Why Are People Drawn To The Ocean?

After 2.5 years on my project with Ingram Micro, it finally wrapped up this month.  The bulk of my professional experience with BackOffice and the majority of my international travel opportunities happened while I was on this project.  I lived in Santiago, Chile, for a few months and got to go to Argentina while I was there.  I then skipped over to Belgium and made multiple trips up to Holland to visit friends.  Then came my amazing 10 months in Australia plus a short trip to Fiji before I 'temporarily' moved to California a year ago.

Choices, choices...

Since the client would no longer pay for my rent in California and I still had a Georgia license, I had to make a choice: move back to Atlanta (I just rented out my house there so I would have to find a new place), stay in California or go back overseas.  The early leaders were returning to Australia or staying in California, but it all depended on where my next project would be located.

I did some initial investigation on my options in Australia and Singapore, but I was told that I would need to give a 2 year commitment for visa purposes if I were to go back.  I loved my time there, but putting that long of a time frame without making it permanent made me anxious.  I mean, if I decided that I was going to live in Australia forever then I would be willing to make the move. As great as it was, I don't know if I could do that.  I started exclusively focusing on west coast US projects and planned to 'settle' in California for now.

As I was making these plans, my company highlighted two projects where they wanted me to be staffed.  The first was a short term gig in New Jersey where I would be the lead.  The cross-country travel would be unfortunate but bearable.  The next project was long term (3 years) and was located in Connecticut.  It provided me with a lot of opportunities professionally, but crossing the country every week?  I must be crazy.

Wave 2 by Jessica Harms

I could always just live in Atlanta, NYC or somewhere else on the east coast to ease the travel.  There is something about living on the beach that draws me in.  It goes without saying that surfing is the #1 passion in my life, but it's not just that.  I bought one of Jessica's paintings back in 2008 - a couple of years before I ever got hooked on the sport.  I have always been drawn to water - maybe we all are.  Think about all of the big cities that are in harbors or bodies of water.  Yes, part of that is because they were transportation hubs.  But there is something else... the balance between awesome power and serenity is amazing.

After living by the ocean for the past few years, I don't think I can leave it.  I've had this conversation multiple times with different people that feel the same way - it's something that is hard to explain unless you've experienced it yourself.  Plus there's this girl out here...

NYC vs Irene

Graffiti artist with a sense of humor

My company holds a competition every year during our TechEd conference for consultants to present new applications.  I've presented a few and won an iPad a few years ago.  It has become so popular that they decided to hold a midyear competition in New York City.  I submitted an application that I developed at my current client and it was accepted.  They put us up in a really nice place in Soho called Crosby Street Hotel.

A few days before my flight out of Orange County the weather reports started coming in about Hurricane Irene.  It was tracking up the east coast and it could become the first hurricane to hit the state since 1903.  This could make for an interesting weekend.

I landed at JFK for the first time - previous trips to the city brought me through LaGuardia.  I hopped the Airtrain and then took the subway into Manhattan.  I've never really taken the subway before (except north and south along Broadway).  I didn't use a map and it was surprisingly easy, despite the cobweb of lines on the subway map.  I guess they make it easy to get into the city from the airport.  When I got to the hotel I met up with some colleagues and went out to dinner at Raoul's, a really nice French restaurant.

The best part about this whole weekend was that we only had events scheduled for Friday.  Saturday and Sunday were all free for us to wander around New York.  I was on a project for 3 months on Long Island but never got a chance to see anything since I only ventured into the city after work.  I visited back in 2001 right before Christmas for a UK basketball game (the best game I've ever seen in person even though we lost).

Washington Park

I didn't end up winning the $1000 prize but I did get something almost as good - 2 extra nights in the city.  On Friday afternoon the hurricane was bearing down on us and Delta preemptively canceled all flights on Sunday.  Delta couldn't get me anything until Tuesday afternoon.  Fine by me!  We went out on Friday night and then walked around the city on Saturday until the storm started to roll in.  I explored NYU and Washington Park (location of a really good movie called August Rush) and took some photos.

On Saturday afternoon the subways shut down and the taxis stopped running.  I checked out the World Trade site before the clouds opened up.  We bought a bunch of snacks (and drinks) since we really didn't know how bad the storm was going to get.  The hotel even went out and got a bunch of board games to keep us occupied.

The storm came through overnight but in the end it just rained a lot, not too much to worry about.  On Sunday I met up with my elementary/middle/high school friend Toa, owner of Thai Orchid Cafe, for a few drinks and catching up.  She just happened to be in New York for a little vacation - thanks to Facebook for helping us realize that we were both there at the same time.

Doing important thangs

On the way back, my coworker Cody and his wife Melissa and I were walking down Broadway when a limo pulled up.  The driver got out and dropped people off, and I joked to Cody that this was our taxi back to the hotel.  The driver heard me and offered us a lift.  $60 for a half hour loop around the city seems kind of steep, but the taxis were all charging $10 per person for the emergency hurricane rate.  Since it was only $10 more, we went for it.  Totally random.

On Monday I met up with another friend - this one from Sydney.  Milan is a musician that I met and saw perform a few times.  She was in New York for vacation and was looking to do some sightseeing.  We went to Rockafeller Center to check out the view of the city and maybe get tickets for the NBC studio tour.  While we were in the lobby, a girl came up to us and offered us tickets to Jimmy Fallon's rehearsal monologue for Late Night.  It was pretty funny... Jimmy tried out 2 or 3 different jokes on the same topic and he made notes on which ones got the best reaction.

Later in the afternoon Milan and I went to the to Top of the Rock to get a view of the city from above.  I definitely recommend it - you get great pictures of the Empire State Building and Central Park.  We met back up with Cody and Melissa along with Martyn, another BOA consultant, for dinner at The Capital Grille in Midtown.

On Monday night I stayed at an apartment owned by my company's founders along with Cody, Melissa and Martyn.  It's a 3 bedroom place in Soho and Kiefer Sutherland supposedly lives a few floors above them.  On Tuesday I flew back to Orange County, with Milan promising to hang out again when she comes back through LA on her way back to Sydney.

There's still a lot I want to see in the city.  The Empire State Building (from the inside), the MOMA, the UN, the World Trade Memorial, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, the list goes on...

Another Miami Weekend

Just like last year, my company held its annual conference in Miami. This year it was at The Fontainbleau - a hotel/resort that held performances by Sinatra and Elvis, had been the set of famous scenes from Goldfinger and Scarface, and continued to be an exclusive, posh and overwhelmingly over the top hotel.  It was a nightmare to get into Miami after a fire at the airport.  My original flight got canceled and I had to get rerouted through Ft. Lauderdale.  I had planned a little beach time before the conference kicked off but the 7 hour delay squashed that.  The only bright side was that the delay allowed me to randomly meet Lou Ferrigno at LAX!

I was lucky enough to be nominated for an award this year which allowed me to bring a date. If you read this you know why that might be funny at this point in my life, so I was torn. Bring a friend or bring no one? I decided to take my friend Kristi since she came with me to a company event in 2009. She just had a birthday so I thought it would be a nice present to get her a ticket.

Most of the weekend was filled with networking, reuniting with colleagues from past projects and catching up on the latest and greatest technological developments with the company.  Some people value the classes the most, but I make no secret of the fact that I connect with the senior consultants and project leads.  I'm going to need another project whenever I roll off of this one and I'd like for them to know me.  It can't hurt!  We got to sneak off to the beach a few times, but I can't complain too much since there's another one right outside my Newport Beach pad.

Pic with Jeff and Linda from my current project team

Our Saturday night banquet and awards ceremony was 60's themed so I rented a tux with a white jacket and got some cheap black framed glasses.  I ended up winning the 'Young Gun' along with a few other younger people in the company.  I've been around for 3 years and am not exactly 'young,' but I'll take it.

The hotel had a convenient club and bar in the lobby.  The club cost $200-300 because of the Ultra Music Festival events - we didn't even try to get in.  The lobby bar was cool so we never left the property throughout the weekend.  There were celebrity sightings by seemingly everyone but me - McLovin from Superbad, Tommy Lee and Jaime Foxx were all at the hotel at some point.

Moving to Cali

I'm on the next phase of my project in Santa Ana and have been flying back and forth from ATL to SNA twice a week.  The company is trying to cut costs so they asked me if I could find an apartment near work.  Taking the flights down to once a month and getting a long term rental car would really help on the budget.  I asked around on the best places to live and it looks like Newport Beach is the best.

I searched around on Craigslist and found a few cool places on Balboa Island.  They're not near the beach like I was in Sydney.  They're ON the beach.  I sent a bunch of emails and ended up interviewing with three different places.  I narrowed it down to two places with people that seemed cool.  I ended up choosing a place with two girls around my age, with a place that was walking distance to the bars, and most importantly - a 30 second walk on the beach.  I bought a bed and the rest of the room was furnished.  I'm all set up within earshot of the waves crashing and the best part is it's less then 20 minutes from my front doorstep to sitting at my desk.  I technically still live in Atlanta, but this is home for at least the next 6 months.


See a bigger map

Happy Ending to the Deportation Saga

As soon as I got home from my near deportation, I emailed my company (a bit ticked off) about the incident.  I was sure someone had screwed up my visa but it turns out they have sent plenty of consultants to Australia on the 977 visa with no problems.  No one knows why I was singled out this time.  We scheduled a conference call for the next day to discuss my options.  It basically came down to this:

1. Work remotely from the US - possible, but not ideal.  The whole reason I was in Sydney was because they wanted someone on site to run the project.  That would also prevent me from my NYE and beach vacation plans right after New Years (more on that in a future post).
2. Train a replacement over the next few weeks - also possible, but probably wouldn't happen.  There wasn't anyone available locally and it would take too long to get someone up to speed.  We are at a critical point in the project and it would put the project at risk.  I also would like to see the project through, so I didn't want to do this.
3. Get a different visa - this was my favorite option because it would allow me to keep my travel plans back home as well as coming back into the country.  However, after a lot of online research on Australia's immigration website and a few conversations with people on long term visas, it would take too long, cost too much and be more hassle than it was worth since I am leaving relatively soon.
4. Stay in Australia through Christmas and stay until the end of the project - not desirable, but the easiest way to go.  I didn't want to stay through Christmas for obvious reasons, but we were all drawing to this conclusion.

I finally accepted this fact and said, "Now I'm just going to have to tell my mom that I can't come home for Christmas."

Ok, so I played it up a little.  There was a collective "Awwwwwwwwwwww" on the other end of the phone as our deployment, travel and legal representatives (all female, all mothers) showed their sympathy.  They told me they would get back to me with I was expecting some kind of compen$ation.  I was pretty down because I had been looking forward to some time at home as well as my family's traditional trip to Kentucky to visit family and friends.  And let's not forget about my puppy love.  About a half hour later, I got a phone call from our deployment manager that went something like this:

"So, Jay, we talked to Tom and Trish (*husband and wife team that own/run my company*).  They would like to fly your parents to Sydney for Christmas."
"Uh...... WHAT?"
"Since your brother is coming out for New Years, maybe you can move his flight up and you can all be there together.  Do you think your family would go for that?"
"Let me think.  YES.  I don't know what to say... thank you!"

I need to find a Santa hat ASAP...

How cool is that?  Did I mention that I love working for BackOffice Associates?  Even before this saga, I have been lucky to have the opportunity to travel and grow professionally among such a great group of people.  I've learned a lot in the past few years and owe them a lot already.  I'm really glad I went with a small company out of grad school instead of one of the big consulting firms, because something like this never would've happened at Accenture or Deloitte.

We worked out most of the details and my parents will be here from December 21st-27th.  My brother is going to fly in with them and leave, as originally planned, on January 12th.  I depleted all of my Marriott points to put my parents up in the Circular Quay Marriott overlooking the opera house which is where I stayed during my first two weeks in the city.  It's not that close to my apartment, but I figured it was the best spot for such a short time.  Now I'm figuring out all of the places I want to show them.  I've already played tour guide a few times, so I think we will have enough to do.  And of course, we'll spend Christmas Day on the beach.  This will probably be the most memorable (and unexpected) Christmas of my life.  I can't wait!

Deported... almost

As I returned from my trip to Fiji, I went through Customs expecting some scrutinizing for my souvenirs containing wood.  I stepped up to the official and handed them my passport plus declaration card.  They promptly asked me to come through and step to the side because someone needed to talk to me.  When I asked if this was about my souvenirs, they said no.  Hmm...

After a bit of a wait, a lady started asking me about my visa (a 977 short term business visa).  It's good for 90 days at a time for up to a year, as I understood it.  I made the trip to Fiji because my 90 days were up and went home twice for the same reason.  No big deal, right?

They sat me down in the Customs area and I watched in envy as everyone else filtered through the lines, off to freedom.  I looked back longingly as I was escorted into a little room with a camera in the upper corner, large window in the back plus a small table with a chair that was bolted to the floor.  I had this vision in my head of The Bourne Identity when he plays mute through his interview at customs until he whooped up on the agents and escaped.  I couldn't find a YouTube video of it, so this approximate reenactment will have to do.  PS - I am the one in the American flag shorts.

While I had already busted out in my head, a guy came into my interview room putting on blue rubber gloves.  Suddenly my big cajones shrunk and drew inward and I tightened my... other muscles... and took a big gulp.  I think he saw the fear in my eyes as he stepped toward me and picked up my bag off the floor.  "I'm going to look through your bag now."

"Oh."

I silently sighed in relief and watched as he pulled out and carefully expected all of my clothes from the trip.  Penetration averted.  After he was satisfied that I wasn't smuggling anything, he left (I totally could've taken him out if I wanted to) and a woman came in.  For the next hour and a half she asked me questions into a tape recorder and took notes.  Why are you here?  What kind of work you do?  Do you get paid in US or Australian dollars?  What other countries have you been to?  How much money do you have in your wallet?  When do you plan to leave again?  And on and on and on.

The interrogator would come in and talk to me for half an hour and then leave for ten minutes to speak with her manager, then come back in and repeat the process.  I'm not sure if they were trying to make me sweat or change my story, but I just went back to reading my book every time they left.  They even asked for my local coworkers' phone numbers

About two hours later we got down to the heart of the matter.  One of the stipulations of the visa is that it cannot be used for "ongoing work".  They felt that I was breaking this rule.  The 977 was only supposed to be for conferences, meetings, training, etc and even then for six weeks at a time.  Why is it valid for 90 days if it was only designed for six weeks?  Well, they couldn't answer that one.  I didn't want to make them mad enough to ship me out, so I let it go.

My plans were to go home from December 16th-27th, come back until the end of the project and leave on February 5th.  The lady told me straight up, "We are going to let you in this time, but if you come back into Australia on this visa you will not get in."

By that time three hours had gone by and as they released me from interrogation there were no other passengers left in the airport.  The baggage belts were motionless and there were only a few employees milling around.  They had to go find someone to turn on the X-ray machine for my bags, because apparently doing a hand search wasn't enough.  Then they had to find someone else to unlock the exit doors - I was lucky there were any taxis in the queue.

"Home" at last.

More on the outcome in my next post.

Vacation Plans

I'm here in Australia on a short term working visa, which means I have to leave every 3 months.  I've gone back to the US twice (in June and August) and my next 90 days is coming up in November.  I had the opportunity to go home again, but I would just be turning around in another 4 weeks to make the same trip for Christmas, then again when the project finishes in February.  So instead, I've been plotting to make a trip to an island somewhere near Australia.

My visa requires that I leave the country for 24 hours, so I could do something in as short as a weekend.  I looked into Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand, but then I thought, 'Why not Fiji?'  It's fairly close, it's cheap and I'll have a good time.  I was a little worried that the client would have a problem with paying for me to fly on a long weekend away, but I could always request that they send me home and double the flight cost (not that I would).  I spoke with my company's travel coordinator and team lead back in the US and they were all about me getting a few days away.

I did a bit of research online and learned a lot about Fiji.  I had always thought it was just this remote little island, but it is in fact a group of 200+ islands.  The main island hosts the two largest cities of Suva and Nadi and the rest you can mostly reach by boat.  I found a cluster of islands called the Mamanucas that looked promising. There were a bunch of islands to choose from that ranged in prices and I finally settled on one called Beachcomber. From the pictures I saw, it looked like you could fit it inside my high school's track.

After I booked 4 days at the resort I posted on Facebook that I was ready for some R&R on Beachcomber Island.  My friend Dan quickly informed me that this is the party island of Fiji, so I probably won't be doing much resting.  Ah, well, I guess it's destiny.  We'll see what happens, I'm definitely looking forward to it in about 3 weeks.

Coogee life

Home life is going well so far. Although Jonah (the dog) kind of smells, it’s nice to have someone to run and wrestle with when I have time. Danni can get a little too tipsy on the weekends, but she’s a very genuine person and has brought me into her group of friends. We also got another flatmate recently – Andy, a pommie that’s been living in Sydney for a few years. His French girlfriend is also slated to move in with us in 4 weeks when she returns from studying back home. Andy is a really cool guy that is very willing to pay for drinks when we go out, very rarely going ‘shout for shout’ as they say here. We both work long hours but get along great when we actually see each other.

Mostly I have been taking the bus to work, which is both a pain and relaxing. It takes about an hour in total and involves hitting a connection – if the first bus is on time it’s another half hour before the next one arrives. A taxi only takes 20 minutes for the ride. The only good part is that I can jam to my iPod to my latest favorites: The XX, Florence + the Machine and Civil Twilight… oh yeah, and then there are always those fortunate chances to cross paths with people you become friends with.

I sit in the same seat on the bus every day and have come to recognize most people that take the same route as me. It’s not a heavily populated area of the city and is mostly industrial, so there are always empty seats. One day a girl in aviators, a business skirt and a tattoo on her foot gets on the bus and says something in a detectable American accent. I took note but didn’t say anything to her. It turned out we got off at the same stop which was a big coincidence, considering the road where I work.

After a few days of saying nothing, I finally introduced myself as we got off the bus. Her name was Natalie and it turned out that she lived around the corner from me. She was from San Diego and moved here short term with her college roommate after they graduate. They were both finding odd waitress and temp jobs while they traveled around Australia.  We made a point to meet and chat on the bus over the next week and quickly became friends. I met her friend, Jenna, as well when we went to see Iron Man 2 at this cool little theater in The Spot. It’s an area of restaurants in Randwick about 15 minutes’ walk away from home. We’ve been out to the CBD and King’s Cross together, as well as randomly run into each other at the Coogee Bay Hotel since then.  See this pic of Jenna, Nat and me a few nights ago.

My friend Laura connected me with her aunt, Carol, who is from Georgia but has lived in Sydney for a while.  Carol invited me to her Texas Hold 'Em Party at her house in Mosman, on the other side of the Sydney Harbor and in uncharted territory for me.  I took a bus and then a cab to get there, and ended up having a great time.  Their night ended fairly early since it was a neighborhood, so I met up with the Cali girls in King's Cross.  If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now.  Go with girls whenever you go to places with cover - a lot of times you will get in free (especially when one of them bites the bullet and makes out with the bouncer, ha!).

I decided to go to the Sydney Aquarium on rainy Sunday last week since there was nothing else to do. I must say that for being on the water I expected more. But then again, the Georgia Aquarium is comparable to no other. There were a few cool animals that I had never seen, but for the most part I was unimpressed. I also had a ticket for the Sydney Tower. If you look at skyline view shots of Sydney you can see that it gives you a great view of the city. I think it costs $35 by itself, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you buy the multi-attraction ticket like me. Since it was a rainy day the sunset view wasn’t that great and I only spent 20 minutes at the top.

On the way home I walked by a shop and saw a pair of Aasics that I really liked. I went in and picked up the shoes, expecting them to be a bit more expensive just like everything else in Sydney. $165, WHAT??? I really liked the style, but not for that price. I came home and looked them up online in the US: $70. I didn’t get the exact color I wanted, but I’m willing to sacrifice that for $95 in my pocket. I ordered and delivered them to my parents’ house for my upcoming trip home.

Another highlight is that I attended my first Australian Rules Football game, or 'footie' as they call it.  The Sydney Swans played the Fremantle Dockers.  Swans?  Really, Sydney?  You named your mascot The Swans?  The Hissing Swans or the Devil Swans I might let pass... Danni had an extra ticket so I went with all of her friends.  I really wanted a shirt that said SWANS across the front, but they didn't have anything worth the money.  I'm still on the lookout and will try to find something before I come home.

Tag, US, you're it

First thing’s first – FYI: for some reason Belgium only lets you have one carryon to fly to the US. That doesn’t mean one item and one personal item, it means ONE item. I had to be that guy going off to the side to rearrange my luggage to make it fit. Luckily because of my Gold Medallion status, my bag limit is 70 lbs. and not the normal 50. The flight sucked and I woke up a lot during my Ambien haze.

As soon as I got home, I had 2 hours to change out my bags and then it was back to the airport. Crazy, I know. My company had a technical conference at The Biltmore in Miami which I didn’t want to miss. Last year it was in Atlanta, which was convenient, but this year I had to use miles to make the trip. We have an annual Rock Band Competition which is really fun and I was also presenting an application that my team developed on a project. This ‘DemoJam’ is a competition held by the head of the company to find the best app to roll out for the whole company. There are also classes and seminars to enrich our careers, as well as lots of networking events. Given the nature of our company, most people don’t get to see each other except at this event.

I had been in Miami back in December for Summit Club and got invited there based on my application presentation last year. I was hoping for something similarly as cool. It was great to meet up with people I hadn’t seen in a while, but the jet lag was killing me all weekend. I woke up at 4 am on Friday morning and couldn’t really go back to sleep. I struggled to get through my classes and skipped a few for naps.

I presented one of about 5 or 6 applications to the 300 or so people that came to the conference. I was a bit nervous, but have been getting used to talking in front of people at work. Plus, I know the app inside and out. I felt kind of weird being the only person up there since I only had a hand in its creation. Three or 4 other people on the project also chipped in, but I was the only one to volunteer to present. Our big boss said that he would decide the winner (and unknown prize) the next day.

On Saturday night UK was playing WVU in the Elite 8 (boo) at the same time we were prepping for the Rock Band Competition. Tag, my band mate and fellow UK alum, were huddled in front of a laptop while our other two members got ready. Once we saw that the game was going downhill we focused on rocking the house. We decided months ago (yes, we did plan this far in advance) to dress up like ZZ Top and call ourselves the ZZ Sources. It’s a twist on one of the methods we use in our company, don’t worry about it. Later, we found out that the competition was using Beatles Rock Band, but it was too late to go back on our costumes.

The prizes were $1000 for 1st place, a nice set of headphones for each 2nd place, and steak knives for the last two. I thought the steak knives were a joke, but apparently not. The preliminary rounds were on Thursday and Friday and were based solely on points (so no one dressed up in their costumes, saving them for Saturday night). We made it through the prelims and were among 4 bands in the finals Songs couldn’t be repeated, so we had a little draft to see who got to sing what. Being the singer in my band, I got to choose. I don’t know that many Beatles songs and a lot of them are repetitive and slow. I’m not sure how I got lucky, but I got my two top choices: 'I Saw Her Standing There' and 'Twist and Shout'.

As I watched the other bands, I knew we had a chance. Our costumes were hilarious, as you can see, and we had high energy songs to get the crowd to participate. They set it up like American Idol with three celebrity judges – the pro tennis players that we sponsor (Melanie Oudin being one). You were supposed to text to a phone number to vote for each band. The first band had the upper hand and posted their texting number on Facebook. Well played. Tom (the company founder) decided to use an unscientific applause-o-meter instead (he starts with his hands together and raises one depending on the noise level).

We were 3rd on stage and ROCKED OUT. I’m hoping I can find a video, I haven’t had this much fun on stage in my life. People got up and danced, they were singing, I thought we had it in the bag. The last group was made up of partners and senior consultants from the company. While they were better technically at playing the instruments (they practiced for the competition with their kids), we sounded better vocally and got the crowd going more. Despite this, when it came time for the applause-o-meter, they won. Second place went to a group of our clients that attended the weekend, since they were our guests. Politics. We repeated our 3rd place finish and I guess I’m getting steak knives in the mail. Yippee.

The last bit of important news from the weekend is that the confirmed that I would be going to Australia and it would be until sometime in October. Finally, I have a definitive answer. Oh, yeah. And I won an iPad for my application presentation, sweet! I’ll be flying out on Monday, April 5th for the first leg of my project. They’re letting me come home for a week every 90 days or so to renew my visa and work from home. It’s crazy that I’m only going to be home for a week, but I’m looking forward to the trip! I also started reading ‘Up In the Air’ since I liked the movie so much. I’ll report on that when I finish it. Talk to you down under!

And So Begins My Adventure In Chile

I had this great plan for my 9.5 hour, 4,600 mile direct flight from Atlanta, Georgia, to Santiago, Chile. Eat the dinner they provide an hour or so into the flight, pop a Benadryl, and knock myself out for the rest of the trip. The only problem was that I left my Benadryl at home… oops. Now I had to occupy myself between the in-flight movies, the Lonely Planet guidebook for Chile, and the 70 year old woman sitting next to me. I prayed for sleep that came in fits.

One respite from the torture of monotony and purgatory between sleeping and waking was a great movie called 500 Days of Summer. It told the story of a guy’s relationship with a girl named Summer in a very unique way, jumping to different days in the relationship throughout. I thought that it accurately portrayed the mindset of a typical guy dealing with a breakup and trying to move on. At least to me, it felt very close to home. I’m still waiting on that new ‘Day 1’. See the movie to see what I’m talking about. Also, the soundtrack was filled with quality music, so check that out.

I ended up having a few brief conversations with my geriatric neighbor. As it turns out, at least half of my flight consisted of senior citizens going on a 3 week cruise from Chile, around Cape Horn and finally to Rio de Janeiro. It sounds like a cool trip, but I came to spite many of my fellow passengers. You cannot fathom the deafening snoring that I endured as I tried to find some sleep. Imagine your grandfather x 25. One man was snore-hickuping, or slowly dying, I’m not sure which. It was one of the strangest sounds I’ve ever heard.

Finally, a few hours of sleep and 4,600 miles away, I made it to Santiago. Fun fact: Santiago is actually 2 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. It's something you don't really think about until you go there. My client provided a driver to take me to the hotel for a few real hours of sleep before I went into work. I'll try to take notes of what I see and do as I live here, and so begins the month abroad. Day 1.

Check out the view from my temporary home.

Where in the world?

Finally, some news about my upcoming project. Not quite what I expected, though:

---

Hi Jay,

We are waiting for ****** to provide us the details for New Zealand. They are wavering on the requirement which is why we have not provided you with information. It appears that instead of New Zealand, ****** may want someone for Chile. The bottom line is we do not have any solid updates to provide at this time.

We will reach out as soon as we have firm details or a start date.

---

I might be packing my bags in the coming weeks. I'm skeptical at this point since it is taking so long.

Lynchburg

I traveled to the booming city of Lynchburg, Virginia this week for work to do a software installation. Usually when I travel for a project, I am with a team of consultants. This time I was the first person on site and was basically left on my own to figure things out. While this is a good sign in my professional life, it left me with a week to entertain myself with no chance of outside assistance.

Anyone that knows me can tell you that I don't really talk to strangers. It's funny to say, but it's just something that I don't do. I don't eat dinner alone, go to movies alone, or anything else. However, something came over me in Lynchburg. I ended up going out every night to different restaurants. Maybe it was the book I was reading as I ate, I don't know.  I also chatted up the Marriott manager every night.  I think she was as bored as I was to be in the town.

I ended up enjoying myself in this quaint town of 70,000+, though it felt much smaller than that. It's the home of Liberty University, which was founded by Jerry Falwell. If you haven't heard about the strict rules at this college, they are borderline ridiculous. Okay, not borderline. Way over the border.

The code of conduct includes possible reprimands and, later, fines, for such activities as attending dances, violating curfew, viewing R-rated movies, drinking, smoking, viewing sexually explicit material, entering the bedroom of a member of the opposite sex, having an abortion, and participating in unauthorized petitions.

So much for the college experience. As you can imagine, I didn't find ANY nightlife in the city... not that I would have interacted with anyone though, right? I ended up jogging on an rails to trails path that ran through downtown and along the river. That was probably the highlight of the trip.

G'day Mates!

I got this email from work today:

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Hi Jay,

I am reaching out to you to gauge your interest in international travel. I have a fantastic opportunity for an analyst position in New Zealand for three months with a follow up assignment in Australia for three months. This will require temporary relocation to New Zealand for the three month period. The client is ************ and they would like someone to start as early as 10/20.

Tell me what you think.

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Um, gee. Let me think about it. YES!