A Fresh Start (up)

As you may have noticed, this blog has been going in every directions these past weeks. I created it a few months ago and was willing to wait until my expatriation to launch it, but I couldn’t resist and I started this blog by talking a lot about Internet stuff, as it is the sector I love, and because I was really focused on that those past few months.

But the Internet is not the only thing I would like to talk about; in fact I realize that I would like to be able to write about everything I like, everything that surprises me, everything that scares me. In a word, I would like to talk about my life, because it’s often what blogs written by a unique author are, and life is diverse, fortunately.

I have spent one week and a half in the US now and I can’t manage to catch up with Internet news, so at this moment I can’t say anything great about Internet stuff but I would love to talk about American educational system, about the difficulties of expatriation, about the fact of being immersed in a group of international people… And I will probably go back to tech subjects in a while because I’ve taken courses in Technology Management at UCLA which are really promising. And I’m still working on my thesis about the impact of the Internet on the art market so I will also bring cool stuff about it.  And I know that it is hard to find a consistency between Internet, entrepreneurship, digital art, expatriation and education topics, but the common thing they share is that they are all part of my life…

But I also know that I can’t ask my readers to be interested in everything I like, so I really don’t know what to do

In a word it would be great if you can give some feedback on the subject. Do you think that blogs have to be specialized so that readers know what to expect? Or that if you like a blog it’s because you like the author (:-)) and would be interested in knowing more about him/her on multiple topics?

PLEASE, I really need your comments to figure that out, and it can also bring an interesting discussion about what blogging really is.

I really didn’t plan on writing this but apparently, things like this happen in L.A.! About one hour ago, we were forced by policemen to evacuate our apartment because… apparently there is a bomb in our street! You really can’t imagine the impression it is to have a policemen knocking at your door in the middle of the night and pushing you away from your apartment, then running out of a perimeter in pyjamas, then trying to find a taxi, then trying to find an hotel to crash while one of the most populated area in L.A. is being evacuated… So we were obliged to spend 200 bucks to get a room somewhere, but at least now we’re at the Marriott! We were lucky because we were closest to the “supposed” bomb so we were the first building of a whole boulevard to be evacuated, so we found an hotel quite rapidly… I really can’t complain, people who were in the towers during 9/11 would have loved to be moved on time…

More to come in a few hours, I really hope that this is a false alarm and that I’ll be back to my apartment tomorrow morning…

Update: Of course it was a false alarm, and I can go back to my apartment. I could even have done that 2 hours after evacuating apparently, but they probably prefer to be cautious… All the story here. At least the night at the Marriott was really nice

Update n°2: After going back to our apartment, we decided to go outside to shop and… same scenario, with cops everywhere, streets shut down…you wont believe it but it was another bomb alarm, two on the same day!! All the (second) story here. I will definitely need to get used to that… They evacuated a whole building, and now the traffic is back to normal.

OK, no scoop here, but for me it was an amazing moment: touching the iPhone and taking a picture of me with it in the Apple Store of Santa Monica… Here are two proofs of that:

A few words to sum up this day: Santa Monica rocks, but I was disappointed by Venice Beach which is a striking example of the inequalities of the American society. If you’re interested, you can see all the pictures here.

Everything is packed. My apartment is amazingly empty: all my souvenirs were on sale on eBay, and I was happy to leave them in the hands of passionate eBayers. But they remain souvenirs, and it’s hard to let go. Big Departure is tomorrow, and I still cannot imagine that I am leaving France definitely, if ever “definitely” makes any sense at 21.

No place to crash in Paris anymore. I am leaving good friends behind. Expatriation is less easy than I thought: the name of this blog now totally makes sense!

What seems to be nothing for some people (moving to the US to study and work is not such a big deal !) is huge for people who have grown up in my place. Actually, my native city is a very special place where people think that moving to Paris is an exodus, that Americans are just burger-eaters and great movies makers, and that UCLA is a brand of very cool sweatshirts. Some probably even think that America only exists on TV, and that I’m moving to LA just to play in a soap opera. 

But what is most ridiculous in a moment like that is that I can’t help having this little song in my head, from Phantom planet, “California”, which also happen to be the soundtrack of the stupid soap opera “the OC” (but I must acknowledge that I watched all the episodes!). You can listen it here if you want to feel the spirit!

I really hope to have an Internet access available right away to keep you posted with the details of my arrival !

I mentionned at the beginning of my blogging experience that this blog was going to be launched in September 2007, when I will leave France for the US. In fact, my first purpose was to write a blog about both the great moments and the difficulties of expatriation. But my passion for the Internet, entrepreneurship and innovation was too strong and I decided to launch this blog before leaving our wonderful country.

Anyways, lots of visitors of this blog have sent me messages telling me that they would be interested in reading more on this expatriation on this blog. It is quite understandable: as this blog was until now (and will probably continue to be) really Internet centric, my readers are in many cases passionate about this sector. And it is really hard to be passionate about the Internet without having a great interest in what is happening in the US, and how a Frenchie can manage to be integrated there.

So I just want to tell you that I’m leaving to the US on Sep. 18th to study entrepreneurship for one term at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), as an exchange student from the PIM program. This term at UCLA will replace my last year at HEC Paris, and I will graduate in June 2008. But I reassure you, I won’t convert this blog into a story of my life, first of all because it is really not that interesting, and secondly because if you want more basic news about what’s happening to me you can follow me on Twitter here.

I can speak more serenely about this departure now, because almost everything is arranged, but I can tell you that expatriation really IS a big deal.

During these past months, I’ve had to:

• go through awful administrative processes to get my student visa
• find an apartment online (I love rent.com!) and book it without even being sure that the woman I sent my money to really is the property manager of a great condo (of course I checked everything I could, but how can you be sure when you are miles away?). I must add that I had tough requirements: short term stay, fully furnished, close to UCLA, not too expensive, with the possibility of having an Internet access, and if possible a fitness center (me, demanding? )
• try (not done already!) to install an Internet access in my future apartment to have it when I arrive
• figure out that there is a sexual offender in the street of my US address thanks to vison20/20, amazing site generating violent reactions (I definitely can’t stop writing about net topics)
• find an insurance to cover me in the US
• start selling all the furniture of my French apartment
• resiliate all the utilities contracts
• get used to the fact that UCLA is a HUGE university and try to identify the halls I must go to when I arrive
• leave my beloved Mac for another computer, buy Windows Vista and Office 2007 because they are the only ones compatible with UCLA systems
• select the courses I want to follow while knowing that exchange students NEVER get the courses they selected
• start being stressed (I’m really in advance on this one!)

So if you have any questions about the preparations fro an expatriation, do not hesitate to ask; otherwise, more to come after Sep. 18th ! Wish me good luck!

Sorry, I will not convert this blog into a travel blog, but I just spent the week-end in Barcelona and I want to share with you my passion for this city:

• Gaudi is a genius and my parents really had trouble in stopping me from taking pictures of every mosaic;
• Spanish people party all the time, and bars of Puerto Olymico are just amazing;
• La Rambla is still a place where you can find the weirdest and funniest people, I love it!

I take this occasion to introduce a new blog I will author, created by Béa, a  “passionate about everything” friend who gives me the pleasure of commenting a lot on this blog. This new blog, www.vaou.net, is a French collaborative travel blog which will gather all the great places (hotels, restaurants, and much more) where the team of authors went around the world. I will very soon make a review of a great hotel and a delicious restaurant I went to during this week-end in Barcelona, so I suggest that you take a look to give us your feedback about the idea and, if you want (and if you speak French), join the team to share all your good addresses!