This week Paul finished his first week at his new job! He's working for the local small business development center and we're excited about this opportunity! His commute is even shorter than mine - just 5 miles versus my 7 to campus. What a change from Chicago where we commuted 25 miles in bumper-to-bumper traffic taking an hour or more each way. It is so much nicer to be driving quickly past cow pastures and forests rather than sitting in that dense traffic.
On my end of things, I'm struggling to come up with an "interesting" and "feasible" master's paper topic since my previous master's thesis doesn't count here. Given that I have never done sociology research before, it's a challenge to come up with something new!
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Friday, February 5, 2010
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Taking the Slow Boat Home
I realized I haven't yet 'announced' our big news - we decided to move back the the USA. It wasn't really official until we booked our trip back, and that part is a funny story. I did a search on the internet for flight prices for a one way ticket to Boston, and it was coming up at $1000 EACH! In the past, it's been about $400-600 round trip! So that made me think, what about a cruise? It sounds expensive, but so does $1000 for a one-way flight to Boston. So it turned out the cruise was LESS EXPENSIVE! Ok, so it ends up being about a total of $200 more after taxes, but since we would have had to pay for the flight anyway, it's effectively like getting an 11-day cruise for $200. We'll take it!
I really can't wait to have all that uninterrupted time together!
But deciding to take the boat back also made me think about what it must have been like for my family a couple generations going back. I talked to my Grandmother about it a little, and she said it took about 3 weeks to get across the ocean (and not on a luxury cruise ship like we're doing!), and many of the men lived in boarding houses when they arrived. If they were lucky, they had a nice one and were able to save some money, but apparently my great-grandfather wound up in a pretty bad one, where the men weren't fed enough and had a lot of their wages taken. Eventually he moved out to a better one, but it must have been quite a shock for all these young men to come over from Sweden and other places looking for great jobs and prosperity only to wind up poor and hungry. But good things came out of it too, and my family has done well in America. It's so important to remember the sacrifices your family has made to give you a good life, and I think this is something Paul and I think about a lot. We both think it will be good for us to try to be near family if we can - and there's no reason why we can't.
And on that note, I realized time was running out for our year in Oxford, and we still haven't visited Sweden. Paul's never been, and my cousin has a new baby so it's really a fun time to go. There was one of those super cheap airfares to Gothenberg, so we booked it. Of course, it requires a 3.5 hour bus trip to get to the airport for a 2 hour flight, but it's still cheap. I am so excited to see the family and for them to meet Paul!
So, the next step is to look for jobs and a place to live near these jobs, and FINALLY get to enjoy our wedding presents! If you know anyone who's looking to hire an MBA or a researcher with an MA in Social Science, send them our way!
Some day, I hope, we won't have so much stress and uncertainty in our lives. But at least we figured out the most important part - to get married!
I really can't wait to have all that uninterrupted time together!
But deciding to take the boat back also made me think about what it must have been like for my family a couple generations going back. I talked to my Grandmother about it a little, and she said it took about 3 weeks to get across the ocean (and not on a luxury cruise ship like we're doing!), and many of the men lived in boarding houses when they arrived. If they were lucky, they had a nice one and were able to save some money, but apparently my great-grandfather wound up in a pretty bad one, where the men weren't fed enough and had a lot of their wages taken. Eventually he moved out to a better one, but it must have been quite a shock for all these young men to come over from Sweden and other places looking for great jobs and prosperity only to wind up poor and hungry. But good things came out of it too, and my family has done well in America. It's so important to remember the sacrifices your family has made to give you a good life, and I think this is something Paul and I think about a lot. We both think it will be good for us to try to be near family if we can - and there's no reason why we can't.
And on that note, I realized time was running out for our year in Oxford, and we still haven't visited Sweden. Paul's never been, and my cousin has a new baby so it's really a fun time to go. There was one of those super cheap airfares to Gothenberg, so we booked it. Of course, it requires a 3.5 hour bus trip to get to the airport for a 2 hour flight, but it's still cheap. I am so excited to see the family and for them to meet Paul!
So, the next step is to look for jobs and a place to live near these jobs, and FINALLY get to enjoy our wedding presents! If you know anyone who's looking to hire an MBA or a researcher with an MA in Social Science, send them our way!
Some day, I hope, we won't have so much stress and uncertainty in our lives. But at least we figured out the most important part - to get married!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Mardi Gras at Templeton
Mardi Gras isn't exactly celebrated in England (though they do have "Pancake Day" on the same day), so Paul's college held a Mardi Gras theme guest dinner this weekend. We got masks for the event, which featured a champagne reception followed by a dinner of jambalaya, catfish and American cheesecake, with dancing afterwards.
Here's us with our friends Vinita and Varun - can you guess who's who with the masks? haha! (Thanks for the blinking beads, Mom!)
And here's Paul with some of his classmates at the afterparty. You can't quite see it, but there was a big chocolate fountain in the back!
We enjoyed being out at the Templeton campus, as it's far enough from the city center that you really feel like you're outside of the city. Oxford is small enough that we can still see the stars at night (unlike Chicago!), but it's still very urban feeling.
On Saturday night we went to visit our friends Brian and Mikki, who live in a 400 year old cottage about a 20 minute bike ride from our flat. I can see why the like the place, it's really cool to be there. They've got a thatched roof, and all of the doorways are about 5'8", so the guys have to remember to duck when they walk between rooms! The village is called South Hinksey, and the cottage used to be the village bakery. Brian and Mikki told us that if they have something delivered, they can either give their address, or say "the old bake house in South Hinksey". Pretty cool, huh? Though, I do not envy their commute into town - you have to carry your bike up about 50 steps to get over the railroad tracks! It's good exercise, though!
This week my boss comes back from paternity leave (men get 2 weeks here!), so that will be another adjustment at work. We were talking to some friends from Saudi Arabia at the Mardi Gras dinner, and learned that there, you get one paid day off for paternity leave. In the States, you legally get zero paid days off. I won't get started on what people get in Scandinavian countries, but in the UK anyway, it's pretty darn good compared to what you get in other parts of the world.
Paul is going to some sort of business fair tomorrow, so we'll see if he finds anything interesting. It's hard to think about a job when you're doing school work for something like 80 hours per week!
Here's us with our friends Vinita and Varun - can you guess who's who with the masks? haha! (Thanks for the blinking beads, Mom!)
And here's Paul with some of his classmates at the afterparty. You can't quite see it, but there was a big chocolate fountain in the back!
We enjoyed being out at the Templeton campus, as it's far enough from the city center that you really feel like you're outside of the city. Oxford is small enough that we can still see the stars at night (unlike Chicago!), but it's still very urban feeling.
On Saturday night we went to visit our friends Brian and Mikki, who live in a 400 year old cottage about a 20 minute bike ride from our flat. I can see why the like the place, it's really cool to be there. They've got a thatched roof, and all of the doorways are about 5'8", so the guys have to remember to duck when they walk between rooms! The village is called South Hinksey, and the cottage used to be the village bakery. Brian and Mikki told us that if they have something delivered, they can either give their address, or say "the old bake house in South Hinksey". Pretty cool, huh? Though, I do not envy their commute into town - you have to carry your bike up about 50 steps to get over the railroad tracks! It's good exercise, though!
This week my boss comes back from paternity leave (men get 2 weeks here!), so that will be another adjustment at work. We were talking to some friends from Saudi Arabia at the Mardi Gras dinner, and learned that there, you get one paid day off for paternity leave. In the States, you legally get zero paid days off. I won't get started on what people get in Scandinavian countries, but in the UK anyway, it's pretty darn good compared to what you get in other parts of the world.
Paul is going to some sort of business fair tomorrow, so we'll see if he finds anything interesting. It's hard to think about a job when you're doing school work for something like 80 hours per week!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Employed!
Today I started my first day at my new job! My official title is Senior Market Research Executive, and I'm working at a company that does survey market research for pharmaceutical and other health care companies. It's sort of a start-up company that's really started to take off. My boss is great; I can tell he really wants me to succeed in this position. Everyone else at the company has been extremely welcoming, and offered to help with anything I need.
While the company claims they have "no benefits", I'm getting 25 paid vacation days, 2 weeks of paid sick days, discounted gym membership, nearly free shuttle from the train station, my own laptop (which means I can work from home if needed), a generous bonus scheme, and all the coffee I want to drink all day - and TWO dishwashers in the employee kitchen! Maybe to the English who have national health care and great public transportation that sounds like "no benefits", but to someone who's worked a job with 5 vacation days in the first year, or one where sick days were deducted form vacation time, these benefits are incredible. Nevermind that I really believe in the company and think it's going to continue to offer me all kinds of career growth opportunities.
And did I mention I get paid in pounds sterling? (haha)
While the company claims they have "no benefits", I'm getting 25 paid vacation days, 2 weeks of paid sick days, discounted gym membership, nearly free shuttle from the train station, my own laptop (which means I can work from home if needed), a generous bonus scheme, and all the coffee I want to drink all day - and TWO dishwashers in the employee kitchen! Maybe to the English who have national health care and great public transportation that sounds like "no benefits", but to someone who's worked a job with 5 vacation days in the first year, or one where sick days were deducted form vacation time, these benefits are incredible. Nevermind that I really believe in the company and think it's going to continue to offer me all kinds of career growth opportunities.
And did I mention I get paid in pounds sterling? (haha)
Monday, October 29, 2007
Banbury Cross
Today I went to an interview with a recruiter in Banbury. Yes, the same Banbury as in the Banbury Cross you remember from the nursery rhyme. I had initially thought that Banbury Cross was something like an intersection of two roads, but it turns out that while it is an intersection, it's also actually got a real 54-foot high cross in the middle of the roundabout! However, the original cross was destroyed in anti-Catholic rampages in the 1600s, so it was rebuilt in the late 19th century. Just a few years ago, they added the statue of the "fine lady on a white horse, with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes". (she's to the left of the cross - click on the picture to enlarge if you're curious).
The town itself is really cute, with many small shops, restaurants and windy pedestrian-only roads. I plan to go back to explore the shopping some more, as it seemed to be much less expensive than in Oxford. And it's just 15 minutes away by train!
And one funny sighting in Banbury - the Blues Brothers outside of this record store!
The interview went much better than the last. Perhaps the last recruiter was just having a rough day. But, we'll see if anything comes of it. In the meantime, I've got plans to go to London with the girls on Thursday (we got those 1 pound fares on Megabus). I think I'm going to be checking out the aquarium, which is great since I can stare at fish all day!