Job offer arrived

Just before Thanksgiving I finally received a job offer!
It is an internal transfer with NSN, working from home in DC as Project Manager for Solutions Deployment, It basically means I will manage upgrade projects and introduction of new functionality. I was lucky, I decided one morning to follow up with a guy who I have been in touch with before, just to let him know I was still around. He told he had someone resign in the morning so we had a quick chat and it all sounded good. Then I spoke to the Customer team representative and we got on very well, so they sad I had a good chance. Job got advertised on the Internal website, I applied, beat the competition and now I have the offer :-)

However, being the U.S. the offer is conditional. I have to pass a background Police check from three countries (Sweden, UK and Australia) and I have to pass a drug test. Police checks were kicked off last week but due to Thanksgiving I could only do the drug check today. For that they sent me off to the scary part of town, well I think being Washington DC there are scarier parts, but walking along the streets with my e-reader did not seem like a safe thing to do. Lots of houses with bars over the windows, boarded up windows, druggies on the streets and generally bad feeling. Found the place I was told to go, scruffy with worn-out carpet tiles and strange smell. After while got called into an office, some rookie who only spoke whatever language they speak in Ethiopia, was directed by a colleague to fill in my forms. Then asked to empty my pockets and pee in a cup, exactly to some imaginary line. Now I am in the hand's of them - should know in a few days, but unless the owner of the "Daiquiri Shack" in Bahamas did not put anything weird in my drinks I should be good.
When story relayed to new boss he suggested that perhaps they sent me to that area to see if I got tempted to buy some drugs...

I am pretty sure I am no criminal as well, as did all 3 police certificates last year and passed. Since then I haven't even got a parking ticket! But it will take time, so from tomorrow I start working here as a Visitor from the Swedish organisation. Straight in there with customer meetings in Chicago and Christmas party this week. I always wanted to visit Chicago, as I have changed planes there many times, but never got out, but December wouldn't have been my choice. The rest of the team sits in Irving, TX, near Dallas. So assume I get to go there soon too.

Thanksgiving weekend - Day 2

Day 2 started with checking out from the Day's Inn, really not that nice, but they had "free" transfer back to the airport. "Free" as you are supposed to tip the driver... how much??? Anyhow, arrived at reception on-time to find minibus and lonely kiddie (guess around 6-8) guarding the family's luggage, stating they would come soon - in Spanish! Why do everyone speak Spanish! anyhow driver gave him an ultimatum and he summoned the rest of the family and we were off just 10 mins late or so.
Arrived at airport, checked in and off to the AA lounge. Lounges are a bit difficult in the US - you don't always get unlimited food & drinks. This time we were each given a free "Premium drinks" voucher at 7 AM and off we went. Unfortunately no breakfast according to Sissi standard. There were croissants and sticky Danish pastries. Compared to the United LA. lounge a few months ago that was a real disappointment. They had bagels with jam and cream cheese and yogurt and orange juice. But we had unlimited wine... even Sissi at 7 AM is not that keen - a nice breakfast would be much more appreciated.

Eventually off we went on our 45 min hop from Miami to Nassau. The flight was fine, but as we went nearer our goal the nice weather from Miami was exchanged for a thick layer of clouds.

We arrived way early so were not allowed to check in. As weather was so-so we hopped on a minibus (number 10 from Cable beach to Nassau downtown) to see the town and have lunch. It was very much catered to cruise ship passengers. Shops selling diamonds and expensive watches but not much food (cruise ship passengers tend to be well fed and not willing to spend extra money on food).

Suddenly Alastair spotted a sign for a Hard Rock Cafe, so we had a pre-lunch Hurricane!

Eventually we found a place with sea-food and local beers. A tribute to the British Queen outside the Justice Building and some local Police in action at street!

         

Thanksgiving weekend - Day 1

Don't read this series if your are in a cold and nasty place, but wished you were sipping a daiquiri under a palm tree instead. That's what I did.

So, Thanksgiving coming up - what should we do? No idea! Left Alastair downstairs one evening and he decided that if most Americans stay at home for Thanksgiving to spend it with their families, going somewhere would be a good idea. With autumn finally arrived here in DC, somewhere warm might be nice. So he checked all the flights from DC and came up with Nassau, Bahamas.

Off we went, on the eve of Thanksgiving out of DCA, there were no people! No queue to check-in, no queue through security and no people in the lounge. I would have thought, as we were travelling domestic the first leg, DCA - MIA it would be chaos, but not!

Off we went on a reasonably full not to completely full flight to Miami. Not bad being an AA flight as flights go and at MIA we had booked a motel-room between the runway and the freeway. It lived up to it's Day's Inn reputation, but what do you really need for a few hours sleep. First greeting in hotel room was a load of flyers from various pizza delivery places - hmm, don't they do food here?

It looked pretty shabby. After un-loading we headed down to the bar / restaurant. It turned out they had stopped serving food and had some special club/dance evening, with entrance fee. We asked if we could jut have a beer at the bar, and as they were empty, they agreed. The music was so loud we could not talk to each other at all. There was nobody there and we would gladly have stayed for at least a few drinks and a snack, if they turned it down a notch - but no way. Left around 11 PM - not sure how many travelers staying at a cheap airport motel will go out clubbing all night!

The hotel in itself, I thought was put-up-able but after spending $40 more at the Sheraton going back, perhaps not... You get what you pay for as they say.

Just-in time

Talk about just-in-time delivery.
Many of us who have office based jobs order a bunch of business cards when we start the new job, uses a few and then bins the rest when we change jobs. At least that is what I am used to. Same last time, I ordered them back in 2010 when I started working for NSN (Nokia Siemens Networks), my name was Sissi Bergstrand and so was my e-mail address. My phone number was Swedish.
Since then, my company (still NSN) has changed name and logo, I have changed name and email address and I have a new phone number. Did it ever occur to me to order new business cards, no - as I have been working with the same customer and the same people for almost 2 years.
However, here in DC, I attend a lot of networking events and business cards are really necessary, if you want people you talk to, to remember you and get your contact details in an easy way. I realized this a few weeks ago and set about ordering new cards. It was a complicated process as it is in most large companies with the added complication that I am employed in Sweden but live in Washington, DC and needed cards delivered here.

Tonight, I am invited to the IMF, International Monetary Fund (Internationalla Valutafonden) "spouse after-work mingle". One of those events where business cards are necessary. I was hoping and tried to monitor my business card order, but still yesterday had no idea about delivery date (they could easily have told me when shipped, with a tracking number and that would have made my life so much easier. So I resorted to researching where I could get some temporary ones made up, but the last few days have been very hectic indeed so I never got it done. I found out there are some instant printers around which will make me some simple black-and-white ones more or less instantly, so decided to leave a bit early for tonight's event.
Early, is after mailman arrives though, and when next door neighbours dog started to bark I stuck my head out the door. Flag on mailbox was up and in between a pile of junk mail and bills, I found 250 new business cards, with correct name, company name and phone numbers.
So, I am off in 2h to hopefully get to know some interesting people.

Hiking in DC

Long Walk : 4 miles (6 km) from Home to Georgetown trough the park.

Woke up to a lovely day! Cold, but I have learnt that around lunch-time it will warm up if the sun is out (and it definitely was). So after a morning of admin work, updating Resumes and sorting out a few more books, I decided to take a hike through the mysterious park I walked around a few weeks ago. I have found out where the entrance is now. It's funny there are no signposts whatsoever and evidently a park in the city is intersected by roads here and there. But after you come out of the park, and cross the road, you have no idea how to proceed or in which direction. This happened at least 3 times during the walk and I just had to guess which was the right direction towards Georgetown and the river (where I had a feeling the park would finally end).

It really was not a park as such, but a bit of wild forest with a path through it. Occasionally you came to a clearing with a meadow, and the you were back in the wild again.
After a few miles, not sure how far, I finally made the river and then followed that into Georgetown, where I had a nice meal and a glass of wine.

All the photos can be viewed here:

Bethesdavisit

Today I went northwest to Bethesda in Maryland. It is not as far as it sounds, Maryland is the next state along but starts just a mile or so from home. DC is actually very small. Bethesda is quite a large place a few stops along the Metro line.
I went to see my Bolivian friend and she offered me Bolivian beer as pre-lunch drink while showing me all the hard work she has done on our house. She has only been here a few months but has managed to completely renovate kitchen and two bathrooms as well as lay new floors and completely overhaul a pretty large house. I am sure her contacts for some of the specialist handy-work will be useful for us as well. We don't have to do too much on our house to start with. My next task is to put doors on my new huge IKEA wardrobes, but to have to wait for Alastair to return home as they are too heavy to lift for me alone. Ideally I'd like a new cooker and new worktops in the kitchen, but it is more a nice-to-have than necessary, so may have to wait a while.
After a lovely lunch consisting oven oven-baked chicken and spicy potatoes, I got to experience the school-run U.S. style on our way back to the Metro station. Wow! When I was a kiddie, I cycled or walked to school, on my own from grade 1. To be dropped off or collected by your parents would be embarrassing and in any case parents were normally at work and I had my own key. Here the school was slightly further away, around 3km (2miles), but still... the schoolyard was full of cars parked in three lanes.

We came in a Volvo XC70 SUV and it was one of the smallest cars there! There were lots of rules! Anyone parked after a red line was allowed to get out of their cars and go and get their kiddie, who were waiting in a certain area. At 3pm exactly a whistle blew and the everyone had to be back in their cars which then took off in a certain order, to make space for the cars in the 2nd run behind. Very complicated!

Saving the last bit of summer

After a whole week of rain, the weather brightened up on Monday, which was a day off, due to Columbus. Thank you Columbus for finding America and giving us a public holiday mid October.

We planned a barbecue for some of our friends and it was a lovely afternoon. It was a great mix of people as well. One of Alastair's friends from Indonesia (who now lives in DC) came with her daughter and my friend Eliana from the "spouse - job seeking group" came with her husband (who works with water at the World Bank) and her 2 daughters. Eliana just proves how small the world is. We ended up at the same table at that first day of job-hunting, and it turned out she had lived in Sweden for 3 years. Her husband worked in the office opposite Alastair's office in Stockholm and they know the same people! Finally another friend of Alastairs from the Bank joined with her husband.

All the girls played well together despite some language problems, which gave us a nice afternoon with food and drinks and a lovely cake baked by Eliana.

Road trip No.1 - Day 4 - No new countries, No new States or Provinces BUT 1 new Hurricane glass (Baltimore)

Toronto (ON) - Westfield (PA) - Baltimore (MD) - Home (DC)

Day 4 we left Toronto early as we were expecting queues on the border getting back into the U.S. The weather was awful on the Canadian side, which did not really help either. However, crossing the bridge at Buffalo the sun came out and there were only 4 cars in-front of us at the border. No problem at all getting through a very painless process compared to Dulles Airport in Washington.
We drove on in search for breakfast. The problem with driving across rural areas is that there is limited choice. Neither of us were happy with the food at the small place we found, but at lease it filled a gap whils continuing our drive.
The next stop was Westfield (PA) where one of my friends spent a year as an exchange student in high-school. A very sleepy little town, but well worth the 30-minute detour.

A few more hours of driving south took us to a decent diner for dinner, before heading on home. Alastair found out that the route would take us within a 7-min detour of Hard Rock Cafe in Baltimore, so suggested we stop there as well. Baltimore felt a little bit rough in the dark so we parked nearby, and made it a quick stop.

Home around 10 PM after a just over 500-mile drive for the day!

Road trip No.1 - Day 3 - No new countries, No new States or Provinces BUT 1 new Hurricane glass (Toronto)

Day 3   - Niagara (ON) - Toronto (ON) - 80 miles:

Day 3 was spent on quick breakfast at IHOP and then a short drive through to Toronto. 

Checked in and some basic shopping, then off to collect this trip's 3rd Hurricane glass. 

The bartender was very helpful and gave advice for where to walk around and also Dinner suggestions, which was quite surprising. But perhaps she was clear we were not interested in eating at Hard Rick, but was merely collecting Hurricane glassed. Off we went to the street she recommended where we dropped a dinner table reservation into the mailbox of a nearby recommended Italian restaurant (as they were not open yet) and had a quick lunch at a pub.We were probably quite lucky as when we left the pub, there were some staff around at the Italian restaurant.

They were not open yet, but as we explained that we had dropped at reservation note in the mailbox, they invited us in to make a proper reservation. After arriving in the evening, wen they were full and turned away several people, I doubt they would have been happy with our little note.

Toronto as such was a pleasant town. Quite small (downtown) but a great place to move around. There were some kind of arts festival going on which was a bit strange, and cause a bit of noise during the night (especially for Åsa , who had some disturbance right outside her hotel door for a long time - which is not acceptable at a Sheraton - so we will complain!). Evening finished with drinks in the lobby as the sky bar closed at 11pm !!!

Road trip No.1 - Day 2 - 1 new Country (Canada), 1 new Province (Ontario), 2 new Hurricane glasses - Niagara (NY and ON)

Day 2 - Warfordsburg (PA) - Niagara (NY) - Niagara (ON), Canada - 300 miles

Day two started with grabbing myself a coke out of the fridge at the Days Inn and leaving money on the unmanned motel counter. We then drove on up the I-70 in a hunt for breakfast.

Not too far and we ended up in Breezewood. That was a proper over-night hub, with several open gas stations, several motels and diners. I doubt anyone lives there but it was lively and a great place to stop. I bought a map to be able to track the route (which explains now that I am looking at the map - why I did not make any markings before then). Breakfast at Denny's in a traditional diner "trailer".

We drove on across rural Western Pennsylvania. No much traffic, not may people around. Stopped for gas - very cheap - saw lots of churches!!! and some very beautiful Victorian style houses:

Mid afternoon we arrived at the US side Niagara Falls, the walked around the various viewing spots. We did not do the touristy thing to go down and get all wet under the falls, but took our time to watch them from the various view spots around:

We thought about a boat-trip but the weather was not so good. I must say I was not that impressed. I had expected larger or bolder or more - I am not sure. On the way back to the car I spotted, by coincidence, a Hard Rock Cafe. As I collect the Hurricane glasses I somehow managed to persuade my travelling companions to make a pit-stop.
We then went off to the Canadian border crossing. The queue was not great but nowhere near as bad as Dulles Airport in the afternoon.

The hotel was a pre-booked Best Western and was just that. Nothing fancy but miles ahead of the Days Inn from the night before and did the job. As it was getting dark - we decided to watch the falls from the Canadian side as well before dinner. As I am quite clumsy it was probably not that clever to sit on the fence (no Health and Safety measures in place, which were surprising):

As Alastair had to drive over the border he did not get a Hurricane at Niagara US, so we checked if there was one in Canada, preferably Toronto. But we were surprised - there was one at Niagara, ON, Canada. So off we went for a pre-dinner Hurricane!

Dinner was at a chain steak-house which was not great. Too loud and too average. Unfortunately the whole place is very touristy and flashy with Casinos and game-halls and similar things. We really wanted to go somewhere after dinner, but could not find a nice place - so early evening unfortunately.

Road-trip 1 - Day 1 - 1 new State (Pennsylvania)

First long road-trip done! Final destination Toronto.
Home (DC) - Hancock (MD) - Warfordsburg (PA) - 100 miles

We (myself, Alastair and my friend Åsa, visiting from Sweden) set off Thursday evening in a very nice rental car - Thursday upgrade special. The route went out of DC through Maryland on I-270 and I-70  towards rural Pennsylvania. Just before the border we found a nice bar / restaurant near Hancock for dinner, which really looked the part - Jimmy Joy's Log Cabin Inn (I can't past a link as they have no website) - Food was OK, huge portions as expected, but friendly service and a pleasant "rural bar" atmosphere.

After dinner we went off to find a motel. I would not recommend Hancock for that. The choice was pretty grim. The only real motel (a Super 8) only had smoking rooms, and although we were really tired the smell of stale smoke was just too much, so back out on I-70 continuing north for 30 mins or so. There we found an abandoned town with a basic Days Inn. There was nothing else, just a boarded up gas station and a closed restaurant stating "God Bless America". Assume he missed Warfordsburg!