Must..... give..... a proper......... update...

Urgh. Time flies when you're having fun.
Sooooo then, where was I.

I now have a mobile number; Feel free to text me on 1-510-396-6923 (or +15103966923 from abroad), but try not to call me too much, as answering calls over here uses up credit.

As for what I've been up to... Monday and Tuesday last week were spent applying for social security numbers, bank accounts, meeting current interns (including some from Kent), and generally lazing about in/by the pool here at the hotel. There are 6 other Sun interns staying at the same hotel as me, all from Scotland, so I've been doing some stuff with them too.

Started work on Weds, and Weds, Thurs and Fri were basically spent getting settled into the office and orientating myself. I've got a rather nice dual monitor system I customised for myself, and I started learning Perl and Solaris Administration. All fun stuffs.

Went out to Berkeley on Weds evening and met some of the AIESEC volunteers at Berkeley and San Jose, which was awesome. Also met some of the other interns with AIESEC who work at places other than Sun, which was also pretty cool.

Friday evening, I headed over to Santa Clara with Gary and James (two of the scottish interns) and stayed the night at Patricia's house (another Aiesec intern, but working somewhere else) before heading out reeeeeeally early in the morning to go rafting with the San Jose Aiesec group. Was *excellent* fun, met a bunch more volunteers and interns, and generally had an awesome time rafting down a river for 4 hours whilst having a running water fight, with gun and water bombs and swimming and everything. Was *soooooo* fun. Spent a lot of time in the water swimming, which was excellent, but which resulted in my sunblock being washed off... meaning horribly horribly burnt shoulders. Still, well worth it.

Went back to San Jose State Uni's International House after that for an international cookoff... lot's of tasty food from different countries around the world. Was delicious, and Lotta's african soup rightly won the competition. There was a presentation on Egypt too, which was fascinating.

Photos from the weekend can be found on my website

Got a lift back home after that, and spent most of Sunday sleeping, or mooching about in/around the pool again.

Today and yesterday have been spent mainly working again... Went out on Sunday evening with James, Gary, Colin and Andy to an all-you-can-eat Indian Buffet meal for $13 (about £8) which was *delicious*, followed by watching Wedding Crashers at the cinema; there was an advert for John Butler Trio (an aussie band that a friend of mine in australia has got me in to) before the film, which was pretty awesome.

I have also obtained a 70's Volkswagen Campervan off one of last year's interns, so I hope to get a driving license over here pretty quickly. I shall paint it fun colours, and all shall be well.


So yes. M'having a most excellent time over here. This coming weekend is surfing, and the weekend after that is paintballing. My job rocks. The people here rock. And I'm having a good time, having a good time. I'm gonna woah, woah, woah, woah explode.

*grin*

Hrm

I'll do a proper update tomorrow, but I just felt like blurping out here a bit tonight.

My time here in the US so far has been absolutely fantastic. My job is great, and the people here are greater. Rafting and the cookoff yesterday was amazing, and I got to know a bunch of people; other AIESEC interns, AIESEC volunteers who live and study here, and it's really great. There are 6 guys from Scotland who live in the same hotel and work on the same Sun campus as me, and hanging out with them is great too.

I just went and had an Indian buffet meal with them, followed by watching The Wedding Crashers. A really funny film, absolutely hilarious.

Still, despite all the fun, all the great times I've had in just a week so far, I've been reminded tonight of just how deeply I miss someone.

*sigh*

I'll update with a proper full account of the past week tomorrow, when this mood has past.

Well, here I am, in the States.

Yeah, it's been a while since I updated. Meant to do it at home, where I've been for the past 2 weeks, but never got around to it.

The past 2 weeks have been ok. Was good to see family again, and was able to properly relax during the day, something I haven't done it a while. Bought "Destroy all Humans", and completed it, watched all of Firefly (soooooooo excellent, thanks Kim :) ), read books, and generally mooched.

Got my visa through from the embassy, after much bother, on Friday afternoon, and a flight was booked for me that evening for Saturday. The flight over was ok, fairly boring and managed to sleep through a fair bit of it. Landed on time at JFK, but sat on the tarmac for a good 40 mins, reducing my 90 min changeover time to 30 min by the time I got to passport control. Managed to get to my flight *just* before it left, which was good, but my bags didn't; they arrived on the next flight, and should be delivered to me shortly.

My apartment in this hotel rocks, and there's huuuuge ammounts of places to eat out around here, although not much in the way of nightlife at all, sadly. I'm in a town called Newark, just across the bay from San Fransisco. Check Google Maps and the Hotel Website.

My address here is:

Room 224, 35466 Dumbarton Court
Newark, CA 94560


and my phone number is (510) 739-6000 (or 0015107396000 from the UK)... ask to be connected to room 224.



So, there we go. More from me tomorrow, when I start work.

Well, that's it

My dad has just arrived, it's time to leave Canterbury for a year.
*sniff*

I'll update properly about this last week and yesterday in London from home on my parents 56k dialup.

Adios, all. Been a fantastic year, in the end. Thanks.