This is Thatcher Blogging

Tonight I was at a party. The party was to organised to celebrate the victory of the american people. The mood present with the people I talked to was a feeling of having been involved, and being together. Having accomplished this together. People in cars were bumping their horns to groups of people on the street, like I only know from when the Dutch soccer team has won a mayor match. 

One girl I spoke with told me that she had made phone calls, 25 calls a day and she was proud that all the states to which she had made call to had be won. 

 The speach of Obama was also very much something that was felt to be moderate, and inspiring. Obama was not saying “I won” or “it is done now” but “we can now start” and people do feel more involved now.

Personally I see quite a difference between when I was in Pittsburgh some four and a half years ago. The young people I spoke then were very indifferent, and in the opinion that their vote would make no difference. This year people do have hope, and believe that they can make a change happen. 

 Tonight I was at a party. The party was to organised to celebrate the victory of the american people. The mood present with the people I talked to was a feeling of having been involved, and being together. Having accomplished this together. People in cars were bumping their horns to groups of people on the street, like I only know from when the Dutch soccer team has won a mayor match.

One girl I spoke with told me that she had made phone calls, 25 calls a day and she was proud that all the states to which she had made call to had be won.

The speach below inspired people.

The Fillmore is a venue for bands playing that has more granduer (behind a small emtrance) than any other place I have seen. Chandeliers from the ceiling, carpet ok the floors.
Stereolab was playing and the sound was really good. A place to come again.

Ok, since I wrote so much about housing last time I will have to explain a little bit about what happened to the housing quest since. As I wrote I had got an offer to share a room in an appartment in the sunset district. I was going to share this room with Mike W Moore. He is a freshman in Cinema and a pretty nice guy. So I moved to Judah st (Sunset district). And actually it was pretty good, and fun. I kept looking because I wanted a better commute to the trainstation, and a room for myself.

Now I found another room in an appartmet on Ivy st. This is a small street, very centrally located between the Civic centre and Hayes valley. Close to both Market st and the nice hippie-ish Hayes street neighborhood. I share the appartment with a 30ish guy working non-tech in Mountain View. My bedroom came (nicely) furnished, and as such looks a little like a hotel room. (see pic).

Outside lands music festival

One week after I moved to the sunset district there was the outside lands music festival, which I had been looking forward to for quite a while already. I went there with Petri, another intern at HP. It was fun. And besides it was only two blocks from my then-room on Judah st.

People

Some people keep asking if I start to feel at home and if I’m meeting nice people. Well, yes. I do. Nora introduced me to a couple of nice people, and via via I have met more, in San Francisco it is not very hard. For example I went to another festival (the treasure island fetival) yesterday with a guy I met on the train Friday.

Ahmfpmfsfff. Finding a nice place to stay is just too hard! Let me explain.

I am now still staying in downtown San Jose, with Vikram and Vidhur, but I have to leave by the end of this week. I have been looking to a lot of places and two weeks ago I had actually said yes to this one place not far from where I now live. But by the time I had gotten and returned his credit-check application he had already given it to someone else! I have seen maybe 12 places in San Jose (and around) of which most would just bore me to death. The people living there would mostly just be too old or a family. Other bad options include way far from downtown, no kitchen or dirty.

Right now I am in doubt. I have two options:

1) I can move to Santa Clara. Some people contacted me through my -housing wanted- posting on craigslist, they just signed a lease for a otherwise very nice house in Santa Clara (between San Jose and my work). They are friendly but already announced that they will be doing little else but studying law. The main issue is that if they dont become my friends I wont have any friends. Somehow it is really hard to meet -my kind- of people in San Joe. I actually already said yes.

2) I can move to San Francisco. Somehow it is very easy to make friends here and there are tons of nice bars and places to go. The downside is that it is hard to find an affordable room (think Amsterdam). I got this offer at this party yesterday for sharing a room in the sunset district, and it would be perfect; if the commute would not be so horrible (2hrs one way by public trans). There are districts with better access to the train, so I would need to look for something there. Cost for a room is ~ $ 900 !

On the party I was yesterday pretty much everyone agreed that I should move to the city instead.

What to do??

Since it was 4th of July I had a day off, and since I know I am not getting too many of those I though I’d better use it. I phoned Nora (picture above) and drove op to San Francisco to meet her.

This is the road trip. I made this video because I find american highways pretty strange. Besides.. It’s pretty mellow.

These are my collegues!