San Francisco Intern Diary Week 1 & 2: Silicon Valley, Tourist Traps, and Bumble BFF

Outfit Details:

Top: ASOS (similar here and here) // Jeans: Gap // Earrings: Target,only $13! (similar here and here) // Heels: Target // Sunglasses: H&M // Wallet: Kate Spade 

Well hello, party people! Welcome to my first intern diary post! I’m going to make it a mission to blog with updates on what’s going on with my life here on the West Coast. I’ve had a lot of people back home ask me how everything is going and plus it’s a great way to share some outfit posts without just saying, “Hey, here’s a dress you can buy if you want”, ya know? This journey has been a whirlwind already!

San Francisco Intern Diary Week 1 & 2

MOVING:

I’ve been in San Francisco officially for 2 weeks. I’ve mastered the art of getting groceries without a car and 2 very small arms (hint: Uber or Instacart are a MUST).  My body has finally stopped revolting and is pretty much used to the time change. THANK GOODNESS. The entire first week, I was waking up at 5 AM and fighting off sleep by 7 PM. I’m glad I thought about moving out a week before I started so I could really get settled! A couple days after I moved, I started right back in with summer classes. That’s right, I’m still going strong! #foreverastudent. I’m taking 2 courses this summer, one per minimester. It’s already been a challenge balancing work and school and I’ve only just started. Your prayers would definitely be appreciated!

MY APARTMENT:

My apartment is literally a dream. I believe God really hand-picked this place for me. I’m fortunate enough to be living alone with laundry in my building and great security. Also, I’m just a short distance to work and 2 grocery stores so I don’t have to worry about spending too much on public transit.  It’s a completely different experience from when I was living in New York City. I had 2 other roommates in a 450 sq. foot apartment. My bedroom was a converted living room space, my commute to work was a sardine-packed 35 min ride on the L (on a good day) and the closest grocery store was 20 minutes away by subway. I’m truly blessed to be in the situation I’m in right now!

A few things I Amazon’d (is that a verb?…) right when I moved in:

• This spice rack: It’s under $30 and has 16 spices! The best part? You get free refills for FIVE YEARS. This city is too expensive not to cook often so it was definitely a priority!
• Tyler Laundry Detergent: The best laundry detergent HANDS DOWN. It smells even better than their famous gift shop candles. My apartment was a little musty because the person before me moved out a couple of weeks ago. The detergent scent is so strong, I use it as an air freshener too (you can dilute it with water if it’s too much for you).
• Neutrogena Hydroboost Moisturizer:  I’ve mentioned my love for this product in my May beauty post, but it’s the only daytime moisturizer I use now. I just ran out before I moved and needed it ASAP.

TOURIST TRAPS:

I got the chance to go to see the iconic Painted Ladies with my fellow blogger babe, Kelsey O’Brien! It’s funny because I’m not even that big of a fan of Full House, but felt like the hike to go see them in person was necessary. We also shot a couple of blog photos for each other on Haight Street! Did you know that it was the birthplace of the hippie movement? Let’s just say there are a lot of transient people there still clinging on to that title for dear life. However, there’s a beautiful storefront called ‘Love on Haight’ with a colorful backdrop that is a must for your SF bucket lists!

INTEL INTERNSHIP:

As you know, the whole reason I’m in San Francisco in the first place is that I’m interning for Intel this summer!  Every student in my MBA program is encouraged to do an internship, but it’s mandatory for candidates like myself who have less than 2 years work experience. I’ve known that I’ve wanted to work in the technology sector for a while, so I applied for an internship with all the heavy hitters: Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter, etc.  A recruiter actually reached out to me on LinkedIn about the opportunity to intern with Intel and I’m so glad she did! 3 intense interviews, 2 applications, and 1 phone call later, I was hired!

Intel is a global leader in innovation. They have offices in 62 countries and over 100,000 employees! It can be intimidating trying to figure out how your work will have an impact on your managers or the company as a whole, but I’m ready for the challenge. There’s a really cool sense of pride you get when you’re working for a company that makes some of the leading technology in the world for consumers and for sustainability. Their main offices in this area are in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara, CA) and San Francisco, so I’ll be traveling back and forth on the Caltrain occasionally.

I’m a global marketing and communications intern for their internal advertisement and marketing firm. The entire summer I’ll be working on creative projects for internal and external productions! If you watch my Instagram stories, you know that’s pretty much all I can say. My orientation program was basically a reminder to not overshare our job roles with people. Can you see how this will be difficult for me?! However, they did share that if one of our projects is announced publicly, we can say that we’re a part of it!

Bumble BFF:

Here’s one of my favorite updates. Making friends outside of college in your 20’s is hard guys! I’ve shared tips in the past about things you should do when you move to a new city and I’m definitely putting them to practice! I know most people like to settle in before they make connections, but I find it easier to go ahead and put yourself out there and make friends as soon as possible. My time in San Francisco is so short, I would hate for it to be the middle of July before I find a good friend group!

Enter Bumble BFF. It’s by the dating app company of the same name, but you can use it to find some gal pals to grab brunch! I tried it for the first time this weekend and had a BLAST! Plus, now I can add a new Mexican brunch spot to my restaurant rotation. After going on a few more “bff dates”, I’ll probably write a blog post about my experience so stay tuned!

Phew. I’ll make sure to do this week by week in the future so they’re hopefully not as long!

Goals for next week: Knock my exam out of the park (woot!), meet up with some more friends, and prepare for Will to come visit me in SF!

Do you like these “intern diary” entries? Let me know below!

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