I'm once again a complete person

Today I picked up my wife from LAX. She has finished her work in Denmark and has joined me in California to begin our new life together. With her here I feel whole again and we can now begin slowly building our lives in California together.

She has been on a long flight - I picked her up around 5 pm, which would be around 2 am in her head, and she was very exhausted from the flight. While I'm writing this I've allowed her to take a 2 hour nap before we go out to have something to eat. Fighting jetlag can be tough but my strategy when I arrived was to stay up till 11pm local time and get a good nights sleep after that. It worked like a charm and I will do my best to have her follow the same strategy. That way the jetlag should be over in a day or two.

There are lots of things we need to do over here - My employer pays for our housing and a rental car until August 20, and by then we need to find a rental and hopefully a car. Depending on where we end up we might not need a car to begin with. I love to ride my bike to work and I've done it a number of times already, but if we're more than 15 km away from my office we will most likely need a car. But to get a car I need a California Drivers License, and to get a Drivers License I need a Social Security Number, which should be arriving sometime next week - oh, and I also need to pass a traffic rules test and a driving test. That should be fun :)

Driving here is funny - most cars have automatic transmission, so it's like driving a gocart. It's also kinda boring not to do the shifting yourself but since you're spending most of your time in stop and go queuing it's less annoying to have automatic transmission. I still haven't found out what to do with my left foot and my right hand - most people solve this problem by texting away on their cellphones while driving, but I'm not a big fan of that ...

Yesterday I drove up in the Hollywood Hills to visit a friend of mine in one of the most scenic locations I've ever visited. His view was like the view Robert de Niro has from his house in HEAT - like a living ocean of lights before your eyes. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. I tried to take a picture, which doesn't do the view any justice, but check it out below. To get a better feeling check out HEAT in HD on a big screen - or even better: Come to Hollywood and visit me.



Tomorrow is Sunday where I haven't made any plans. The love of my live will decide what she wants to do and I will make sure she feels welcome from the start of her new life in California.

Back from San Francisco

Now we're talking ...

We went to San Francisco for a 2 day workshop session with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, and I just got back a little while ago. Tuesday we were awarded a fantastic project doing [super secret amazing project] on [super secret kickass technology] for [super secret world wide brand client], and Wednesday morning we flew out to start concepting with the client and to meet with the vendor supplying the [super secret kickass technology].

As some might be aware I've never even been to the US before starting to work in Los Angeles - my first period here has been somewhat chaotic, as I landed in the middle of wrapping up a really complicated data visualization for [not so secret client] in Australia. I helped wrap up the final details on the implementation and also liaison between various parties in the project. With out team and the agency at the Pacific, the backend team in Stockholm and the client in Australia this made for a couple of busy days spent cursing over time differences and doing 2 AM conference calls. I was pretty beat after doing this, and the morning after it was all done we were on a flight to San Francisco.

San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited, and I only got to visit a small part of it - but I'm so in love already. The streets are amazing, and driving into the city is a blast + they have some madass taxi drivers. Ours was named Big Dog, and he drove like a maniac. I found myself looking for his "Like" button, but since I didn't actually dare trying to tap him, I'm just gonna say his praise here. Check out how the clouds seem to roll down the mountains like an avalanche - view from being stuck on the freeway.



We're doing a killer project, and working with a mastodon like Goodby, Silverstein and Partners is going to be so much fun. I actually found myself admitting to the agency that I couldn't believe I'm getting paid to have this much fun - and fun it will be. The Acne team is fucking awesome to work with, and we supplement each other really well. And it's been interesting to see how things work over here - there is definitely more approval work and more layers of approval than I've been used to. I've sort of moved a step down the food chain, since we're not working directly with the clients, so that obviously adds 1 extra layer of approval, but even within the agencies there are layers to go through - but whatever, we're just gonna roll with it, and to be honest it really doesn't bother me that much - that's what the business is like I guess.

I can't really share any of the work until we actually release it, but I promise you it will be über-cool and one of the coolest projects I've ever worked with.

We went out with the client after the first day had ended. Had a great dinner at a place called Gitane where everything was so "cute" according to the Goodby EP and my boss.

It was a great dinner ending a cool kickoff session. I'm truly pleased with how easy it is to get into conversation with everybody over here, and this dinner with a bunch of people I've never met before really proved that. I'm once again looking for the "Like" button. And this morning demonstrated yet another weather phenomenon me likes:




And my wife is arriving Saturday - just two more days. Can't wait to see her. She had a big farewell party at a friends flat tonight, and I skyped with them during our lunch break, where they were already pretty junk. They put a bunch of stuff on display for the webcam - stuff that I'll miss over here. Like a can of Tuborg, a can of Carlsberg and a bowl of ham salad which they then proceeded to drop into the keyboard of the computer holding the webcam. That was absolutely hilarious, but I had to get off the call soon after that, as I was having it in the agency office, and the drunks on the other end of the wire were starting to get me in trouble being inappropriate on my display.

Tomorrow will be spend with half a day off while I clean up my flat and do laundry before my wife arrives Saturday. And tonight I'll have a full nights sleep for the first time in a while. Looking forward to it and pressing the "Like" button for the third time this evening.

How to make people feel welcome

One of the really pleasant things about America is how everywhere you go, you always feel very welcome. No matter what store you walk into you're greeted with a warm, heartfelt welcome and what seems to be a genuine desire to want to help you.

One of the first things I had to do over here was open up a bank account. I decided to go to Wells Fargo, since that place had been recommended by my new co-workers. Oh, and they were right across the street. So I walked in there on a Tuesday morning, bringing with me 2 things from Denmark: Banks are only open for a few hours a day on weekdays only, and if you come in without an appointment, you'll have to wait forever.

But this wasn't the case here. Banks are open 9 hours a day and on Saturdays too. And when I walked in, I was immediately greeted by a female employee who said welcome and how se could be of service to me this morning. And then she walked me right through everything and I was able to open a bank account with no problems whatsoever. I even had a chat with her manager about the Laudrup brothers and what the chances were of their sons to follow in their footsteps.

I realise a large part of this good service you get in stores, bars, restaurants and even supermarkets is based on a desire to convert you into a paying customer and often to get tips. But it feels very good to walk into a store and meet people who actually seem like they want to help you. I'm not used to that from back home.

The Uncle in America

Uncle Martin has left the old world to live in America.

I've recently left Denmark behind to go work at ACNE* Media in Los Angeles. I'm bringing my wife Helena with me, and this is the tales of my adventures.

I intend this blog to be a record of my goings and doings over here, both private and through my work. It's a way for me to stay connected with family and friends back in Copenhagen as well as for me to proces everything that is going on around me.

I left Denmark July 18 2010 and started work the day after. I was actually supposed to have come over here sooner, but my O1 visa took a long time to proces, so this is how it turned out. I have never been to the US before, and I really didn't know what to expect, but now my first week is almost over, and I've had a jolly good time already.

So here is my new boss holding one of the office dogs.



I'll do my best to keep you updated through this blog. Feel free to comment and discuss.