Twickenham

I'm in the Greater London area for 4-6 weeks. I love England, even though I probably feel more out of place here than anywhere else I've traveled. I think they peg me as an American even before I speak. I'm told it's my hair.

I'll be here for 4-6 weeks (home end of February or early March). Mainly I work, jog and go to the pub. Then I work more. Unlike Portugal, though, I have friends who live here, so I get to hang out in houses and be a normal person from time to time.

And now back to work...

Fund for the two surviving children of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg from bombay

Posting this link for a friend who spent time with the rabbi's family while celebrating Passover in India.


www.chabadindia.org

in case you wonder why most donation amounts are in multiples of 18...

from about.com

Question: What is the significance of the number 18 in Judaism?
Answer: The word for "life" in Hebrew is "chai." The two Hebrew letters that make up the word "chai" are chet and yud. In Gematria (the numerical value of Hebrew letters), chai is equivalent to 8 and yud is equivalent to 10. So "chai", chet and yud together, equals 18. Giving money in multiples of $18 is symbolic of giving "chai" or life.

I am not in India

I received some questions. I'm not in India. My friends are safe, though people are understandably worried. Many of them knew people affected in Mumbai. Think good thoughts for India.

Destination: Arkansas!

I went from Lisbon to London, and then London to Texas, and now I am in Eureka Springs, AK, known for its--uh--I don't know. I'm here for a wedding that I'm glad to see. I think I might be looking at some antiques tomorrow.

I ended up staying in Lisbon for about two months (minus 5 days in India). I worked many, many hours. Overall, it wasn't too bad, but I was happy to send the team home. They're great peeps, though, and they made a lot of work pass quickly.

I spent a week in the London suburbs wrapping up the Portugal project and getting deeper into the India project. The UK is adorable, and everyone is nice. Maybe they just seem nice because of the accents and constant tea offers, but I really like it there (which is good since I go back on Tuesday).

From the UK, I head back to India for a few days, and then I go back to Seattle after my three weeks-into-three-months business trip.

I'm still here

I'll be home in October, really. I seem to have a lot of work to do in Lisbon, hence no posts, little email, and it's hard to keep me on IM. I can guarantee I will be back in the USA for Alicia's wedding in October. In the meantime, I'll be working here until this sucker is complete.

No, I'm not home yet.

I'm still in Lisbon. I left Seattle about a month ago. Since then I've spent a few hours in the London office, several hours in Heathrow, ridden from Mumbai to Pune, India and returned (home?) to Lisbon. I'll come home when they run out of things for me to do.

So, uh, what are you doing?
We're deploying the next version of the software in Lisbon, and I was doing work for another possible rollout in India. The India trip was brief (6 days including travel and the day in London), and we only left the hotel once to go to the customer site on the last day. However, the work parts of it were productive and interesting, and I like my coworkers.

In Lisbon I've been pursuing more or less the same schedule of 8:30-2:30 a couple in-hotel meals and most of the day in the War Suite working. I get out of the hotel for three reasons: jogging along the Rio Tejo, meetings at the customer site every day at 4:30, and a nice dinner OUT OF THE HOTEL. Generally speaking, I am very well-fed and looked after, so the long hours aren't too bad. more importantly, I very much like the team. More later on the fun bits...

"Why American is Great" by Amy

Salads.