Where I've been
Well, it's been a while since my last installment and I'm getting a lot of flack for it. I hadn't realised that I had a strong fan base - sorry fans. I've been moving, connections were servered but I'm back, though still on the go!Where am I? Or rather where have I been? I've just penned a postcard to my youngest sister Min'enhle in Zimbabwe telling her that San Francisco is problably the most vibrant city I've ever been to outside my very own home city. It beats Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, London, Madrd, Johannesburg, Durban, Toronto, New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Las Vegas and paltry Pittsburg. She starts college in North America in later this year and I'm sure she's looking forward to plenty.
I've officially bade farewell to Silicon Valley but I don't really want to change my locale on this blog. I'm still attached. There's plenty about the area which amazes me to this day. Being from rag-tag country, rubbing shoulders with big giants in the hitech industry is a huge deal. My old school pioneered computing and computer eductation in Zimbabwe. It was the first school in the country to include it in its curriculum. By the time I started, we were miles ahead of the bunch. I remember toying around with old 286 motherboards back in high school. The main server was a faster 386!! But at the time we were the envy of them all. And when we lost the old stock and got the new Pentiums, we were out in full force to showcase to the country just how good we were in this computing business.
Why am I going on about this? Spending an afternoon at Intel brought back so many of old memories. The idea of semiconductor always fascinated me (should have done Physics instead of Chemistry!!). I was envious of the guy explaining to me the design process which goes into making a microprocessor. Yes, I got to see how Intel progressed from the 286 to 386 to 486 to Pentium - and now they've dropped Pentium. It's so old school and they are way beyond that. Going back to my school days, it didn't even dawn on me that I would one day quiz people who work in the semiconductor industry, fully clad in a bunny suit inside a clean room - not just any clean room, an Intel Clean Room. Wow - is all I can say!
San Jose is also in a good locality. Ski slopes two hours away, beaches forty-five minutes away and San Francisco thirty-five minutes away. SF is a beautiful city. I wish I had taken the time to catch the train up more frequently. It oozes history, beauty and countless smiling faces. The cable car up California Street to Chinatown, the walk along to Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf, the historic F line streetcars and the beautiful bridges: Golden Gate and Bay. Postcard perfect views wherever you set your eyes. And then there's the food. The first time I had clam chowder was in SF and I loved it. Especially when they serve it in that bread bowl. And there's clam strips, crab sandwiches, ahh man!! Can I do this everyday?
My itinerary: I'm in Sacramento right now, staying with my uncle. My flight to New York leaves in four hours. Supper will be in Phoenix where I connect. Then on Friday, I'm going down to DC for the long weekend and I'll be back New York next Monday. On Tuesday I'll be up early to join the live audience at ABC's Good Morning America and the rest of the week will be eventful I'm sure. On Friday the 2nd, I fly back to London Heathrow where I'll catch a coach to Birmingham. There I will spend the next two days catching up with my cousins.
Thereafter... God knows. All I know is that I will no longer be in this crazy country.
posted by mpenseli @ 2:05 PM
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