- by Tara
June 29, 2001
I've decided to chronicle my thoughts as I try to adjust from living
a nomadic life to settling down again.
So, #1 - We don't know where we'll be calling home in the future.
Today is a good day to start my chronicle since I know when we'll be flying "home". However, "home" is a nebulous word to me right now. "Home" in my sentence above translates to "America". ie. I know when we'll be flying to America. And, really, "home" should mean "North America" since we have almost, but not totally, ruled out Canada as our next place of residence. If only the Canadian Dollar was not so weak, then I think we'd be calling Vancouver home. Or, if only Star Trek transporters had been invented, then we'd be calling Melbourne, Australia home. Anyway, since we are thinking that our next life step is to settle down and have kids, it makes sense to be close to the future-grandparents in America. The problem is that these future-grandparents do not live in the same area. We can't even triangulate Chicago, Columbus and Atlanta to find a good place in the middle. Thus, we are spoiled for choice and plan to do some traveling within America before we decide where to live.
#2 - We are spoiled.
Neither one of us has worked for the past year and yet we still have
the money and opportunities available to live a LUXURY backpacking life.
Case in point, how are we getting home? First Class. That is not your normal
backpackers class of travel. We haven't even travelled in Business Class
since leaving work. But, we're going home First Class because we could.
All it cost us was 50,000 extra frequent flier miles. We'd already resigned
ourselves to having to fly home Business Class since all the free economy
class seats in mid-August were sold out. Therefore, when the exact date
we wanted was also sold out in Business Class, we decided to spend the
extra miles instead of waiting five days. We rationalized this decision.
When you have 800,000 frequent flier miles, 50,000 really isn't that many.
Plus, miles are like Monopoly Money. And, anyway, we'd never flown in First
Class on a long haul flight together - so why not do it once when presented
with the opportunity. We are spoiled and we like it. Second case in point,
we are staying at the Ritz Carlton starting tonight. How will we ever be
able to settle down into a more normal existance? We'll see......
July 13, 2001
We've met our original goal of "traveling for one year or until the
money runs out". Thankfully, we hit Day #365 and not Bank Balance = 0.
Today we spent a full day at Tod & Kristen's on the internet. Since
Seth was playing Sanctum on our laptop, I could not develop more web pages.
After a few lame attempts at trying to write proper articles that one day
I might get published and a few e-mails to myself stating what I remember
from early work trips, I settled into looking at other World Traveler Sites.
I found the page http://www.travel-library.com/rtw/html/rtwtravelogues.html
and started clicking on all the trips I could find. I noticed that I especially
was looking for any comment people had about coming home. Not many people
talk about after their trip, so I am determined to keep up my thoughts.
17 July 2001 - Taken from an e-mail message to Bob & Eileen
We are feeling that travel is winding down. After hitting the big 365,
I think we feel that we've met our goal and are ready to move on. However,
we are NOT feeling ready to go back to our old lives. We've been getting
probed about if we want to come back to work at the Bank since we've been
hanging around friends from the Singapore and Tokyo office. I have to restrain
myself from shouting "There is no way in fucking hell that I would ever
consider doing that God-awful job I left". I figure it's better to say
"well, we're not really ready to settle back into our old lives yet - we're
thinking about exploring small Pacific Northwest towns to see if there
is a university town we fall in love with and maybe open a bookstore. But,
if nothing appeals to us by the end of the year, I'll definitely think
of the Bank." (ie. if the economy is so, so, so bad and the only jobs we're
only offered is 8,000 USD a year for manager in a Taco Bell- I MIGHT be
desperate enough to work for the Bank again.) There is only one job possibility
that seems interesting to Seth - a global contract job, not a full commitment,
that would quickly replenish our money supply without signing our lives
away. Seth has told them that he's busy until the end of August though.
17 July 2001 - Taken from an e-mail message to Aunt Betty
It is odd to have our trip come to an end, but it is time. We both
feel that
we've gotten traveling out of our system and are ready to look for
a place
to settle down. We'll be buying a car we think and taking a road trip
around
America - looking at some of the towns that have been awarded "best
place to
live" titles. We'll see where we end up.
15 July 2001 - Taken from an e-mail message to Sonia:
We really are done with travelling though in our minds. I'm so glad that we've been able to travel until WE decide it's been enough. For example, in Singapore we though "hey, we could go to Dubai" or "hey, we could go to Bali". But, in the end we decided not to since we just really didn't feel the need to see different places. We really enjoyed just visiting with old work friends. Same with here in Tokyo, we bought a 7-day railway pass and are having a hard time actually getting motivated to use it.
It will be nice to start hunting for where we'll be spending the next
phase of our life. We've planned to visit one place (Eugene, Oregon - a
small university town) before taking 2 weeks out to relax with friends
in a rented holiday house off of Vancouver Island. I hope those 2 weeks
revitalize us for our "road trip USA" - when we plan to visit various places
to see if anyplace calls to us saying "LIVE HERE!".
12 August 2001 - Taken from an e-mail to Hank
Being back in America is much scarier than the trip to China. We landed
in Seattle and immediately I was reminded of you comment there "welcome
back to America - where everyone is fat, ugly and poorly dressed". It is
SO TRUE! We've driven South to Eugene, Oregon and I think I'm better dressed
than 90% of the people - and I'm not that well dressed. I felt like a vagabond
at times in Tokyo! We went for lunch at a Taco Bell and were reminded of
the people in Deliverance. Just down the road from Taco Bell was a trailer
park.
We've joked for the whole year that since we're spending so much money traveling, we might have to live in a trailer home when we get back. But, these were SCARY. There were some boarded up with big "PRIVATE & KEEP OUT" signs. Other proclaimed "Fireworks for Sale". I think that returning to America to a place you are unfamiliar with is worse than coming back to a place you are familiar with. At least with a place you're familiar with, you can tell youself "my perception is just skewed since I've just gotten home from Tokyo" - but with Seattle, I'm not sure if it's my perception or if Seattle is really as dangerous as it felt to me the one night we stayed downtown.
Enough of my rambling. I'm sure America will start to look like home
after a few more days.
13 August 2001 - Taken from an e-mail message to Kristen:
We're trying to adjust to being back in America. It's amazing how over-dressed
WE are! You know our clothes - they are getting/have gotten pretty worn
out and grundgy. Well, we fit right in here and, wearing my skirt (the
50 cent Australian one), I am better dressed than 99.5% of the other people
we see.
The Seattle Suburbs we saw in Washington were even worse than Oregon actually. We went to lunch at a Taco Bell and Seth started making banjo noises since looking at the people in the Taco Bell made us think of the movie Deliverance - but not quite that bad. We were some of the skinniest people in Taco Bell also. I said I was surprised with the number of men with a stomach the size of Seth's. He said he was surprised at the number of women with larger stomaches than his. Just down the road from the Taco Bell were numerous trailer homes - many boarded up with big "KEEP OUT" and "PRIVATE" signs scrawled on them with paint. I wanted to take a photo, but I was worried that someone inside might come out with a shotgun. There were also lots of ramshackle huts with big signs painted on them saying "Fireworks for sale". It was SCARY!
Seattle downtown had lots of dodgy people hanging around. It had a decidedly un-safe feeling. But, that just might be my initial reaction to being back in America.
I made the comment yesterday that even though we ourselves are not sophisticated, we like to be surrounded by sophistication. I remember last June that when we came back to Chicago we had a bit of a rough time, but I think that seeing an unfamiliar place through fresh eyes that have last seen Tokyo is even worse than coming back to a place you knew and thinking "wow - was it this dirty when we lived here & wow - was everyone this fat and poorly dressed when we lived here!"
And I cannot believe that someone shit on the chair in the dressing room I ended up using.
Stay in Japan! Stay in Japan! Stay in Japan!
24 August 2001 - Taken from an e-mail to Aunt Jan
We're enjoying Vancouver and talking a lot about what we want to do
next. We haven't decided yet. One idea is to come to Los Angeles later
in September, get an idea of neighborhoods & housing prices and also
visit San Diego. If we don't instantly decide on Southern California, we
could buy a car & then drive across the country visiting other towns
we might decide to call home. We could also fly and rent cars as needed.
26 August 2001 - Salt Spring Island, 8:05am
Wow. Five weeks have passed since I thought of writing directly into our "Coming Home" Journal. So much has happened: more time at Tod & Kristen's, ten days in China, a one-way flight to America, a week driving around the Pacific Northwest, 10 days on Salt Spring Island. Eugene, OR (a place we'd heard so much about throughout our year off) was not a place we instantly wanted to live. But Florence, OR - a small seaside resort town where we had dinner - did get us thinking about starting our own small business.
Right now we are on Salt Spring and even though we had said that we'd use this week to decide more on where we might want to live/when we might want to settle down by, we are no closer to deciding than we were 10 days ago. Seth says that he is feeling restless and eager to settle down. I am a bit worried about money. And yet, we're not doing much to make the decisions we need to make.
I am also "car obsessed". I think we need to buy a car instead of continually renting in every city we visit.Seth is vehemently opposed to buying a car and driving across the country. I'm shocked at how expensive cars are & a bit mad about how we don't have a car waiting for us (like I had planned when we left for London 5 years ago).
Who knows how things will turn out. I'll try to write more frequently.
29 Aug 2001 - taken from an e-mail written to Sam
We are still in the "denial phase" about actually truely having to make
a decision sometime soon about what we'll be doing in terms of work soon.
We know we need to talk about what we want to do, but there always seems
to be something better to do. Our biggest choice is if we want to go into
a small business and take the CHANCE. Funny, I was perfectly happy to spend
the price of a new Mercedes convertible on our traveling, but I'm not sure
if I could face spending the same on trying to start a new business (and
maybe failing). We have at least started a little spreadsheet showing how
many books we'd have to sell (you buy at 40% off the cover price) or how
many nights a B&B would have to be full for in order to make any money.
I think it'll really come down to a lifestyle choice and that could very
much depend on if we place a place in North America that we just fall in
love with.
Thu, 30 Aug 2001 - The "To Do" List
9:05am at Bob & Eileen's in Vancouver
I've written down 16 points on our as we settle down "to do" list. Before we took our year off, we created a "to do" list at the advice of Mark Brosius How to Travel Around The World. It was VERY HELPFUL. I've just gone back to his Guide and am reding the section on returning. Maybe this is how I feel a bit right now: "Feeling of reluctance to rejoin normal society"-- but Seth & I have talked a lot about how we think we want to be different, so maybe our feelings now are just a continuation of this past theme.
"Feeling of reluctance to rejoin normal society, but eventual
compliance. Much greater awareness of the pettiness of some day-to-day
decisions in the context of the whole world. Greater awareness
of
different cultures and ways of living. Greater acceptance of
others'
differences." <Chris Finlayson>
I can't let myself get distracted. I've just spent a while web searching
for other people's sites who talk about returning after their year off.
To help focus us (mainly me - since I felt very lost and sad, every teary
for no apparent reason, the day before we left Salt Spring and the day
we did leave Salt Spring) on what we need to do to settle down - I decided
to write this to do list. I think it will help me concentrate on all we'll
be doing over the next few months.
30 August 2001 - Taken from an e-mail to Sam
We even have put "going back to The Bank or another bank" back on our
list of possible future scenarios because we see the salaries offered to
teachers or what we'd make owning a bookstore/B&B and don't understand
how people live. Well, maybe we do UNDERSTAND it, but we can't envision
it for ourselves. I do admit that spending 2 weeks trying to coax someone
in UBS Stamford payroll to return my voicemails regarding my 2000 W-2 Form
has soured me on the whole corporate lifestyle. I'll also have to try to
remember all those horrible Bank times when I couldn't sleep. I think I've
subconciously blocked a lot of memories so I should re-read some of the
classic e-mails I saved for posterity. :0)
We'll see where we end up and what we end up doing.
Tue, 4 Sep 2001 - The lifestyle Eileen is accostomed to
11:02am at B&E's
I went swimming yesteday with Eileen at her health club. It was wonderfully
relaxing. I came home, gave Seth a free Computing magazine I'd picked up
and told him to "find a job so that you can support me in the lifestyle
Eileen is accostomed to". I think that being able to walk to the Edgement
Village and the fitness center would be a very enjoyable way to live. True,
Bob & Eileen drive their car instead of walking -but ideally I'd want
to live closer to the village. I think 5 minutes is my tollerance for walking
instead of driving. If we lived more than a 5 minute walk away, I'd be
tempted to drive if parking was available on both ends.
We have been talking more and more about holding off on starting our
own business. It seems rash to open up a bookstore/internet cafe right
away without first researching what it means to run a small business. Therefore,
we're thinking that it's back to some type of corporate jobs - maybe even
here in Vancouver!
Fri, 7 Sep 2001 at 9:30pm Bob & Eileen's couch with Seth and Bailey
Today we bought Bob & Eileen a bird feeder from Wild Birds Unlimited.
We got to talking with the owner about how he opened the franchaise store.
He explained how the franchaise provided training for franchaise holders
and also said there was a support network between stores & the corporate
center. It sounded interesting. Maybe if we do decide on opening a small
business, we we investiage buying a franchaise as well since we know nothing
about running our own business.
Thu, 20 September 2001 at 9:16am in B&E's leather chair with
table arms
The terrorist attacks last week kept us glued to the TV and we didn't
think much about our own travel plans while we waited & saw what was
developing. Once the airlines were back flying & Southwest showed no
unusual delays, we decided to talk about "should we stay or should we go
now". As of now, we have changed our Fri, 21 Sep plans to Tue, 25 Sep just
since we weren't ready to go quite yet. We do not worry particularly about
flying since we're sure that security will be the best it's ever been.
We do worry about the possibility of war & what that would mean. We
just have to wait and see.
About where we're going to live. We LIKE Vanccouver! We've been looking at houses & even talked to a mortgage broker about buying a house without a job. We have to compile Banker's References from 3 countries where we've banked + the mortage bank in Chicago. Plus, we need resumes & a credit report. It is looking more and more like we'll rent initially and then buy. We've also checked on the Canadian immigration web pages and we have enough points to move. I'm excited about thinking of settling in Vancouver - but it's just such a commitment! There seems like there is SO MUCH to do. And the order in which to do things is overwhelming right now.
Taking a trip to New England to see the fall foliage + going to Disney
sounds like fun. But, it is continuing our year of travel & now, at
Day 439, we have decided that we do not want to continue traveling through
the end of the year. It would just cost too much!! Especially when we think
of what else we could use the money for - like a house downpayment.
Friday, 21 September 2001 just before bed
We've decided that we are now concious about money. Meaning that we are, for the first time, THINKING about what else we could be using our money to buy. That is one of the issues that made deciding on whether or not to see the Fall Foliage so difficult.
Thursday, 4 October 2001 - again just before bed
We are now talking about whether we should go and live where we want to live or live where we can make money. The intriging thing for me though is to think about whether earning 25,000 a year & living in Meredith, NH and earning 100,000 a year & living in Chicago is a relatively equal comparison. I saw plenty of houses in the Real Estate guide here selling for 100,000. Whereas the same home in Chicago would sell for 400,000. Interesting!!
As of this second (and things do change by the second), I'm leaning
towards buying a house that could be a B&B. Seth is leaning towards
getting a high paying job in an urban center. We'll see.
Wednesday morning, October 23, 2001 - now it's 7:17am
When living in Tokyo, I always found the best web update time to be early in the morning when I couldn't sleep because of jetlag. This morning, in our condo in Orlando, I took advantage of that fact when I awoke at 5am and still wasn't asleep by 5:32am.
What have our thoughts been since October 4? Well, we go back & forth & back & forth & back & forth on all sorts of possible futures for oursevles.
As of October 7th, we were following the idea "we're not doing anything
else, why not work?" and sent our resumes off to the Chicago move project
& I contacted a old OBS work colleague to see if she knew of any openings.
As of today, neither has brought a magical response. But, to be truthful,
we haven't followed up agressively with either route.
After two weeks driving around New England, we decided that we could
live in a New England coastal town, but that Vancouver still tops the list.
Thus, I've sent mails to everyone in Vancouver that we know and have a
few more leads now. However, neither one of us is aggressively pursuing
finding a job. For me, I'm not going to be the primary job holder, so I
really can't aggressively pursue a job. But, I am working on my resume.
Seth especially helped me improve it yesterday.
We did talk yesterday about how we have nothing to lose by looking for
jobs in Vancouver over the internet before we return there in January,
so we'll see how a remote search actually goes.
Monday night, November 5, 2001 - actually the 6th at 1:23am
Wow - all that can happen in a week! Last Tuesday when Seth and I were
at the library near my Dad's house, I stumbled across the web site www.sabbaticalhomes.com.
I send an e-mail off to three places in Vancouver. Less than seven days,
multiple e-mails, a couple of phone conversation, and a visit by Eileen
later and we'll be calling this place home:
Beautiful furnished 1-BR apt, w/d, f/p, d/w, balcony, pullout sofa for
guests, desk. New building w/ jacuzzi, health equip room, social room,
courtyard, 5-min walk to UBC, near buses. Located adjacent to natural
rainforests and bike/hike trails in Pacific Spirit Park. Seeking quiet
individual/couple for January-May 2002 -- perfect for spring term at
UBC.
$1000 CDN/month + utilities, or swap for flat in London area near transit.
Ability to take care of our 2 very sweet indoor cats during this time
is an
asset.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We can start our Christmas letter!!
Tuesday evening at 6:45pm, Nov 6th.
It has happened to us AGAIN. Commit to one thing and then the original
choice that you had hoped for comes through just when you thought it was
impossible.
ie. I take the OBS job and...
the graduate school in London DOES have a spot for me
and also, we hear the following Monday that there had been a job in
Singapore I could have taken
Wednesday evening at 9:17pm, Nov 14th
We haven't finalized our Vancouver rental yet - Laura and Roger are waiting on the FINAL written confirmation of their move to London - this sounds familiar! Amazing though how much more relaxed I am now about just everything. I think that if I didn't know six years ago where I was living in 1.5 months, I'd be SO, SO, SO, SO, SO anxious about it. Now I'm very relaxed and feel that whatever happens will happen. Maybe nearly 500 days without a permanent home makes you less stressed about where you'll be sleeping next!
I have been preparing all our belongings for their future home, studying
Japanese everyday with a nice woman - Yooko san, working on web pages and
trying to do some exercise everyday. Things are going well!
Sunday evening at 10:31pm, Nov 25th
I'm inspired to write an entry tonight since my friend, Philippe, who I used to work with in Tokyo, just sent me a mail saying he'd just read my "Coming Home" section. My topic tonight is on all the STUFF we own.
Living out of backpacks for for more than 500 days has really made me realize just how few clothes I truely need. Three weeks ago, I was reunited with what seemed to me a large bunch of clothes. But really, it's maybe a tenth of all the clothes I do own. It's been nice to wear a sweater since some days it is cool here, but I do find myself thinking about all those OTHER clothes that are mine which are being stored in Yokohama, Japan until we settle. I think I'll be overwhelmed when I am reunited with them. Recently I've been getting hand me down clothes from friends (a nice, button-down shirt from Nancy, winter pants & fleece from Eileen and boots from Mark's wife Tara). These suit me just fine and I can't say enough how much use I got out of that A$0.50 skirt I bought in the Melbourne trash and treasure market. I've never been one for dressing up or following the latest fashions and I'm sure that my time travelling has reinforced the idea that I don't need huge #'s of clothes - let alone expensive clothes.
Also, single use items - should we really keep them or just buy new ones as needed? For example, the pumpking carving kit we bought at a Walmart in Florida. It cost US$2.99. Should we save it for next year or just throw it out and buy another one when we carve pumpkins next year? And the shoe polish that Seth bought in Auckland. How long will it be before polishes his shoes again - a year? Will we be able to find the shoe polish when we need it? Should he stop at a shoe shine place and get his shoes shined? If we're like Seth's parents and live in the same house for nearly 35 years, should we devote the bottom drawer in our bathroom to 30 containers of shoe polish? On one hand, I say "keep it - you'll use it again and save money since you'll already have it", but on the other hand, I say "pitch it and buy new - you probably won't be able to find it anyway when you need it".
I don't have an answer as to how much extra STUFF Seth and I will keep
around our home when we do settle down, but we hope we can think "less
is more" and make sure to get rid of what we don't need.
Tuesday evening, November 27 (28th really) at 1:03am
Another alternate life has just been created for us. Why did I pop in to read my e-mail after brushing my teeth. Don't know why I did. I was downstairs and had turned all the lights off downstairs when I thought "uh oh - it's Tuesday, Southwest airline specials come out today and if there is a 4-day advance purchase requirement this week, maybe we could fly to Chicago cheaper on Friday. Well, there were no super Southwest deals.... but there was an e-mail from Laura & Roger in Vancouver.
The Vancouver condo rental we were so excited about has now fallen through. Roger was not, in the end offered a job in London. I've already sent an e-mail off to the guy with the downtown condo who e-mailed me right after we'd committed to Laura and Roger. I think the chance is very slim that his place would still be available, but weird if what could have been an alternate life becomes reality.
I might be up part of the night now going through ALL the possibilities.
We were up VERY late last night talking over fun subjects like life insurance
and waiting for Aunt Rose's cookies that Seth has made to cool. I wasn't
tired at all though all day since I spent the whole day (11 am to 7 pm)
studying Japanese with Yooko san at Border's Books. Totemo tanoshikatta!!
Tomorrow is my last lesson and I'm sad to be stopping them. I'm sure all
the house spent at Border's Books together over the past three weeks has
greatly improved my Nihongo.
Thursday morning, November 29th at 6:25am
I've now been awake for over two hours thinking and thinking and thinking about how we've been given the opportunity to bring our World Tour as we know it to an abrupt halt.
Yesterday, on November 28th, 2001; we not only found out that we no longer could rent the apartment in Vancouver, but that we have an immediate use for the money we had planned to spend in Vancouver from January to June. Very, Very, Very odd that we realized on the same day as our apartment fell through that we owe EXACTLY the same amount of money towards a debt we never knew existed.
We'll see what we choose - a bit more time of carefree fun while we
spread the debt over time or a more abrupt halt to our travels because
we pay the debt off right away.
Tuesday evening, January 8th, 2002 at 8:48pm
Throughout the whole of December we were lethargic, very undecided about what we should do next and sometimes depressed. Well, it's now Janaury 8th and we did arrive in Vancouver yesterday as planned. Instead of moving into our own apartment, we're happy to be back at Bob & Eileen's with the dogs Bailey and Kaluah.We still don't know what we're gonna do or where we're gonna live.
Exactly one week ago, a job dropped out of the sky and landed on my (Tara's) lap. I feel this job has landed about 2 feet too far to the right - since we've done a lot of discussing what we should do while driving in our monster Ford F-150 truck or the little Nissan Sentra or the even little Pontiac Sunfire. Seth was supposed to get the primary job. However, there is a project at the Bank where I used to work that sounds perfect for my background. We've done the math and taking the job wouldn't delay us trying to start a family, but it would mean I'd be working while pregnant.
Therefore, we've weighing staying in Vancouver to look for jobs in a different light than if this job back at the Bank wouldn't have come up. I remember when I wrote on the 17th of July "But, if nothing appeals to us by the end of the year, I'll definitely think of the Bank." (ie. if the economy is so, so, so bad and the only jobs we're only offered is 8,000 USD a year for manager in a Taco Bell- I MIGHT be desperate enough to work for the Bank again.)"
So, here we are in 2002, and no place in America REALLY shouted "live
here" and I am contemplating returning to the Bank. True, we haven't looked
hard at all, so that makes me a bit uncertain.... we'll see what we choose.
Swimming today in the sports complex was fun. Seeing all the houses just
behind Sushi Man and driving around the housing areas around Edgemont Village
really reminded me today why we like Vancouver.
Sunday morning, 11:48am, January 13, 2002
I've been really sluggish and not up to do anything the past few days. Tomorrow I tried to turn this slothenly attitude around and actively did things like cut the bangs that had been hanging in my face. I also really enjoyed the 30 minutes of sunshine we saw yesterday.
It's so hard for me to fathom a sunless rainy winter like Vancouver's vs. a freezing cold sunny winter like Chicago's. hmmm......
No word on the Chicago Bank job for more than a week. It has sort of put us on hold, but we've decided to take it if indeed it ends up being a good job offer. We'll see...
Wednesday afternoon, 5:58pm April 3, 2002
Long time no write. I've been busy getting to know Vancouver. Having a routine again is terrific. So is being able to cook our own meals. We moved into our own place on February 1st. It's been a good two months in the West End. Our routine is to go swimming every morning Monday to Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday, I join an aqua aerobics class and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we're usually done swimming by 10am since I try to schedule my Japanese classes for 10am. Speaking English for one hour gets me a free hour of Japanese. It's a great system! Also, on Tuesday evening, Seth has Yoga and I go to German class. Then on Sundays, Seth goes to Tai Chi class. I had been using this time on Sunday to walk around Stanley Park (~ 10K), but recently my hip has started to hurt, so I need to buy some better shoes before I pound more pavement.
Today I actively started a job hunt here in Vancouver. We found out on March 11th that the Chicago Bank job was not going to start the next chapter in our lives. We "celebrated" by going to Tofino for a week and are now back home in Vancouver and looking for jobs. I was pleased with how my first day of dropping off resumes went. I decided to target computer schools first since I really love teaching. I found one exciting place focusing on internet education and two other places I'd consider working. Now that I've gotten over the first hurtle of dropping ff resumes, I'm ready to visit all the companies I have targetted on my list as well as investigate remote jobs with the Bank and IBM that I could do remotely. My friend Mike Beranek initally gave me the idea of working remotely and it seems like an ideal way to live in Vancouver and yet not lock ourselves into the Canadian Dollar. Weird that the more I look at moving into another industry, the more I think I like investment banking. The only other industry I seem to be excited about working in is creative design/internet development/media production. I definitely want a job that I think is kool and the Bank where we used to work is kool.