Nine weeks ago I departed from rainy Edinburgh and landed more than half a day later in sunny San Jose. Now, I would like to reflect on this time and my experience. The weather here has been just amazing and it often took me by surprise, when I walked out of Building G of the National Campus where I work, and the sun was shining. I do miss to have some rain once in a while. I know that this might seem strange but if it is sunny every day you kind of wish for rain sometimes. It is just unusual to have the sun shining all the time. Most employees actually get tired of the sun and don’t sit outside to enjoy the sun during their lunch.
I have written most of this blog on my trip to San Diego and L.A. and have continued to finish it off in the last couple of days. Travelling and seeing new places as always been a passion of mine and it helps me to stay creative and gives me inspiration. When I go back to Scotland I will be more refreshed with new ideas in my head and with more opportunities to grasp. When travelling on a plane or train I find time to think of new ideas or I reflect on the places I have just been to or will be going to and the experience or the insight I have gained after visiting a place and its people.
Thus, I was planning to start writing on the flight to San Diego but the flight was very early in the morning so I decided to take a nap instead. Later on, in San Diego, I found a nice spot in the San Diego Old Town State Park which comprises of houses and shops from the 17th century. This is what is called the birthplace of California. European settlers arrived here first to inhabit this area and make it their home. It was fortunate that the light rail is stopping at Old Town and nearby there is actually a transit center if you want to travel to Mission Beach or Pacific Beach which I did after visiting Old Town. San Diego has a lovely climate as well and it is just ideal that beaches and the sea are not far away. In two days I stayed here, I really appreciated this city. It would have been nice to stay a bit longer.
Taking a short break from reporting about my trip, I would like to mention that it has been an enormous privilege coming to California and to be able to work in Silicon Valley. I have now just two working days left and I have planned to visit San Francisco one last time this Saturday. The next days I am going out for lunch with some of my co-workers and I have already thanked them by giving them some small souvenirs from Scotland. Now that a lot of my previous co-workers have left the company to work elsewhere, it is soon my turn to say goodbye. I would like to add here that most of the remaining employees have been offered other or similar positions within TI and I am glad for those co-workers concerned. I have had a wonderful time and it has been a very interesting and useful experience to work in corporate finance. I definitely learned a lot and was given an opportunity to make a valued contribution to the WMS Finance group. Once I am back in Scotland, University starts almost immediately so it will be just getting back to being a regular student but with a whole lot more of experience and ambition added. There is something that is noticeable and that is that a degree from Scotland and or other Scottish vocational qualifications are highly in demand in the world and also here in California. Many people from Scotland have come here to work in Silicon Valley and there is a demand for certain skills and qualifications, for instance engineering graduates and professionals with a CA qualification such as my manager and National’s CEO Don McLeod.
At work now, I will be handing over the work I have done in the last weeks to my colleagues. It feels really strange to leave now that I have become used to National and the work I am doing here. I will just have missed the transition to TI and there could have been a slight chance that the deal would have closed but the regulatory procedures in some of the countries National and TI operate have taken longer than expected. Nevertheless it feels good to instruct the other co-workers showing them how certain reports should be done and what work they will have to do when I am gone.
Let me now get back to my weekend trip. As I already mentioned, I really liked San Diego and I was impressed that the price level there is also quite high despite the proximity to Mexico. But I was told that many people want to live in this area because of the weather and the nearby Pacific Ocean which automatically drives up prices. This is similar to Silicon Valley where the factors are the strong local labour market with all the IT companies and also the favourable weather.
I managed to visit most of the sights in San Diego such as the aircraft carrier USS Midway. This was definitely worth the money and I can’t think of any place in the world where you could visit a full size aircraft carrier. Although the USS Midway is an ‘old’ model, it is still like a big village with all the facilities on board that were needed for the crew such as a post office, a barber, a huge galley and medical facilities including dental department, an operating theatre and an intensive care unit. Walking about on the runway you had a wonderful view of San Diego and the Bay. A Sail Festival was also taking place nearby and many old sailing boats could be seen out on the water with two bigger ones firing cannons every hour. Apart from the USS Midway, the Old Town and the beaches, I examined the Gas lamp Quarter, the historic heart of San Diego, which was founded in the late 19th century and now accommodates mostly restaurants and the city’s night life. On Sunday, I went further afield to the Balboa Park where one can find many museums and the San Diego Zoo. The park itself is already worth seeing and, by accident, I came across a little village of 1935 exposition cottages. Here, every Sunday, these houses are open to the public and they each represent and showcase a country and its culture. The first house I noticed when I saw the village was Hungary and a bit further down Scotland (see photo) was represented as well as England and the rest of the UK, Germany and a few other countries. In every house, descendants of the respective country that lived in the US would serve coffee and snacks and talk about their country. It was a really unique experience and well worth visiting. Later on in the afternoon, I met up for some ice cream with the other interns that worked for Envision Solar in San Diego. We went for a stroll along the coast and talked about our experience over a coffee near the seaside.
The next morning, I took the train from San Diego to Los Angeles. I was waiting to board for the train when it started to rain. This was in fact the first time I experienced some rain in the entire nine weeks I had been here. The train ride itself is very scenic with the train running near the Pacific Ocean. When I finally arrived in L.A., the first thing I did, was to get a map of the city. Los Angeles is huge and I soon decided that I would only have time to see Hollywood, The Walk of Fame and Universal City. I did stop in Downtown but there is hardly anything to see or visit apart from the City Hall and the Church of the Angels. Also, at that time it was just awfully hot and I did not want to spend more time there. The Hollywood Walk of Fame was cool to see but there were loads of tourists and the heat didn’t help either. It was interesting though to notice where people would stop take a picture of their ‘star’. After having some lunch and visiting Universal City it was time to go to the airport. This took nearly one and a half hours but it just gave you an idea how large the Greater Los Angeles Area is. It kind of reminded me of my experience of Sao Paulo in Brazil which is also huge but when I visited, friends there showed me around and this made my experience of Sao Paulo rather positive. I think that it would be the same for Los Angeles, if I knew somebody who could show me around and would know how to get around in L.A. as it is essential to drive here because it takes ages to get to places. I had to rely on public transportation which is, when you compare it to the extensive tube system in London, appalling. There are only really three or four metro lines which are supported by a bus network. The one advice I can give people that want to visit L.A. is that hiring a car is a must in order to check out all the sights and activities in the area. You then also have to stay a few days to do that. However, you have to be rather adventurous to drive in L.A. and I don’t think it will be quite a pleasure to that either. Finally, if you don’t really like big cities anyway you should avoid L.A. and rather go for San Diego where you’ll have a lot to see too and you will be able to relax and not stress out trying to get around. I did not really dislike L.A. but I must honestly say that, should I ever come back to California, this is not the first place I would visit. In that matter, of the three major ‘San’ cities plus Los Angeles, my personal ranking would be
1. 1. San Francisco
2. 2. San Diego
3. 3. San Jose
4. 4. Los Angeles
San Jose and the surrounding areas are also rather worth visiting than L.A. So if you are around in San Francisco, do take the trip to San Jose and some of the towns in between such as Palo Alto and Mountain View.
So, this is me giving you some travel advice, the next time you visit California. This one day in L.A. made me really tired and I was sleeping back on the plane to San Jose. After arriving back in the San Jose area, I was glad to have returned back ‘home’ to Santa Clara. I would like to end here and give a big thanks to the Saltire Foundation for this amazing experience and everybody who has followed my blogs.