no news is good news.

sorry i haven't blogged in a bit. have just been settling in, getting things done, running errands, and figuring out life half way around the world.

the last few weekends have been uneventful. my stuff arrived a few weeks ago meaning i spent a lot of time unpacking/stuffing things under my bed. everything seems to have found a place at this point though, whether it likes it or not.

i also found a dance studio which is great news because it means i'm dancing again. i've taken a few ballet classes so far and am looking forward to trying lots more. they have exercise classes and pilates too and it's only 10 minutes walk away from my flat so hopefully lots of time will be spent there burning off the last few months of eating out all the time.

other than that, not a lot to report. my allergies have kicked in here which made this weekend somewhat miserable health wise. and it was really cold today so you put two and two together and get lots of time spent at home/in warm cafes reading.

i did spot on my walk home though some new window displays at selfridges. everyone here is very excited about the new 'alice in wonderland' movie and selfridges (huge department store) did all their window displays up to celebrate. there were so many little hidden details. loved it.

that's about it for now. i'm off to paris next weekend to meet up with diana and treat myself to lots of crepes and macaroons for my birthday. thanks to everyone who has already remembered and sent lots of goodies along!

steady as a rock.

first, a plug for my dad's blog. he's getting very into technology. first the iphone. then facebook. now a blog. i'm very proud.

not a lot to report from merry old england. last weekend was pretty relaxed. didn't really do much on saturday - just watched probably about 15 episodes of 'how i met your mother'. i found a place online that streams them all so i am slowly making my way through the 5 seasons. it's a really good show which up until now i have only caught bits and pieces of so it's cool to see it from the beginning. i'm at the beginning of season 4 now. on sunday i took a walk from my flat to the tate modern - interesting fact: all museums in london are free courtesy of tony blaire. they all have donation buckets and of course i gave a few pounds to support the arts. one of my favorite paintings of all time is there - the water lilies by monet. it was the first painting i remember seeing when i was here studying abroad. i could sit and look at it for hours. i even snuck a picture so i actually can if i want to. :)

the tate modern is across the thames river from st. paul's cathedral. from the same room where the monet painting is there is an incredible view of st. paul's across the millennium bridge which they built for well, the millennium.

if you walk down the rive from the tate you get to the london eye and eventually to parliament. they are all connected and about 30 minutes walking from each other. i got down to the parliament end right after the sun had set and got some cool pictures with my phone. (all three of these first ones were taken with my phone actually - the camera is pretty solid.)

back to work on monday and for the rest of the week, but an exciting work event on friday: 'hollywood legends day'. basically dress up like a movie star day. for no particular reason. just because we're google. i went as a pink lady from grease - pretty generic. there were about 15 people in the office who went at the same thing. my co-workers got pretty creative though.

the marshmallow man from ghost busters. aka gavin who sits to my left at work.

jurassic park. aka luke who sits across from me.

and then this weekend i went to stonehenge. it was pretty cool. not the most amazing thing but the fact that it was freezing cold probably affected my perception. it's also right on the side of the road which kind of takes away from the awe inspiring-ness of it all. i did get some cool pictures though. this time with my real camera - not just my phone. (but you have to admit the phone took some good pictures.)

full album can be found here. and by far the best gimmick they had at the gift shop (aside from all the stuff that said 'stonehenge rocks')...

snow snow snow!

since i've returned to london it has snowed a total of twice. the first time everyone was talking about it the day before - it's going to snow a lot they said. this actually made me very excited. i imagined trudging to work in the snow up to my knees and secretly was really happy about what everyone else seemed to be dreading. i woke up the next day like a kid on christmas, opened my curtains and saw, well, what looked like a slightly denser rain had happened. i didn't even need my boots and by the time i got to work what was left was melted. however, what i did learn is that when the snow barely kisses the ground in central london, it likely means it snowed like i imagined in my head originally in all the outlying cities. it took one of my coworkers 5 hours to get to work (normally takes 30 minutes) because all of the trains were being stopped and sent away. london really can't handle the snow. this is what i learned. that and while snow may seem fresh and exciting on day 1, on day 2, it turns into an icy death trap. because central london is so warm, all the snow melted quickly, but then overnight when it got really cold again - it all froze. i had to wear my boots the next day not because i had to trudge through the snow, but rather because they were the safest shoes to take my treacherous walk to the bus stop in.

then, the following week, with no warning, no one talking about it or preparing i awoke to sound of slushing in the streets. i walked to my window thinking it must have begun raining overnight only to find an almost real amount of snow for what i can expect in the middle of the city that is too warm for snow to sit on the ground.

snow piled on cars nearly a few inches high.

snow tracks in the ground.

pub across the street from my flat covered in snow.


all in all it was a pretty exciting thing to have happened first because i didn't expect it and second because well, it actually snowed a significant enough amount to photograph. by the time i left work that day day the snow had melted completely, but at least i have the pictures to prove it.

in other news, i saw up in the air last night - i think i liked it, but overall i'm not sure i knew what to make of it. i'll leave it at that so as not to give anything away, but i just didn't leave feeling like it was complete. worth a shot overall though.

and then today i walked probably about 15k all over london. down to hyde park from my flat. my first time exploring the park. it's no central park, but pretty and big and i'm excited to see it in spring when it has leaves and stuff. then down to green park which takes you to buckingham palace and st. james park. st. james was my favorite - relatively small but really pretty. then back up the through the shopping area and home again. i downloaded this great app - cardio something on my android - that tracks how fast you're walking and how far you've gone using gps. really good stuff. and i found a pandora like app here in the uk that plays me music the whole time. woot.

lastly, i shall leave you with my current song of the moment. it's the song they are using for the preview for the new amy adam's movie leap year which played before up in the air last night and now i can't get it out of my head. enjoy.

sorry dad - i promise i'll blog more.

first, let me start my saying sorry to my dad. he's been asking for blogs and i haven't been doing them. in my defense, i have not had home internet access since i left courtland on december 29th. but all is right with the world again and i am up running on home internet. woot.

i've now "lived" in london for almost a month - that's since my first day at google london (november 30) and coming back after the new year (arrived in the uk after a red eye on new year's day).

my few weeks here before christmas went by all too quickly and consisted mostly of flat hunting and bank account opening and making sure i could actually live here like i a normal person when i got back. happy to say i found a great share in a neighborhood called marylebone right in the dead center of london. it's like the union square of san francisco or the herald square of new york - tons of shopping minutes away, super close to the biggest parks in london, and an easy 15 minute bus ride to work and hopefully love 30-45 minute walk in summer. but not right now. because it snows here.

i did get out to enjoy some of the holiday sights before heading back to california for the holidays. london really does love christmas. watch love actually. it's all true. here are some pictures to prove it:


this is somerset house. famous for ice skating in the wintertime in london. the ice skating rink was sponsored by tiffany's this year. what delightful product placement.

i also got to do some shopping in covent garden which was all decorated for christmas (and enjoyed some delicious paella cooked right in the middle of the open air market)

and enjoyed a delightful cupcake from a cute little cupcake shop for dessert.

i also got a chance to get out and see some of the sites. i was staying about 10 minutes walking from big ben in my fabulous two bedroom corporate apartment - the likes of which i will probably never see again in london. but it did make it nice and easy to talk a walk and realize even more, that this is really where i live now.


the journey back to california was uneventful. there was a british airways strike announced just days before i was set to fly back. through me for a loop my didn't affect my flights and in the end they ended up not striking. i did have a bit of an issue with them though. back when i booked my flight in october i had thought i would still be in zurich, but since my visa came through, i was already in london. since i was flying british airways, i was set to connect through london from zurich on my way to sfo. i called ba to make this simple change, just eliminating a leg of the flight and in essence making the whole thing cheaper for them since i was flying less, however they told me it would be a whopping $350 to change my ticket. i had already looked into flights back to zurich which were only $60 and i told them this on the phone - that it was ridiculous that i could fly back to zurich for cheaper than to just stay in london and fly from there. and the lady said "sorry - that's how much it costs." customer service all the way. anyhow, i woke at 4:00am to catch a flight to zurich only to grab my bags, walk out of the exit, and back right into the entrance to check into my flight. safe to say the guys at the passport checkin in zurich thought i was a little nuts.

in the end, it wasn't all a total loss - british airways actually upgraded me on my flight from london to san francisco and i don't know how i'll ever go back to coach. oh wait - i can't afford it. my business class seat included access to the frequent flyers lounge filled with food and drink and good magazines, a seat that laid all the way down, and lobster for dinner. i could definitely get used to that. but sadly think it might not be a regular occurrence.

the most wonderful time of the year.

to get in the spirit for the holidays, i decided to visit one of europe's famous christmas markets. i mapped out all the ones listed on that link, and ultimately chose strasbourg, as it was the closest to zurich - a mere 2 hour train ride away which meant a good day trip for my last weekend in the middle of europe. my train left at 10:02 in the morning, but due to a slight alarm mishap, i woke up at 9:15 and was staying at least 30 minutes from the train station. whoops. i made it though.

one of the funny things i forget about europe sometimes is that you can spend 2 hours on a train, get off, and have to speak another language. i don't know french or german, so it was just as puzzling as zurich. but i managed to figure things out/find a place that spoke english and sat down for a delicious lunch with my book. man, do they love cheese in france.

i headed out to explore the rest of the small-ish city. it was opening day of the festival, so it was quite crowded. there aren't a lot of sites to see in strasbourg, but it does have an amazing cathedral in the middle of the city.

as the day turned into night, all the christmas lights began to turn on, i ate some more cheese on bread (delish but i could feel my heart slowing down as i ate it) and it became christmas in strasbourg. the whole album is linked here. but here's a few shots that i liked the most.

and lastly, to get everyone else in the mood for the holiday season, a favorite christmas song. happy almost holidays!

thanksgiving.

thanksgiving isn't a huge holiday in zurich other than the fact that at the google office there are good chunk of americans who naturally want to celebrate the holiday and have the traditional fixings. i got sick on thanksgiving day - nothing serious, a bad cold - but this ruined my plans to make myself my very own thanksgiving dinner at the corporate 'chalet' i was staying at in zurich. i went to the grocery store on wednesday night and picked up all the fixings or at least what i could - potatoes, green beans, a piece of turkey (a whole one cost 58 CHF - about $60 USD), some cranberry jam - they didn't have canned cranberry sauce, and sadly no stuffing - this is something that doesn't translate evidently. picture of expensive turkey for proof.

anyway, because of the tragic-ly timed cold, the dinner i shopped for didn't happen until friday, although the google office came through with an awesome turkey lunch so i still got my thanksgiving meal on thanksgiving. but when it did happen it was delicious if i do say so myself.

and i did get over the cold eventually, though without the help of medicine. something about trying to communicate with hand gestures at a swiss pharmacy where everything is over the counter that i just couldn't overcome.

the visa adventure.

we got word late last week that my visa was ready for processing. for those who have followed the saga of the visa in detail, originally we were told it would take 6-8 weeks. being that as of november, i was supposed to start work for my new team, my new manager and i agreed it didn't make sense to work from california for almost two months on europe based work. we agreed i would work from zurich during that time, come home for the holidays to finish my visa, and head back after the new year.

sufficed to say we were both surprised when 10 days into my zurich trip, hearing my visa was ready was a bit of shocker. the team who has been working on my visa asked on thursday if i could be in new york the following week to have my 'biometric data' collected - this sounds much more intrusive then it actually is. after discussing with my new boss and realizing that if i could get everything done, i could start in london on november 30th, we agreed it would be best to go to new york and get it done. i booked a flight and flew out saturday. with the current plan, i would stay in new york for a week to complete by bio appointment and submit my documents to the british consulate - all of which had to be completed state side. assuming everything happened as planned, i would fly back to zurich on saturday, stay for another week, and then head to london on november 29th for a november 30th start. with this plan i could still keep my original ticket back to california for december 16th and spend the holidays with the fam before really moving right after the new year.

on the way to new york, i flew through madrid, spain. growing up with a mom/grandma who speak spanish and taking three years of it in high school, i had always wished i spoke/understood spanish better than i do. however, after being in zurich for 10 days, plus two weeks earlier this year, i can't express how excited i was to hear a foreign language that i understood at least 75% of and could communicate back in. this made me very excited to visit spain at some point, because i did realize my spanish is much stronger than even i had thought. also, the madrid airport is pretty cool. check this out:



from there i flew to new york, and stayed with marie for most of the trip. it was great to see and spend time in the big apple. i have to admit the first few days were bittersweet as i was reminded of just how much i love new york and have always wanted to move there, but i'm sure london will be just as cool. marie and i wandered around on sunday seeing some of the christmas sites. we stopped in bryant park at the ice skating rink, which was kind of odd considering it must have been at least 65 degrees out.



spent the rest of the week working from the new york office. i had my biometric data appointment on tuesday. they basically just took my fingerprints and picture. then i turned my life story into the lawyers and was told they would "be in touch" when everything was done. wednesday marie and i saw bye-bye birdie and had dinner. and on thursday i got word that my visa was approved!! i picked it up from the lawyers on friday after work (after a nightmare experience of trying to secure a taxi to take me to my hotel where i was staying my last night there) but i recovered with some shopping since my hotel was literally steps away from herald square and the world's largest macy's. had brunch on saturday and then headed to jfk, only to wait 6 hours for my flight to leave as the plane we were supposed to use was having mechanical issues. one overnight flight and a long nap later, i am back in zurich. it's raining a lot and pretty cold, but i'm just happy my visa is done and i will be in london one week from today! watch out big ben - here i come!