My favorite ... in June
June has been punctuated by a lot of moving. It turns out you can accumulate a lot of posessions after living in a 1 bedroom apartment for three years. Luckily, it was only across town and I recruited a very able-and-willing helper. We must’ve moved about almost a ton -- literally, 2000 pounds -- of belongings between the two of us. It was a opportune moment to flex my decluttering muscles, and I am happy to report that I donated about 8 trash bags worth of things -- seriously, how do I have so many things? -- and feel commensurately lighter.
Travel
San Francisco is a breath of fresh air -- literally. People love to regurgitate the over-used phrase to me, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,“ allegedly once said by Mark Twain. I thought the weather would be relatively cold to the rest of the country, not actually cold. With most days hovering around 15C (with windchill), even in the Mission, the sunniest part of the city, it still feels like New England fall. My packing regrets are not bringing more scarves, hats, and sweaters. I have been really enjoying living in a walkable neighborhood. Maybe this is the 25-year-old-fully-developed-brain in me, but the weekly activity I look forward to the most is scrounging the house for glass containers, bringing them to the local refill co-operative grocery store (Rainbow Collective), and getting just the tiniest amounts of my staples (on this last trip: lotion, hand soap, kimchi, balsamic vinegar, honey, baking soda, radishes and carrots [to be pickled], sourdough, and mangoes on sale). I found their impressively large vinegar collection (balsamic, white, rice, wine, apple cider, mirin) today, all in huge 5-gallon jugs instead of tiny 400ml plastic bottles, and I thought yes! this is how it should be! The organization and ritual of this weekly trip brings me so much joy and fulfillment, and genuinely makes me think I could be a stay-at-home spouse. Having a yoga studio I love going to a 5-minute walk away, my ceramics studio a 7-minute walk the other direction, with restaurants of diverse cuisines I enjoy scattered throughout, conveniently next to a nonprofit thrift store that’s always stocked with good glassware; I’ve always known I would love to live in a walkable city, and I’m already nostalgic for the ease of having such a high quality of life. Where else am I going to go in Cambridge to get just a cup of flour?
Media
I have been rewatching Fate: The Winx Saga on Netflix. Sometimes, moving to a new city necessitates a binge-worthy show about someone also moving to a new city, just with lots more magic. I’m trying to keep up my reading amidst all the moving chaos, but I haven’t been able to fall into a good book. Sometimes, working on the habit of reading can also be satisfying though. I really desparately want to like Gifted and Talented by Olivie Blake, one of my favorite authors, but unfortunately her writing has taken a form that feels entirely too abstract and melodramatic for me. I’ve just finished Mickey7 by Edward Ashton so I can watch Mickey 17. I’m attempting To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf for the second time. Here is a list of TV shows I want to watch but I’m too scared and need someone to watch it with: Squid Game (S2 + S3), Black Mirror (the newest season), Severance (second half of S2), YOU (S5). Restaurants
I ate at what is now one of my favorite restaurants in Cambridge/Somerville: Oak Bistro. Let me preface by saying that the food is not incredibly mind-blowing; it’s fresh, well-seasoned, and interesting, but the vibes are unmatched. Summer breeze, westward sunset, wineglasses clinking, the disappearance of time as a concept -- they have claimed to curate and delivered a cinematic experience where people can come together.In San Francisco, I’ve had the pleasure of eating at Tartine Manufactury. Surrounded by ceiling-tall stacks of sourdough baskets and industrial ovens, the restuarant experience feels (and is) literally in the middle of their bread factory. I love a long rustic wooden table as much as the next person, but their food doesn’t disappoint either. For $18 (ok - a bit steep, but I do think I was happy to have paid for this unlike at some “restaurants” in Cambridge *cough* Flour), I think I got about five avocados piles onto my toast. The first bite made me exclaim -- it’s been too long since I’ve had bread perfectly toasted, with the crust crisp and not tough, the inside fluffy and chewy, and perfectly sour. Topped with a made-in-house sunflower seed crush, an interesting twist on chili crisps, this meal wins for best avo toast of my life.
Hobbies
I have come back from my month-long trip in Taiwan craving movement. Before moving to SF, I was eyeing Haum Studios, a yoga studio in the Mission a short trip from my place. I’ve taken three classes in as many days, mostly vinyasa yoga with focuses on twists and inversions. It feels so good to get stronger again, and I think I love yoga so much because it gives me the freedom to surprise myself; to push through discomfort and find that yes, I can do another chatauranga, or actually, maybe I can balance my knees on my elbows. I have been feeling really excited to arrive at class, boosted in confidence by now owning the first yoga mat of my life (!! $20 from a fellow Haum-ie) (side note: it was incredibly hard to find an all-natural yoga mat, and I ended up with the Manduka eKo mat). At the end of every class, I try to focus on how it feels to finish a session -- a little looser, a little stronger, a little more present -- and channel my anxieties into that in order to repair my relationship with structured exercise. VIEWS MY OWN
subscribe to new fieldnotes
I’m a 20-something year old living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. I’m a lover of life - in particular, sunsets over the ocean, thunderstorms, niche playlists, long meandering novels, and all cats. Fieldnotes are detailed observations collected by anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnographers while situated in an environment of interest; the obsessive intensity to learn and grasp and make sense of phenomena during the collection of fieldnotes is the way that feels most reflective of the way I live life. My fieldnotes serve as reminders for me of how beautiful, short, and stunning life is.