There and back again
Trip Start
Apr 17, 2009
1
6
Trip End
Ongoing
Hamburg, Germany
Friday, July 10, 2009
>>>new update - I looked at the pics - you can see the name of the city I'm in if you look to the right of the pic in the little box - it says "Tag" and then the city is labeled...... okay that was the LAST update!!!! (cross yer fingers! :) ) <<<
Hi All!! I am very sorry it has been SO long since I last updated this. I have had complaints from immediate family - but they should know my procrastinating tendencies!! ;)
Okay, so I left off in Edinburgh!! That seems like ages ago that I was enjoying a day trip to that beautiful city... I cannot go through all the stuff I did since then - because that would just be overwhelming for me, and pretty boring for you.... So here is a brief summary:
My last entry had me leaving Aberdeen, Scotland and heading back to Reading, England. After Reading, we flew to Hamburg, Germany for a day meeting. I spent the night in a hotel right near the company office and did not get to see any sights. I did go to a restaurant nearby and had authentic German food, sausages saurkraut and senfgelb! That's German for MUSTARD, the best condiment ever! As my Dad always said - it puts hair on your chest!! Well, luckily for us girls that really isn't the case, but the phrase is a fond childhood memory. :) So I did take some pics of where I was in Hamburg, but alas - I uploaded them to my home computer and cannot access them now. I'll add them in the future sometime.
After our meeting I flew alone back to England. My boss headed down to Saudi Arabia. I spent one night in Reading again and then flew back to Houston! It was really nice to be home for a little while, too short actually, as I was only there for 5 days! I went to the home office for a day so I could turn in my expenses from the first leg of my working abroad. I tell you what, it is expensive living over in England! And almost as expensive in continental Europe! Yipes...
I returned back to Vienna after leaving home again. By myself! This was the first time for me to work abroad without any back-up. And it was ROUGH. Without going into too many details, I'll just say that our software (the stuff I work with at these various oil companies) and their software environment (company called OMV) did not mix well. More like oil and water! I worked for 8 days (normally a 64 hour work period) and probably worked at least 90.... it was brutal. Part of the reason I had to work so many hours is because my software support team is in Houston... and that is a 7 hour time difference! So itwould be 3:00 p.m. in the day for me when their day started at 8:00 a.m. in Houston. So in order to fix the issues that kept popping up, I'd have to stay until way after 5:00 p.m. (one night I was there till 10:30 p.m.!). BUT all that to say, Vienna is a Lovely city. In fact, I think it's my favorite so far! I was there, luckily, over a weekend and so had a chance to venture out and see some of it. The Friday night after work, I joined some Schlumberger colleagues to go to the city center. A magnificant place! Hopefully I do it some justice with the photos. Then on Saturday I took the subway (the U-Bahn as it's called) to a palace called Shoenbrunn. That was fantastic. I include a lot of the pics I took... The zoo is basically on the grounds, it was super fun. The seal feeding was great... Have a look!!
After Vienna, I flew back to England and worked in Reading for about 2 weeks. On one of the Saturdays I was there, I took a day trip down to Southampton, about an hours train ride due south)... Why, you ask?? Because I grew up in Southampton!! (Houston neighborhood, but nevermind the minor details....) Then I went to Crawley, England and took a Project Management training class for a week. Then I returned to Aberdeen for a few days, then back to Vienna for a few days to work out some issues that had finally been resolved by the home office (InnerLogix is the group I work for in Schlumberger so if I mention that name - that's what I mean). I think after that I came back to Reading for a week or so. I post various pics from each of these trips with descriptions...
Then had one more meeting in Hamburg - where I *still* didn't get to see any of the city... BUT, it looks like that's going to change mid-August! The 2 meetings I went attended went well and the company (RWE) has decided to go ahead with the project. I am labeled the "Project Manager" for the Schlumberger side of the project!!!! YIKES! I'll keep you posted on that development. (I promise to try and be better about keeping up with this blog!!).
Then I finally got to come home again! My second leg abroad was from May 10 to June 25! A looong time to live in random hotels let me tell you!! And I got to stay home this time for 10 days, which was great! I did work a couple of days, one was just to turn in my expenses! Which took all day!!! I also spent a lot of time with my boyfriend - who many of you will meet at the Kinard reunion next month. I am looking forward to that!! Plus it gives me an excuse to come home again... :)
So now I am back in Reading. I arrived here on Monday July 6th and have been working since Tuesday. Things are going pretty smoothly here at the moment which I am really grateful for, as I don't know if I can take too much stress right now! Leg 2 took A LOT out of me!! I really needed about 2 weeks of solid vacation I think, but as it is, at least I got one... it helped! Next week I am going back to Crawley for a 4-day InnerLogix workshop where several of my Houston colleagues will be also, which will be a welcome thing to me!! It can be quite lonesome sometimes not having any familiar faces around. Although I am getting used to some of these Brits in Reading.
Okay guys, that's it for my update! I hope it wasn't too boring!! I really will try to keep this up to date better... I hope everyone is doing great!! Until next time.... Cheers!! bdb
