Back to business

Hi there! It’s been some time since my last post but it’s been pretty hectic since I came back to the US. Very hectic, indeed, from the very beginning.

Let’s start from the beginning. I arrived in Newark airport on January 8th at 8 pm after an 11-hour trip, took a shuttle to my new place in the East Side, unpacked my luggage, packed a new suitcase and, following a couple of beers with some friends who were in town and 2 hours of sleep , a van picked me up at around 330 am to go back to Newark and to leave for LA on the first flight of the day to go on the so called LA Trek to visit a bunch of media companies – mainly studios – in the LA area. After 6 hours of sleep on the plane and with 55 bucks less after paying for a cab ride, I arrived at Fox around 1030 in the morning. I joined my mates there although I still didn’t know exactly where I was…

The trek was good. We had the chance to meet people from Fox, EMI, WBros (btw, I saw Dr. Lockhart and Dr. Weaver from ER having lunch!!! – why the heck didn’t I approach them to tell them how much I love that show? Once in a lifetime opportunity lost!), Disney, NBC Universal and Sony. It was really good to know about some of the opportunities available at these companies and I felt like that media is what I really want to do. The downside is that the presentations were informative rather than job-search oriented so, although I was able to make a couple of contacts, I will have to apply like anybody else through the websites. It’s gonna be tough, though…

I must also say that we attended a presentation at the new venture of Richard Rosenblatt, former Chairman of Myspace.com. It was great to know a little bit more of the typical Californian internet company. It’s amazing how the culture, approach and style differs from anything I had seen before. Moreover, it was awesome to be sitting next – and ask a question – to the guy who has created operated and sold companies amounting $1.3 billion. And he’s cool and laid back… meeting this kind of people makes me think what “doing business” means…it’s so diverse…

On January 11th I stayed at a friend’s place in the LA area and we went for a drink to Manhattan Beach with another friend. What an amazing place! I think I could live there. Living by the beach, surfing, sun, gorgeous chicks…and a little work. That sounds just like an amazing life. It was a little bit of the American dream that is usually exported overseas. Actually my friend told me that the beach house that the 90210 guys had (sooooo long time ago) in the show is located there. At 4 am Friday, January 12th a Supershuttle van picked me up at my friend’s place and I caught a plane at 7 am at LA International and flew back to New York. I was supposed to go on a short trip to San Diego and Baja with a friend but he had a health problem and we couldn’t make it in the end. It was a big pity but, at the same time, I was happy to be flying back in NY.

When I got back to NY I felt great. Seeing my friends again, spending my first “proper” night at my new place…. We had to celebrate and we went out and partied hard… but that was only the beginning of a hard weekend….and in a different way than the one you are thinking of…

On Saturday morning we woke up early, rented a van and left for IKEA. Some people may think of it as the perfect Saturday but spending 8+ hours there, choosing furniture, taking it to the van, driving back to NY through traffic jams and then taking all the stuff up to our non-lift 3rd floor is not my perfect Saturday. We went out for a drink to stress out a little bit but we were far too tired to enjoy. The end of the night was weird for me because I probably met with a girl I used to hang out with for the very last time. I didn’t want to finish with our story (whatever that means) but she wanted something more serious. Same old story for me….It was a bittersweet farewell...

DIY. Ikea implies DIY stuff and I hate it. Well, I spent 13 hours last Sunday trying to set up my closet, a desk, a drawers chest and some other stuff. I finally made it and I can hardly believed it. My roommates faced the same challenge. Now our place looks more like a home although there are still cardboard boxes around. A little more work is left but in a few days we will be done. Just ready for the start of classes next Monday.

I will have to give an update on academics and job search. Maybe tomorrow, once I finish off some stuff up in Park Avenue…
Ciao