Some observations and highlights of one week in California:
- Given the number of commercials for food on TV, it's no surprise my studio had no actual table (I have one coming in on Monday though).
- Speaking of TV commercials: a 90 minute movie takes 3 hours because for every 10 minutes of movie, there's an accompanying 10 minutes of commercials.
- More on food: there's seem to be enough food chains that you can eat in a different one each day of the month.
- I managed to open a US bank account, because Apple Pay.
- I stopped wearing a sweater after 4 days. The weather's just too gorgeous.
- Got rid of the jetlag by Friday. I do am dog-tired every night I get home (I barely survived past 10pm this week). This was confirmed when I managed to sleep more than 3 hours during middle of the day on Saturday.
- Related: I sleep a lot better with the airco on than off (I discovered after 3 nights).
- Driving a car with automatic transmission is awkward at first, but so glorious once you get used to it.
- I'm never going to get used to American food portions. Man.
- No Starbucks yet (yay!), and Philz Coffee is pretty great (yay!).
- They have Seinfeld on TV.
- Did I mention the weather's pretty great out here?
- Bay Area traffic sucks. Luckily my daily commute doesn't suffer from it.
- 2 more shootings happened in the US while I was here. The mind, it bends.
- Bacon.
- Most people are very nice and welcoming. This is especially true for the people I've met at Apple.
- I don't know of a good Dutch word for "tailgating".
- Finding a good way to pronounce my last name as something comprehensibly for Americans is quite the challenge.
- Most drivers here are pretty disciplined.
- When talking in myself (this is a healthy trait to have, okay?) I am now doing it in a combination of English and Dutch.
- Why is everyone so crazy about crème brûlée?
- I haven't made it to San Francisco. This Saturday night, I will.
- Shopping in another country is strangely disconcerting. Even if a supermarket is just a supermarket, it's different enough to feel uncomfortable.
And oh... Working at Apple has been great so far. Can't wait for more.