National Neighborhood Association Day

Tuesday 5th August this week was the 25th Annual National Night Out Event, an evening  when all neighborhood associations throughout the country have an excuse to get together and have a bash!

Actually the NNO’s website states that :

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT is designed to:

• Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;
• Generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime programs;
• Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and
• Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

I love these things, I love community, getting to know new people – not always easy in Silicon Valley – and especially neighbors who you might otherwise never meet even though they may live just a couple of houses away. I have complained before about neighborhoods being too internalised, about the need for community and events that bring neighbors together so this is a no brainer.  Your only requirement is to live in the association’s area.

If you haven’t got one, start one.  You won’t be alone in wanting to get to know your neighbors.

We started with a block party two years ago, just putting flyers through doors and had a great turn out.  Our second annual block party happened in June again this year and we had games, fabulous and multi-cultural food, great company, and as it was such a hot day, one of our neighbors opened up their pool to everyone!  Great fun and now I rarely walk down the street with my dog without waving or saying Hi to people I now know!

And if you missed out on this year’s NNO event, check the website same time next year and get out there!

10 reasons to relocate to Silicon Valley

Photo Credit : Logos

Yes, I know, we moan and groan about living in this area called Silicon Valley, how expensive the houses , how small the yards, how congested the traffic, how expensive the gas, how long the commute, etc etc so I thought it was high time to sit back with my cup of coffee and remind myself and my readers why we LOVE living here, how lucky we are to live here and why relocating to Silicon Valley may be the best idea you ever had.

1. The weather – how wonderful is it to wake up and see blue sky and sunshine every morning; OK, perhaps not every morning, but sure as hec more often than not.

2. The location – with a 45 minute drive to the beaches on the west and a 3 hour drive to the nearest ski resort to the east, you can spend a day in the sea or in the snow, forgetting, for a day or two, about the commute, the traffic, the workload etc etc

3. The restaurants – what an orgasmic selection of restaurants we have here – any type of fare you wish to try is within a few miles drive.

4. Getting around – how easy is it to get from A to B with all the freeways we have at our disposal.

5. The culture – with San Jose to the south and San Francisco to the north, we are spoilt with choices of theater : movies, operas, plays, musicals, all of incredibly high standards.

6. The people – living in an area populated with so many different cultures, people who have migrated here from all over the world – to live in the best place in the world – adding to our understanding of these cultures, their traditions, their lifestyles, reminding us that there is a world beyond the US.

7. Travel opportunities – if you do feel the need to fly domestically or internationally, you are less than an hour from three international airports, San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.

8. Stanford University – one of the greatest colleges is right on our doorstep, and if you’ll never have a reason to visit your kid there, at least give yourself a reason to hang out at this beautiful campus and mingle with those fortunate enough to study there. And then go on to check out University Ave in downtown Palo Alto, quaint and interesting shops, restaurants and coffee houses.

9. Hobbies and sports – whatever you enjoy you can do – or watch – here alongside other people who share your interest. Sailing, football, yoga, belly dancing, hiking, lacrosse, knitting, cycling, stamp collecting, snowboarding : anything goes!

10. No humidity, no mosquitoes – at least that’s what my hubbie tells me when I ask what’s wrong with moving somewhere cheaper, say, Texas?

11. OK, I lied, but I had to add this one in – one of my favorite reasons – there is a Starbucks or Peets Coffee on almost every street corner!

Am I missing anything? What is it YOU love about Silicon Valley?

Dislocated, not relocated?

What a great privilege but almost intrusive experience it can be to read other people’s blogs!

The spontaneity and “nowness” of the writing makes it all the more interesting and immediate, so that the online conversation takes on a relevance unlike the thoughts of other writers such as the journalist’s newspaper article, which has been edited and re-edited by more than one person. The reviewer of our blogs is ourselves (in the main) and, in my case, the more blogs I write, the less I edit!

I remember my first blog, how much time I spent painstakingly looking at every word of every sentence just making sure that, as the whole world was going to read it (!), it was in perfect English, no grammatical errors and it made sense! Now I simply write, maybe read through once and press “Publish”. That truism surely applies to all bloggers, the more we blog, the less we think too hard about what we blog.

I was reminded of this in Zandria’s post yesterday, “Inspiration:people travel and live to tell about it.” Zandria’s comment about the immediacy of blogging struck a chord with me:

“That’s why we read blogs; they tell us what a person

is going through right now, what’s on a person’s mind right now. “

though I have to say this was a major digression from why I was reading her blog in the first place ; the topic was of women moving to another country and dealing with the issues they encounter. As my blog is about relocating to Silicon Valley, I wanted to read what she had to say, and it made me wonder how many people who have moved here, feel dislocated, not relocated.

Language is the constant barrier here for all those who don’t have English as a first language, but there’s also the cultural issue which can retain those walls, long after the language barrier is broken down. Having just read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman – an excellent read about the Hmong people in Merced, a town just a short drive from Silicon Valley – my awareness of the huge cultural differences in our own backyard has been heightened and my tolerance for everything not American has been reinforced.

So – in the same breath that I market the cross-cultural training classes I give, I am humbled by the very existence of these cultures. Though I want to help the relocating workforce and their families integrate into American business and life, I also want to help them keep hold of their traditions, their customs, their culture.