Last Sunday in SF before the next one

Last Sunday of my trip and still a lot of stuffs on my to-do list before flying back.

9:33am
cooking breakfast eggs for my host, drinking water and hopping to get rid of a slight headache thank to the Hawaiian cocktails, thank you Hawai not sure I want to go there now, maybe, will see.

Good or not the shops are also open on Sunday here. I get dress and aim for the Chrome HQ store not far from where I stay this weekend. I love the shop, want to buy everything but I stay strong and only take one jacket.

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Mar 21, 2016 at 10:33am PDT

2:01pm
I catch a bus, change area and go back to amoeba, the best music shop ever if you remember. Luckily there is a small concert when I arrive, a tiny Japanese girl is on stage, her guitar is almost bigger than her, her English is tinted of Japanese accent. But once  she start singing and playing it's wahoooou, we all feel she just fills the space with her voice and presence, super cool. If you are interested her name is Guita Rei, her soundcloud Rei and FB Guita Rei and I have to say her live performance is more energetic than what you will listen on those links.

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Mar 20, 2016 at 5:19pm PDT

2:44pm
I leave the amazing place with a list of zillion stuffs to listen. Outside I met Laura, Spanish friend working now in SF. First met in Berlin a few years ago because of another French friend Berlin being connected by a third French person in NY but coming from Paris. Do you follow? Sometime I have difficulties myself.

Anyway, we have a lovely late Sunday meal in Cha Cha Cha. So far a very good 10 days in the Bay area, meeting again, or the first time, or staying with, or jogging with or simply spending time with friends, new friends. Now there is twist because I write these lines based on my notes and at this time I didn't know my interviews weren't successful. But who cares? This doesn't change my views on these days, meeting people in real is still winning over all the tech shits around us. And I will be back.

5:06pm
Laura and a friend of her gave me a lift to the other side of the city. I'm meeting a Michel in his lab at UCSF in Mission Bay. Finally I will se his lab bench after so many years! Always pretty cool to visit the labs of your friends, especially when they study cells, genomics, the mix of living stuffs, computers and funky optic devices, what else do you need?

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Mar 20, 2016 at 8:31pm PDT

6:23pm
Last diner in Noe Valley by the double pair M&S&S&A. Slowly SF is becoming a fourth second home after Paris, Montreal, Oslo, Berlin...

A last tour in the tramway to go back to SoMa. This time no crazy guy talking to me. Statistically if there is a crazy person in the bus or tramway here he will talk to me because I'm listening. People are going home, everybody is on its smartphone, Tinder here, spotify there.

8:44pm
A last chat with my host and it's time to let me fall on my bed. Good night SF, you have been great.

Sunny Saturday in SF

A few first times this Saturday in SF. For example first sunny Saturday of my trip in SF.

9:02am
first of all jogging on SF harbour with my host, we will call her Katrina as some people are obviously not able to pronounce here name correctly,  running under a big bridge, bypassing the baseball stadium, enjoying the beautiful light.

Having a breakfast break after 5km of running, testing a chipolte sandwich on the water almost and going back slightly not lighter than before the sandwich in running again. Crossing SoMa, passing South Park, another cool name. Last week I did want to run until Twin Peaks but the weather was too much apocalyptic to make an attempt.

2:02pm 
then we went to play the tourists trying to catch the cable train. It wasn't a first time for us and we failed. But we were successful in catching it later without paying, a great experience :-)

Continuing our tour, re-visiting Russian Hill, going to the water and meet the ugly tourist nest just to know where not to go, then walking toward the Coit Tower. At some point a coffee break in Caffée Roma. Coffee place with entrance on both side of the street. When we get in it was almost empty, two customers, one of them came in with its screen, playstation and joypad, interesting...

6:06pm
the walk continue and we are getting closer to the Coit Tower. There we meet friends of my host trying to set up a surprise party for one of them. I'm an outsider observer but don't feel exclude as a group has a pretty nice dynamic. The surprise party is kind of not working out but the party mood is here. From then we uber-ride in the city.

9:09pm
then the usual "no ID you can't get in", but being not too far from home we use that excuse to go a few minutes away from the group. Leaving the people entering the Hawaii cocktail bar. No comments.

9:39pm
we are back with IDs, the people are suddenly extremely talkative as we had left them at the beginning of the evening and were back after hours... but no, it must me the sad power of alcohol, the cocktail were full of sadness liquor. But again, nice people so it wasn't too bad.

Vision de Jérémie - Visit the Charli's factory

Cupertino c'est fini pour cette semaine et il est temps de se rapprocher de SF pour le weekend. En remontant la vallée je fais un stop au campus Google. En chemin je passe devant les Microsoft, Facebook... seuls les noms inscrits sur les buildings ou les bus privés de ces entreprises vous rappellent que vous êtes bien dans la Sillicon Valley et que c'est ici que ca se passe.

11:30am
je pénètre sur le campus Google. Cet endroit, la Sillicon Valley, est un Disneyland de la Tech. Et pour faire court tout est vrai, les vélos en libre accès, les gens faisant du yoga sur la pelouse, le terrain de beach volley, les statues à l'effigie des dernières Release d'Android.

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on Mar 28, 2016 at 4:53am PDT

Mon déjeuner d'affaire et networking se finit, fort agréable, toujours cool de rencontrer des gens intéressants et de comprendre leur parcours géographique, professionnel et personnel. Le monde de la couleur est un monde à part, en même temps je ne connais que celui la...

4:33pm
après avoir visité deux Best-Buy, équivalent d'un Saturn ou d'un Darty j'échoue dans l'achat d'un ordi, mais bon c'est pas de ma faute et ca m'a permit de voir autre chose de la région.

Le rapprochement de SoMa est long est lent, mais à chaque rue des noms évocateurs s'affichent devant moi, Pinterest, Yahoo, Linkedin, Twitter... Un autre aspect de la Sillicon Valley. Je dépose mes affaires chez ma nouvelle hôte rencontrée à Berlin et dans la région pour quelques temps.

8:00pm
avec grand plaisir je retrouve l'ami Tarun dans un restaurant japonais Ken Ken Ramen pour quelques ramen vous l'aurez compris. C'était pas mal. Mon hôte nous a rejoint et approuve l'endroit.

Le reste de la soirée c'est un verre de vin quelconque sur Valencia et la vue sur le centre ville du balcon avant de s'écrouler. Schön schön.