Monika goes California

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Our Brand :)

Sunday, June 03, 2007

What life has treated me with in the past four months?

Yes, it's been a long while since I last posted an entry to my blog, apologies for being lazy in communicating my life out here to the ones I love!

Los Angeles

Early March an AIESEC conference happened to take place in LA - why not go there? :) Didn't get to see much of the conference, but got to explore a bit of the Orange County.

Disneyland - a place to definitely check of my "To See" list. Had lots of fun riding various roller coasters, enjoying the crowd, looking for ways of cutting the loooooong lines :) Nice, but definitely meant for children. Shoot - I'm not yet as grownup myself. LoL :) Anyways, I can firmly say now - "Been there, did it, time to go elsewhere, no need to return".

Hollywood - Walk of Fame and other famous places to go proved to be a big tourist attraction. Interesting people around, you can definitely sense a strong "wannabe a star" atmosphere all around.

Beverly Hills - neat and sweet. Rodeo drive and surrounding little streets reminded me so much of Europe and the old towns I missed so much!.. A little copy in LA is not that real and rich in history though... There's no place like home, indeed.
Overall Las Vegas is humongous, somewhat fake, traffic is seriously bad; however, the feel of California is there, on every single corner..

Discovering Indian culture again and again

Living in the Bay Area is really rewarding in having the possibility to discover various cultures mixed in one place. Indian culture is one of those I'm quite often exposed to.
HOLI - the festival of colours. A crazy day spent with some crazy AIESECers and a bunch of Indian people! :) Look how pretty and colourful you can get in a few hours:

Indian Cultural Show - nice dances, colourful clothes, rich cultural heritage - Indian is indeed a diverse as no other.

Work hard party harder

Work has been pretty intense in the last months - long hours approaching our busy season, surviving through it, moving on and catching up on numerous projects left behind. Tuff at times, but seriously rewarding in the end. In the evaluation period now, getting some nice feedback and looking into some nice future development later.
Work has not only been professionally challenging, but also fun :) Starting from kick of events at vineries, continuing with wild end of busy season parties and continuously spiced up with outings with the closest circle of colleagues - accountants can be hella fun! ;)))

Basketball

Something making me feel like home :) Our team (Golden States Warriors) finally made it to the NBA playoffs and gave us here some good times spent watching the games and enjoying Sarunas Jasikevicius (rarely on the field, but still :P). I got to go and see one of the games right before the playoffs myself at the Oracle Arena in Oakland - tons of fun, was something a Lithuanian has to do at least once in the life - go watch a real basketball game, an NBA game! ;)

Broken bones

Yep, May was an exciting month in my medical experiences here in the US. In addition to the wisdom tooth removal I happened to visit the Emergency Room one late Friday night and leave it with big ol' cast on :) Excitement about the Warriors wining against the Utah Jazz ended in Monika falling on her elbow and having a bone fracture for some good 4 to 6 weeks. Experience not as nice and desired, especially in a foreign country. Can't blame anyone else but me though, I'm not a ten year old boy anymore, lol ;))
Here's how I look now with my little splint on. Thanks god the big ol' cast is of already!

Get Golden - camping in the Yosemite National Park area

Get Golden is an annual camping trip Sun Microsystems trainees organize in May. A number of AIESECers, trainees and their friends gather together from all over U.S. and abroad to have fun in the beautiful nature in the Yosemite surrounding area. I got to bring a few of my co-workers with me, too ;) This year we had 50 plus people camping together - fun ;)
One day spent at the Bass lake going crazy on a ski boat, enjoying the refreshing swims in the water, simply playing games at the campsite, fire, songs and dances around it, marsh mellows deluxe :)
The second day in the amazing Yosemite mountains - breathtaking… Even though it's my second time there I couldn't stop staring at everything with my mought wide open…;)

Now looking forward to my trip to Hong Kong!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

An overview of the latest and greatest...

It's been a long while since I last posted the latest happenings in my life overseas. It's always difficult to put all the emotions new experience of more than a month in a short manner (especially for me :)), I'll try to do my best!

Having Lina here in the Land of fruits and Nuts

Yeah - "The land of fruits and nuts" :) A truly correct way to say it all about California! An indeed divers community over here has no shortage of both gay people and the once with mental disorders, too.

OK, back to Lina and the time spent with her. I cannot put it in words how great it was to have someone so precious to me like Lina last holiday season!.. Yeah.. All the great things we did: went to check Monterey and the Bay Aquarium there, did bar hopping in Santa Cruz,

enjoyed endless walks up and down the hills of the breathtaking San Francisco city, had a traditional Christmas dinner (Turkey turkey…) in a sweet American family, droved all the way up to the mountains to the amazingly beautiful resort of Lake Tahoe, met the New Year in a crazy crowd of San Francisco. A lot to remember!

San Francisco - again and again!..

Check some photos out.

Little Italy and the Transamerica Pyramid in the background. Tiramissu in the cafes out there.... amazing...

Talking about "fruits" of California :))) a common view in SF!

Crazy streets of San Francisco might make you go crazy, too... :P

Lake Tahoe

The lake surrounded by the amazing mountain range is a perfect place for skiers at winters, a wonderful place for all the nature lovers in summers. Oh, and gamblers - the resort is on the border of California and Nevada, which means that gambling in a so distinctive Nevada part is on 24/7!

I was lucky to visit this place twice in the last month - first with Lina to simple enjoy the snow I don't get to see in the Bay Area, and the second time - with AIESEC friends for some snow boarding!

Yep - my first snow boarding experience! What can I say - my bum and my knees were not to happy about this adventure, but my soul sure was! The feeling is surely amazing… Needs quite some practice to be absolutely spectacular though... :P

Some precious moments…

Siuntinukai… Little parcels… Sweets, magazines, champagne (that was a crazy one for sure!), all the greetings… Every single little detail just made me realize that there's no other place like home, no better friends like the ones you grew up with, experienced so much with! My Love for ya all is reaching even further when the endless sky!
People surrounding me here - all new, becoming very precious in the speed of light… Finally, after spending a few months in the Golden State I feel having a growing network of people I can so much relate to - fiends I value more and more with each and every day! Guys - you know you always make my day! Love ya all!
The feeling of slowly becoming a "local". I'm not talking about dinning in all the fast food chains, managing to have the whole extra large meal in one go or becoming a lazy spoiled ass, nooo… I'm talking about all new shortcuts I'm discovering, new ways of doing things, understanding the ways people behave here… Feels both strange and as well good… :)

Work. Didn't expect to put this one here, but... I indeed start to feel the value I'm getting working with PwC. One thing - I can totally enjoy the diversity I value so much every single day in the office - more that 50 countries are represented here... The other - a number of my colleagues are crazy as hell and I love them for that! :) And of course - the professional experience. I sure feel the growing trust in me and the what I do, support and effort to push me beond the frames of the initial job description...

Now I can honestly admit - this experience is totally worth it!..

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Christmas on the streets!

I told you Americans are crazy about holidays? Right... And decorations!!!

Halloween came with all the pompastic decorations on the streets in the town, in many many families' front yeards - all over. It left of course...

The start of the Christmas season took over the stage right after! Some captured moments to share...

Macy's netingi pasipuosti :)

Union square San Francisco

Most of the families try their best in decorating the house - some do really well, the others simply don't know a better way to spend a fortune on the decorations them selves and the electricity bill... Jundge this one yourselves :)

Google, Paris Hilton and me

The news today on CNN made me realize why here in the U.S. people make a comment like "Did anybody ever tell you that you look like Paris Hilton?" or "Wow, for a second I thought it was Paris walking into our Starbucks cafe!" and alike to me so often... People on the bus, people on the street, even PwC partners!

Here's the reason:

"Top 5 of the searches people run on Google are:

1. Paris Hilton

2. ..."

Seams this girl is really something in the states! But how come I have to be the one associated with her?.. :) Do we really look alike?

Kucios with the Lithuanian community in the Bay area

Thanks to my Lithuanian co-worker I got to know about the Lithuanian community in the Bay area and the traditional Christmas Eve dinner they were organizing. No surprise - I didn't loose this opportunity to meet some Lithuanians and taste some traditional Lithuanian food! :) Silkute... Balta misraine... Zagareliai... Kuciukai... Aguonu pienas.... mmm... I almost felt like home... :) I was actually expecting to meet some Lithuanians of the age similar to mine, build a small network of friends; however, I found only elder people and children attending... :) No wonder, youngsters have better things to do than just watching a performance prepared by sweet five year olds or chating with a charming couple in their 70-ties... :)

Anyways, I'm glad I went. I hope to make it to the celebration of the independence day as well!

Pre-Christmas party

On a Friday night me and my friend Lina went to a Pre-Christmas party in Santa Cruz organized by her boyfriend's family members. Americans love to celebrate - Pre-Christmas party, Holiday kick of party, whatever reason to get together and have some fun :)
This party was a bit special coz it had a game/competition which was the center of the whole night. It is called The White Elephant competition (because of the prize - a pimped white elephant sculpture - the winner gets hold of for a year) the goal of which is to bring the most crapy gift ever :D It was really fun to see how creative people can be! This competition was a good way to count the people attending too - by the time the number of the participant reached 6o everybody was already tired... :)
Just for the record - the winner of this whole thing was a person who brought in a crocodile candy jar...

Thursday, December 14, 2006

TodayyyyyyyO! :)))

I have to tell you - this birthday of mine was the longest birthday I ever had! Started right after the midnight of the 14th in Australia and ended at midnight of the 15th in the West coast of the U.S.A. :D it can't get any longer!

Some magic components of the day:

burning shot in the glass of beer instead of the candle on the cake :)
a precious friend from Lithuania - the best gift you can ever expect!
twelve little cakes and a surprise birthday party with all surprise guest being late :)
...

All this and much more made the day fun like no other... Better when I could have expected it to be after only slightly over two months in a completely new environment... :)

The Birthday drink :)

The suprise late at night... :)

Saturday, December 09, 2006

One crazy night...:)

After spending the whole weekend shopping both in San Jose and San Francisco we ended the Sunday night grocery shopping and bringing the shopping cart to the apartment :)))
...crazy girls...
...crazy shopping...
...crazy weekend...

Linksmybes darbe

Apie pati darba nera ka ten labai rasyt, tai va apie smagiaja vakarine jo dali brukstelsiu truputuka:
- Vakariene su parneriais ir Comedy show. Pries savaitele teko sudalyvaut dar vienam PwC parneriu organizuotam renginuke - susirinkom 16-a zmoniu vakarienei mielam restorane, o po jos perbegom i Comedy show. Tai vat pastarajam reikale pirma kart gyvenime buvau :) Turbut zinot, kad tai gan megstama vakaro praleidimo forma cionais - sedi, gurksnoji koki kokteiliuka ir klausaisi gan stipriu komedijantu juokeliu. Turiu pripazint, kad tikrai smagu! Du is keturiu komedijantu buvo nerealus, griuvom visi juokais :) reiketu ir LT kazka panasaus uzvest (jei dar nera)!
- Kulinarijos pamokos. Sia savaite turejom savo darbines komandos team building vakara - profisionalios kulinarijos institute mokemes gaminti! :) susiskirste mazesnemis komandomis gaminome visa galybe uzkandziu bei desertu, kuriuos veliau visi smagiai ir isragavome :) paprastas ir puikus budas aptureti smagu vakara su kolegomis - sveikintina iniciatyva. Beje, mano su vienu PwC partneriu ruostas uzkandis buvo nuominuotas kaip vienas skaniausiu :P
- Sventinis vakarelis. Gal ne tiek vakarelis, kiek didziulis pobuvis :)) mat ofise musu kiek virs tukstancio zmoniu!!! o i svente dar ir su antrom pusem sukviesti visi buvo! :)) tai galit isivaizduoti, kaip viskas atrode :) Pats vakaras (apart zmoniu skaiciaus) nebuvo kitoks, nei iprasta pas mus LT - maistas, gerimai, gyva muzika, sokiai pokiai, pokalbiai ir pan. Tik toks pastebejimas - cia zmones tokiuose darbiniuose vakareliuose tiek neatsipalaiduoja, apie vidurnakti dauguma ir issiskirste :)

Thanksgiving day

Na pacia padekos diena praleidau lektuve - pasvenciau skrydziui i NYC, bet jos isvakarese teko sudalyvauti padekos dienos vakarieneje tarptautiniuose studentu namuose. Juose AIESEC kartu su tarptautiniais studentais suorganizavo visus tradicinius pateikalus ir sukviete uzsieniecius juos isragauti :) nesijaute tos jaukios seimynines atmosferos, bet vistik paragavau ju zymiojo kalakuto :) si svente is dalies primine musu Kucias - apsivalgymo meta :) beje, sia diena nedirba visi (tik degalines ir KFC atidaryti:)), visi issislapste po namus dziaugiasi savo seimomis...

Monday, December 04, 2006

New York City

Zinia, kad padekos dienos savaitgaliui lekiau i NYC pasidairyti. Keliavau su kambarioke Asma, apsistojome pas jo broli su seima (kas isties sutaupe ne viena simta doleriu!). Turiu pripazinti, Niujorkas - nerealus miestas! Didelis ir nuolat uzsiemes :)) Aplankeme didziaja dali miesto izimybiu: Wall street, Ground zero, 5th Avenue, Rockefeler center, Crysler building, Empire state building, Times square, Liberty statue, Central park, China town, Little Italy, Madison square ir dar nesuskaiciuojama daugybe ne tiek zymiu, bet zavingu vietu...:) Nerealus visa ko misinys sis miestas! Tuo jis ir uzburia... Gaila tik, kad neteko patirti naktinio Niujorko zavesio... Mat kompanija mana nevisai tokia buvo... Issiskyre musu su Asma prioritetai - as lekiau i NYC atrasti dar viena didmesti ir isspausti is keliones viska viska (vistik visa JAV perskridom ir tikrai greitu metu ten nenukaksim!), o ji vaziavo su seima pasibuti. Tai vat sau ir prisizadejau - organizuotis smagia kompanija ir siaust kitokio Niujorko atrast! Prisijungiat? :)
Keliones metu atradau ne tik Niujorka, bet ir Pakistanieciu kultura. Nepatikesit, kaip skiriasi musu laiko planavimo iprociai, sprendimo priemimo greitis ir budai, poziuris i dalykus ir pan..:) Ugdziausi kantrybe ir tolerancija su jais laika leisdama.. dar dalele kulturines patirties, kurios cia semiuosi :) Viena vakaru praleidom Asmos giminiu namuose - pakistanietiska virtuve ir dideles seimynos surmulys.. Samgu buvo meginti isijausti i ju kultura, padiskutuoti ekonomikos klausimais su Federal Reserve Bank ilgus metus besidarbavusiu seneliu..
Tiesa, apsilankeme vienoje isskirtineje parodoje - The BODIES. Joje eksponuojamas ir detaliai nagrinejamas zmogaus kunas - kaulu, raumenu, organu, nervu/kraujotakos sistemu sandara, tikru tikriausi pavydziai! Nerealu... Galit uzsukt pasiziureti - http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/intro.html

Wall street - New York Stock Exchange

Ground zero - buvusiu dvyniu vietoje dabar statybu aikstele, ruosiamasi statyti paminkla atminimui... Be rugsejo vienuoliktosios ivykiu chronologines sekos minuciu tikslumu, kvapa gniauzianciu nuotrauku cia taip pat eksponuojami ir tevu netekusiu vaiku piesiniu koliazai - sirdi gerokai suvirpina...