To Dublin!

An Irishman at the airline office in Moscow:

- Give me please two tickets to Dublin.

- Kuda, blin?

- Tuda, blin!

(c) Russian joke. See explanation a the bottom.

Every Russian should visit Dublin at least once, just for the sake of this old Russian "Tuda Blin" joke. Maybe it's the early wake up when I had to be in the airport at 7 AM, but for me the fun started right there: every time a I heard the words "To Dublin" I mumbled "Kuda, blin?". And it does not get old!

Anyway, my new team is located in Dublin so I may find myself spending some time here every now and then.

Dublin (old Irish name - Dubhlinn, which means "black pool") has lots of old stuff, which is pretty exciting for someone who grew up in a city which is only a 100 years old. A 800+ y.o. castle, churches, etc -

Here's the famous Door Of Reconciliation in St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Gerald FitzGerald "chanced his arm" 500 years ago:

(Of course, I put my arm through the door imagining myself to be a knight in dirty damaged armor. You know, as they say - "A knight in shining armor never did nothing for nobody. He never fought. A knight in dirty, dented, and scraped up armor, now, that’s the kind you want.")

But I wanted to see more of Ireland - not just Dublin! Being hesitant to drive on the wrong side of the road, I took a train to the western part of the country to spend a weekend in a small village near Galway. Imagine huge green areas with sheep, cows and big nice houses. This is how I'll remember the west side:

That, plus storms, heavy rains, winds and +7C. Side note: I'm so glad I came to Ireland in January. This will help me appreciate the weather in San Francisco (or anywhere, to be honest!). It's been raining almost non-stop for weeks. I haven't seen sun for more than 15 consecutive minutes here.

Guinness is a really big thing in Ireland. I took a tour of the Guinness Storefront where they show how they make beer - and, of course, let you try it. :)

National Gallery in Dublin turned out to be quite small, but it has one Van Gogh painting, which I really liked:

And several amazing paintings of Jack Yeats - these alone make the Gallery worth visiting. Couldn't take pictures of those, but you can see a slideshow on BCC website.

All other pictures are here.

And here's the explanation for the joke in the epigraph: 

An Irishman at the airline office in Moscow:

- Two tickets to Dublin!
- Kuda, blin? (English: To where, blin?)
- Tuda, blin! (English: To there, blin!)
"Blin" in Russian is a mild swear word, something like "damn it". "To Dublin" sounds just like "Tuda, blin". So it looks like the Irishman asks for "two tickets to there, damn it". What makes this joke funny is that he understands the question in Russian and having been misunderstood in English he replies in Russian too, this time actually saying "to there, damn it!"

Newcomers

Finally - Pavel and Ivan are here.

   

The relocation process took a while as always, but they are finally here. Yay.
Pavel is my classmate and Ivan is my ex-colleague from Russia.

Barbados: keeping it real

Swimming, surfing and hanging out on the beach do not inspire to write too much, so I'll just give a link to the photo album

and remind everyone  -

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

(Marcel Proust)

Silver lining.

Soon after moving to San Francisco I was going through a set of medical tests to find the cause for my allergy. 

When doctors say stuff like "we'd like to do some tests to rule out A and B and..." - that's ok. Not much to worry about. And then it goes like that for a few weeks. 

And then you get referred to some new doctor. You arrive there still not worrying too much and the department sign makes you smile - "gee, guys, you've made a mistake in your referral". :-)   The sign says "Department of Oncology". 

And then you realize that was not a mistake.  X8-[=]

The first time you hear from your doctor: "we ruled out the basic stuff and now we have to perform some tests to rule out some blood cancers"... I saw a cool diagram which summarizes someone's feelings at that point (this is not my diagram, but you get the basic idea):

Luckily, all the thorough tests eventually completely ruled out blood cancers. 

That was once-in-a-life experience. It kinda makes you reevaluate what's important and what's not. It makes you laugh at people caught up in their little troubles. 

Another noteworthy thing is that my car got totaled couple days ago. Everything from the first call to my insurance company to the check in my bank took less than 1 day. And I was worried where the heck I'm going to park my car while I'm away on vacation... Haha!  Well, that problem is now gone for sure.

Speaking of vacation... A friend of mine living in Barbados suddenly invited me to pay a visit. I was contemplating this idea for 5 minutes and then said "heck yeah!!". Bought the ticket the next day; leaving tomorrow. My Picasa albums should expect a few new pictures in the next weeks.
UPDATE: here are the Barbados pictures.

What else?.. Well, I just got a new apartment in San Francisco.

A few pictures from the housewarming last Sunday.

Before and After...

This is what bad shampoo does to your hair...
Just kidding.

Mission Impossible

It’s funny that when I make a decision, I usually realize that my previous decision sucked. One may call this a way of exploring the world and a great path to a personal growth.

Or you can just say that I’m an idiot. Depends on your point of view and how polite and straightforward you are. J

So as one of my previous posts said, I spent last several months living in North Beach.

Lessons learned –

1. North Beach sucks. It’s like living on the Red Square in Moscow. Yeah, it’s fun for the first 3 days and then what? Tons of tourists and tourists-oriented attractions. Plus parking is a nightmare.
2. You should never ever live with random roommates off Craigslist unless you just can’t afford living by yourself and you absolutely have to share your house with strangers.  “I’m too old for this shit” © “Lethal Weapon”.   And God forbid you from living with a landlord with all kind of issues.
3. If you work on Peninsula, then driving through the City alone adds 15-25 minutes to your commute time. Caltrain/Bart is pretty much a joke.

You know how you sometimes get used to some crap little by little and lower your standards, and then lower them again, and then you think "yeah, it's ok, I don’t really need <something>… and it’s not a big deal that <something> is <something>", etc. But then one day you finally realize - no, it's  not okay. Enough.

Off we go… Craigslist hunting again… Surprisingly, this time I found a new place in 1 day and I moved just a few days later. I still can’t believe my luck. San Francisco’s housing market is completely supply-controlled, so finding something acceptable is hard-to-impossible, unless you’re willing to pay a lot. I mean a LOT. A normal price for a 1 bedroom place in the neighborhoods I was interested in would be $3000+/month.

There are some downsides to my new place.

First of all, it’s a temporary sublease until the owners come back 3 months later and then I’ll have to move again. I feel like a homeless dude sometimes, although this also gives a great feeling of freedom. You don’t accumulate all this crap in the house and you can easily move to another area if you want to. I just wish there were more good affordable places to live in SF. J

My new neighborhood (Mission) definitely has both pros and cons. It’s much closer to Peninsula, so my commute is now typically 25-30 minutes (comparing to 40-50 in North Beach).

There’s a lot of young people in the area. Mission is the “heart” of all the fun in the City – restaurants, hippie-gathering cafes, dive bars, theaters, etc.

Unfortunately, the part of Mission where I live has a quite high crime rate.  You should always remember to not leave anything valuable in your cars, otherwise it WILL be stolen. On the bright side, if anything does get stolen, you can always buy it back on the corner around here.

I don’t think I would consider buying a condo in this particular area, but for 3 months it’s perfectly fine. And then when I need to move again, I’ll search for a place farther south. Mission actually gets very nice south-west of 22^nd street and Valencia.

Side note: a pretty funny guide: “San Francisco neighborhoods for dummies”: http://www.thebolditalic.com/drewhoolhorst/stories/1958-moving-to-san-francisco

It has a lot of oversimplifications and generalizations, but many points are very, very true.

So my new (temporary) place is less than $2000/month for 2 bedrooms on the top floor. It’s a pretty awesome place, all clean and sunny. A normal price would be $3000+/month, but this place is rent-controlled, so…

( Higher resolution photos are here )

Celebrate C'MON!

You may or may not like Obama, but the next day after he got re-elected I got this pretty exciting email - 

From: USCIS-CaseStatus@dhs.gov

Subject: The last processing action taken on your case

Receipt Number: LIN129....
Application Type: I485 , APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS
Your Case Status: Card/ Document Production

On November 7, 2012, we mailed the new card directly to the address we have on file. You should receive your new card within 30 days. If you do not, or if you move before you get it, call customer service at ....

This step applies to applications that result in an applicant receiving a card (such as a "green card") or other document.

"Coincidence? I don't think so!" (c) How I Met Your Mother.