End of Europe Adventure

So here I am, on a flight from Rome to Dublin, looking back at my time spent in Europe and how I will be moving onto California. I feel sad that I will be leaving Europe but at the same time, I am excited to be moving in to live with my roommates in Redwood City. I left Singapore on 18th July and here is the list of places I have been:

• (Trip before start of work) Dublin - Hamburg - Berlin - Aachen - Koln - Amsterdam - Brussels - Dublin
• (Weekend trip) Galway
• (Weekend trip) Belfast & Giant Causeway
• (Weekend trip) Edinburgh
• (Weekend trip) Oslo
• (Trip between work in Dublin & California) Dublin - London - Paris - Barcelona - Rome - Dublin

Weekend trips had been really draining for me especially with all the planning required. Looking back, I am glad that I did all the trips that I had done as I had learned a lot from them. I had experienced so many different cultures. I mixed up what to utter for "thank you", sometimes it is "merci", sometimes it is "danke", sometimes it is "gracias", sometimes it is "grazie". Also on the same note, I realize how Italian share words with Spanish and French. I learned about history about so many places and all the free walking tours that I had attended were highly enriching.

The two months of work in Dublin had been quite fun for me. I admit that I work hard -- I reach work at 8am to have breakfast and only leave the office about 8pm - 9pm. However, I had learned a lot during the whole process. The team selection/allocation waits for me in Menlo Park and I am glad that I had the opportunity to embark on a hackamonth which again taught me a lot (The hackamonth was in place so that the team selection/allocation can be done in Menlo Park in Oct). It is also very amazing how high impact can some task be -- for instance, a change that I made brought in a lot of money (the definition of a lot of money is always subjective). Another exciting thing for me is that someone is helping me apply for a patent. It is so cool to own a patent.

As a result, I am looking forward to the future as it looks really promising. I will be meeting Colin for lunch on Sunday afternoon. It is such a nice thing to look forward to -- being able to meet up with a close friend after so long without much contact with fellow Singaporeans.