That 1st e-mail home
Well where do I start....
Think firstly I should say this is probably a well over due e-mail to everyone, just 2 weeks later. Sorry.
Anyway, I left a v cold Glasgow at 6am on Sunday (11th July) and arrived in my new (v hot) hometown for the year, San Francisco. If only everything was that simple...
I arrived in customs to find out that the US embassy had actually given me the wrong VISA. According to them I was here to preach and spread religion, hmmm, very unlikely. Anyway, after being escorted to Secondary Customs, and after an hour interviews, telling the truth and nothing but the truth, I finally made it into the USA.
Yipee!
Anyhow, if almost being sent home on the first day wasn't enough, one of my bags was missing. Mr McKenzie was not best pleased! Apparently it's all the bad karma I have, as if. ;-) Anyway, my bag did arrive the following day and all was ok.
So apart from having that on the first day, and almost having to share a double bed with a guy on the first night, (seemingly it's a v San Francisco thing to do), everything is fantastic.
So what have I been up to?
Quiet a lot actually, the first week we managed to squeeze a lot in.
Went surfing for the first time in my life, and I wasn't too bad at it either. We were recommended by some Americans to wear wet suits because the water was suppose to be cold, no chance, it was roasting, don't think they had ever swam in Scottish water before. It's now going to be a weekly event, well hopefully.
Anyway, that night we went to a house party, (the first of the week), and of course, the proper Scottish dress was adhered to ;-). Someone even managed to get everyone playing strip poker, and honestly, it wasn't me ;-) Anyway, like all bad ideas, it backed fired, and somehow myself and other guy in the group (Alex) managed to get down to our last item of clothing before ANY of the girls even had 1 item of clothing off. TYPICAL!
So the rest of that week saw us visiting San Francisco and doing most of the usual tourist things. LOL.... actually, we managed to leave one of the guys in San Francisco, i.e. we totally forgot about him. Then 2 hours later: AHHH!! Where's Danuik? We eventually found him again, but we all kind of feel bad that we just forgot he existed in the group, poor guy. On the Sunday of that week, well last Sunday, we went to a baseball game:
The Oakland A's vs. the Chicago White Sox:
It was Mark's first baseball game, and not only that; he even caught a ball in the stand HOW GOOD!!!!!!!!
I'll tell you what though: it bloody hurt!! Now I know why practically every other person in the stadium has a glove to catch these balls, they are brick.
Anyway, that is a v short overview of the first week, and since I've spoken to most of you guys (& girls) back home on the phone, I'm not going to bother filling out all the details of it.
So work...
The first thing we all noticed about work was that we actually HAD to work, we are unfortunately not just being paid to enjoy ourselves. Thus commences the early starts, which aren't bad. Our lab deals with SUNs top 100 customers, we operate long hours, with work over-lapping in France & UK and Singapore; work will eventually start at 7:00am However, all is not that bad, we have a full beach volleyball court outside our lab, in addition to a full basketball court, gym and table tennis table within our lab.
Anyway, the work environment is really good. Everyone is down to earth and seems, so far, to be really
So apart from that, I've passed my US driving licence and I'm now currently looking into buying a car out here. I'll keep everyone posted with how that all goes.
Anyway, I'm going to keep this short, I'll get together another e-mail soon.
There will be a web gallery soon (ish).
Hope everyone is well back in the UK, or where ever else in the world you all may be at this point in time.
Hopefully the guys (and girls) up in Canada might visit, hint hint :-p.
However, if anyone wants to take the 11 hour flight from the UK to here, then I'll make sure I more than look after you.
Speak to you all soon,
Missing everyone but definitely not missing the weather ;-)
Kind Regards,
Mark Xx
