California

This week I'll be enjoying some much demanded down time as I visit my girlfriend out in beautiful Los Gatos, CA. Astute stalkers will remember that I was just 15 minutes away from here a week ago at Stanford running some experiments for Los Alamos. For the rest of you--I was just 15 minutes away from here a week ago at Stanford running some experiments for Los Alamos.

My impression of California is overall a positive one. At the end of the school year, my roommate and close friend Michelle took a road-trip from San Fran through all of NorCal into Oregon because I'd never been to California at a meaningful age or for a significant amount of time, and now by the end of the summer, I've flown to and fro between New Mexico and California 4 times now. In some ways I guess I got more than I asked for, but it's given me the opportunity to really get a feel for what living here must be like.

For one thing, it's expensive. So much so that I can only afford that one thing. Tax is 9.25% and a $50,000 down payment on a crack-shack house is less than 10%. Wow. You can tell the area is pricey as well by the number of "[something]i" Italian supercars running around the streets. Honestly, after a few days, seeing a ferrari was not at all a surprise, and even lamborghinis began to look a bit cliché. But once you go outside you realize why. The weather is WONDERFUL. Easily the best weather I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying. Cloudless every day, roughly 75 degrees at noon, cooler at night, and little humidity. There's also a large entrepreneurial spirit still very much alive in Silicon Valley, and California is racing to be the "greenest" state first, creating a large market for solar panels, hydrogen powered cars and the ilk--you know, all the things I'm interested in. I'll be coming back for a few weeks in the winter to run some more experiments at Stanford, but so far, if I were handed a bucket of money, I wouldn't mind living here at all.