STL stands for different things for differene people. For frequent air travellers, STL is the airport code for Lambert St. Louis International Airport. And I believe this is most widely used meaning. For C++ programmers (I am proud to be one of them), STL stands for Standard Template Library, which is a very widely used framework and I had much fun with it lately. There are many other meanings: a file format for rapid prototyping, a European Christian book supplier, etc. You can always do a google search or look up the wikipedia and find something.
For me, STL is much more than a symbol. It’s where I lived and worked in past 5+ years. From time to time when I visited other places, and saw beautiful coast lines, beaches and mountains, I wish I could move there. But when I come back, drive down the I-170 or Linburgh Blvd (named after the legendary Charles Linburgh who is the first person fly across Atlantic), I know I am at home. It’s true STL does not have those good things, but it does not have the crazy traffic in New Jersey or LA either. Besides reasonable traffic, St. Louis has four seasons, and it is a decent size city with good restraunts, shopping center, sports teams, and hospitals. Some of the must-see places in St. Louis:
Gateway Arch
Forest Park and Art Museum
Botanical Garden
Loop (Delmar Ave.), Central West End
Cardinals (Baseball team)
Grant’s farm (great for kids)
Washington University
In this blog I intend to write down my observations about living and working in St. Louis. Occasionally I will also touched upon other places in the US and Canada. So don’t assume it’s just about St. Louis by looking at the name. I plan to write fairly about things in the States, from the eyes of a China-born, both China and US educated software engineer. I got this idea from Wangjianshuo and Bill Bishop, a young Chinese and American respectively, wrote ineresting (but true) things about China. Although I have never talked to them personally but I would love to someday.
I will also talk about software (my job) and finance (my main interest recently) in this stlplace.