Elephants and lions too, at Picadilly Circus
I.... Really suck at updating, don't I? Hmm...
Well, let's take a look at what the heck I've been up to this year. There have been more than a few changes and adventures. On the adventure front, my biggest was taking a ten day trip to England to visit a friend and bum around. On the whole, I had a pretty good time and got to meet some really interesting people. There's a couple of places that I wish I could have seen, others where I'd like to have spent more time and a few (precious few) where I'd like to have spent less. But really, as trips go, it was a lot of fun. The people I got to meet especially made the whole trip worth while.
But that was in April, and now it's... Hm... Late May. Well, I have an excuse for not having mentioned that madness sooner. Literally at the airport in DC changing planes on my way home I got a text message asking me if I'd be interested in doing some technical writing, programing, administrative work. Jet lagged, travel logged, and not paying tons of attention I texted back that the job sounded interesting an I'd be happy to talk with my friend about it the next day or something.
I roll out of bed at about 8 the following morning to find that my friend has already forwarded a copy of my resume to the guys who are looking for some one, and the next thing I know I've got an interview with them the next business day. A week after the interview they're showing me my desk, getting me set up with a company laptop and ordering me business cards.
I'm now officially a junior R&D engineer. I'm still not entirely sure how it happened.
Now for those of you saying “Wait! What about the tutoring?!” this offer came in during a slow time, so I've been doing engineering work in the morning and tutoring in the evenings and will keep on until the end of the school year. I do still love teaching and tutoring. In fact, working this other job has just confirmed to me that I really want to be doing something involving teaching long term. But as things stand, I can't afford to go to grad school for my teaching certification without taking out a ton of loans. And anyone who knows me knows I've got an almost pathological aversion to borrowing money, so. Here we are.
So far I'm liking the job all right. Our project is fairly interesting, and the people are nice if all much older than me and computer geeks. Like everything, I'm sure it'll have it's moments. For example, they want me to be the technical person on client demos which will require a lot of travel. At the moment that sounds sort of interesting, but we'll see how it plays out long term. Maybe I'll rack up enough frequent flier miles to get back to the old country without another five year delay.
On the personal-life front I'm optimistic. Tutoring's a great gig in some ways but it really eats your nights and weekends for being able to go out and do things. So I'm also hopeful the change of job might lead to an improvement in social life- that is getting to get out and see things and meet people. Of course, I need to get over being so burnt out at the end of the day first. *sigh* Isn't that always the way?