Well, I had a last minute change of plans and rather than having a US client visit my company this week in Europe, I flew out to SF this weekend and had a meeting this Monday and Tuesday in Sunnyvale.
Last time I was in CA was back in... oooo... I was 14 I think and I am 40 now, so fricking ages. I have been back to the US four times since, last was Seatle in 1999.
I always find it very interesting; I am in the Ramada Downtown on 7th between Howard and Fulsom, also stayed a night in Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale was just AC'd room after AC'd room but I did have some personal time on Sunday and today (I fly back 7am Wednesday).
It is a bit of a shock for us (pinko commie socialist) Europeans to vist the US. You have beggars and crazy people hitting the ground where in Europe they hit the safety net of a welfare state - I've not seen that many crazy people walking down the road ranting at the sky since... oooo... last time I was the the USA.
I don't get it. I think the safety net of a genuine welfare state and not having poor homeless people with shopping trolleys three blocks from Gucci stores well worth the tiny fraction of my wages that preventing such inequity costs. Obviously in the USA it is different (although individually Americans are more generous than Europeans in giving to charity the lack of government action on poverty in the USA means the generosity of individuals does little to assuage the poverty when compared to the tax funded welfare in Europe).
Also, although the USA is not (now) intentionally racist (I've seen more Chinese and other Asians in ultra high-paying technical and managerial jobs in Silicon Valley these past two days than you could shake a stick at) 80% of people in low paying jobs are, for want of a better word, not white.
Poor areas have poor educational funding and produce poorly qualified people who get paid badly. Why educational funding per child is not Federally funded and equal so people get the same breaks even if they are in poor areas I don't know. As it isn't postive discrimination means those from poor areas (and thus badly educated) get breaks those from normal areas and well educated don't get. No wonder positive discrimination gets such a bad rap!! It's a vicious circle.
And although Ilove the business and bustle I am looking forward to a lack of it.
One other thing; don't you guys get pissed off with the cliches? If I see another piece of papaer with some anodyne statement syaing "X are prod to serve Y", or "Proudly made XYZ" I am goping to shove it straight up the ass of the next person who asks me if there's anything they can help me with today...
***NB
I like the USA. Doesn't mean I agree or 'get' it all. These are just the musings of a jet lagged person who has just aced a discussion about a price increase for support services with a Silicon Valley company and has to fly home tomorrow without really having a chance of doing anything other than visiting Alcatraz with two dull work colleaugues on Sunday afternoon. SF is nice though.