Normalcy

After sulking in bed for way too long, Paolo and Abby suggested we head to the Hack Club open space. a big, cozy area where everyone was coding, vibing, and doing their thing. We grabbed lunch on the way, and honestly, I finally started to feel a little bit like myself again.

But the peace didn’t last long. Paolo dipped early with a headache, and Abby went out for food… and just never came back. So now I was alone, surrounded by laptops and strangers, wondering what to do next.

Cue: spontaneous side quest.

The Random Adventure

Feeling restless, I called my brother just to check in, and my dad jumped on the call too. With my family on the line and no destination in mind, I just started walking. somewhere. Anywhere.

That “anywhere” turned out to be… LinkedIn HQ. Yup. Just stumbled right into the corporate heart of networking itself.

There was a big public lounge space inside. suits and startup folks having Very Important Conversations™. And me? I walked up to the front desk like, “Hey, got any stickers?” A few minutes later, I walked out with some LinkedIn swag: stickers and a branded keychain lanyard. Mission accomplished.

The Great Pillow Rescue

After wrapping up the call, I realized I had unfinished business: Sleep. Last night’s setup, rock-hard couch pillow and a too-small airplane blanket. wasn’t going to cut it again.

So I went on a heroic quest to Target, hunting for something softer, warmer, and just… not awful. It wasn’t exactly a luxury hotel haul, but it was a major upgrade. Mission: mostly successful.

Grocery Chaos

Later in the day, the five of us decided to stock up on breakfast and other essentials. Easy, right? Turns out, not so much. With five people from different cultures, everyone had totally different ideas of what to buy. After aimlessly wandering for ten minutes, we finally made a list and split up.

My task? Apples and bananas. And. no joke. we were standing right next to the fruit section. Mission complete in under 10 seconds.

By the time we got home it was nearly 7pm, and I was starving. But I was so exhausted I just went to bed instead. Food could wait. sleep couldn’t

Midnight Dinner

I woke up around 11pm, still tired but now super hungry. I made a PB&J sandwich. nothing fancy, just bread, peanut butter, and jelly. That was dinner. Simple, but it did the trick.

Right as I finished, new roommates showed up. We're now 7 people in the house. It’s getting cozy! Tomorrow, I'm determined to find my footing here, but I have a feeling more chaos is just around the corner.

neighborhood

Bonus Pictures