A Fresh Start (up)

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!

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!

Since the past week has been everything but interesting, I thought I would pass on the traditional weekly update, but Seb started complaining that without any article, he couldn’t know what I had done this week. Since the answer is nothing, here I am, writing about nothing. I’m wondering how long I can continue that; after all, I went to a business school, that shouldn’t be a problem

So, to sum up nothing, I had a pretty uninteresting week, waiting for Rémy to come back from Chicago, and then spending the week-end working. Work is getting tougher, but also more motivating. I also called a few friends; I think I will never get over the fact that I miss you guys! But I might end up not missing you for long: whereas Remy got a receipt saying that he got accepted at the H1B visa lottery, I still haven’t received anything, which is not a good sign. So I might end up going back to France, whether I (and you ) want it or not!

Apart from this (still) not interesting topic, I registered for the continuing studies program in Stanford, and I will be taking a class of… acting this summer! I can see all of you think “oh my god, she really wants to end up in Hollywood!”

What else? Still a lot of nothing to talk about… Oh yes, I am getting more and more obsessed with the idea of going into the hospitality industry sooner or later, and started devouring some books on the topic. It’s weird, I feel like once you have started in a sector, it is really difficult to go into something radically different later on… Now I start understanding people going into consulting! Those who know me well know that I’ve been talking about managing a hotel for a long time, and now I feel that I really need to do it, at least some day … So who wants to buy an Inn with me? I already have a partner (Manue, if you read me ) but except if she has been hiding her fortune for many years, I doubt that we will have enough money to do that now and alone … Hopefully, my grand father always told me that passion is more important than money to achieve your dreams, and, stupid as I am, I still believe him!

Ok, enough “nothing” for today! Just in case you stumble upon this blog looking for interesting content, insights about tech and entrepreneurship, I remind you that this blog is now for friends and family, or people interested in expatriation (or interested in “nothing”!) but that I still continue to publish more interesting things (it’s not hard!) on Tech it Easy. My latest pieces include an interview of Alain Romang on how museums can benefit from the Internet, and a book review of The One Minute Entrepreneur from Ken Blanchard. Enjoy (or not) !

Hopefully, I will have cooler things to say after Memorial day week end in Yosemite!

I had an interesting week, the kind of week when you feel that your brain has been working more than usual.

I attended a great conference by Dan Roam about visual thinking as part of the eBay Speaker Series. I wrote an article about it on Tech IT Easy, and it felt good to blog about interesting topics, and not just about what’s happening in my life. I realized that I made the right choice to put my personal articles here and the articles with a little bit more meat on TIE. It allows me to experiment two of the advantages of blogging (staying in touch with friends without writing a common email to everyone and generating great conversations on interesting topics) on different and appropriate platforms without mixing readerships. Whereas before I had a large overlap between my TIE readers and this blog’s readers, now it is not the case anymore even if I encourage my dear friends who read this blog to also read tech topics on TIE, so that they won’t make this strange and annoyed face anymore when I’ll speak about my job with them

Apart from that, I went to a conference on Friday night about New Media Artists and the Law, which will probably help me a lot to definitely finish my thesis. I might write something on TIE about it too (yes, I try to be back in the game!)

This week-end was a little bit less intellectual: OK, I acknowledge that I went to see “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” at the cinema, and even if I’m sure that this movie can go directly to the “crappy” category for most people, I actually laughed a lot And it motivated me to go to Hawaii, so I might take so holidays and go there for Thanksgiving (yes, I am making plans well in advance!)

And finally today, I attended the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown with Seb, Audrey and Cecile (pictures here): too many people of course, but really nice parade, plenty of colors, and plenty of French people (don’t ask me why!). Then we looked for cold places since it was freezing in SF and landed in a really nice café, managed by French people of course, guess you can’t avoid them ;-)  Nice people and hot chocolate: I definitely start liking it here!

Yes, I did receive my California ID (and by the way I have way too much hair on it) but even if it makes me feel a bit more integrated, I still have a sword of Damocles hanging over me: we submitted our H1B visas applications last week, but the quotas (65 000/year) have already been reached, which means that applications will be picked up randomly. Apart from the obvious absurdity of this quota which prevents Silicon Valley from hiring all the talented people it would need to face the recession, I find the situation a bit crazy: it’s been now 2 years that we are planning to live here (not to say my whole life!), we’ve been through so much pressure to try to find jobs at the same time, to get our J1 visas, to settle down… and now that we have everything in place, that we both start really enjoying our work, we are told that our future depends on a… lottery!

The other suspense of the week: will I get my license?? It is way less dramatic than the visa issue, for sure! I will take the test tomorrow, and I can say that it will be a miracle if I pass: during my last lesson, I cut some yellow lines, I accelerated during a turn, I forgot to stop at a stop sign…. Nothing promising

Apart from all that:

• We went to see a hockey game last week (pictures here): I loved the atmosphere, but I didn’t know that it was absolutely normal to let players fight during the game, so I was completely astonished to see those guys punching each other in the face while the audience was waiting for…free pizza!
• I had my housewarming party on Friday, with work colleagues (pictures here), and I realize that my Sicilian origins haven’t disappeared: I can make 3 additional housewarming parties only with the leftovers! At least we used the BBQ
• While I was having a drink with a friend in SF on Saturday, a HEC student was passing by and recognized me, at the exact moment when I was saying “it is hard to meet young French people in the Valley”… I guess she proved me wrong!
• I went to a mass on Sunday, and no wonder why US churches are full and French ones empty… It wasn’t a fancy mass at all, but it was in a latino area and people of all ages seemed totally absorbed by their faith…It is somehow reassuring to see so much hope in the eyes of so many different people. Besides it is really interesting to analyze the relationship that Americans have with religion: it can be sometimes really scary and sometimes really inspiring, even if the line is often difficult to draw. And I definitely love gospel music

I had a great week, this kind of week that makes you feel more and more at the right place. So, in bulk:

-  The season 2 of Greek started on ABC Family, and this was really the highlight of my week… Ok, I’m kidding (not so much actually).

-  I also passed the written test of the driving exam, so now I need to pass the behind-the-wheel test and I’ll be done with Vietnamese driving instructors hitting me when I do something wrong and braking violently while screaming in an incomprehensible language

-  I also tried driving a go-cart for the first time in my life, as part of a corporate team building event, and it was very fun, even if of course I was the last one of the race, which most of you would have totally expected from me . Pictures are here.

-  I had brunch in SF on Saturday at Perry’s, a very American place, with Guillaume, a very nice French expat, who gave me great advice on how to settle down efficiently here. It was great to finally have an occasion to meet people outside work colleagues, thanks Guillaume!

-  Following Guillaume’s advice, I visited San Juan Bautista today, a small city lost in the mountains, where Vertigo from Hitchcock has been shot. As you can see in the picture, you can find there, apart from a beautiful Mission to visit, buildings reminding westerns, except that Harley Davidson have replaced horses! All the pictures here.

-  I bought a BBQ, so now I start feeling really American

After last week-end and all this rain, I was a bit down but… it was before this week-end, and the beautiful sun all around the Valley!

It didn’t start as nicely though I remember when I was a kid, I was dreaming about the day on which I would finally buy my own furniture for my own apartment. During my student life, I bought only some basic stuff, but not “the” sofa, “the bed”… So yesterday was supposed to be a Big Day. To get this quick, it definitely wasn’t as rosy: I had the “love at first sight” for a sofa that was in fact available … in 14 weeks, so of course I started sulking and finding everything else ugly… Then we went to Ikea, which is an absolute nightmare: how comes this company is so successful??? Of course it’s cheap, but it’s a whole mess to find the stuff you want! If somebody had told me “give me 50 bucks and I will help you find all your stuff and you’ll just have to pay for it” I would have paid for it in the blink of an eye! End of the story: after two hours we managed to put everything on our cart to realize just before paying for it that Ikea can’t deliver at my place in two weeks, and that I need to come back 3 days before my desired delivery date!!! So we put everything back, I was sulking even more, becoming a real pain in the a**, when we finally found our sofa in Palo Alto (see picture)! An entire day just to buy a sofa, I know that’s a hell of a record But at least now I know where to find almost everything I need!

Fortunately, the evening was way cooler than the afternoon: we joined Seb and Anthea (that I met during my internship at eBay in France) in Palo Alto, drove to SF, had a drink with eBay France marketing team (here for a summit), then joined Nicolas and had a excellent dinner at EOS… I missed that so much: good food, great people, cool atmosphere, great city with real people…

Today, back to SF… The weather was simply awesome (despite what Nicolas’ iPhone seemed to indicate ;-)), I started to remember L.A. and the feeling of the sun caressing the skin… We went around Dolores Park, where you can find the sexiest guys on the planet, shirtless, but… obviously gay, sorry ladies, this is SF! We went from Guerrero St to Mission, and the atmosphere was very different from one street to the other: SF seems to be composed of really different neighborhoods with different atmospheres but sometimes really close to each other…. In Mission, we ate an ice cream in the middle of tattooed guys, homeless people, prostitutes, and gypsies playing guitar… Quite a surrealistic place, it was really interesting to observe people that are so different from me… That’s what I love in SF: difference is not just tolerated but encouraged, and you get to discover the most colorful things that mankind has to offer… OK, I will stop being poetic, a lot of people told me that I’m boring when I start like that

All that just to say that I’m not happy to be back to San Jose, but I’ll be way happier when I’ll have my own place with my nice sofa

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!