The First Few Days (US Trip Recollection, Part II)

After arriving on US soil on April 26th 2007 (US time, which is at the time 15 hours behind of Manila time), I went to the client's office in Concord the next day to take a look at it (so eager was I to get things started!). The office was a spacious, 4-story building with 4 "cores" and three indoor gardens. One garden was an ordinary garden with benches strewn from one end to another. Another one was only a space with several tables complete with matching chairs and red umbrellas. The last one drew inspirations from a Japanese garden, with stone steps and minimalist-styled wooden benches and veranda.

One of the Gardens in Concord Office

There are lots of things to like from this office. For one, they brew Starbucks coffee there, and you can drink them to your heart's content. A lot of vending machines as well, and automatic ice cube makers (for those who like to drink cold water, like me). And the space, man, they really know what it means by 'personal space' and provided an abundant supply of it. Even the guest cubicles were spacious. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that the office was a little bit too quiet for my taste. Lots of old people working there, and unfortunately they don't talk too much. Add to that the fact that the distance between one cubicle to another was quite far, you have one very quiet office.

I got lost on my first day there, looking for my other team members in that office and at the same time had quite an exercise walking from one end of the office to another. Finally I saw how my other colleagues looked like, having been communicating with them through only e-mails. An okay bunch, but a bit too "tame" for my taste. But still, there are some of them who are quite nice. And one thing, they loved to joke. Granted, they weren't my kind of jokes, however a sense of humor is still better than none, right?

All in all, the office where I would be working in for the next 2 months was okay in my book.

It was quite a quick day for me at the office, that Friday. Found out where I was supposed to be sitting and set up my PC there with the softwares I need to work with. People were leaving around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I forgot what else had happened that day, remembered having a dinner with a couple of friends from Indonesia. But that's about it.

I laid my eyes on San Francisco that first weekend. My friend took me to Chinatown to have dinner. I was glad I brought my jacket, because it was a really cold day in San Francisco at that time. Truth be told, I was quite disappointed with my first impression of San Francisco. Its Chinatown was quite a gloomy and dirty neighborhood and there was no beauty to be found there at the time. I was wondering why people I knew were saying how beautiful the place was. I would found out later on how mistaken I was. But that didn't happen until 2 weeks after.

A View of San Francisco's Chinatown

In any case, the Chinese restaurant was quite okay, but not as good as those I knew back in Indonesia. After dinner, we went back to Pleasant Hill through Golden Gate, stopping at one of the vista point on the way to take some pictures. Too bad that it was already late and the sun had set. The pictures of Golden Gate bridge that I took weren't that good thanks to the lack of lighting. I would have better pictures later on, though. San Francisco would also prove that my first impression of it couldn't be more wrong.

A Graffiti in Chinatown

The last day of the first weekend was spent having a wine tour in Napa Valley, a place in California well known for the wineries. I forgot to charge my digital camera's battery so I only managed to get very few pictures of the place. Napa was beautiful, however. Indeed, one of my lasting impression of Napa Valley, and California in general (at least, the places near San Francisco) was of beautiful rolling hills and the sense of wide open space I felt there. I would come to deeply appreciate these later on, however, because that weekend my psyche was preoccupied with having one of the biggest shocks of my life. Shocks of how different the US was compared to Asian countries. Add to that a shock due to the immense feeling of loneliness I felt there (probably spurred also by how different it was there than Asian countries).

Regardless, the first few days in the US were quite an eye-opening experience for me. The days ahead proved to be more and more interesting. Having been to Asian countries only, now I understand how those kids who went to the US for education must have felt when they first arrived in the States.

More on the US trip in later posts.