Raleigh travel log – Day 5
Final night at Raleigh. Most certainly there wont be a post tomorrow, since I'm heading back to Argentina.
Things turned out the good way in a couple of ocasions today, really excited of what the future seems to be looking like.
I've ate too much all week, and haven't done any exercise at all. I'll wrap up the way things have turned out on a post written from the comfort of my house this saturday, but I can already tell the balance is way on the positive side.
The air trip back shall prove to be a good chance to write up a couple of things I need to put into writing sooner rather than later.
Raleigh travel log – Day 4
Not a lot of interesting things to say about today other than I've finally got the camera. After more than an year without a decent camera I'm scared to death that this one will also get stolen by the good ol' fellas at one of the airports. For starters this is traveling up on the cabin with me.
This means that this blog might get imagery pretty soon. My Flickr account hasn't seen an update ever since my summer vacation.
I have a lot of thinking and implementation to do in the next couple of months. I feel engaged and I believe in what we're doing.
I had dinner at the hotel. I should of listened to Churbuck and take a book with me. Having dinner alone at a restaurant is awkward, particularly when there's not enough people around to feel entertained by indulging myself with a little espionage.
So since that advice would of been handy I decided to give baseball a chance. I have watched this game for the past hour (Red Sox win 4 to 1 so far) and I still don't see where's the "mental" part of spiting out and scratching... well... down there.
The week is coming to a close. I have a couple more interesting posts on the forge. I'm afraid that workdays are not that entertaining for my readership even when they happen on a whole different hemisphere.
Raleigh Travel Log – Day 2
Yesterday went well, even though I was quite tired I managed to go to a couple of stores and get me lunch out of the hotel. Early dinner (for Argentina Standards), some chatting with Luciana and to bed. I passed out.
Today I woke up with the buzzer at 6:30, and headed down to Morrisville. Lenovo's building is quite impressive... haven't been here since it got inaugurated.
It was quite a busy day, couple of meetings, some face to face time, hopefully getting enough information into the system to run remote for some months.
Getting to know people in person can boost work relationships. I think one becomes more of a real human being and less of an IM box, or an email. I'm no sociologist, but someone should study modern day work relations, where your boss is in a whole different hemisphere and some of your buddies are getting to work as you go to bed.
That is one of the best things of working for a global company. Interaction with peers from around the globe is one piece of valuable experience if you can learn to make the most out of it.
Raleigh Travel Log – Day 1 – Post 1
6AM in Miami Airport, I have 3 hours to kill and the wifi access fee is plain abusive. I really need a shower!! I barely slept on the plane, this forced me to write a couple of dozen emails and do some major inbox cleansing.
I think I can tell what country I’m in just by the smell. It must be what’s use to clean or the air deodorant, but if I came to the US blind folded I’m pretty certain I could tell where I am just for the smell.
I am already at the boarding gates after I spent some time walking the parking lot in the heat & humidity. Autumn hasn’t reached Miami. I don’t think it ever get here.
My plane departs in a couple of hours and I can’t find a decent power outlet to recharge the battery. I will be very bored if I'm left out of juice and have no ThinkPad to entertain me.
Now out to get some coffee and something to eat, then I’ll pay the 10 bucks they charge for internet access and post this. I also want to chat with Luciana to let her know I got this far safe enough.
Going North!
Next week I'll be in Raleigh, NC. So, hide your women, lock your fridges and set your pets free!
More seriously now, I look forward for a productive and fun week. It'll be the first time I go there since I switched position, so there's a lot of new things awaiting for me.
On my previous visit Jim and David got me into blogging, let's see what I'll bring with me this time around.
Some Vacation Tales
I realized I didn't tell much about our vacation in Uruguay, thus I thought I'd tell a write of a couple of anecdotes.
Our trip started a little bit bumpy, to put it some way. The first leg of the voyage was done by ferry, 4 hours from Buenos Aires to Colonia. The boat, Eladia Isabel, although a bit old and not too well maintained is somewhat nice. The only issue was that we had the privilege of travelling with 500+ Football (soccer) fans. They were going to watch a match at Montevideo the next day. Thus we had 4 hours of chanting, insulting and overheated temperaments, that ended up in a fight amongst a couple of guys. Interestingly neither those in charge at buquebus (the ferry company) or the port authorities did much to control the angry horde.
After getting off the ferry and into a bus for another 5 hours we arrived at La Paloma. With a beautiful day, little sleep and the usual beach excitement we drop our things at the hotel and headed towards the beach... at 1PM; had some lunch over there, watching the ocean, swam a little bit and got a little bit overexposed to the sun. I guess the excitement of going to the beach and everything made us a little bit irresponsible regarding skin care.
Days went on and off easily we walked a lot, the weather was great. Food was awesome (I don't think I ever had so much ocean-provided meals in my life).
It only rained one day; the day we decided to go to "Cabo Polonio", a sort of hippie-naturist reserve, only accessible through some 4WD trucks. We spent a couple of hours at the beach when I noticed a storm front quickly approaching us. One last dive into the waves, and I told Lu we'd better hurry up; I hadn't ended saying this when I felt the first drom on my back. 10 seconds later it was pouring.
If there is one thing Uruguay should work on is their public transportation. It sucks. Big time. Soaking wet, amidst the rain and a 30°F temperature drop we waited 3 hours for the bus back to la Paloma. I need to buy a car for next vacation.
The return was slow, and nice. We had a great time altogether, rested a lot, and I could prove to myself I can spend 8 days without my ThinkPads and cell phone.
Starting vacation.
Friday was "officially" my last work day, before a two week leave. One of those weeks will be spent in the coast of Uruguay, at "La Paloma". The aim of this is to be able to unplug absolutely. I'll take no PCs with me and I plan to just relax, do some thinking and maybe some writing (of the good-old-fashioned handwriting type). Some walks on the beach, and other things of the sort are also planned.
It'll be the first time in more than 1 and a half years I'll disconnect for so long. Thus my last week was spent sending emails to all fronts announcing my vacation. I have so many open issues I can't help feeling a little guilt.
Finally today I went for the "inbox 0" target and deleted or archive all my emails. I know whatever has been left undone will haunt me on my return; thus I guess it's a good measure to do so, since I'll probably be left without space on my notes DB anyway.
I might place one or two more posts before I unplug, but after that "The Challenge" will go silent for at least a week, but I think my writing will become more prolific after some quality rest.
Weekend retreat (life’s a beach)
Summer time. The time when one needs to flee the city as much as possible. Thus Luciana, me and 3 Lenovo co-workers decided to run away to Mar del Plata for the weekend.
We left Friday directly from the office. Weather was quite uninviting, it had rained all day; but we had our minds set and decidedly started the 400km road trip.
It took us a bit longer than expected to make it all the way, but we finally got there. We left Luciana at a friend's house, since they needed to have some girl's time together, and went for a couple of beers and some sleep.
Saturday was cloudy and windy, which didn't prevent us from heading to the beach and just lying around and eating. At night we went to a Disco that was far beyond just crowded. Just hanging around on such places isn't as fun as it used to be, probably due to age and being retired from chasing women.
After a couple of hours of sleep and since the day was plain spectacular we went to the beach after picking Luciana and her Friend back. There was a band playing, we spent some time on the ocean and we headed back for a shower, some dinner and the drive back home.
Finally went to bed at 4AM, yeah, it was a short night, but well worth it.
Patagonia – Food for soul
I'm not too much of a "mystical" sort of guy, quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. That being said there's something about the Patagonian Steppe that appeals to some very deep roots in my soul. Maybe it's the fact of being born and raised over there or maybe it's because I sort of regard it as the visualization of my own mental landscape sort to say. It's really something I can't quite explain in words, a sense of realization, of belonging and peace. Odd, because I don't get rooted to any place.While spending my week at Bariloche we went to some little know off-road road which goes up to where Ñirihuau River is born. The nice thing about this place is that it depicts where the Andean forest ends and gives place to the much more arid Patagonian steppe. Thus you can see the "best" of both worlds.
Some amazing rock formations and scattered woods, with a clear river and nearly no human souls to be seen anywhere. Some pictures to further illustrate my words:
The Road
The Landscape
The Rocks
The Odd Sideways rocks
Forest meets Patagonian plateau
Of course, and although pictures say more than a thousand words, there-s no way to describe the constant winds (the first Europeans living on this part of the world said it could easily drive a man crazy), the smells, the way the sun burns everything...You'll have to imagine that much.
Wasted
After a week at Bariloche Luciana and I flew back to Buenos Aires on Saturday (two hour flight + usual two hour delay...). I don't know what to blame it on... but neither of us could sleep a single minute that night; probably due to weather and noise. Woke up at 5:30am too get to a Bus to Junin to spend New Year with Luciana's family. After lots of alcohol, a barbecued pig and chicken, some dance, and some fireworks went to bed at 7am to wake up at 10 and head back to Buenos Aires (did so alone, Luciana joins me tomorrow). 4 and a half hours in bus later I arrived to the City where the thermometer showed 111° F (44°C). I need some serious sleep!
Back at office tomorrow, will try to get some good night sleep in order not to mess things up too much.