I recently went to Hong Kong and did it incredibly cheaply. Everyone talks about how expensive Hong Kong is, and to be fair, if you want to, you can spend a lot of money. But it’s also possible to do it quite cheaply. This is how I did it: Flights

There’s Prince waltzing through the air over an astroturf-surrounded pool in the middle of the desert. A hot tub on a watchtower is directly above you, cold wind sweeping over your face and making frost of the splashes of water. There’s a giant ball pit, children and adults alike firing

The Huge Release Party for the Literary Magazine In case you haven’t heard, we just put out an incredible literary magazine called The Dreams I Dreamt: Letters to San Francisco thanks to a grant from the Civic Joy Fund. It’s a gift to San Francisco, where 19 of The City’s

BY DENA ROD Welcome to The Transgender Sabbatical Blues, an ongoing series exploring Dena Rod’s experience as a transgender, non-binary, Iranian American Bay Area local who took a five-week sabbatical all over the Northern Hemisphere. “I’m still on the boat,” Becky said, and I knew exactly what she meant. As soon as

When I was 19 years old and trying to explain to my then-10 year old brother what I was studying at college, I said “It’s what Tintin does.” Now, not everyday of work as a journalist feels like canoeing on the Amazon River or dodging giant apes on a Scottish

BY DENA ROD Welcome to The Transgender Sabbatical Blues, an ongoing series exploring Dena Rod’s experience as a transgender, non-binary, Iranian American Bay Area local who took a five-week sabbatical all over the Northern Hemisphere. We were about to experience #BOATLIFE. Sure, you may have heard of #VANLIFE but have you heard

BY DENA ROD What started as grief and loss over Iranians fighting for their freedom shifted into gratitude. I was a US citizen. That gave me an untold privilege that has always echoed throughout my entire life.  When traveling to Iran became an impossibility rather than a high-stakes travel goal, I

BY DENA ROD Welcome to The Transgender Sabbatical Blues, an ongoing series exploring Dena Rod’s experience as a transgender, non-binary, Iranian American Bay Area local who took a five-week sabbatical all over the Northern Hemisphere. But stopped I was. Without anyone responding to me on WhatsApp, there was no way that I

Written by Arianna Hayes Having been a resident of Nagoya for about seven years, I was asked to write about the differences between The Bay Area and Japan. I’m sure you’re expecting to hear about how Japan supersedes America in all forms, and how anime is amazing. I mean, the