San Francisco: Adapting to a new lifestyle, a new family, a new life.

Tourism tourism tourism, feels good to be a tourist, our new family taking us everywhere. Her kids love to go to parks so I think we’ve seen a wide range of parks around San Francisco, they are AMAZING, if you are travelling with kids and get to go to San Francisco you gotta check out the public parks, kids have a blast.

Matías adapted quite easily to this new lifestyle. Everything here is very different, from the cityscapes to the routine. Alejandro’s cousin’s routine is very different from ours, so we are all adapting. It is very important that we learn how to adapt to the lifestyle of our hosts because we don’t want to bother them in any way.  

We are those kind of parents that don’t have much discipline when it comes to eating, sleeping and playing. We don’t have time tables, we usually have lunch or dinner when we get hungry, every day it’s different and we go to sleep when we get sleepy, every day it’s different. We have never inputted a regular schedule to Matias’s habits and here they do have a strict schedule for the kids and daily duties. So when we wake up, they are already having morning snack, when we have lunch they are in knap time, when we are have knap time it’s play time for them, when they have dinner we are having afternoon snack, when we have dinner, they are already in bed so we have to be very quiet, and when we go to bed, they have been sleeping for at least 1 or 2 hours!

It’s funny to see the dynamics of families and how parents manage their schedules depending on their needs.

As for us, we have flexible jobs, at least I don’t have a routine, a schedule to follow, my work varies every day and Matías was with me all the time while Alejandro was at work, so every day would be a different day for us. We never had two days exactly the same. We had a very nice lady who helped us with the cleaning and cooking, so I didn’t have to do it. And any time I needed help with Matías I would go to my mother in law or my sister and they would gladly help me.

As for them, they both have jobs where they have to follow a time schedule, they have no help for cleaning or anything, they have no family here and babysitting is very expensive so they have to adapt to their lifestyle. She would tell us that if they were not as strict as they are with the routine, then they would have no time for themselves. It was nice we were there because we could help them out making lunch, babysitting, taking them to the park, anything they needed.

Although we were having such a great time in San Francisco, we were already urging for adventure so we started planning our next trip: camping around California. We had two weeks and we wanted to see as much as possible.

Wings open and dreams arise...

So this is us...this is our house...this is our life...this is our family (Matías, 1.7 years old, Alejandro, Mina, Mole and me, Andrea.) Alejandro has his own architecture company with two associates and I am a freelance photographer with experience in Art Therapy. We decided we wanted to give a flip to our lives and start and adventure. 

One thing they don't teach us in school is how to close a cycle and how to let go with no fear. We have learned this with the school of life and this time we wanted to do it correctly. So we did a little improvised goodbye ceremony in our house where we sang, laughed, cryed and did some meditation. We said goodbye to our current lives, to our things and to our dogs, our hearts were a bit broken but also full of joy. Our dogs stayed with friends and our house was rented. We sold the rest of our belongings. 

And the journey begins.

After many months of planning, arranging everything for our departure, we are finally in an airplane heading towards our first stop: San Francisco. It’s our first long airplane trip with the little guy, he has been on airplanes before but the longest trip has been for 1.30 hours.

It surprised us how he managed to stay calm the whole flight, he slept a lot, he played, he ate, he didn’t cry at all. 

We got to San Francisco, neither of us had been there before, so we were all very excited. We got there like at 1am in the morning, Alejandro’s cousin in law picked us up and he took us to our first home as nomads.

We went to sleep and next day we woke up to a new life. Yesterday we were living in a big house, with two dogs, we had our lives pretty much "figured out", and now we have no home, we have no dogs, we have nothing figured out, but we are absolutely happy and convinced about our decision.

It felt weird to be honest, it felt like when you are going on a holiday but then realize it was no holiday, we rented the house, we closed every unfinished business back home and left of for six months, perhaps a year, perhaps longer. I always wanted to know how this feeling felt, now I know and I love it.

The first couple of days were very calm while we got used to our new home, and to the family who very kindly opened their door to us (Alejandro’s cousin, her husband, their 3 year old and their 1 year old kids). We also wanted the change to be easy for Matías so we didn’t want to move him much to different places and many people. He was in a new place, with new people, with a new language....

TIME TO EXPLORE SAN FRANCISCO!