I now, very much by chance, find myself in Valencia. Among the travelers I realize how at home I already feel in Madrid. Finding people who are sparing no expense to pay the 12€ for a night in the hostel, the young couple getting married soon, the myriad of Spanish people taking our long holiday weekend who were able to travel despite the air traffic control strike. I do love judging the others who are writing entries on the public computers with titles like "Cold Snap" just to get the impression across that they're here long enough to capture weather.

Through all of this I'm finding a familiar nature after the drive here. Driving is such an ingrained part of my identity and just having spent several hours in a car reconfirms why that part of me is so important to myself. But all of this bullshit soul-searching really does me no comfort since I still don't understand how to relate to the opposite sex here, either. Apparently being an awkward oaf is the universal language and I excel at that.

So I left this train of thought for a few minutes and lost where it was going, so I'll just leave these first couple paragraphs for a glimpse into what's going on. Not to mention a lack of a finishing thought is much more apt at this point anyway.

Arrival

Let my just say it is completely unnerving when you realize your native tongue is an auxiliary.


Holy hell, what am I getting into?!

Before the move

So I'm more than a little bored while sitting at my parents' house. It's now 3 weeks from my arrival in Madrid and between scheduling and legal documents to deal with, it really begins to land home exactly what the hell I'm doing. For now I'm stuck watching dogs and having way too much time on my hands to think.

I've been re-reading Travels with Charley by Steinbeck (incidentally, everyone who's ever loved to travel or never felt quite right at home should read that book) along with the Anthony Bourdain marathon have allowed a strangely intimate relationship (separated by death and the unfortunately one sided communication of most media) with the idea of the middle aged globe-trotter.

The off handed remarks of their past exploits, which I can't help but view as my present make me both anxious and completely ambivalent about this crazy journey I know I am about to embark upon. I suppose it's in everyone's nature to want to have lived while experiencing so many of the joys of life for the first time, this doesn't make it any less frustrating. I still feel a need to have accomplished something grand before my first stone of the grand construction that I have no blueprint for.

Nevertheless the traditional anxieties of what I consider the "normal" person are still creeping fairly constantly into my thoughts. Everything from what linens my flat will need, how will I handle the medical system, can I really deal with not blowing up a refinery in my non-native tongue, how will I deal with people, dealing with sex and dating. Despite all of this, my greatest fear is feeling content in where I am. All in all, I'm content with the fears though, since what awe can one have at the world without a healthy fear of it.

I suppose I'll leave this readerless vent at that.

The ever so infrequent post.

So it seems that I only write in here when things are completely and totally in flux. I really would like to have a place to write now that things are once again completely turned on their head.

So I got my degree yesterday and I am still officially awaiting employment. I hope be moving to Madrid, Spain to work for the general engineering company Técnicas Reunidas. That certainly beats my current job at the US Census office.

This will be short but I do hope to keep posting here now that I have a halfway decent computer and much clearer need to stay connected with the world I will be moving into and that which I am coming from.

I have, up until now been on a practice run.

The Little Things

So, I've been in Lyon for a week now and I'm starting to get the hang of it. The first thing is that the language barrier is by far my biggest challenge. It's nearly impossible to explain to someone who has never experienced it just how hard it is to live somewhere for the little things one needs to live. That said, I'm starting to see the sprouts of learning a new language and it's becoming the little things I miss most.

I decided to make a list of the little differences I notice all the time.

Red exit signs
Round Doorknobs
All the scooters/motorcycles
Understanding conversations on the street
Water Fountains
Cobblestones
Taking stairs to go anywhere
Light switches
No clothes dryers
Shortcuts through random medieval courtyards

I'll add more things to the list later, but for now I am going out.

Rediscovery

So I was going to make something for people to read this summer and an outlet to write while I'm adjusting to being away and back. I discovered I had created this a few years ago and figured it fit with the theme I had originally set up. Plus I kind of liked that reflection of my Summer of 2007.

So yeah. 2 years later, planning for France, and this will be my outlet.

The joys of employment

July 3rd, one day until I get a full days pay with no work because it happens to be the same time a bunch of important people signed an important piece of paper a couple of centuries ago. But until then, I have to make it through today. I'm writing from my office desk doing whatever is necessary to waste time. While I do enjoy my job, there are still days that are tortuous just to get through. (count today in)

I have already had to go down below the river level to collect water samples in a room of 100% humidity at about 100 degrees farenheit to collect samples for 2 hours. If the sweat that sticks to your skin isn't enough down there, the water blasts of dirty water will be sure to finish the job. The solution is to get to a part of the plant with a working temperature of 160+ and time it just right so that you dry out and then immediately leave to prevent more sweat.

There are countless jobs around this plant with little unpleasantries like that, but that's what I signed up for when I joined engineering. I never wanted to work in a clean cubicle crunching numbers to help develop a project that might end up built after a decade. The money's the same, but there's no adrenaline in that. Here, once one gets to pilot one's specialist posistion, during a problem, there's only one person in the plant who can solve it. I love that kind of pressure and it really makes me thrive.

Outside of work, Chicago is an amazing city. The suburbs are very...suburban. The family I live with is from the city and moved out so their kids could go to better schools. It's all a big stereotype. The kids have taken kindly to me at this point, the older boy draws me pictures while I'm at work, it's generally an awkward thing. Suburban life is generally unremarkable.

The city of Chicago is a great place to be out for a night. No more is needed.

It's time for a lunch break, and I depart.

Welcome

I would like to start this by having an actual legitimized computer 'blog' to document many odd happenings that I find noteworthy. This will not be a forum for personal griping (that is unless I become completely enraged and wish to rain hellfire on to a person or persons).

I shall hope to post various experiences, as I begin a long carreer that looks to take me anwhere between wading waste deep in muck to international venture capital.