Does anyone even check this anymore or not? God writing a blog is so taxing. That reminds me, I still need to do my US taxes and fuck now my UK ones are due as well. International living is hard. Anyways I sit here in bed in the waning minutes of my one year anniversary in London so I guess I kind of have to write something right?
This year has went by super duper fast and yet many memories still clearly sit in my mind. I remember the first cab ride from Paddington to my temp housing. I was sitting there in the cab with what would be all my belongings for the next 5 months and wondering if I would ever be able to figure out the route the driver was taking. I now could practically walk it blind if I had to. It is amazing how well I now know this city and it is scary how much there still is to know. It definitely makes Seattle seem small.
After I got to temp housing I struggled to carry my stuff to the front door only to find no one waiting for me. My new home was a bench that I laid down on and basked in the sun and nearly perfect weather.
My first home in London
Eventually the person would show up and let me step into my first place in London. I think I spent about the rest of the day sorting all my stuff out since it had all been. My only goal for the day was to get me some McD's as a reminder of where I came from and after getting a little lost, it was eventually mission accomplished. I passed out at 2 only to wake up 3 hours later.
My first meal in London
The early wake up time really wasn't too bad because the next day I had to go in early for what would turn out to be many early morning releases this year. The release actually got postponed till the next day for reasons outside my control, but that first day would start what has probably been the most successful year of my somewhat short career.
SEO pages for hotels
It is kind of shocking really because when I say that I moved here for the city and not the career, I really mean it. I moved here to take on a dev lead position which I had already had in Bellevue so there was no immediate leg up there. Sure I had hopes of really turning London into a center for development, but that certainly was a stretch. However for the most part that has happened and it was not all my doing, but I was definitely there to shape it when the decisions were made. Originally I was to manage 3 devs and maybe a 4th. By the end of October I was managing 3 onsite and 4 offshore. Now I manage 4 onshore and 9 resources offshore. Our pipeline has been super successful so it is hard to imagine how this might grow over the next year.
I wish I could say my good friends here have multiplied like my directs. I mean there are definitely people I would miss if I left here, but I am not nearly as entrenched as I would like to be. In my head things in Seattle are quite idealized. I mean it was a slow go for 5 months there, but once it started at the beginning of 2003 the friendships became pretty cemented. I mean it is kind of insane to think how quickly we went to hanging out every weekend and many weeknights. I definitely don't have that yet.
Some of my experiments to rectify this have definitely been misses. Fuck the first place I lived in was horrible. I guess I got a good experience out of it, but no friends. It did teach me how to do it right the next time though and living with Matt and now Vanessa has been great. Other than the fact that none of our dietary habits/restrictions overlap making it impossible to cook as a group, the situation seems pretty ideal.
Matt (roommate), myself, Vanessa (roommate), Sling and Noah
London is a tough town though. When I lived in DC, I always used the reason of it being a transient town for a reason to not move there. I never really thought about London being like that, but it is and now I know why transient towns aren't the best. I don't know many people my age who plan to stay in London. I have met quite a few people in the last months and half of them won't be here to see the ball drop on 2010. Even while they are living here they are rarely around. It amazes me how often someone in my household is missing. We may go the whole month of July without a full house. That is kind of crazy. This really does hurt one's ability to get a groove. I guess I just need to make more friends on the no fly list or something.
All these factors of course only makes me wonder about what I want with this experience. Well that and the fact that it is all anyone ever asks me. I spend a lot of time thinking about this, probably to the point where it is somewhat detrimental to the whole experiment. The answer is still that I don't know. I guess I always feel antsy about where my career is going. For some reason I always feel like I need to reset it, but honestly I don't know if I have a good answer as to why. This decision of course has the added stress of determining when the queen puts her dainty foot to my ass and kicks me out of the country. It all kind of gives me a greater appreciation for why Amazon loves the indentured servitude of the Canadians.
Even outside of work I am confused to my purpose. It actually bounces between that and why I think I need a purpose. I am by no means alone in these thoughts. It seems like everyone is just wandering around trying to figure out what is what in their life.
Bridge to where?
I guess it is best to just grab onto the concrete. I know I have my antsiness, but it is somewhat negated by the fact that I still haven't even put a dent into what I wanted to accomplish in Europe. I still haven't been to Scandinavia. No Poland, no Italy and no Turkey either. This of course is balanced against the ever daunting task of knowing London better.
So in the end I don't really know where I would rather be so here I stay. I can't really tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but that is probably a thought for another day. I am pretty good at procrastinating and if I am lucky maybe I can put it off another year.
After all only time will tell I guess.
In the mean time I should probably try to blog more.
This year has went by super duper fast and yet many memories still clearly sit in my mind. I remember the first cab ride from Paddington to my temp housing. I was sitting there in the cab with what would be all my belongings for the next 5 months and wondering if I would ever be able to figure out the route the driver was taking. I now could practically walk it blind if I had to. It is amazing how well I now know this city and it is scary how much there still is to know. It definitely makes Seattle seem small.
After I got to temp housing I struggled to carry my stuff to the front door only to find no one waiting for me. My new home was a bench that I laid down on and basked in the sun and nearly perfect weather.
My first home in London
Eventually the person would show up and let me step into my first place in London. I think I spent about the rest of the day sorting all my stuff out since it had all been. My only goal for the day was to get me some McD's as a reminder of where I came from and after getting a little lost, it was eventually mission accomplished. I passed out at 2 only to wake up 3 hours later.
My first meal in London
The early wake up time really wasn't too bad because the next day I had to go in early for what would turn out to be many early morning releases this year. The release actually got postponed till the next day for reasons outside my control, but that first day would start what has probably been the most successful year of my somewhat short career.
SEO pages for hotels
It is kind of shocking really because when I say that I moved here for the city and not the career, I really mean it. I moved here to take on a dev lead position which I had already had in Bellevue so there was no immediate leg up there. Sure I had hopes of really turning London into a center for development, but that certainly was a stretch. However for the most part that has happened and it was not all my doing, but I was definitely there to shape it when the decisions were made. Originally I was to manage 3 devs and maybe a 4th. By the end of October I was managing 3 onsite and 4 offshore. Now I manage 4 onshore and 9 resources offshore. Our pipeline has been super successful so it is hard to imagine how this might grow over the next year.
I wish I could say my good friends here have multiplied like my directs. I mean there are definitely people I would miss if I left here, but I am not nearly as entrenched as I would like to be. In my head things in Seattle are quite idealized. I mean it was a slow go for 5 months there, but once it started at the beginning of 2003 the friendships became pretty cemented. I mean it is kind of insane to think how quickly we went to hanging out every weekend and many weeknights. I definitely don't have that yet.
Some of my experiments to rectify this have definitely been misses. Fuck the first place I lived in was horrible. I guess I got a good experience out of it, but no friends. It did teach me how to do it right the next time though and living with Matt and now Vanessa has been great. Other than the fact that none of our dietary habits/restrictions overlap making it impossible to cook as a group, the situation seems pretty ideal.
Matt (roommate), myself, Vanessa (roommate), Sling and Noah
London is a tough town though. When I lived in DC, I always used the reason of it being a transient town for a reason to not move there. I never really thought about London being like that, but it is and now I know why transient towns aren't the best. I don't know many people my age who plan to stay in London. I have met quite a few people in the last months and half of them won't be here to see the ball drop on 2010. Even while they are living here they are rarely around. It amazes me how often someone in my household is missing. We may go the whole month of July without a full house. That is kind of crazy. This really does hurt one's ability to get a groove. I guess I just need to make more friends on the no fly list or something.
All these factors of course only makes me wonder about what I want with this experience. Well that and the fact that it is all anyone ever asks me. I spend a lot of time thinking about this, probably to the point where it is somewhat detrimental to the whole experiment. The answer is still that I don't know. I guess I always feel antsy about where my career is going. For some reason I always feel like I need to reset it, but honestly I don't know if I have a good answer as to why. This decision of course has the added stress of determining when the queen puts her dainty foot to my ass and kicks me out of the country. It all kind of gives me a greater appreciation for why Amazon loves the indentured servitude of the Canadians.
Even outside of work I am confused to my purpose. It actually bounces between that and why I think I need a purpose. I am by no means alone in these thoughts. It seems like everyone is just wandering around trying to figure out what is what in their life.
Bridge to where?
I guess it is best to just grab onto the concrete. I know I have my antsiness, but it is somewhat negated by the fact that I still haven't even put a dent into what I wanted to accomplish in Europe. I still haven't been to Scandinavia. No Poland, no Italy and no Turkey either. This of course is balanced against the ever daunting task of knowing London better.
So in the end I don't really know where I would rather be so here I stay. I can't really tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but that is probably a thought for another day. I am pretty good at procrastinating and if I am lucky maybe I can put it off another year.
After all only time will tell I guess.
In the mean time I should probably try to blog more.
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