My bags were packed, I got my visa and my passport in my pocket. And so I jumped on a plane on November 12 to go to San Francisco via Munich. I have been over here for a little bit over a week now in total and I am glad to say: I like it. I like it a lot.
Until I have figured out where I would want to live here in California, whether in San Francisco or closer to the Yahoo! office in Sunnyvale (although I am currently leaning more towards the latter), I am lucky to have a friend like Cindy who lets me crash at her place for now. Thanksgiving is coming up and I am the one who has to be thankful for that. Also, because of her, I was able to meet up with some nice people like Marianne, Craig and Daniel. I was also able to catch up with my Web Developer mates from London: Marco and Ben. And because of Cindy’s status as a web celebrity, one needs to be prepared to do a lot of partying, like Marianne’s birthday at Foreign Cinema, Ben’s housewarming party…wow, I am already partied out and could use some relax time.
But that’s not happening. I had my first day at Yahoo! last Monday and had to go through New Hire Orientation—although I am technically not a new hire. But anyways. Also got a new MacBook Pro, which is nice.
If you guys are curious, I am gonna be working on the new Universal Profile, which was redone and a beta version launched just recently.
As stated above, I really like it so far. The weather is nice (apart from today, where it is a bit cloudy), the people I have met so far were all nice and welcoming. San Francisco as a city is, by far, not as busy as London, much more spacious and with its location at the Pacific, it makes it a place you just have to like.
The only thing I pretty much hate right now is the commute from San Fran to Sunnyvale, which takes about 1 to 1.5 hours one way. Yahoo! provides a shuttle service from San Francisco and back, equipped with nice leather seats and even WiFi. All nice, but I still consider these 2 to 3 hours every day pretty much wasted. Which is why I am more leaning towards finding a place closer to the office, in Sunnyvale or Palo Alto. I will think about that during the next couple of weeks.
To sum it up: All good here in California. I like it here and, most of all, I am enjoying it.
Glad you’re settling in OK, Klaus. It’s been great to see you about!
One correction: The party at my place was actually for Ariel’s birthday. I haven’t actually had a housewarming yet, but it will come.
Good to hear things are going well, Klaus!
Klasse wenn es dir gefaellt. Ich flieg heute back ins Land der Umlaute
Hallo Klaus!
Na bitte, gratuliere zur Übersiedlung!
Grüß mir bitte San Francisco - wir waren 1998 das letzte Mal dort und haben es sehr genossen.
Ganz liebe Grüße aus Wien,
Max
PS: wenn’st wieder mal in der Gegend bist: da gibt’s ein paar Leute, die Dich gern mal wiedersehen würden - z.B. im Frank’s?
Hei Klaus! Freut mich wenns dir gut geht! Gratuliere, dass du das alles so gut geschafft hast (wie du’s dir vorgestellt hast:)!
Liebe Grüße aus Vorarlberg
Kathi