Hey guys,
Sorry for the delay in posting since the last time, but working for the BEST COMPANY IN THE WORLD has proven to be challenging not leaving too much time for other stuff:P Of course, I could have used the weekends and the nights, but there is just too much stuff to get to know.
Well, let's see if I can make a quick and "not-so-boring" summary:
1. I have a new appartment in a very nice area (10-12min walk from the office) which I'm sharing with two Irish (girl and guy) not google related;
2. On my first week year, Moody's thought I was already home sick and therefore downgraded the Republic of Ireland's rating to junk. It feels like home now!
3. I have picked up my running and am regaining my endurance really fast, maybe in a month and a half I'll run a half marathon;
4. My work colleagues are really nice and from all over the place (Lebanon, US, Russia, Japan, you name it). It's actually very interesting to go out here and see the Muslims in the group ordering a coke, while the rest is having some nice pints. Also, I've been practising my spanish thanks to Alba and Artur, two very nice Catalans.
5. I went to the worst club ever on Friday. A place which rivals the worst place that is crossing your minds right now. It was in a basement, with cheezy music and a lot of drunk people trying to stand!
6. I would love to be able to tell you much more about the life as a Googler, but it is confidential:) It's really the best place to work!
Irish curiosity (or not so much) - You can get "horizontal rain" in the summer, if you know what I mean!
Cheers
Tuesday 19 July 2011
Thursday 7 July 2011
You know you’re in Dublin when…
The first time you cross the street you get almost run over by a car, because you completely forgot that here people drive on the “wrong” side of the road,
When you sit down in a random place and when you look to the floor there’s a “Golf tee” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tee), even though the nearest golf course is nowhere to be seen,
Even walking people use the “driving rule” and walk through the left and you only realize it until all of a sudden you’re in a crowded street and you can’t progress,
Even though you believe you are proficient in English sometimes you have to ask some people to repeat what they’ve just said (I can swear sometimes it looks like it’s a different language, but I’ll get used to it),
You wake up and it’s sunny; you have breakfast, you get on the street and it’s already cloudy; you walk for 1 hour and all of a sudden it starts raining,
You see young teenagers jumping into the Grand Canal, the moment it gets to 20ºC,
You go into a pub and ask for a “Plain beer” and it’s a stout (I have to learn to like it),
You go out for a pint and you are back home before midnight (much better than how we do it in Portugal),
You are on the street looking at the city’s map and people approach you and ask if one needs any help with directions (you gotta love the Irish, they are really nice).
I'm loving it so far!
Irish Curiosity – Jonathan Swift, the Irishman who wrote Gulliver’s Travels, is also known as the “Baby Eater” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift)
When you sit down in a random place and when you look to the floor there’s a “Golf tee” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tee), even though the nearest golf course is nowhere to be seen,
Even walking people use the “driving rule” and walk through the left and you only realize it until all of a sudden you’re in a crowded street and you can’t progress,
Even though you believe you are proficient in English sometimes you have to ask some people to repeat what they’ve just said (I can swear sometimes it looks like it’s a different language, but I’ll get used to it),
You wake up and it’s sunny; you have breakfast, you get on the street and it’s already cloudy; you walk for 1 hour and all of a sudden it starts raining,
You see young teenagers jumping into the Grand Canal, the moment it gets to 20ºC,
You go into a pub and ask for a “Plain beer” and it’s a stout (I have to learn to like it),
You go out for a pint and you are back home before midnight (much better than how we do it in Portugal),
You are on the street looking at the city’s map and people approach you and ask if one needs any help with directions (you gotta love the Irish, they are really nice).
I'm loving it so far!
Irish Curiosity – Jonathan Swift, the Irishman who wrote Gulliver’s Travels, is also known as the “Baby Eater” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift)
Wednesday 6 July 2011
Running for a cause!
Let’s then start with a project for the rest of the year: I’ll be running a marathon this year, probably on the 31st of October (The Dublin Marathon) and I’m planning on doing a “Kilometer-sponsored-run” which basically means that you can sponsor me and contribute with a certain amount by km (still to be decided).
I’ll try to find an intermediary institution (like a foundation) where the money should be transferred to and then after the marathon there will be two options: (1) either I’ll send that money directly to a social institution or project chose by those contributing (you can give me your opinion and I’ll send out a survey, afterwards). My objective is to donate the money to a smaller institution and not a big one (those have plenty of donours already); (2) or open up a Kiva account (http://www.kiva.org/about) and loan money to social entrepreneurs who are setting up businesses with a clear impact on the community. Once they repay the loan (usually really fast, it’s a sort of microcredit), the money can be lent to another social entrepreneur, thus creating a sort of a network effect.
And now the best part! If you are interested in doing the same, why don’t you join me? You don’t need to run the Dublin Marathon, you can run another one, but still we can still join efforts and scale this up, find more sponsors and get some coverage. You only need a pair of snickers. Start training!
More information on the types of sponsorships and how everything will be managed will follow! This was just the teaser!
I’ll try to find an intermediary institution (like a foundation) where the money should be transferred to and then after the marathon there will be two options: (1) either I’ll send that money directly to a social institution or project chose by those contributing (you can give me your opinion and I’ll send out a survey, afterwards). My objective is to donate the money to a smaller institution and not a big one (those have plenty of donours already); (2) or open up a Kiva account (http://www.kiva.org/about) and loan money to social entrepreneurs who are setting up businesses with a clear impact on the community. Once they repay the loan (usually really fast, it’s a sort of microcredit), the money can be lent to another social entrepreneur, thus creating a sort of a network effect.
And now the best part! If you are interested in doing the same, why don’t you join me? You don’t need to run the Dublin Marathon, you can run another one, but still we can still join efforts and scale this up, find more sponsors and get some coverage. You only need a pair of snickers. Start training!
More information on the types of sponsorships and how everything will be managed will follow! This was just the teaser!
I have arrived in the city of Guinness!
This is it. My first official post about the “Irish experience”. As you know (or maybe not) I arrived on Monday, the 4th of July around 4pm. Well, if for US citizens the 4th of July is the celebration of the Independence Day, for me it’s not really an independence day celebration, but it has some independence flavour (I know I just said independence 3 times in the last 16 words, but I promise my writing will improve).
So as I was saying, I arrived and came straight to the hotel where I’m staying (actually it’s a guest house) in waterloo road. It’s a very nice and cozy place (http://www.waterloohouse.ie/). On the first night I met Maria, a Portuguese friend who started with Google last month and we went to a pub in the city centre to celebrate the birthday of a friend of hers. It was a regular Monday night, or so I thought. We started with a pint (Heineken actually, not Guinness), then a half pint and all of a sudden the birthday guy brought a tray full of tequila shots! Probably the first time I ever had one at 10pm. I met a lot of nooglers (i.e. new googlers). At midnight I was back to the Waterloo House, after walking for 30 min (10 of which alone without a map). And this was the first day.
On the 5th I pretty much walked around the city, sat down in a park reading and saw three houses. One of them really nice and I’m waiting and hoping they take me.
I also ran into Florian who studied with me in Rotterdam. Completely by chance!
First Irish Curiosity: The Irish alphabet has only 18 letters. There is no j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z.
So as I was saying, I arrived and came straight to the hotel where I’m staying (actually it’s a guest house) in waterloo road. It’s a very nice and cozy place (http://www.waterloohouse.ie/). On the first night I met Maria, a Portuguese friend who started with Google last month and we went to a pub in the city centre to celebrate the birthday of a friend of hers. It was a regular Monday night, or so I thought. We started with a pint (Heineken actually, not Guinness), then a half pint and all of a sudden the birthday guy brought a tray full of tequila shots! Probably the first time I ever had one at 10pm. I met a lot of nooglers (i.e. new googlers). At midnight I was back to the Waterloo House, after walking for 30 min (10 of which alone without a map). And this was the first day.
On the 5th I pretty much walked around the city, sat down in a park reading and saw three houses. One of them really nice and I’m waiting and hoping they take me.
I also ran into Florian who studied with me in Rotterdam. Completely by chance!
First Irish Curiosity: The Irish alphabet has only 18 letters. There is no j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z.
Setting Expectations :)
Hey guys,
I’m sorry but “The Porridge Effect” had to be delayed for 2 days. Not because I’m Portuguese and thus leave everything for the last minute, but because I’m still homeless and as Abraham Maslow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs) defended a few years ago “One can only worry about upper needs, when the basic needs have been satisfying”. And clearly finding a place is more important (at least for now) than writing to you all. I never thought I would quote Maslow in such circumstances, but there you go.
Before my first official post, let me set some expectations for all of you who decide to follow me: (1) I won’t probably write every day, but I’ll try to do it as often as I can; (2) the purpose is to write about my every day experiences, life projects, news that interest me, and may interest my friends and stuff like that; (3) however, it will also have an educational purpose and therefore there will be weekly “Irish” curiosities, which may end up being complemented by “other-topic-related” curiosities; (4) Please send me comments and recommendations on what else you want to read and I may be able to write something about it; (5) the posts will be most of the times written in English and for the shorter ones I may translate to Portuguese. It’s not that I’m relegating my mother tongue to a lower importance level, but it’s just easier to write in English when one wants to get to a larger audience and has a large base of foreign friends (I know that sounds a bit cocky, but for those who know me, it’s really not). To compensate for the English here you go:
Isto
Dizem que finjo ou minto
Tudo que escrevo. Não.
Eu simplesmente sinto
Com a imaginação.
Não uso o coração.
Tudo o que sonho ou passo,
O que me falha ou finda,
É como que um terraço
Sobre outra coisa ainda.
Essa coisa é que é linda.
Por isso escrevo em meio
Do que não está de pé,
Livre do meu enleio,
Sério do que não é.
Sentir? Sinta quem lê!
Fernando Pessoa
I’m sorry but “The Porridge Effect” had to be delayed for 2 days. Not because I’m Portuguese and thus leave everything for the last minute, but because I’m still homeless and as Abraham Maslow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs) defended a few years ago “One can only worry about upper needs, when the basic needs have been satisfying”. And clearly finding a place is more important (at least for now) than writing to you all. I never thought I would quote Maslow in such circumstances, but there you go.
Before my first official post, let me set some expectations for all of you who decide to follow me: (1) I won’t probably write every day, but I’ll try to do it as often as I can; (2) the purpose is to write about my every day experiences, life projects, news that interest me, and may interest my friends and stuff like that; (3) however, it will also have an educational purpose and therefore there will be weekly “Irish” curiosities, which may end up being complemented by “other-topic-related” curiosities; (4) Please send me comments and recommendations on what else you want to read and I may be able to write something about it; (5) the posts will be most of the times written in English and for the shorter ones I may translate to Portuguese. It’s not that I’m relegating my mother tongue to a lower importance level, but it’s just easier to write in English when one wants to get to a larger audience and has a large base of foreign friends (I know that sounds a bit cocky, but for those who know me, it’s really not). To compensate for the English here you go:
Isto
Dizem que finjo ou minto
Tudo que escrevo. Não.
Eu simplesmente sinto
Com a imaginação.
Não uso o coração.
Tudo o que sonho ou passo,
O que me falha ou finda,
É como que um terraço
Sobre outra coisa ainda.
Essa coisa é que é linda.
Por isso escrevo em meio
Do que não está de pé,
Livre do meu enleio,
Sério do que não é.
Sentir? Sinta quem lê!
Fernando Pessoa
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