On Labour Day weekend 2025, Andrew and I moved in together in SF! I spent two weeks packing up the Willoughby with help from my parents (so appreciated) and flew to our new home on Berry St in Mission Bay. Andrew graciously set up everything upon his arrival in July, so I was able to unpack and settle in within a day. Efficiency! Alongside trips to Daly City (my first day trip spot — Target, In-n-Out, and Jagalchi 😍), we even managed to squeeze in a hike in San Bruno.
For the last segment of my travels with Tiff and Cora (as a trio), we arrived in Bologna! After the seclusion of Slovenia and the Dolomites (and tbh, even Croatia), it was nice to be back in a big city. At the time, I felt like Bologna reminded me of New York City: busy streets, a faint scent of urine, and multicultural offerings (there were surprisingly a bunch of Asian shop owners!). Now that I've actually lived in New York, such a comparison doesn't quite fit the bill anymore. But hey, I'm glad 2022 Charmaine felt that way.
My most common refrain on the Dolomites segment of my Euro trip 2022 was: "It's so beautiful!!" After meandering through the entire country of Slovenia, we tucked ourselves in for an early night in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the cute town that formerly hosted the Winter Olympics (and will run it back in 2026).
I visited Texas twice in spring 2022. Spring must be the best time of year to visit Texas — the weather was downright idyllic!
While I just spent the past two years in Boston for my MBA at Harvard Business School, I happened to experience it as a "tourist" across the seasons. For continuity, let's start with winter 2022.
A great perk in the consulting world is alt travel. While I was working in the Prairies, I took advantage of this perk by staying the weekend in Lake Louise and Banff. I admit, this is a bit of a weird blog post to write since it was so intrinsically tied with Valentine’s and birthday celebrations for my ex. But we carry on!
My workplace enabled me to participate in a special analytics training. Little did I know how lucky I was: in 2019, the program gave me an excuse to visit Miami, which turned out to be the last cohort before the program went virtual due to COVID. Naturally, others like Cait and Malcolm decided to opportunistically seize the opportunity to tour around over the weekend with me.
In 2019, a lot of my closest friends lived in San Francisco. With just one Bubble Republic planning session, Steph and I decided to book flights for an ambitious road trip with Cora in and around the Bay area (IN A TESLA!!).