/travel/usa/Oops..I'm in California
Hey.
I should have blogged this a few days ago. I'm currently in California, until March 10th or thereabouts. I'm staying in Sunnyvale. This is part of the urban glob (formerly?) known as Silicon Valley. It's south of San Francisco.
It's urban and globular, though it appears to have a sharp edge after which it's fairly empty with windy roads through the mountains.
I flew DUBlin to ShaNnoN to ATLanta to San FranciscO. Eight hours of timezone change, but since I had to get up the next day to go to work, I kicked it pretty quick-like.
My customs/immigration man had been stationed in Calgary, and was out-and-out friendly. As I was leaving he said, quite sincerely, "It was nice chatting with you."
On the other hand, the Irish security woman got very upset when she asked if I had any electronics on me, and I started laughing halfway through the list. "Do you think going through security is funny?" she asked, like a fourth grade sex-ed teacher.
My flat in Dublin is fan-dancy. I've even got plates now, and a little place to keep my toothpaste. I need broadband and a laptop, and it'll almost be like I have a home!
Being 8 timezones away from someone you want to have proper phonecalls with is sucktastic.
So anyway, if you're reading this, you're standing to close. And if you're reading this and you're in California, you should email me.
/travel/ireland/Walking and Settling
Last Wednesday (or was it Thursday?) I went for a walk through the Wicklow mountains. I caught a bus to southern Dublin, with tent and full gear on my back, and started walking.
The terrain was varied -- narrow Irish roads, logging roads, cultivated pine forests, rocky uphill climbs, rugged hilltops covered in gorse. There were two major climbs, one about 400m or so, and the other of unknown (but lesser) height. It was misty, sometimes rainy, and often windy. Reaching the top of a mountain, albeit small, to face a bracing sea wind is rather exhilirating.
I think I walked about 20km, to end up in Enniskerry. Sadly, the two B&Bs I found were closed for the low season. There was a Dublin Bus sitting there headed back to town, so I decided to leave the trip at one day, rather than the two I'd planned. My walking muscles were intensely sore for two days, so that was probably for the best. I ate a lot when I got home.
I'm slowly settling in. My flat is in a nice area called Rathmines just south of downtown, and everyone speaks well of the location. It's got a decent size kitchen/living room, and a nice bedroom. It's on the top (4th in Canadian terms, 3rd in European terms) floor of a redone Georgian house, set back from a major street. Fourteen steps to the nearest pub entrance from the front gate, and about six steps to a domino's pizza. The nearest convenience store is literally across the street, and there's a Tesco grocery store about seven minutes away by foot.
I've started working at Google. They take their secrecy very seriously, and I'm not very interested in blogging about work anyway, so I won't be writing anything about it, really. Suffice to say I'm enjoying myself.
It'll still be quite a while before I have a proper bank account and internet access here, so life still seems somewhat tentative, but it's coming along now. Work provides some nice structure after four weeks of randomness.
/travel/ireland/Shiny Cards
I got my shiny card from the Garda (police) National Immigration Burea. It's got a smart chip on it.
My travel here was the smoothest I can remember. So smooth, I had a bit of a shock the first time I had to deal with being on the "wrong" side of the road, since I mentally hadn't traveled far enough to be somewhere so thoroughly backwards and confused.
It's going to be cold this weekend, the locals have warned me, dipping down near 4 or 5 degrees. Yes, Celcius. There are flowers out, and everything is green. I think I could get used to that.
The sidewalks and roads here have the same haphazard patches-over-patches feel that Oxford had. I'm not sure if it's just a different style or attitude, or if the lack of freeze-thaw-freeze cycles means that's the right way to do things.
I've been running errands and relaxing -- Clare's got a big presentation on Friday, so I've been trying to stay out of her way. Hopefully tomorrow I'll start looking in earnest for places to live.
It'll be at least a week or two before I have broadband and a laptop.
(I've tucked this in the "travel" section, which doesn't seem quite right since I'm here for a good while. But whatever.)
Comments
Patrick wrote
Hi there Rob. Glad to read that you are settling in. Nice weather, eh? It does get cold with the wet, though! Cheers!
Andrew wrote
Maybe if you don't like the term "travel", try "abroad"; it might seem more appropriate and indicates that you'd prefer to be "home" with family and "friends". It'll make us happy, regardless to the truth of the matter. ;)
Rob wrote
Hi "Andrew", I'm sorry to have "offended" you. :-)
