Author: Frédéric Silvestre
So, here we are. After a long preparation, we landed in San Francisco the 23rd of February. The purpose of this trip is to spend 6 months in California, more precisely at the University of California Davis, where I will work with my colleague Richard during a sabbatical leave. This is a great opportunity we have as professor to be allowed to temporarily quit our position to go work in collaboration with another laboratory and to try to catch the delay we accumulated in our research during the normal academic year. So I decided to come back to Davis, this awesome little city located between San Francisco and Sacramento. I say ‘to come back’ because I already spent 7 months in 2008 as a post-doc fellow. And I loved this city, this kind of outdoor way of life in an (almost) always sunny weather, in a safe, green and very open area.
The trip was not a short and quiet journey as we missed our connecting flight in Dublin. The reason: US customs which took a lot of time to process Valentina’s VISA as she couldn’t have the J2 accompanying one. But in the end, beside the 24h delay, the result was positive as she’s allowed to stay the entire 6 months. It might sound a bit weird to pass the US customs in Ireland, but it is the way it works there. There is a pre-clearance mandatory area where you actually already pass the US border. Advantage: you don’t have to do it again when you’re arriving in the US, which makes you save a lot of time. By the way, it’s the first time we fly with Aer Lingus, the Irish company, and I can only recommend it. Very nice and helpful cabin crew who pays a lot of attention to kids. They also paid us the night at hotel for our missing flight, with all included. We therefore arrived in good mood in San Francisco, even enduring the terrible 9h jet lag with Europe. The car we rented at the airport allowed us to reach Davis, situated 1h30 inland. After a resting night to recharge our batteries (the first night is usually easy regarding the jet lag), we could start visiting different stores to furnish our apartment at Stonegate Village (there is IKEA in Sacramento), to buy bikes, to open gas and electricity account and, most importantly to have an internet connection. It’s a no brainer to be able to check transportation, find informations about stores, and of course to communicate with Europe. Just a word about bikes: Davis is self-claimed the US capital of biking. And from my experience in the US (visiting or crossing 28 states), it is true. All students on the campus, but also other inhabitants can safely ride their bike along the dedicated paths all across the city.
Only five days after our arrival, an important event happened: it was Elina’s second birthday, the 28th of February. As we already had a family party the week before we left, it’s just the three of us who celebrated the official birthday. Exactly like her brother 12 years ago, Elina passed her second birthday in West Davis. The weather was amazing compared to Dublin (where i got a cold), in the 20s and under a large sunshine during the day, but shading in the evening. However, it was a great opportunity to shoot few pictures to remember this date forever. These few pictures were taken in Village Home vineyard, a Davis community living in a green and peaceful environment. This place was the place I loved 12 years ago, and remains a location where I feel at home. To finish this birthday, we had dinner in Black Bear Dinner, a restaurant that I appreciate in Davis, where we really feel in the West.
The day after, we couldn’t miss the famous Farmers market of Davis. It’s not large, but it’s a meeting place of Davis inhabitants. The ambiance is very relaxing and we can find good quality food coming directly from local farmers. The most waited product for me is the local apple juice. We buy one gallon and try to last an entire week with it. Elina enjoyed the playground next to the market where she could experiment the slide…and didn’t want to leave.
