Learning to fly

San Francisco, That’s it. I am one of these folks now – the ones that are leaving you, abandoning the billionaire playground in order to find rooftop bars, cheaper rent and a little bit more heart somewhere else. I’ve been criticizing you for quite some time now and you know why. I have to admit: […]

Confusing Times, Confusing Thoughts

The alarm goes off. You hit the snooze button and doze off. The alarm goes off again. You make a grumpy noise and try to pull the blanket over your face. It’s sunny outside and the birds are chirping, a beautiful day. It’s October and you can see the green palm trees in your window. […]

San Francisco and me: A conversation in a bar

Over the weekend I had the chance to sit down with San Francisco in a shady bar and talk about life over strong drinks. This is what I got out of our fictional conversation. San Francisco: Honey, good to see you! Me: We have to talk. San Francisco: Oh. Why so serious? Let’s order drinks […]

San Francisco and Me: It’s Complicated

A fictional conversation between San Francisco and me. The first encounter Me: Hi. SF: Hi! How are you? Me: I am okay, I had a really long flight and then there was a … SF: Nice to finally meet you! Me: Uh… You too. SF: Where are you from? Me: Germany. From Munich, more precisely. […]

Ein Jahr San Francisco – Geeks, Träume und Silicon Valley

Allein schon die Fahrt mit dem Zug aus San Francisco ins Silicon Valley gleicht einer Fahrt durch Phantasialand. Caltrain heißt der bescheidene Zug, der San José mit San Francisco verbindet und von Techies und gelegentlich Giants Fans belagert wird. Die beste Aussicht hat man auf der linken Seite des Zuges, wenn man an einem See […]

Surfing in San Francisco

Sometimes people ask me “So, how is surfing in San Francisco?” and most of the time I don’t know how to describe it. Cold? Yes. Rough? Oh yes. The water is freezing from November to June. Surfing here means blue lips and constant paddling against the current. Strong wind in your face all the time. No […]

ALL IN!

That’s it. I can feel it. God, I laughed about it all the time when people were talking about life changing decisions – choosing a job, choosing a partner to marry, choosing a house to live in, choosing a country to live in. Booring, you old people with no visions in life! Then it hit […]

Ali and the BMW i3 on the streets of San Francisco

To all the sceptics out there – the times when electric cars were either an ugly statement of environmentalists and eco-activists or a personal wingman of Harvey Specter dudes are over! I had the chance to test the BMW i3 on the streets of San Francisco this week and oh boy, that was fun! While […]

Moving from Munich to San Francisco

This post could also be called: What the hell was I thinking when I decided to move to San Francisco? When I moved out of Munich, the city that mainly consists of unicorns and princesses, and packed my bags to go to California and do the masters I felt very brave. In your face Munich, […]

Love & Strong Shots

Always the same scenario – completely stressed out girls meet at Rickhouse after a horrible day full of intellectual discussions about economics and politics. They order lots of wine and instead of talking about really important stuff, they only have one topic: boys (if you are a boy, you should not read any further). Most […]