Workin' Man... again

I’ve finished my first week of work… and I’m having fun! I guess it’s the perfect formula: 6 months holiday, great company, cool colleagues, & in a beautiful foreign country.

Staying in a hostel with Whitney, though I still feel guilty for not showing her more of New Zealand while she’s here. 20 min walk through downtown Wellington to work - I’ll get myself a flat soon enough.

I work in an office where 8 hours a day is really a full day. We have tons of cool techie gadgets (big network, great developers, and a data center), the folks (not just guys) I work with are cool, dynamic people that actually see the sun rather frequently. In the 90 person office there are 6 nationally ranked athletes, a slew of mountain bikes scattered about that people ride in, groups that run at lunch, shower onsite for midday exercise, cappuccino machine, stocked fridge, dart board, old arcade game, X-box, and lounge.

Fridays conclude with a company wide meeting where I as a newbie stand up to introduce myself. Handed a beer, as is standard for Friday meetings, and shoved to the front of the room I enjoyed a little heckling (when was the last time your where in jail? or what’s your favorite sexual position? questions thrown from the crowd) and felt honestly welcomed by the fraternal atmosphere. Then we actually covered strategy and new plans – but it was interesting and brief. Lastly they finished up with the “hero of the week” award, folks are nominated for going the extra step – and I managed to somehow win? (whoo hoo!) After the meeting I met a number of the guys across the street at a pub, then Whitney and I were joined at a great French restaurant for dinner until midnight.

I must say I like this place so far. During lunchtimes with Whitney this week we visited parliament (Wellington is the capital) and Te Papa (NZ version of the Smithsonian). Then we were blessed with gorgeous weather this weekend. After a long Friday night with a group of South Americans, Whitney and I headed to the south coast of Wellington with Simon, a great English chap, where we did a fair bit of hiking along the south coast and saw a number of seals perched on the rocky beach. Later, another fantastic dinner, card games, and fast asleep nice and early. Today we were up to blue skies and the high 60’s, so Whit and I took the cable car up to the botanical gardens for brunch. Found a gourmet grocery store…sweet. Made a great dinner after which Whit joined some Canadians for a movie and I went wandering to find some lovely jazz at a café.

Something tells me I will survive my planned year plus here. I am still reminded constantly of how much I love Austin and the people that made my life the wonderful thing that is was at home. Nonetheless, the limitless of life’s possibilities is fun to test.