Stanford Stories III – Gray Whale Cove

First things first. I finally got my social security number – I only had to bike to the SSA office in Mountain View three times during the last two weeks and talk to a few “friendly” officers to make my point. All in all, administration here in the Silicon Valley is definitely not better compared to Belgium or Germany. Same hassle and same way of thinking of people working in administration 😉

On the more positive side, I finally found a nice second hand gravel bike for a very fair price. The guy who sold it to me works as a lighting technician in the theater of the Palo Alto community center. He also gave me a free “backstage” tour and explained a lot about how lighting in modern theater / musical productions are set up and operated to me.

After meeting two other visiting researchers last week, I got added to a hiking and cycling group and today six of us got up early and went to the Pacific near Gray Whale Cove for a lovely hike in nearly perfect conditions. Obviously, we also spent some time at the beach, and I can assure you that the Pacific is indeed quite cold. However, after having spent many summer vacations at the Baltic Sea, the water temperature wasn’t too bad – although I must admit that I only went in with my legs.