also, i’m in tokyo rn. just landed about 18 hours ago—haven’t slept since and planning to sleep in about 6 hours? just wanted some time to get a change of scenery by myself. tokyo is cold, yet warmer than chicago at the moment haha. it’s the wind chill that gets ya in chicago. i mean there’s a few things in my life i do want to change right now, but need a slight breather to think through them and really get conviction/commitment.

BUT ALSO ERRANDS!

  • glasses
  • matcha
  • shampoo/conditioner
  • mascara
  • passport cover
  • EAT GOOD FOOD
  • do small things i’ve been meaning to do, like write a bit more c:

honestly did not plan or think through any of this particular visit to japan. i got last-minute accommodations. paid for a whole night and didn’t even sleep. essentially paid $32 for a hot shower and a spot to work from throughout the night, which was more than worth it still. i guess i wanted to revisit solo travel. it was a risk though with me feeling a bit lonely and sad these days. my contacts hurt like 0iajsicjnsakojncakosmjnmkscao. the working hours are AWFUL here LOL. it’s like 11pm to 7am, what the heck! anyways, i gots to go tutor rn. new student—olivia!

20% to FIRE!

I did have to force myself to look under all the cushions to get there. It definitely sounds nicer than it is, especially with the heck of a bull market in the past 6 months. I know the market is very regularly near all-time highs, and it’s hard to understand what the new normal really is. Is it normal to experience hyperinflation? Is it normal to have your government shut down for weeks? Is it normal to look at the news and just see only hate, violence, pedophilia, drama, death, and prejudice? Is it normal that many of my friends who just graduated college struggle so hard to find even one job in their field of interest? Is it normal that AI dependence, both administratively and emotionally, is seeming to grow at an exponential rate? Is it normal that I feel disappointed in our world? I guess it’s better than being in a global war? At least we’re decaying internally.

It just feels like this FIRE journey is one of pure optimism. Such is the need for the dollar to stop devaluing. Such is the need for everything to stop becoming so abhorrently more expensive everyday. Such is the need for companies to prioritize social benefits over shareholder value and profit. Such is the need for politicians care about their constituents.

Every single day. Goodbye Social Security. Goodbye SNAP disbursements. Goodbye Medicaid. Goodbye political cooperation. Goodbye social unity.

What kind of safety net is needed to feel safe?

Probably the kind that you don’t need to work for? The kind you already have? Sighs, the envy for the more privileged is up-surfacing again. I should probably go figure out what that means. Security as a birthright versus security as a lifelong project are two different lives completely I feel. And that feeling scares me as I question whether this pursuit of security has instead left something in the wayside. Something that only at the point of a self-decided point of security I then realize I had lost in the process. The pursuit of happiness? The pursuit of personal interest? The pursuit of the arts? I have no clue. I try to balance it all. I try to be intentional about being intentional, so that these regrets don’t happen.

But, to be free already at birth. Isn’t that a beauty?

on writing

how does one write in this day and age? what is the value of knowing how to thoughtfully construct words and phrases? is there value to be had in training this skillset? will the future of technology render those countless hours useless? because in this world of ever-decreasing attention span focused on visually-engaging short-form video content, it feels like writing gets left in the dust. i’m wrong though. writing is part of this new generation of content. in fact, writing i’d say is instrumental in it all. i want to be a good writer. i want to be proud of how i encapsulate and express my thoughts into written form. but writing is hard. writing, for me, requires intention, patience, and a certain type of peace. i can’t fully put my finger on what kind of peace i mean. but the type that temporarily blocks all my worries, insecurities, stress, anxieties, fears, and restlessness for just a moment. many are artificial, borne by the environment and society that surrounds me. worries about money. insecurities about self-worth. stress about time and experiences slipping away. anxieties about my relationships or lack there of. fears about my well-being and productivity at work. restlessness about the state of the world, the state of our society, and the state of our future. when we look at humanity from above, what do we see? why don’t we seem to have a shared purpose that unites us all? what are we doing with our lives? the little blips of time and space that we occupy. one blip we’re here. one blip we’re gone. one more blip we’re forgotten. into dust and the vacuum of space. what do we anchor ourselves to then? it seems so easy to get lost in it all. i get lost often. writing, i’m hoping, will be one of my small anchors. but, how does one write? how do we return the favor to those who choose to spend their own time, and thus lifespan, in reading one’s writing? it can’t just be rambling, can it? luckily, i’m just writing to myself. i hope future me won’t be too harsh of a critic. i’m young and a bit adrift. and most importantly, i think i miss my friends. also, working sucks. i really like my team. my manager is super nice and knowledgeable. the other analysts are very cool and smart. the projects are quite interesting. the office is quite neat and modern. the culture is great, warm, and supportive. but working… argh.

re: Mega Backdoor Roth

Let’s talk about the Mega Backdoor Roth! Note that only some employers allow for this as it’s 1) more expensive 2) more complex 3) more overhead in general 4) targeted towards higher earners only

Pleasantly surprising, United Airlines has this baked into our Fidelity 401(k) plan, which I, despite being a bit too low-earning to fully take advantage of it, will try it out.

What is a Mega Backdoor Roth? So, this is a retirement strategy that comprises of two features inside a 401(k) plan to get tens of thousands more dollars into Roth status (meaning it can grow tax-free FOREVER!), far beyond the traditional ~$7k Roth IRA limit.

Those two features, which again may not be available for all 401(k) plans, are after-tax 401(k) contributions and Roth in-plan conversion. The former is a third contribution type after traditional pre-tax and Roth. The latter is the ability to roll this after-tax money out to a Roth IRA while still employed. With both, one can execute the Mega Backdoor Roth.

A 2022 report by Plan Sponsor Council of America found that only 21% of 401(k) plans allow after-tax contributions, and that’s only one of two mechanisms needed for this to work. I’d guess only 10-15% of 401(k) plans fully enable this strategy.

IRS Limits So, let’s talk about limits. 401(k) contributions are known to have a ~$23,500 cap. However, that only applies to pre-tax and Roth 401(k) contributions only. There’s actually a further limit of ~$69,000 which includes pre-tax and Roth, as well as employer match and after-tax! This means you can contribute after-tax contributions to your 401(k) even after meeting the $23,500 pre-tax and Roth cap. You don’t necessarily have to wait until you reach that $23,500 cap to start doing after-tax contribution. It’s just that it’s best to fully take advantage of the $23,500 pre-tax/Roth contributions first as it is the most tax-efficient and allows for essentially free money w/ employer match. I personally plan to do a percentage for pre-tax and after-tax on each paycheck for now as to not need a mid-year manual adjustment. Fidelity also helps cut the contributions off if they are set to go over the limits, which further reduces needed headspace.

Flow Paycheck → After-tax 401(k) → Roth in-plan conversion (inside 401(k) plan) → Grows tax-free as Roth 401(k) → Leave employer → Rollover Roth 401(k) to personal Roth IRA (no deadline, but never hurts to do it sooner than later) → No RMDs, Lifetime Tax-Free Growth

Summary Even among the financially-literate, many think the annual Roth contribution limit is strictly capped at ~$7,000. But inside certain 401(k) plans, this Mega Backdoor Roth strategy allows the conversion of up to $40,000+ per year into Roth status… tax-free forever. It’s lowkey ridiculous, but hey, enjoy it while it lasts. As for me, I do not get paid enough yet to fully partake in it, but that’s a me problem, not a you problem :D

niku udon (beef udon)

source/inspo: Just One Cookbook

another comfort food!

ingredients (4 servings)

  • 1 tokyo negi? aka long green onion or 4 reg green onions(white part only)
  • 2 green onion / scallion (for topping)
  • 16 oz thinly sliced beef (like ribeye)
  • 2 tbsp neutral oil
  • 4 tsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 4 servings udon! (1000g frozen udon or 360g dry udon)

broth

  • 5 cups dashi (2.5 tsp hondashi then? usually i do 1 tsp to 1 cup for full base stuff like miso, but here we alr have lots of other salt/umami already)
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp mirin
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 0.25 tsp diamond crystal kosher salt (j for consistency apparently, if morton salt, use like 1/8 tsp instead)

broth steps

  1. 5 cups dashi broth to a low boil for 1-2 min -> then season w/ the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and fancy salt (cover w/ lid to keep hot & prevent evaporation) & turn off heat after 1-2 min

meat steps

  1. cut white part of negi into 1/2 inch diagonal slices
  2. cut 2 green onion into thin slices for garnish
  3. heat frying pan and when hot, add 2 tbsp oil + negi and saute until golden brown n tender
  4. then add the beef, cook until not pink, and now add the 4 tsp sugar and 2 tbsp soy sauce
  5. stir-fry until well coated and then remove from heat

final steps

  1. make and drain udon (typically like 1 min to reheat w/ boil for frozen udon)
  2. portion udon in bowls + pour hot broth into them
  3. place stir-fried beef into bowls + season them w/ green onions

tips

  • for broth, can add 1/2 tsp white soy (shiro shoyu) at end for cleaner, more delicate finish perhaps? never tried
  • can marinate beef beforehand by tossing it w/ 1 tsp soy + 1 tsp mirin + pinch sugar for 10 min before cooking
  • can deglaze pan w/ 1-2 tbsp of hot broth after cooking + pour back into broth
  • for more veggies, add bokchoy & napa (add after broth seasoning + simmer for ~5 min before turning off fire) or spinach (at end, blanch w/ hot broth for 15s until bright green/wilted then immediately portion)
  • also at end for serving, can drizzle w/ sesame oil or add poached egg or maybe like crispy shallots/onions

how early should we arrive to the airport?

currently reading gad allon’s post about when to arrive at airports (typing as i go, so it’s not going to be the most organized/concise/well-written). he introduces this idea of the newsvendor problem where a newsvendor has to decide how many newspaper to stock each day w/o knowing exact demand. hitting average means high stockouts or excess inventory, and the proposed solution is choosing a quantile of the demand distribution determined by relative cost of each outcome.

so for this airport arrival, studies have found that security wait times are let’s say 20 minutes. to calculate the cumulative distribution of waiting time b/w arrival to gate (F_s), we do C_o / (C_o + C_u) with Co being cost of overage or cost per minute of waiting too long and with Cu being one-time penealty of being late. we then input into F_s L*, which is the optimal arrival buffer or the quantile of the distribution that balances those costs.

thus, averages are misleading as you’d likely be in the 90th-99th percentile where the lower range would be for leisure and higher range would be time-sensitive, high-premium travel. you, as a passenger, would likely not be in 50th percentile as underage cost can be ridiculously expensive as we see with my dear friend Hope who had to pay an exorbitant fare to take the next international flight out to make it back home in time for work a month or so ago. as for the overage cost, even if we assume $100,000 average annual income at ~$48/hr, the additional hour, let’s say, is marginal, especially considering time spent in lounges or browsing shops, which may reduce the perceived cost of overage.

rational travelers optimize to higher quantiles, not the mean, as cost of missing a flight would likely easily dwarf the cost of waiting, especially for international flights.

so, yes, on average, you don’t have to be 2 hours early. but the variance remains too high and the underage cost too daunting that the safest strategy is as the century-old newsvendor says: overstock. whether it be time or newspaper, you’d rather have extra on hand than none at a time of desperation.

for myself, i almost always arrive quite early at international airports abroad. i try to aim for at least an hour between post-security/immigration and boarding, allowing me some time to explore the airport, grab some drinks and maybe food at lounges (w/ priority pass [essentially only valuable abroad]), and prepare all my offline entertainment. for domestic flights, i try to aim to be past security right as we start boarding. there’s no valuable lounge access that i have, and i’m less intrigued by domestic airports. however, aiming for that has led me to arrive at airports like SFO in the middle of boarding, yet I still somehow made it through security & onto my international flights ontime. tbf, they were all cases of poor route time estimation by uber + unplanned traffic incidents + optimistic time buffers; thus, that’s why you aim for the 90th+ percentile, not 50th. anyways, as for airport dad, i’m more convinced he doesn’t want to suffer emotional and mental exhaustion of post-missed-flight drama and chaos rather than the financial damage.

source: gad allon’s article

first time typing on the morning bus to work. it’s really not the most conducive experience, but it works! today seems to be the last warm day for a small stretch of time. it’s a high of 85 degrees today, and the rest of the week I think should be around a high of low 70s.

thinking of what i want to type in my morning bus rides. what kinds of mentions, descriptions, or thoughts would i appreciate reading back on in a few years?

i guess that would be my current dilemmas of life. i’m going to work in an industry i never expected to join in the first place. i lack the pre-requisite knowledge that many of my peers here have gained as a byproduct of their hobbies and interests. i’m put into a role that necessitates large contextual understanding of not just the company but the industry as a whole. i really appreciate my team, but i fear that i’m honestly not much of a value-add. i have a large project that honestly is so simple yet so complex; it’s a struggle to get through. i feel again a bit disjointed about work. not sure if that’s even an accurate way to describe my feeling. may dictionary it later.

the perks are great. just came back from istanbul with gabi. got to sit business class in a foreign carrier, and, my goodness, was it amazing for <$400 a person.

i’m not quite sure what’s the next step for me. it feels like i just started, yet it also feels like i need to think a bit ahead regardless.

part of me is missing school. the ease of friends. the ease of new friends. the prioritization of education. the constant chaos + flurry of activity. perhaps a masters would be a fun next step if i choose to pivot into another industry that necessitates that step.

financially speaking, i consider myself in a good spot. im not getting paid too well here, that’s fine. supplemental income is enough to satiate my younger financial ambitions. however, i do worry about the state of my holdings. we’re hitting constant all-time market highs, yet it feels particularly disillusioned when i think about the levels of inequity, unemployment, insecurity, affordability, and safety in today’s world. i know the economy, the state of the world, and the financial markets don’t go hand in hand, but it’s still jarring to see. anyways, my stop’s here! gotta wrap up. :)

10-05-2025 / Chicago, Illinois

sunday funday! oops wrong blog

need to do:

  • a lot.

did:

  • went to Textile Discount Outlet and shopped for hours!
  • called AAA to cancel and refund auto-renewed annual membership
  • completed the UC Berkeley Cybersecurity Awareness course so that I can get rid of the annoying 3 factor authenication
  • other things but i falling asleep so i cannot finish writing this T.T

random:

  • had the best TAMALES ever (tbh it’s also the worst because i’ve never had tamales before LOL) at this beloved local mom & pop street food stand called Tamale Lady in Lower West Side -> so good that I made us come back to their storefront (since the street food cart closed right after we scooted back) to grab another tamale as well as cold horchata for gabi
  • got a FREE lyft scooter ALL DAY! it was just left unlocked in a corner of our back alley when we left the house. definitely a technical glitch as they are programmed to deactivate after 10-15 min of inactivity and this one kept chugging along all day despite hours of inactivity!!

note:

  • thank u kind scooter c:

tomorrow:

  • a lot T.T

gyudon (japanese beef rice bowl)

source/inspo: Just One Cookbook

gyudon is one of my favorite japanese comfort foods: thinly sliced beef and onions simmered in a sweet-savory sauce, served over hot rice. it’s quick, easy to make, and just so tasty.

ingredients (4 servings)

  • 1 onion (about 8 oz)
  • 2 green onions
  • 1 lb thinly sliced beef (ribeye / short plate is my go-to)
  • cooked rice
  • optional: pickled red ginger for topping

sauce

  • 1 cup dashi (~0.53 tsp hondashi)
  • 4 tbsp sake (or chinese rice wine / water)
  • 4 tbsp mirin (or 4 tbsp water + 4 tsp sugar)
  • 6 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp sugar (to taste)

steps

  1. thinly slice onion + green onion (diagonally)
  2. in a pan (off heat), mix dashi, sake, mirin, soy sauce, sugar (ensure sugar & hondashi is mostly dissolved)
  3. add onions into the broth & spread evenly. then, place beef slices on top.
  4. cover, turn on fire and bring to a simmer on medium, then lower heat and cook 3–4 minutes. skim off foam/scum as needed/wanted!
  5. sprinkle green onion, cook 1 more minute. also, good time to add beaten eggs if that’s something you’d like. i’ve never tried tbh.
  6. serve over hot rice with sauce, garnish with pickled ginger if desired (me personally, not a fan).

tips

  • great w/ sides like miso soup or a small salad
  • add toppings at the end like toasted sesame seeds or seaweed?
  • if u want more veggies/greens, you can add bokchoy or napa cabbage w/ onions or spinach at the end and stir for 30-60 secs.

Turkish Airlines 787-9 Business Class Review

Beyond all odds, we made it to the business cabin on Turkish. We weren’t supposed to, but a stroke of luck made it fruition. Originally, they were out of business class seats. There were technically 2 seats unbooked, but that’s because they were inoperable, thus unfit and unavailable for passenger use. Somehow, the gate agents didn’t see those indicators and gave us boarding passes for them without letting us know about those issues.

When we got onboard, the in-flight crew was confused regarding the gate agents hadn’t let us know about the issues when issuing the tickets. I mentioned perhaps it’s because we’re non-revenue standby (thus second-class citizens haha), but they said it doesn’t matter and that we had the right to know. At this point, I was worried we were out of these seats, but they somehow made it work. I sat in 8A with an inoperable storage nook, which was a very minor issue for me. I get why they wouldn’t want a revenue customer experiencing that though. Gabi, originally in a seat with a broken table, ended up moving to a fully-functional seat in 1A that someone ended up not making. How fortunate for us, and I do hope the missing passenger ended up making his way to where he needed.

But, every non-revenue passenger knows (or will come to know) one vital rule: the job ain’t done until you’re in the air. You can definitely get pulled off the plane for any reason: load and balance issues, overbooking issues and last-minute revenue passengers, recently-discovered inoperable seats, and many more. So, it’s always wise to not celebrate too early. However, once we pushed back, I sighed with relief and satisfaction. We took off soundly and started making our way back to Chicago.

Now, let’s dive to the review:

cabin & seat

this felt like your typical modern business cabin—a 1-2-1 layout with individual, privatized seats. comparable to United Polaris I’d say, although I think Turkish does it just slightly better with their materials. They used Alcantara padding in the interior trimming of the seats, which is suede-like material typically used in fancy schmancy cars. overall, a great and solid hard product.

service & crew

this was my first time flying non-rev business on a different airline, so i felt a bit out of place and anxious. however, the crew were very professional and well-spoken, whereas LOT Polish’s (in a future review) were very warm. both styles are great in their own ways.

food & beverage

oh my goodness. gabi and i have never been so enthralled and over the moon with our flying experience until this one. the menu was so frickin' long and had so much variety.

drinks: the juices, oh, were so delicious. they tasted like they squeezed it straight in the galley, which i really doubt, but the taste had me super super second-guessing. gabi had a smoothie, and she said it was “so delicious, tasted like blended fresh, still had the pulpiness of my fruits in it, super fresh and sweet but not in a sugary way.” i also had an iced latte with oat milk, and it was SUCH a solid iced latte (like 6/10) ON A PLANE! CRAZY! gabi downed gallons of turkish tea she said, and they were great as they usually are. other options on the table were mocktails, detox drinks, 5 different wellness tea, homemade lemonade, and more! bunch of wine options, but i haven’t acquired that taste just yet.

food: the food, though, was also top-tier. a literal CHEF with a chef hat and robes pushed a silver cart down the aisle and served me SEATSIDE. SO COOL. i loved the “creamy turmeric cauliflower soup” that was ladled to me right then and there, and there were such an assortment of other appetizers like roast beef roll, salmon gravlax, traditional Turkish cheese “börek”, and more. but what broke me was the “Braised lamb shank with Mediterranean vegtables, celeriac mousseline, thyme jus, Chimichurri sauce” because i’m not much a lamb guy, but that was easily top 3, if not 1, lamb dishes i’ve ever had. it was fall-apart tender (my bone literally fell apart from the meat, it was shocking) and so delicious. the sauces accentuated the lamb so much too!!! so well-plated as well. goodness, i was in such disbelief. for dessert, i had some lovely Turkish ice cream and fresh fruit. the fresh fruit, again, was SO FRESH and SO GOOD. i had like 4 or 5 cups of fresh fruit. it was too too good. how do i say this? SO SO SO GOOD. for breakfast, i also had yogurt with fresh fruits and homemade granola as well as pancakes with caramelized apples. also absolutely delicious i tell you. i initially slept past breakfast, but they offered it to me when i woke up bless up thank you Turkish.

oh also, Turkish Airlines has been bragging about having the oldest bread onboard from 12,000 years ago. i was hyped for it as i love bread. ngl, it was solid bread but quite grainy (i liked it just fine, but gabi was underwhelmed LOL)

ife, amenities, and others

ife was great and modern. large screen and great interface. lots of movies/shows to watch, and i especially loved the access to various cameras on the exterior of the aircraft. that was a super cool feature. amenities—nothing special. 1GB of data was provided as business-class passengers. it was slow and emptied quickly, which i expected as much haha. we are, after all, flying around the globe.

sleep & in-flight experience

after dining, the crew offered to make our beds while we changed into the provided pjs in the bathroom. came back to a thin mattress pad, nice lil pillow, and a plush blanket. slept very well :)

overall

9.5/10. the dining, as others have said, was a production. it was amazing. i don’t even know where the 0.5 deduction is going towards LOL especially since im a non-rev. i didnt mind the inoperable storage cubby at all. everything else blew my mind away.

ps: i wrote this in parts, hence the different capitalization style LOL

today i got my portable foldable keyboard so i can type more posts! had to turn off auto-capitalization so the keyboard can function as a real keyboard. hoping i get into writing more and updating myself on my life. i can’t hope to solve my problems through buying new gadgets, but still i hope this helps :)

i just saw a lady on the sidewalk being blocked by a tiny bird that wouldn’t budge. she nudged it and the birdie didn’t want to move. so she gently picked it up and continued walking with the birdie perched on her open palm. made my sad morning a bit better :)

yesterday sweetgreen comped my meal and i genuinely really needed that 😭 thank you kind manager

learning to casual post… biking home from a long day 😪

Symphony Coffee & Food & Bar — Brussels, Belgium

Symphony Coffee & Food & Bar Zwijnaardsesteenweg 2, 9000 Gent, Belgium

good, spacious cafe right near to the Citadelpark and STAM museum! seems like a nice place to sit down and work. lots of sitting area, and the ambience felt good. when we went, there was only a few other people. we were hungry, so we just got some sandwiches.

sandwiches were really good, but also very expensive for what they were. but europe, this being my first time in northern europe, has been quite expensive throughout. oh well.

the BEST part was the cashier/server. he was such a chiller. he chatted with us and about our trip thus far! very nice guy. he also came by after we finished eating to show us a magic trick! i was like, ofc, but i made sure to try to keep an eye out for any sleight of hand tricks and whatnot. gabi and i both got a card from his deck. he shuffled it a bunch, many different ways. i couldn’t see any sleight of hand T.T i checked that he cut properly too. he found gabis card first, and we tracked it as he put it aside pretty reasonably far. then he did a fun little between the hands through the air shuffle before shuffling more and pulling out a card. i was fully expecting it to be my card, king of diamonds. turns out it was gabi’s card again!! four of clovers. then he went back to the card that was put aside, flipped it over, and it was my card??? absolute cinema.

anyways, experience and food was unforgettable. thank you strange Ghentian magician.

**

my overnight FlixBus experience

so I saw that FlixBus had an overnight trip to Ghent which was notably cheaper than flights or train, especially since it basically cuts out one night of hotels, but oh was that the apparently common first-timer disillusion. right when I got onto the FlixBus, I googled whether they wake you up for your stop on an overnight, and an article about hey DONT DO OVERNIGHT FLIXBUSES popped up 😭 apparently, my expectation of sleeping soundly for 7 hours was false and again a beginners’ mistake, esp for young travelers. however, the article only said the chairs were not meant for sleeping, but I thought it was totally fine. if I could sleep in economy in an airline, I can sleep in these coach buses that recline 5x as much.

BUT, TURNS OUT THAT WASNT THE ISSUE. first, the bus was quite warm at 10 in the evening, but it cooled once we took off. then, people behind us just kept yapping nonstop, like it’s 10pm guys 😭. next, it was just so awkward to find a good position to sleep but that’s normal. the real next issue was finally getting some sleep, only to be woken up 40 minutes later by someone because we were deboarding to get security checked at Dover (southeastern port of 🇬🇧). got a nice passport stamp though! THEN, i found out we were going on a ferry (as you can tell, little research was put into what this bus ride entailed) on which we had to deboard and go on the passenger decks!! honestly the ferry was rly nice, got free hot food, duty-free shops, and some time to wash up in someplace other than a coach bathroom that didn’t even have running water. we had about 2 and a half hours on the ferry, so we ate a bit, shopped a bit, slept for a bit, and back on the bus we went shortly. afterwards, we nodded off and made it to Ghent too quick for comfort. but overall, that was pretty little sleep versus expectations. interesting for sure, but would i do it again? probably, im young and broke for now still. however, im truly tired and i have a whole day and work day ahead of me.

oh!! and we bought an adorable beefeater bear!

Kaffee Allez — Ghent, Belgium

Kaffee Allez Sint-Joriskaai 6a, 9000 Gent, Belgium

first cafe post i believe despite it being at least 15 cafes since i created this category. but better late than never.

very cute cafe. right out front of a river and bridge. group of bikers gathered already at 8 in the morning out front. seems like a very cycling x coffee spot with bunch of social rides and cycling workshops being organized here! lots of indoor bike parking against the walls, too! as for coffee and pastries, pretty yums. i like how the drinks come with a little biscuit each!! the drinks across all three were quite light on the espresso though, making my iced latte quite milky—5/10. perhaps athletes and bikers that frequent prefer the lesser espresso amount. after all, too much coffee can have unappreciated aftereffects on the stomach. the croissants I quite liked, although gabi gave it 6/10 bc too doughy and structureless, id say 7.5/10. the housemade biscuit dipped into a hot drink was 10/10!

https://themeasureofaplan.com/wealth-map/ is a cool visualization/data tool about differences in (iirc) cost-of-living, mean income (well, gross national income % country population), and purchasing power. not sure if the income calculation is the best way to do so as it includes income that isn’t wage-related, so doesn’t paint the best picture of what the average joe is earning. like with all data, take it with a grain of salt and thoughtfulness.

it is put together by just a regular joe, so not sure how long data will be updated for or functionality will remain. found it when looking into where im at (london) and trying to understand how people can afford to live here. it seems so so expensive for the relative salary/income that i assumed was average. did some research and still confused. seems like the people out and about are likely wealthy already, tourists (thus less cost-considerate), or treating themselves. could be wrong.

finally had time to make dinner 🥀

(11:39pm)

ended up making some broccoli in the morning; one batch simmered in mirin and broth, the other wok fried with salt and pepper + some garlic (the latter batch was tastier)