This is my maiden blog post. For the most part, blogging is foreign to me – unless you include a guest post on www.itaintgambling.com (shameless plug for Fro) a long time ago. I wanted to give some highlights of my first week. A lot has happened so this will be a long one.
Saturday and Sunday – These were hard days. It was more difficult than I anticipated leaving Meredith and Caden at the airport (Reese was with Babee and Poppy at the time). Meredith posted about this previously but it was a wave of emotion that has been building after the birth of Reese, preparing to move, trying to sell the house, etc.
I arrived in Budapest without a problem and made it to my long-term hotel. It is a nice place about 10 minutes from the office. John and Kristina (Dallas friends leaving Budapest in 3 weeks) were nice enough to let me come over and hang out since I was lonely. Funny enough, my first meal in Hungary was TGI Friday’s.
Monday through Wednesday – The first few days of work were interesting. I started my first day walking 10 minutes the wrong direction. Thus, I turned a 10 minute walk into a 30 minute tour of the area. That is the last time I left out without knowing the key cross streets rather than just the destination. I have this fantastic laminated map that fits in my pocket. My mom gets big props for giving us that as a gift. My first experience reminded me to use it each time!
HR got me started with a computer and cell phone right away. This was a huge deal because I had turned in my communication devices when I left Dallas. I felt whole again to have access. They also took me to immigration office to start the process for my residence permit. I am so thankful for the help of the local HR. They have provided support that is not typical in the U.S.
John and I also went out to the client site to meet with the client and the team. This was also my first experience with the above ground tram and the underground metro. I will soon become a pro on the public because I am taking it each day to work.
The most exciting part of our day was meeting the younger team members. They are all Hungarian except for one guy from Slovakia. I look forward to getting to know them as I think they will be my cultural compass as I try to not say or do the wrong thing at work. We also ate at a local cafeteria. Peti (an associate with my company) translated for me. I still managed to mess it up and I ended up with penne pasta with ham and a thin chicken breast topped with an interesting mushroom sauce. Not the best combination.
Thursday and Friday – More work and a piling list of responsibilities and action items. I will not bore this audience with the exciting world of public accounting.
Thursday ended with a party thrown by my work team. John and the current partner are moving to Washington and Istanbul, respectively. This was a joint gathering to welcome me to Budapest and say goodbye to them. We met at the mall for dinner and bowling. The mall is pretty similar to the U.S. set-up except U.S. malls do not have bowling alleys and nice restaurants right next to each other. This was a great time and a nice gesture by the team. Friday morning was little rough after the late night on Thursday. Little did I know that it was only the beginning…
On Friday night, there was an office wide party to celebrate the end of our company’s year and the retirement of a senior partner. I was forewarned that these parties can be pretty wild. It started slow with a nice cocktail reception and dinner. However, it definitely picked up. The DJ was still playing and the drinks were still flowing when I left at 1:30am. This was another great chance to meet some people in the office. Several people in management are expats from Germany, UK and US.
It is refreshing that there is no drinking and driving in Budapest (zero tolerance) and almost everyone walked home or took a taxi. I stumbled through the 20 minute walk home without incident.
Saturday – I was a little worn out from the previous two days so I took it easy during the day. I decide to try and do some laundry. My hotel room had a washer but dryers are not common in Hungary. I walked to the store and bought detergent. I called Kristina from the store because I was confused about which detergent to buy. I am not sure if this was a guy thing or a culture thing. The washing machine was small so it took all weekend to get it done. I managed to ruin a white t-shirt and socks by mixing the wrong colors together.
John, Kristina and I went to dinner on Saturday night. Euro 2008 started that evening so we watched it at a sports bar. For the 90% of Americans out of the loop, this is the every 4 year soccer tournament in Europe. This is a big deal and quite interesting. 16 teams qualified and there are two games per day over the next few weeks and then 8 teams play a single elimination tournament. The TV broadcast is not in English but I have started watching while listening to music on the Internet. I am a big sports fan so I am giving soccer a fair try. I am rooting for Portugal. Not sure why but I decided that I needed to pick a team and they played on the first day.
After dinner, John and I set off to play poker. Gambling is legal in Hungary and they have both casinos and card rooms. John and I took the recommendation of a colleague and went to the Royal Poker Club. It is close to my client site so I hope to visit there every once in awhile. I had good fortune on this night. My head finally hit the pillow around 3am.
Let’s just say that I tried to recuperate on Sunday! It was an amazing, fun and tough first week. I miss my family tremendously – this is the longest I have been apart from Meredith in our six years of marriage. I know it will be sad for them to leave Dallas but and I look forward to their arrival on Friday.
More adventures to come next week as our air shipment arrives and I start driving!
Saturday and Sunday – These were hard days. It was more difficult than I anticipated leaving Meredith and Caden at the airport (Reese was with Babee and Poppy at the time). Meredith posted about this previously but it was a wave of emotion that has been building after the birth of Reese, preparing to move, trying to sell the house, etc.
I arrived in Budapest without a problem and made it to my long-term hotel. It is a nice place about 10 minutes from the office. John and Kristina (Dallas friends leaving Budapest in 3 weeks) were nice enough to let me come over and hang out since I was lonely. Funny enough, my first meal in Hungary was TGI Friday’s.
Monday through Wednesday – The first few days of work were interesting. I started my first day walking 10 minutes the wrong direction. Thus, I turned a 10 minute walk into a 30 minute tour of the area. That is the last time I left out without knowing the key cross streets rather than just the destination. I have this fantastic laminated map that fits in my pocket. My mom gets big props for giving us that as a gift. My first experience reminded me to use it each time!
HR got me started with a computer and cell phone right away. This was a huge deal because I had turned in my communication devices when I left Dallas. I felt whole again to have access. They also took me to immigration office to start the process for my residence permit. I am so thankful for the help of the local HR. They have provided support that is not typical in the U.S.
John and I also went out to the client site to meet with the client and the team. This was also my first experience with the above ground tram and the underground metro. I will soon become a pro on the public because I am taking it each day to work.
The most exciting part of our day was meeting the younger team members. They are all Hungarian except for one guy from Slovakia. I look forward to getting to know them as I think they will be my cultural compass as I try to not say or do the wrong thing at work. We also ate at a local cafeteria. Peti (an associate with my company) translated for me. I still managed to mess it up and I ended up with penne pasta with ham and a thin chicken breast topped with an interesting mushroom sauce. Not the best combination.
Thursday and Friday – More work and a piling list of responsibilities and action items. I will not bore this audience with the exciting world of public accounting.
Thursday ended with a party thrown by my work team. John and the current partner are moving to Washington and Istanbul, respectively. This was a joint gathering to welcome me to Budapest and say goodbye to them. We met at the mall for dinner and bowling. The mall is pretty similar to the U.S. set-up except U.S. malls do not have bowling alleys and nice restaurants right next to each other. This was a great time and a nice gesture by the team. Friday morning was little rough after the late night on Thursday. Little did I know that it was only the beginning…
On Friday night, there was an office wide party to celebrate the end of our company’s year and the retirement of a senior partner. I was forewarned that these parties can be pretty wild. It started slow with a nice cocktail reception and dinner. However, it definitely picked up. The DJ was still playing and the drinks were still flowing when I left at 1:30am. This was another great chance to meet some people in the office. Several people in management are expats from Germany, UK and US.
It is refreshing that there is no drinking and driving in Budapest (zero tolerance) and almost everyone walked home or took a taxi. I stumbled through the 20 minute walk home without incident.
Saturday – I was a little worn out from the previous two days so I took it easy during the day. I decide to try and do some laundry. My hotel room had a washer but dryers are not common in Hungary. I walked to the store and bought detergent. I called Kristina from the store because I was confused about which detergent to buy. I am not sure if this was a guy thing or a culture thing. The washing machine was small so it took all weekend to get it done. I managed to ruin a white t-shirt and socks by mixing the wrong colors together.
John, Kristina and I went to dinner on Saturday night. Euro 2008 started that evening so we watched it at a sports bar. For the 90% of Americans out of the loop, this is the every 4 year soccer tournament in Europe. This is a big deal and quite interesting. 16 teams qualified and there are two games per day over the next few weeks and then 8 teams play a single elimination tournament. The TV broadcast is not in English but I have started watching while listening to music on the Internet. I am a big sports fan so I am giving soccer a fair try. I am rooting for Portugal. Not sure why but I decided that I needed to pick a team and they played on the first day.
After dinner, John and I set off to play poker. Gambling is legal in Hungary and they have both casinos and card rooms. John and I took the recommendation of a colleague and went to the Royal Poker Club. It is close to my client site so I hope to visit there every once in awhile. I had good fortune on this night. My head finally hit the pillow around 3am.
Let’s just say that I tried to recuperate on Sunday! It was an amazing, fun and tough first week. I miss my family tremendously – this is the longest I have been apart from Meredith in our six years of marriage. I know it will be sad for them to leave Dallas but and I look forward to their arrival on Friday.
More adventures to come next week as our air shipment arrives and I start driving!
5 comments:
Sounds like you are going to get by there just fine.
Well your family is on their way! I am enjoying reading about your adventures.
Cathy
Oh man, gotta love that "thin chicken breast" meat...can't wait 'til you guys go to the Indian food garage. Sounds like an adventure already!
I am rooting for Nederland
Wow, congrats on making it through the first week! Sounds like things are going well, but I bet they will be even better once Meredith, Caden and Reese arrive!
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