Here are a few basic Europe tips that are easy to forget but could make your life easier.

I prefer CityMapper over Google Maps. I find the routing suggestions more sensible, it also gives you optimizations such as which car to board and provide better information on where the best exits are. Picking the right exits can significantly save you time. I found the info alerts to be more up to date. I liked being able to star journeys that I knew I was going to take later.

Get your Apple Pay/Google Wallet setup with a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees. American credit cards are typically chip and signature as opposed to chip and pin. Save the staff from finding a pen and you from signing by using a mobile wallet. In cities like London you can also use Apple Pay to pay for transit. Tip, turn on express mode so you don’t need your face id or passcode to authenticate.

In old touristy buildings such as the Musee d’Orsay, don’t use the elevators unless you need to. In ideal world, there would be more elevators but its a massive understaking to retrofit these buildings. In the case of the Orsay, there's like two public elevators for the whole museum. Save the elevators for those with strollers/wheelchairs and people who have low mobility. You should always give those folks priority.

Forget LonelyPlanet. Have you ever looked at what it recommends for your city? I know I find its recommendations for San Francisco pretty uninspiring. Look to smaller publications that might align to your personality. Personally, I've found a lot of great leads through Monocle. Ask friends you trust or coworkers that might have a connection. Dig on social media and reddit.

I always stock up on sunscreen because in

 Europe they have more approved sunscreen filters, namely Tinosorb

. I’m a big of the European formulation of La Roche Posay so I stock up on that. 

Shopping. More and brands are able to ship to the US but between the cost and hassle of import duties/customs, it’s still nice to browse some smaller brands that are harder to get in U.S. Some favorites include Bellerose, Soeur, Samsøe & Samsøe, Numph, Sita Murt, des petits hauts, and TOAST. I've got more faves but those are some that I can think of off the top of my head. Sezane, COS, Mango, &Other Stories, and ba&sh have a pretty good presence in the US but still are some of my faves to shop at.

European luxury goods can be cheaper and if you shop tax free, that could mean around 20% back. Depends on the currency and whether the store offers it. Bring your passport, though some will accept a photo of the passport.

If you go to Europe enough, just get a dedicated Schuko plug. The global adapters are notorious for their poor longevity. They aren’t always the cheapest either. Instead a pack of 6 schuko adapters will only set you back $10.

If your hair straightener, blow dryer, etc isn’t dual voltage it will need a voltage adapter. I would just leave those at home.

And general advice. Pack some basics into your carry on. At the minimum some fresh underwear. When my flight home got canceled, I got separated from my checked bag. I was relieved that I had a change of clothes in my carry on. It sounds like a no brainer but I almost ignored this!


Some Europe travel advice

My favorite tiny tools

We were hoping to going to return to Hokkaido in 2021, but the pandemic scuppered that. Hokkaido 2022 has now become Hokkaido 2023!

Hokkaido 2023?

Malcolm Gladwell may be a good storyteller but in my mind he is the worst kind of pseudo-intellectual.

1. He has bad ethics. One example is that he defends Joe Paterno. https://www.newsweek.com/malcolm-gladwell-joe-paterno-backlash-1484882

2. His reporting is sloppy and deceptive. In an episode of revisionist history, he attempts to make the claim that because Bowdoin College has good food, it's not focused one equity. It's an alluring claim. While Bowdoin could admit more of a diverse population, the fault doesn't lie with campus food. He doesn't break down the math or let Bowdoin share their side of the story. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/07/18/malcolm-gladwell-sets-debate-over-whether-good-campus-food-prevents-more-aid-low

3. It's admirable that he tries to simplify something that is technically complex. But if you don't have the technical depth to understand the situation in the first place, you can easily draw the wrong conclusion. This is the case with his Toyota sudden acceleration case episode. I happened to have a listened to talk on the topic done by ECE professor at Carnegie Mellon who was an expert witness in the case. Gladwell get's his conclusion wrong because he doesn't really understand how cars work. If you take a moment to delve deeper in Toyoto case, you'll understands its much more complex than Gladwell makes it.
https://betterembsw.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-case-study-of-toyota-unintended.html 

But hey don't take my word for it, Steve Pinker, a legit academic, 

An eclectic essayist is necessarily a dilettante, which is not in itself a bad thing. But Gladwell frequently holds forth about statistics and psychology, and his lack of technical grounding in these subjects can be jarring. He provides misleading definitions of “homology,” “sagittal plane” and “power law” and quotes an expert speaking about an “igon value” (that’s eigenvalue, a basic concept in linear algebra). In the spirit of Gladwell, who likes to give portentous names to his aperçus, I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer’s education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong.

Malcolm Gladwell is not good

Recently, I got back from my second big trip to Big Sky, Montana. There's still some major ski destinations that I need to hit but Big Sky has to be one of my favorite ski areas.

BZN, Bozeman's airport has lot of direct flight options. Plane tickets are not exorbitantly priced.

Easy, relatively flat drive from BZN to Big Sky

Number of reasonably priced accommodations less than a 20 minute drive

Excellent ski in and ski out options if you want to splurge

Big Sky

In late October, I received a jury summons for the County of San Francisco. I had to report to the Hall of Justice, located at 7th and Bryant St. 

When they took attendance, my ears perked up. Soleil Ho, the food critic, was in the same jury pool as me. She ended up like me having to show up for the selection process the following week. As if inspired by her, I had jokingly thought that if I got picked, I could chronicle my meals. I ended up getting picked, so here’s my recommendations for things to eat within half a mile of the Hall of Justice.

AK Subs has some of the best warm sandwiches in the city. If you factor in the price for what you get, AK Subs is a clear winner. As someone who went to college in Pittsburgh, I’m also swayed by the yinzer paraphernalia.

My order: Tony's Hot Pastrami or Philly Cheesesteak with American Cheese 

It’s a straightforward Banh Mi shop. It’s located perpendicular to the Hall of Justice on Beekman. It’s the closest place you’d actually want to eat at.

Pizza Squared offers both Detroit and Sicilian square slices perfect for lunch.

Beyond Cafe is a HK style cafe. Hearty and filling, it reminds me of a meal that I might have in Asia.

Beautiful, technically perfect pastries. You get a free coffee with a pastry purchase on Wednesdays.

My order: Pain au Chocolat or Chocolatine :)

Sightglass serves pastries from my favorite bakery in all of SF, Neighbor Bakehouse.

I know a lot of prospective jurors come to the Deli Board. On the first few days of 

, I recognized a lot of people who were also in my batch. The sandwiches are high quality but sometimes you don’t really want to cough up $20 for a sandwich. I think their salads are not very good for the price.

Pho at Turtle Tower is the northern style and has a lot of differences from what you’ll see at southern Pho places. The broth is less assertive; mung beans and basil are absent as well. Other critics will say their Tenderloin location is superior. Save it for the quiet days where you can dine inside at Turtle Tower.

I understand that not everyone wants to spend a lot of money on lunch. Trader Joe’s has plenty of prepared sandwiches and salads for a quick nosh. Sadly, the Jury Assembly room does not have a microwave so frozen meals are out.

My pick: Chicken Tarragon Salad Wrap

What to eat near the Hall of Justice

Moab / Fruita / Sedona for mountain biking

Independence Pass / Pikes Peak / Mt Evans for epic elevation in Colorado

Pittsburgh to DC Gap Trail while bike camping

Conquer city steeps with Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen and Seven Hells of San Francisco

Gibraltar Rd, Mt Baldy because of Tour of California history

Alto de Letras, longest climb in the world in Colombia

Bike on the bike path in Banff National Park

Flume Trail in Lake Tahoe (mountain biking)

Monitor Pass and Ebbetts Pass during the Death Ride

From sea level to 10K, Paia to Haleakala National Park in Maui

2 Historic rail trail rides. Philadelphia to Valley Forge and Minuteman Trail in Boston

Americas Bike Bucket List

House then and nowish

People are usually surprised to hear that Tahiti is a 6.5 hour flight and 3 hours time difference from SFO. A short ferry ride away from Tahiti is an island called Moorea. Moorea doesn't have the same jaw dropping lagoon views that her more famous sibling Bora Bora does but it's still incredibly beautiful.

French Polynesia has always been alluring to me. It wasn't until United announced direct flights from SFO that I seriously started thinking about going. I had set aside thoughts of going until I was browsing Google Flights for a destination. I was looking for somewhere we could fly directly to, was oriented around being outdoors, and didn't cost a small fortune. The $640 roundtrip plane ticket caught my interest. A 6 day trip in late August quickly materialized thereafter. 

SFO to FAA Economy tickets on United Airlines
We booked 1 night in an Airbnb near the ferry port of Papee'te as
4 nights at Hilton Moorea (1 night in a Panoramic Overwater Bungalow, 3 nights in Garden Bungalow with Plunge Pool)

Car rental from Faa'a
Whale tour
Sunset boat cruise
2x ferry tickets plus car ferry ticket

French Polynesia went into a fairly restrictive tier the night before we left. So all our tours had to be cancelled.

I guess since people cancelled their trip, we were allowed to stay in the Panoramic Overwater Bungalow every night. 

Since we had a car, we were allowed to pick up take out and grab groceries. I ate enough tuna for a lifetime, usually in the form of Poisson Cru. For snacks, we had baguettes and ate with Cammembert and duck pate. 

Besides picking up food, there wasn't much we could do besides enjoy our resort. We snorkeled a bunch, got some exercise by doing open water swimming to the buoys, and did a little bit of a stand up paddle boarding. 

I'm usually the person that over plans their trip so it was nice to have a lot of time to relax. Our balcony out onto the lagoon was a great place to just sit and enjoy the consistent wind that is present in the Windward Islands. A huge bonus of the overwater bungalow is that there are no mosquitoes.

Ecologically, I did feel a bit of guilt because there was no way to build this resort without some damage to coral. I was happy to see that one of the concrete pillars had some health coral growing on it.

Moorea

Our farmer’s markets. It’s cheap, fresh, and the variety year round is amazing.

Biking across the Golden Gate Bridge and riding Hawk Hill in the mornings. I can squeeze rides that are both challenging and scenic before I start the work. It sure beats doing laps in Prospect Park.

We have the best recycling technology which means our recycling bundles are clean and well sorted which means they are actually get recycled.

Compost pickup! We end up throwing less trash away because we have residential compost pickup. It’s industrially composted and gets turned to fertilizer.

Progressive laws especially when it comes to the environment. There are plenty of laws that I can’t get behind but overall, we have some of the most progressive governance in the country.

Availability of raw ethnic ingredients. I can get 10 different kinds of za’atar spice at a local Persian grocery that’s a 10 minute walk from my house.

If you don’t feel like cooking, there's an abundance of good food at all price points.

Weather. The weather is seriously wonderful most of the year. Daytime temperatures usually hover around 60 degrees. Good weather makes it even more pleasant to walk and bike places.

I live 15 minutes away from a major international airport that with one connecting flight can take me to so many places. There are also stunning day trips within 2-4 hours driving distance. Having lived here for 8 years, I still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface.

Why I love San Francisco

This is how we announced to all our friends and family that we got married.

Subject: Two peas in a pod

Hi friends and family,
After being pals for ten years, Robbie and I got legally married today at San Francisco City Hall via Microsoft© Teams and DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU). If you’re feeling a twinge sorry for us, don’t. Even if it weren’t the pandemic, there wouldn’t be a wedding. We had long discussed a City Hall thing with only the two of us.

We look forward to celebrating the next time we get to hang out in person.

Dian and Robbie

P.S. No name changes; I’ve already got diandianxiao.com


How we announced we got married

This a mini review of Minor Feelings that I 

"Minor feelings occur when American optimism is enforced upon you, which contradicts your own radicalized reality, thereby creating a static of cognitive dissonance. You are told, 'Things are so much better,' while you think, Things are the same."

"I can tell you I have attracted all kinds of wild, vituperative behavior from white people I never play the role of compliant Asian woman."

These two quotes capture two struggles I have with my experience in the workplace and society. Your pessimism is unlikable and undesirable. People want you have the same happy optimism that your male coworker who has never been oppressed has.

Meanwhile, your fellow female coworker. She's been oppressed too, but she fights back with a tenacious aggression. She might be seen as mean but she works hard and gets shit done. She's a girl boss. You know you can't do the same thing since society sees your compliance as your defining trait. Without it, you are nothing.

While my life experiences are different from Cathy Park Hong. I feel similar feelings of anger and pain. To read this book is to feel my pain. If you don't like it, we probably can't be friends.

Minor Feelings

This weekend the French Open was won by Barbora Krejčíková. If you were a die-hard tennis fan, you might have known she was an accomplished doubles player. She had quietly risen the singles ranks, up to 33rd right before the tournament. Her shocking victory barely made a splash.

Perhaps, the women's final was always going to be overshadowed by the iconic battle between Djokovic and Nadal the day before. The French Open Twitter account tweeted out photos from the trophy photo shoot afterward. Novak Djokovic's tweet got 3x the engagement that Krejčíková's did.

In the previous weeks, I argued that the French Open ultimately wants players like Naomi Osaka there. As one of the most popular players, she is good for the business of tennis. They probably knew that the public was going to be on Osaka's side. Then why did the French Open threaten to default her for skipping press conferences? Was it because the tournament directors were racist? It's entirely possible. After all, they were the ones who caused the drama with Serena's catsuit. However, I do not think it is the most significant underlying factor.

While players have had one-off press conference skips, skipping many in a row was uncharted territory. This is one reason I think Naomi was brave in her choice to speak up in this way. As a big tennis fan, I've watched press conferences as well as read press transcripts for nearly 18 years. Almost all players are subjected to lazy, rude, and invasive questioning. However, women and especially women of color, are also subjected to sexist and racist questions. I can, especially how if someone was in a delicate mental state, these press conferences could be crushing.

While I support Naomi's decision, I also believe the tournament had no choice in determining that further boycotts could lead to a default. Players are more affluent and more influential than ever. The tournaments had to take a firm stance to maintain their power. If they continued to let players dictate the rules, their influence further becomes eroded.

You also cannot ignore the media dynamic. 

 mentions how media presence at major tennis tournaments is declining. Many of Tennis' biggest stars are at the twilight of their careers. To some degree, I think the tournaments worry there will be retaliation by the media if access to the hottest young star would be limited.

The least cynical reason perhaps is that if they allowed her to stay in the tournament by just paying the fines, the less wealthy players would be crying out that it wasn't fair. They may also hate attending pressers but not financially take the burden of not attending them.

This begets the question, why do we even have press conferences in the first place?

This is what I feel most conflicted about. Besides tennis, I also watch professional cycling. The biggest stars of cycling could be considered rich but cycling is considered poor compared other sports. Many riders cannot make a  living full-time living riding bikes. On the women's side, the situation is even direr. Most women riding professionally don't make enough money to make it their full-time occupation. 

Why is there such a big difference between men's and women's cycling. Nobody wakes up and says I'm only going to be interested in men's cycling. The biggest root reason is that there is very little media coverage of the women's races compared to men's races. 

Tennis used to have similar issues. Billie Jean King has spoken up about how they would beg for media coverage in her tennis days.

As much as I support Osaka's battle, I think it's important to remember that it's never so simple. As a tennis fan, I think the best outcome would be to improve press conferences. Make a zero-tolerance policy for bad reporters. Yank the credentials of reporters who ask sexist, racist questions, and then maybe they won't be so much of a chore. Perhaps, all the outrage on behalf of Naomi will lead to something good.

Naomi Osaka and the perilous popularity of fringe sports

It started with a request for mixed-race volunteers. A coworker had asked on an ERG slack channel if anyone of mixed race was willing to speak on a panel for parents of mixed-race children. I asked my friend, who is half Chinese, if she might want to participate. While she agreed, she felt that these children would not face the same struggles she faced as a mixed-race person in the 90s midwest.

"[I had to] talk for my mom as a kid when white people were being shitty about her accent."

It reminded me of my experiences growing up in a primarily white area. For most of my life, I attributed moving a lot as the main reason for not having many close friendships.

Recently, I realized that playdates are arranged because the parents are friends with one another. Often in a group of girls, the moms all hung out with one another. There was at least one girl clique that I felt like I could never be entirely accepted socially because my mom was not American enough.

I'm still friends with another girl who felt that she was similarly iced out because her mother worked. My immigrant mother stood no chance of fitting in with these parents.

I actually wasn't sure how social my mom really was until we went to China. She had gone back to the hospital she used to be a nurse and held a massive party for all her old friends. I think about how at that party, she was in an element I rarely saw her in.

It makes me emotional to think about her life in America. If I found it hard to fit in, she stood no chance.

A realization on fitting in

This area is expensive for a reason. Not everyone deserves to live just anywhere. If you add more people, you increase traffic and that sucks. My family and I are doing just fine, I don’t really see what the fuss is about for other people. They should just live somewhere else.

We shouldn’t build more housing because that’s playing to the capitalist mindset and being a shill to the construction and real estate industry. We should use government resources to build as much affordable housing as possible. But wait, the problem is the influx of...these tech people! Some of these tech bros are terrible. If we vocalize that we hate “techies”, maybe they will just leave and things will go back to what they were before they came. San Francisco has lost its soul.

Hmm. We don’t really like poor people in our neighborhood so affordable housing is out. Plus our neighborhood has such wonderful character, if you let a developer build a boxy multi-unit building, it’s going to ruin the character. If it’s in another neighborhood, maybe. But not tax increases, alright? I agree with you about these tech people. I’m not really a fan of these nouveau riche. They are so cultureless.

*Thinking to themselves* We don’t have many options if we do mixed rate housing. If we settle for anything less than half, then we will be seen as supporting gentrifiers. Without a tax increase, we can’t really do fully affordable housing. I can’t really compromise my integrity though.

SF is too bureaucratic as it is. Too many rules!

NIMBY chatroom

I wanted to write about something nagging at my heart. While I have seen a lot of support as news of violence against Asians has started to pick up. While I have been subject to overt racist behavior, I am crushed by the subtle Asian disdain that I encounter in my life. You meet people who consider themselves “definitely not racist” but easily make fun of Asians and Asian culture.

This is the person who will tell you that they ate McDonald’s every day on a business trip in Asia because they thought local food was disgusting.

This is the person who will imply that products made in the “East” are inferior.

They might also make general statements regarding Chinese tourists.

I, too, have cringed at a busload of Chinese tourists who are misbehaving. I also know that they are not representative of all Chinese tourists. With a country of over 1 billion people, there are bound to be bad actors.

I can be against exploitative labor practices but also know that there is precision manufacturing that is only done in Asia. I can be appreciative of buying local goods but also take pride in things made in Asia.

What bothers me is the carelessness in which these comments are made. I can’t imagine going up to a French person I just met and telling them I hate French food. But yet many people I meet feel very comfortable telling what they dislike about various parts of my culture. It's only made worse when they expect you to assent with their opinion.

Korean sunscreen brand was found to have less protective sunscreen than advertised

, members of the skincare community quickly disavowed all Asian beauty products. It mattered little that there were still many open questions on who was to blame.

At the same time, I think of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. VW purposefully tried to skirt environmental rules set by organizations like the EPA, which affected nearly 11 million cars worldwide. We don’t need to play a game of exculpating Asian businesses and indicting Western ones. I just find it laughable that we blindly trust Western companies or authorities more. We should honestly have a healthy mistrust of all companies in this capitalist world.

Ask yourself, would you make the same remarks if it was a western culture, company, person? 