Turn around and look at WHAT?!
I left Belgium on Friday, I'm in Valbonne for the weekend, and I'm leaving for the UK tomorrow or so. I thought I'd drop a note at this stage because it has been so intense for me. I had to pack up and clear out of my Belgian apartment, say goodbye to all my friends, and finish my project, all last week.
First, the Down Side. After all, it's not all beer and skittles.
I was at KPN to develop and deliver something called a ruleset, and the last step is to do 'validation testing' on KPN's realtime production server. I wrote the tests and I moved the ruleset into production after it tested out on the development system, and then had to wait while Reginald, the KPN guy in charge of this sort of thing, went through my testing procedures again, for real this time, on production. Unfortunately the production system has some issues - some environment problems and it had one database problem - and the device that the ruleset talks to also had problems. But, as is typical, Reginald felt that the problems caused by all of these were the fault of me and my ruleset.
On Thursday he sent a laundry list of issues to my boss and my boss's boss and the KPN project boss and everyone and their dog, oh and their dog's boss, and I had to go into uber-panic mode to clear up all these issues. Which I did. I proved to them that their database needed more space, even though they ignored me the first three times I said it. Finally they added the space and everything was much better after that. Well, DUH. I cleared up some other issues with blinding speed, and my boss solved one of them for me over the phone with a suggestion. I convinced Reginald to test some more while I polished up the graphics and documents, hoping it'd sink in that everything was working correctly. So I was under a little bit of pressure.
I am anxiously expected at my next project, but I was going to have to come back to Belgium if I didn't get the papers signed. So I couldn't make my travel plans until I knew where I was going on Monday. So, lots to do, and with developing you never know if you're really going to do it. I couldn't sleep, and I didn't know where I'd be next week. But I pulled it off and they signed on Friday morning. My boss said, Congratulations! He told me just to relax in France over the weekend, and come in to the office Monday morning to set up my travel to Hemel Hempstead. He thought I needed at least a morning off. And I must agree, having dragged my stressed-out, exhausted self back to Valbonne with too much luggage and lots of errands to run Friday (French taxes, groceries, etc.). It took all of Saturday for me to come down from my overwrought stressedness.
Oh, and my pilot light won't stay lit, so I have no heat or hot water. I called the heating company with whom my landlady has a contract, and left a confused and undoubtedly hilarious Yoda-like voice mail for them in my pathetic French. I'll have our OSI assistant call them tomorrow morning and we'll find out how hard they laughed.
Now, this is a Up Side and a Down Side: saying goodbye to my Belgian friends.
My last couple of weeks were tinged with knowing I was leaving soon but not knowing when, and my two closets pals, Gery and Dirk, decided to take me out to dinner on my last night in Belgium, which turned out to be this past Thursday. We went for fondue in Leuven, the town where they both live and where we hung out a lot, and they presented me with a framed, signed artist's print of the Leuven town hall in remembrance. I was stupified - a gift! Wow! And the whole evening was wonderful and I'm sure I'll treasure it for a long time. We stayed up late talking even though I knew I had to put in a hellacious day Friday. I said my goodbyes to Dirk at the end of the night; Gery works with me at KPN, so we said goodbye Friday afternoon. However, he plans to visit me in the UK in 3-4 weeks, and he is coming with me to the States on my two-week vacation, which still isn't settled as to exactly when. Also, my OSI France coworker David Soussem, who is on site at KPN on another project, and I were getting to be friends as well. However, we will all keep in touch.
Which brings me to the Up Side.
Though it was tough to leave, now that I'm gone I'm not sad. I just think, I have some good friends in Belgium and I'll see them soon I'm sure. Also, I'm on to another place, and if I got so attached to Belgium and my pals there after four months, who's to say I won't have a good experience in the UK also, and be sad to leave it come June? Also, I won't be that far from them, so I can visit them any weekend.
Also, my project is for Dolphin Telecom, which has offices in Germany and France as well as the UK. In fact I'm doing some things for Dolphin France, and although I'm developing in the UK office, I have to go to France for meetings, and for testing later. The office is just outside Paris. So, la di da, I have a meeting in Paris on the 21st. Alors! What will I wear?
And I doubt that Hemel Hempstead is so heavenly as its name - most of the web sites are defensive right away, like "Hey! Really! It doesn't suck here! C'mon, it's not so lousy! It's gotten better!" One site has 'photos of lovely Hemel Hempstead' - showing the attractive new Marlowes shopping plaza, and some gardens outside of town. Hm. However, I found one friendly amateur theatre group there and have exchanged some emails with them, and found some other interesting things to do. And, there's London.
I hope this finds you all well. Take care, drop me a line, and I'll see some of you in a couple of months!
Love,
=====
M i n s q
"I believe this is heaven to no one else but me
And I'll defend it as long as I can be
Left here to linger in silence if I choose to
Will you try to understand?"
- Sarah McLachlan, "Elsewhere"
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