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Debating holiday travel, and other things
It's been a whirlwind month or two at Google now and I can say that at least so far it really is the Disneyland of tech companies in terms of places to work. Everybody is smart and I have so much stuff to learn and do and the food is amazing and it's been one long CMU reunion for me in some ways -- almost every day I run into or reconnect with someone I hadn't seen in forever. (This does have the downside that I don't reconnect with other south bay friends that don't work at Google, but I mostly chalk that up to not having a car, etc.) I've been going to ballroom dance club there and gaming club, and debating seeing about adding some more activities but the entire living-in-the-city makes that difficult, and I'm not sure I want to change that aspect of things. I vaguely wonder if acquiring a car would make the living-in-the-city aspect of things different to be honest? Having a car in the city sucks but it would make socializing after work a lot easier - and I could go in whenever I feel like it rather than when the shuttles show up. Of course, then I'd have to drive, and pay for insurance and gas and all kinds of things that I don't really want to deal with, and yet I don't feel like justifying the cost of Zipcar for either.
Anyway, I'm not going anywhere for Thanksgiving (but fortunately it sounds like a few of my friends are doing Thanksgiving-like dinners here in town so I'll have plenty of people to see and that'll be good) but I was kinda debating going somewhere for Christmas/NewYears only because we get a whole bunch of holiday days around then and it seems a shame to waste them even though I don't celebrate Christmas or anything like that.
So options I thought of for trips are:
1) Tokyo
2) New York (east coast etc)
3) Europe (specifically Germany/UK)
I'm not sure going to Tokyo makes any sense though. I would kind of rather go during baseball season, honestly, and it's not like there's a lot for me to do around new year's since the entire country is also off and having family celebrations and all that stuff, so a lot of the things I'd usually do to waste time aren't an option. I think I could still have a pretty good time and even work from the Google Tokyo office a little maybe, but in reality I think I need to actually figure out my Japan travel plans for next year.
New York could be fun, that's where I was for New Year's last year. There's a ton of stuff to do and things to eat and friends to hang out with, and again, there's a Google office there too so I could work remotely a few days hopefully. I could theoretically also couple that with a trip elsewhere on the east coast like DC or Philly and actually visit people who are related to me. And Carl is going to be in the US and in NYC around that time so I could hang out with him (which is part of why it doesn't make sense to go to Tokyo, or even Seattle, which I thought about a bit too)
Europe is intriguing though because I've never been there, and I have a friend in Germany who's willing to let me crash with him, and I have friends in the UK who are willing to let me crash with them, and unlike the other two options, I actually directly work with people in the Google London office (infact I'm on the early bus to work right now so I can have a meeting with them) so it'd probably be the easiest remote office to sell to my manager as "hey, can I go work remotely for a few days there?"
I really don't know. I mean, I could also just stay in California for the entirety of the holiday season but that also seems pretty boring. I have to admit that I'm really unlikely to go to Europe unless I do it at one of these baseball offseason times anyway or I get sent for work (although the latter is not that entirely unlikely come to think of it). Shrug, I figure I should spend the next week or two thinking about it and looking at numbers and talk to some people and make some decisions.
Anyway, I'm not going anywhere for Thanksgiving (but fortunately it sounds like a few of my friends are doing Thanksgiving-like dinners here in town so I'll have plenty of people to see and that'll be good) but I was kinda debating going somewhere for Christmas/NewYears only because we get a whole bunch of holiday days around then and it seems a shame to waste them even though I don't celebrate Christmas or anything like that.
So options I thought of for trips are:
1) Tokyo
2) New York (east coast etc)
3) Europe (specifically Germany/UK)
I'm not sure going to Tokyo makes any sense though. I would kind of rather go during baseball season, honestly, and it's not like there's a lot for me to do around new year's since the entire country is also off and having family celebrations and all that stuff, so a lot of the things I'd usually do to waste time aren't an option. I think I could still have a pretty good time and even work from the Google Tokyo office a little maybe, but in reality I think I need to actually figure out my Japan travel plans for next year.
New York could be fun, that's where I was for New Year's last year. There's a ton of stuff to do and things to eat and friends to hang out with, and again, there's a Google office there too so I could work remotely a few days hopefully. I could theoretically also couple that with a trip elsewhere on the east coast like DC or Philly and actually visit people who are related to me. And Carl is going to be in the US and in NYC around that time so I could hang out with him (which is part of why it doesn't make sense to go to Tokyo, or even Seattle, which I thought about a bit too)
Europe is intriguing though because I've never been there, and I have a friend in Germany who's willing to let me crash with him, and I have friends in the UK who are willing to let me crash with them, and unlike the other two options, I actually directly work with people in the Google London office (infact I'm on the early bus to work right now so I can have a meeting with them) so it'd probably be the easiest remote office to sell to my manager as "hey, can I go work remotely for a few days there?"
I really don't know. I mean, I could also just stay in California for the entirety of the holiday season but that also seems pretty boring. I have to admit that I'm really unlikely to go to Europe unless I do it at one of these baseball offseason times anyway or I get sent for work (although the latter is not that entirely unlikely come to think of it). Shrug, I figure I should spend the next week or two thinking about it and looking at numbers and talk to some people and make some decisions.
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...and then I would hope they'd let you stay for two weeks since it generally takes you a week to get off the jet lag.
At least, that's the guidance I get for visiting my counterpart team in Dublin. "YESPLZ GOGOGO"
Oh, and if you went during the holidays, and then worked from there for a week before coming back, you should be able to get them to pay for the plane ride! Probably not for lodging for the week of holidays, though.
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Because I mean, the silly thing is that maybe all the people I work with in London won't actually be working during the holidays :(
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I'm in Kent with my girlfriend over Christmas but we should be back by New Years. Edinburgh has a big New Year party (which is somewhat touristy and I generally avoid though). I'm sure we can find a place for you to stay with one of us, though probably you know other people closer to London.
There's also Google Munich, Munich is fun.