2015 was the year of many big firsts for me: my first year in stepping full time into an interior designer, initiating the ChefCharette and blogging, and pursuing freelance photography. I feel worn out thin from juggling all of these on my plate (with also the additional occasional event planning)… I’ve been desperately trying to maintain some work/personal life balance and am learning to say no to meeting old/new people, even if they are for networking purposes.

Yet I’m also still this incessant 24 year old woman who is worried shitless of what is to come in 2016 and the years aftermore. I can’t help it, I’m anxious to quickly figure out how I can best utilize my skill set and contribute to the world with a meaningful purpose.  (I am tired of drawing nonsense lines for buildings that don’t get built, photographing and filming narratives that people barely glance over.) I’ve decided to hone my design portfolio by studying and adding more interior, architecture, and lifestyle photography. After reading more into Cereal’s travel issues, I decided book this trip to San Francisco by 2015 and to experiment with cafe photography (and to see whether San Francisco could be my next potential move for 2016.)

This year’s trip through downtown was mainly guided by my one of my closest Architecture colleagues: Andrew Lau. Within two days we prepared a breakfast, walked throughout the streets of downtown, and roamed through cafes and restaurants including Blue Bottle, Sightless Coffee, Song Tea and Ceramics and Hops and Hominy.