A Fresh Start (up)

After spending a week discovering all the new aspects of my new job, from the fitness center to the high level strategic issues, the challenge of this week-end was to find a permanent place to live. I had spent hours and hours online trying to select the best choices, to avoid spending too much time visiting places all around. And the first one was the good one! So I’ll be moving to Avalon on The Alameda, a nice residence with pool, spa and fitness center, on March 15th. This property has plenty of advantages: it is located close to a Caltrain station, so it is very convenient to go to Frisco whenever I want, close to work, and close to a lot of shops and restaurants, and even a car rental company. The apartment in itself is really nice as you can see on the picture, especially since I have the right to make improvements, like painting the walls. It is one bedroom and 735 sq. ft. apartment, with a dining room separated from the living room, and even a separated desk to install a computer station for example. The floor plan and even a virtual tour can be found here.

So now the next step for the week-end to come will be to find some furniture, painting and paintbrushes. Here is where I need your help: except Ikea, does any of you know great places to buy modern but not too expensive furniture? And the address of a Do-It-Yourself so that I can find everything I need to hang my paintings and paint some walls?

After a lot of hesitation, I think that I am going to try to get my driving license… Those who know me well must already think that plenty of fun stories will appear on this blog, since everybody has incessantly repeated me that I would be the worst driver ever, but I’m sure I can do that without killing anybody… At least I’ll try

Apart from that, the weather is really bad, I’m definitely not in L.A. anymore! So I am spending my week-end catching up with the episodes I missed of my favorites series, even if there are not a lot of them due to the scenarists’ strike… Hopefully I’ll be able to go to San Francisco next week end!

First day of a real job, this is something to mark with a white stone

I am so happy I made the choice of joining this company: all the new employee orientation was about belief in people’s honesty, ambition of changing the world when you come at work everyday, personal development, innovation, intrapreneurship… instead of the traditional review of benefits that you would have in any other company. It was… inspirational, and so American! My team is great, my mission is great, but I won’t detail that here, sorry

At lunch (where of course I had a French salad!), I ran into another expat I got to know in the French office, and whose blog has helped so much when I got to go through all the expatriation stuff! For a minute I got this great impression “I know someone here, a friendly face!!!”: Seb, I’m sure you didn’t realize how happy you made me!

I have asked my team about my dilemma with apartments… they all say that I should live in SF… if only I could find a decent apartment there! I think I’m going to stick to my first idea of staying in San Jose, except that I’ll have to find something close to work, with easy access to Caltrain (the only way to go to SF without a car!), and with shops around… because even if the apartment I live in currently is amazingly nice, I miss civilization when I look through the window and only see fields! It reminds me of Jouy-en-Josas; those who lived there will understand my misery

I’ll keep you posted on my apartment hunting guys!

Hi there! As promised, I am going to tell you more about my first steps as an expatriate… I landed yesterday in San Francisco, and, after a cab ride that cost me $100 (glups, this was a good start) I arrived in my temporary apartment found by my company in San Jose. What a good surprise when I discovered that it is an amazing place, with all the outside (spa, pool, volleyball court, barbecues…) and inside (dishwasher, washer/dryer, mixer, and even the special pizza knife!) amenities you can imagine… Besides it is well located close to a “tram” station that will drive me directly to my workplace.

The only problem: I had no idea that San Jose was such a huge city and I won’t find everything I need close to my place! In Miami and L.A., I got the chance to live in some really lively areas with plenty of stores, but now I realize that it is not possible everywhere in the US and that my residence is simply in the middle of nowhere!

So today we rented a car (but were obliged to go by train and bus to the airport to find a rental company!) to get the “survival kit”: a wifi router, a printer, and things to eat! Who said that the wifi router isn’t part of a traditional survival kit???

After buying basic things at Walmart (first time I went there, after so many case studies about Walmart when I was in HEC!!!), I decided that I missed Whole Foods way too much so we went to Palo Alto to find one… and we bought things to eat for at least a month!

And to make the most of having rented a car, we made a stop at Stanford University… and the pictures (even if I didn’t have my good camera) speak for themselves!

So here are the pictures of my residence and apartment, and of Stanford Uni!

Is there anybody here? When I take a look at my stats, I guess that there is nobody left

OK, I haven’t updated this blog for months, simply because the past 2 months were simply a transition period when I had nothing, absolutely nothing, interesting to say. I spent these 2 months with my family in the South of France, writing my thesis (almost done!) and being the more stressed girl on the planet because both my boyfriend and I got issues about our visas, and I was thinking that we were never going back to the US as we initially planned. Finally, we both received our beloved visas this week, and we are leaving on Friday

So I have decided (finally, after many hesitations!) to keep this blog as a more personal one, where I will speak about my expatriation and my experience in the US, and to keep the more professional stuff on Tech It Easy, that I haven’t updated in a while either.

So, of course, a lot more to come here about my first days in San Jose by the end of the week (if strikes in France don’t get worse and I manage to leave!)…