- It was the Christmas season that involved a number of parties and €get-togethers
- I co-hosted our office Christmas party
- I organized a pretty successful Bukas Sarili Caroling event in the PGH on Dec. 16
- 3 more Still Oz gigs in the last 3 Fridays of December
- I went to Macau and Hong Kong Disneyland with my family
- I co-hosted the wedding reception of Myra and Jun in Tagaytay
Oh, and have I mentioned that last Sunday, I packed up and left for Lund in Sweden, where I am supposed to stay for at least 6 months?
It wasn't really sudden, but somehow it felt like it. I knew way back in October that I was likely to work for several months in Sweden at the start of 07, but things only got finalized towards the end of November and with my project here starting in the 2nd week of January, I didn't really have a lot of time left in Manila. Which was also the main reason why I spent a lot of time with my family and friends in the last several weeks.
I'll be updating my blog with how things are in this part of the world along with all the cool, fun, and crazy experiences I expect to have here. But let me first tell you how my trip here turned out.
I spent the entire Saturday night packing and making sure all loose ends were tied up before I left. My airport transfer picked me up at 8am, and I slept for the entire car ride on the way to the airport. I had to sort out all my excess baggage first before I headed to the waiting area. I was then pleasantly surprised to run into Mike and Diane, who were flying to the US (Mike to Boston, Diane to Cincinnati) but ended up waiting in the airport for 4 extra hours because it was storming in Japan (their stop-over). As it turns out, Walter was also in my flight (he was heading to Geneva).
I got to sleep for about 4 of the 14 hours I was on the plane to Amsterdam. I was trying to sleep but for some reason I couldn't. So I decided to just watch movies on the plane instead. I caught 'Nacho Libre', 'Cars', and 'Ordinary People'. The plane arrived in Amsterdam at 630pm (130am Manila time), about half an hour ahead of schedule. Here I discovered that Walter wasn't my only colleague on the same flight - my boss Peter and another colleague Sheila were also there (both of them were headed for the UK). It was pretty good having some company while in Schipol airport, and here we decided to change some money already in case the forex booths were closed in our respective destinations.
I was heading to Stuttgart first and spending a couple of days with my German colleagues who provided me with a lot of technical overviews to get my ready for my assignment. My flight left Amsterdam at around 830 and I arrived in Stuttgart at 930. I was so tired that I fell asleep almost as soon as I arrived at the hotel.
I met up with my colleague Ingo on Monday for prep sessions, and in the evening he took me around Boeblingen which I was really pleased with since at least I got to see more of Germany than just the airport, the hotel, and the office. I had a couple of good German beers, Bratwurst, and some really good Sauerkraut. Too bad I forgot which beers I had. I should email Ingo and ask him which ones he ordered for me.
We had a couple more training sessions lined up on Tuesday before I packed up and got on another plane, this time to Copenhagen where I would meet another colleague, Martin (who is like my boss here). He was flying from Paris and arriving at around the same time and suggested to me that we meet in the Copenhagen airport so he could drive me to my hotel.
The last couple of days were then spent getting me ready for my project here. I met a lot of new people who I would be working with, got a few reading materials, attended a few business and system overviews, and got my 'consultant' laptop and badge. Of course, thing being just the first couple of days of me being here, I still have got a lot more overview sessions and meetings to attend.
Despite all that, I think I'm starting to settle in a bit. I'm still staying in a hotel right now, and I'm still in a bit of an "information-overload" mode, but I'm starting to figure out how to get things going and I'm getting all geared up. Wish me luck and as I said, keep an eye on my blog coz I'm gonna make sure it's updated with all the interesting things I'll be doing over here.
(P.S. I still plan on writing about some of the stuff that happened to me in the last 2-3 months i.e. the stuff I never got to write about coz I was too busy. I'll still be busy here of course, but with no friends, family, and non-work commitments here, I'll have more time to do my 'dear diary' stuff. :-) )
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