A Fresh Start (up)

I remember when Nicolas was telling me: “stop being so enthusiastic about Web2.0, when you’ll be working you’ll see that you won’t have time for your blog or spending hours on Facebook”… He was definitely right, and I apologize for the lack of updates, but I’m still working like crazy and it’s not likely to get better due to the economic circumstances…

Anyway, just a quick update of these last weeks:

- I finally attended the “Journée d’appel à la Défense” at the Lycée Francais, it was just a nightmare, I was lost in the middle of more than 300 teenagers, suddenly realizing that I wasn’t one of them anymore, listening to some propaganda about how great it is to serve your country and how the army is changing your life for the best. And I even have to wake at 7am on a Saturday to listen to that… anyway, now I have my paper!

- I went to Vegas for the Shop.org conference, it was great to talk to people from the industry, but I realized that last year I enjoyed Vegas only because I was with plenty of good friends, but when you’re not there to party and have time to take a step back to look at the people in the street, it’s actually a pretty sad city… Pictures are here.

- We spent a week in Hawaii for our honeymoon, in Oahu and Maui, and it was great! Oahu (Waikiki and Honolulu) looks like Miami (too many buildings to be really heavenly) but Maui met my expectations: the beaches are gorgeous, it was amazing! We went boogie boarding, horseback riding, we attended a luau (and discovered the delicious Kalua Pork)… and we should have avoided going to the rainforest, because we ended up spending the night in a cottage in the middle of a banana farm, chasing geckoes out of the house and hoping that there would be no serial killer in the farm because there was nobody who could have helped us!! All in all, it was a great break, but I was happy to be back home: as always, I don’t like being away from home for too long, and I guess that one week is my limit. No trip around the world for me! Pictures are here.

- It was my birthday last Sunday, and I spent it in the plane, but I had lunch with the team this week in a French café (very nice) and yesterday we celebrated that at the restaurant with Audrey, David and his roommate. And then we attended the Santana concert in Mountain View, it was awesome! The guy is just a phenomenon, the atmosphere was great, we had a great time.

- Manue is coming here on Tuesday, I can’t wait, I start really missing my French friends, I want to spend a night discussing about the meaning of life, the definition of happiness, the goals that we should pursue… even if you wake up the morning after with exactly the same doubts.

- Finally, the crappy news, I lost $2700 on craigslist: I sent money to a landlord to book an apartment in NYC for Christmas, and the guy was a fraud and closed the account right after the money arrived, so basically I lost my $2700… I filed a police report but I don’t have much hope at this point, so I’m canceling the trip to NYC and my parents will visit me in SF instead… You can’t start to imagine how angry I am…

This is it,  talk to you soon guys!

I am forcing myself to keep updating this blog, even if I start doing a much better job at calling all of you regularly to give “in-person” news, which is still much better.

I have worked like crazy these past few weeks but it seems that it will be slowing a bit down now. I am actually going to Vegas tomorrow for 3 days for the Shop.org conference, and I hope that I’ll manage to have some time in the evening for a bath in the Luxor’s swimming pool :-)… I feel that I really need some holidays now, fortunately Hawaii is not so far away (2 weeks!!!!) and I’m counting the days. These past few weeks I was really wondering: why didn’t I go into banking? I would do the same hours and be paid 3 times more… and then I read the news about the bankruptcy of Lehman, and I realized that I probably made a safer and more fun choice

Nothing much apart from that: Remy and I went to a fundraising event on Wednesday (the Director of my group is on the board of the association) for an association called Summer Search, which helps high school students in tough situations to go to college. It’s a very great project, and the event was amazing, at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga (a beautiful villa with an amazing park). Today we went to a BBQ at Annabelle’s place (which is gorgeous, in San Mateo) and that was again another “Melrose Place” moment, eating burgers around the pool (see pictures). Then we had dinner with Nicolas, his brother and his brother’s partners in SF: they’re both just absolutely handsome, it’s a real look for women

Remy is having his conference at Oracle World next Sunday, and he seems to be in a lot of stress: he is experiencing a weird pain below the ribs, and we even ended up at the hospital on Thursday night about that. After some blood tests, it seems that it has nothing to do with the liver, and it is just muscular or stress-related. I can understand the stress, it’s kind of a big deal to speak in front of so many experts, and I’m sure he’ll do great… Anyway, I can’t wait for this conference to be over and Remy and I to be in the plane for Hawaii

Talk to you when I’m back from Vegas guys!

I hate Mondays… I know, who doesn’t? This is a problem with no solution, because I hate Mondays when I had a bad week-end (I feel that I shouldn’t go back to work without having fun before) but also when I had a great week-end (I feel that… well, it should be longer!). I can’t imagine what it would be if I didn’t like my job

Anyway, this week-end was a really good one: Remy and I went to Carmel-by-the-Sea, one of the most romantic places I’ve ever seen… Well, most of you know that sea and sunset are enough for me . We also slept in Clint Eastwood’s ranch… well, without Clint Eastwood, obviously! On Sunday, after driving through the beautiful natural reserve “17-mile drive”, we went to Monterrey, and I was a bit disappointed by the aquarium, which is supposed to be the best in the world, but I loved seeing big colorful jellies… All the pictures of the week end are here.

Anyway, the conclusion of this week-end on the coast is that I want to have a beach house, do yoga every Sunday morning after drinking fresh orange juice, and then going running on the beach… OK, you all understood that it wasn’t going to happen: so far, my traditional Sundays look more like 1) eating a lot of Nutella instead of drinking orange juice 2) watching lots of episodes of “The West Wing” lying on my sofa instead of running on the beach or practicing yoga… For sure, they won’t feature my life in “Lifestyle Magazine”

  I’m exhausted after a long trip back from Tahoe (I’m still sick in cars!) so the article will be short and very factual. We spent the 3-day 4th of July week-end in Lake Tahoe with Seb and Audrey, and it was really cool and relaxing: lying on the beach under a perfect sun, watching beautiful fireworks on the lake, eating in a delicious restaurant with lake-view… is more or less how I’d like to spend all my week-ends … This is what I really love about California: 4 hours away from San Jose you can discover this beautiful lake with all the water-related activities, whereas it is a very popular ski resort during winter… This country never stops to amaze me, you really can’t become cynical when you live in this country… Pictures are here!

I’m just back from our team building event in San Diego, and it was really awesome! Nothing like the cheap stuff that most companies do, but actual fun!

On Monday we went sailing in the San Diego bay, and it was my first time: I was really good with the steering wheel, I’m definitely the daughter of a fisherman . Then we had dinner at an awesome restaurant and finally drank a lot in a karaoke bar…

Today we went to the San Diego zoo (not the one I went to the last time I visited San Diego, but the “Wild Animal Park”, which is a large park / breeding facility) and we went to a safari where we could feed some giraffes! Of course I loved it: most of you know how excited I get when there is a combination of animals and picture spots

All the pictures of my team and the giraffes are here. I definitely want to live on the beach someday; San Diego is pretty awesome for the “surfer style”…

I am exhausted… but delighted! On Thursday and Friday, I was in Chicago to attend my first eBay Live!, the annual gathering of eBay buyers and sellers. I can’t really say a lot about it since it is work-related, but I can tell you that speaking with all those sheer entrepreneurs and passionate people, really inspired me and made me realize even more that I work for a company like no other (and these are my views and not the ones of my company… legal stuff ). In strategic jobs, when you spend most of your time in front of a computer, it is essential to have moment like these to meet with your customers, especially when they are so atypical, to understand clearly the impact of what you are doing on the people that depend on your company to pay their son’s college tuition or to pay their employees. Whether they are happy or not, our customers really care about what we are doing, and this is already a huge motivation factor. Anyway, I’m glad to have had the opportunity to see so much energy, passion and originality gathered in a convention center. All the official eBay pictures are here. And I’m still in love with Chicago!

Yesterday we spent the day in SF with Audrey, doing a lot of shopping . Pictures here. She cooked a delicious “poulet basquaise”, so now I’m obliged to try to reproduce her recipe  for Rémy… He’ll probably be very disappointed

And finally tomorrow I’m heading to San Diego for a 2-day offsite with my team, this is going to be fun, if we don’t get eaten alive by the nice sharks of the San Diego bay!

I know I look ridiculous with this hat, but I must say I like the picture anyway… My damn attraction for everything that I saw on American TV!!!

As you might have understood, I’m just back from France after my one-week trip. I spent a couple of days working at the eBay office in Paris to avoid losing too many days off (they are precious in the US!) so I saw everyone again: it is almost hard to imagine that the two offices are part of the same company, since the different sizes create completely different atmospheres. I must say that I enjoyed the traditional French breakfast in the cafeteria where everyone spends at least a few minutes in the morning to discuss with others around really good brioches

I presented my thesis on Thursday, got an A and a great proposal: my tutor told me that she thinks that I can get published, and that she would help me if I considered it. I am thinking about it; it is both a lot of work and a great opportunity.

On Thursday I attended the class gift ceremony and the last HEC party: I saw people that I haven’t seen in two years even if I deeply love them, it seems crazy… But during the party everything seemed exactly the same, it was so reassuring… I realize that it must be really hard for those, unlike me, who have spent this last year in HEC. For me, this week was just a nice remembrance of how it used to be; for them, it’s much more the end of something without a clear vision on the future. The graduation ceremony was really moving, especially our dean’s speech: this school really deserves its first rank in Europe, and for once (even if it is highly unusual for a French person!) I must say that I’m really proud to have had the privilege of attending such an institution. All the pictures (party + ceremony) are here.

But all this week I’ve been waiting for a “click”, that would make me think that I belong in my home country, and that this time in the US is just a nice experience. I’ve been looking for that in the many attentions of my mother, in the laughs of my friends, in the terraces of Parisian cafés… and I just couldn’t find it. Of course I miss my parents and friends, of course I miss French food and art de vivre, but I never felt that I belong there, whereas being in the US seems natural… I’ve heard the terrific question a thousand times this week: “why do you want to stay in the US?”… and I can’t manage to find a rational and therefore convincing answer to give to these people, so I always answer with the same passion that I had when I was 5 and told my mom that I wanted to live in the country of the big buildings; which automatically lead people to think that I watched TV too much and that I will go back to France when I’ll realize that living in the US is not an episode of 90210 every day. Well, I don’t want to ascertain things because you feel stupid when you change your mind despite what the proverb says, but I am *almost* sure that I’ll never feel delighted at the idea of coming back to France, and therefore will do everything I can to avoid it, even if it won’t be easy considering the visa mess in which I find myself!

Anyway, I finally took a plane back yesterday to go back to Rémy (who I missed so much this week, I am so sad that he couldn’t attend those moments with me) but since it is me, nothing could go easy: 6 planes landed at the same time in DC, so I spent 3 hours at Immigration and Customs, then I heard that my connection was delayed because of a thunderstorm in Richmond. 4 hours later my plane finally arrived but…. it had a technical problem: they couldn’t turn the computers on, and therefore couldn’t put fuel in the plane! I started to sleep on the floor of the airport (a few hours after having heard by my dean that I am part of the elite of the world, it’s somewhat ironic) and another 2 hours later, we finally boarded: useless to tell you that I am exhausted, especially after spending the entire day catching up with work emails!

Just a quick post: I’m flying back to France tomorrow for a week, to present my thesis (on Thursday)  and attend my graduation ceremony (on Friday). I can’t wait to see you again guys

Quick summary of the past week: a lot of work, a nice dinner with Nicolas and Thomas in San Francisco yesterday,  and a day in Santa Cruz with Audrey and Guillaume today. A beautiful beach (as you can see), a nice lunch around 4pm, and the visit of the “mystery spot”, a really weird place in the forest where gravitational rules are not respected, you can see it all here! Yes, we seem very stupid not standing perpendicular to the floor . Other event of the week: Remy participated to the show on BFM radio called “L’Atelier Numerique” to speak about his job; I’ll post the podcast here when it’ll be available! Yes, we will all be famous for 15 minutes of our life

See you in Paris!

Bad, bad week: a bad flu after my Yosemite trip, some tight deadlines at work, not many hours of sleep, and the confirmation that I won’t get my visa this year. Yes, dear friends, I’ll be back to Paris in February 2009! I hope that, like Nico says, “brunches with friends and lots and lots of boat trips” will compensate the fact that I really didn’t want to see the Eiffel Tower again so soon. Speaking of Paris, I’ll be there next week for my graduation: it is weird because I feel so out of touch with all this school thing, but on the other hand I feel really nostalgic that this part of my life is over. I’ll share the pictures with the nice square hat soon!

A part from that, the week wasn’t all bad: I had dinner with Seb and Valentine (from the French office) on Thursday and it was really cool, like a real French dinner in a French restaurant with a lot of talking before, between and after the meals… Seb saw that I was on the verge of getting completely crazy with the flu + the workload, so he saved me from a major nervous breakdown by inviting me that evening

Fortunately this week-end was pretty cool: Audrey turned 25 and invited some friends to a nice restaurant in SF (see picture), so I met some cool people (French, of course, can’t help it!) and then we went to a club (French, of course!) where I met an HEC from my promotion that I was supposed to meet in the weeks to come, but I guess the French community is a small world!

For this 3-day week-end, we had planned to go to Yosemite National Park, since all the guides mention that it is THE best week-end to visit Yosemite. We had planned to go boating on Bass Lake, to rent a canoë on the Merced River… I had packed all my bathing suits and light dresses, and we were ready to go!

We arrived at our hotel at night, after miles of sinuous roads: I think I had already turned green an hour before our arrival. I will never regret enough to have eaten this Burger King burger before leaving

When we got out of the car, we realized quickly that the light dresses would be absolutely useless: there was still snow everywhere! We got into the room to discover that, of course, there was to heating, which was definitely a problem since I only had a nightie to sleep! We also discovered the 20 warnings about bears: apparently 37 cars have been destroyed this month in Yosemite by starving bears! I started thinking “why the hell did I decide to come here? Wasn’t Vegas attractive enough???”

But things can always get worse: when we woke up on Saturday, it was the remake of The Great Flood, and of course, the hotel manager told us that the weather would be the same for 3 days! She even advised to go visit the Yosemite museum, displaying pictures of Yosemite: if this is what I wanted to do, I would have used Google Images, dammit!

Since I am a really stubborn person, I decided to try to see at least the most famous spots, in order not to be obliged to come back! The intensity of the rain was decreasing a bit, so we managed to see Maripose Grove of Giant Sequoias, the Bridaveil and Yosemite Falls, El Capitan… and the picture you can see is a proof that we made it! What can’t be seen in the picture is that, just after taking it, we ran like crazy to the car because we were freezing, and then spent the night watching Gilmore Girls

On Sunday morning it was getting even worse so we left without any regret, except the one of having missed the opportunity of a 3-day week-end! I am so not a “nature” kind of girl!