Hi all! I’ve been pretty busy with the end of my Vox fellowship, job applications, and other writing, and I want to apologize for not having kept up super well here recently. I wanted to let you know that I’ve launched a Substack. My Substack blog, also called Statistics and Sentiments, is on “the human…
Author: Siobhan
A six-month-long summer
A year ago, I took a plane from Chicago to North Carolina. I didn’t know I wouldn’t return. I didn’t know what would happen in that city without trains, a city with lush graveyards and creeping vines, where the frats do unspeakable things and the quarry is brilliant at sunset. I didn’t know that an…
Stairways and Socrates
I haven’t blogged for a while, both because I’ve started a new job that involves writing all day (I love it!) and because I keep starting and stopping blogs trying to write something perfect. Having given up on public-facing perfection, here’s what I’ve been up to in San Francisco. First, it’s one of the happiest…
I moved across the US by train
Three months ago, I took the Amtrak in coach from Chicago to San Francisco, and I loved it so much that when I decided to move to San Francisco, I decided to do it again. I flew out to SF in mid-November with half of my stuff, but then had to move my bike. And…
It’s winter again: a new city and article roundup
I spent last evening looking at apartment prices in Chicago and trying to convince my friends and family to move to Hyde Park, which I left a month ago. Missing places! I fell in love with Scotland when I was 11. I fell in love with Delhi’s Safdarjung Enclave, with its twists and turns and…
Parting is such sweet sorrow
On August 4, I left my grandparents’ house on a redeye, and instead of sleeping I watched two movies. It was the day a job application was due. Apply, a couple of my friends told me. Even though I’m still in grad school? Yes. It’s been three months since then. I’ve been in Seattle twice,…
California Zephyr Amtrak in Coach Class: Chicago to San Francisco
In September 2021, I took the Amtrak California Zephyr from Chicago to Emeryville (including a bus to San Francisco). It was 54 hours. It cost $50 (coach class, on sale). It was incredible. This is a liveblog/guide with photos and videos for anyone who wants to read about this experience or is considering doing the…
My top 10 books of September 2020-September 2021
With a bit of time and space, I’m finally able to subjectively rank my favourite books I’ve read in the past year. These books are impossible to compare to each other given they include fantasy, speculative short stories, Young Adult fiction, a real Russian novel, a not-real Russian novel, and more. Something I didn’t realise…
Like still water, like the waves
It is nearly 11 am in East Village, and a woman in a flowing purple dress stops, turns, and walks five metres back to check her reflection in a mirror fragment on the ground. When the wind shifts, it smells like Delhi. A woman in an orange shirt walks in front of me, blasting music…
A reflection on poverty and inequality
When I was 12 years old and my family lived in Scotland, we visited one of the palaces of King Ludwig in Bavaria. It was a beautiful palace: something out of a fairytale. I wondered at how he had built this thing for himself, when the farmers in the area were starving. I was very…