After a whirlwind semester and hectic shuffle, I am now in Mountain View, CA in the heart of Silicon Valley interning for a software company. I landed a job that surprisingly lets me play with everything I am interested in while paying me handsomely. Life has been extremely kind to me and I just hope that I don't disappoint my new employers.
In the first week of moving in, the weather has always been 70-80 degrees and the sun is always shining. From my cubicle window I watch butterflies pass and humming birds sip from eye scorchingly bright colored flowers in jewel tones of orange, blue and pink. There is rarely a cloud in the sky, the grass is emerald toned and I ride my bike through uncarved pathways that run adjacent to entire industrial complexes of famous software companies. Lockheed Martin and NASA take up a portion of the shoreline and from a tram I witness rocket hangers the size of football stadiums with breathtaking awe at the sheer scale and size of land. California spreads its presence and powers side ways as opposed to upwards in New York City.
Google, Yahoo and Apple occupy massive spaces which they call campuses. My new friends tell me, that these companies basically pull geeks out of college and put them into another college environment. Silicon Valley Software Companies have campuses, not offices and in return for asking for hard work and long hours--the geeks are awarded with McMansion condos, high salaries, stock options and a mountain of perks on lush green campuses. Stopping by Palo Alto, I walk through an expensive and beautiful, college town and watch Stanford engineer or professor types with their worn sweaters and jeans discuss physics over Merlot, grilled chicken, polenta and avocado. In Sanata Row, a shopping mall/luxury living complex has sprung up where the ladies who lunch pick at their salad greens, Louis Vuitton shopping bags en tow. San Jose center is clean, green and empty on the weekends as massive buildings support vertical campuses for yet more software and computer companies. It barely feels like a lived in city and over the weekends, the streets are empty and I feel as though I have walked into a suburban corporate "city" in upstate NY.
In the tech housing apartments complexes where they have put me up, I am surrounded by what seems like hundreds Indian families, brought to the Valley by their engineer husbands who work as US intermediaries to India where most back-end software development now takes place. My apartment has a deeply engrained smell of Indian spices to it and every afternoon I take a tram or bike home to see Indian families frolicking on playgrounds. To get around without a car is hard as stores and restaurants are only in shopping mall areas and commonly located on major traffic streets not close to my office or apartment. When I do go out for food I notice that the Asian food is excellent and the produce is always fresh.
Heaven on Earth. Shopper Paradise, dripping of money and a high quality of living, there's a reason why people regard the West coast as "the best coast". But similar to any city, hidden between the lush tech towns I walk into dry, dusty and burnt looking towns where the shopping changes from Gucci to Dollar stores and French bistros and Sushi joints turn to Pollo Loco and Pink Elephant Taqueria. One can get churros in any area of the city but here I get them fresh from a street vendor wrapped in a paper towel, where as in Palo Alto I get dainty sticks on porcelain plates with chocolate dipping sauce. The schools in these towns are fenced in and run down looking with slogans such as You Can! and Apply Yourself! written on the signs next to murals of Mexican culture adorn cinder block buildings.
When I had visited in March, on our drive back from Yosemite I remember driving through town after town of "farmer towns" where farm workers live in modest, small low level houses in latino towns between acres upon acres of orchards and vegetable patches. During the day you can see road side stalls of fresh produce and in sharp contrast to the lush farms their towns are dry and brown. The state of California is officially in a state of drought and yet the tech towns are a lush green shade with water fountains and swimming pools on every corner. Oblivious to the needs of farmers in Salinas and other farm areas who arr scrambling to water their crops.
The power of money and ignorance and an ability to turn a blind eye to the overall needs of a population versus the wants of the individual's lifestyle. It happens everywhere and has been forever. I just realize that after a semester of walking through the Chicago ghetto and studying the dollar a day poverty in the emerging markets that I've just become more sensitive.
