In the past, I've found that the first night after an international trip, I sleep like a log and wake up feeling almost normal. Not this time. I slept last night, but it took awhile to drift off and then it was a bit fitful. I think I was worried about having to be somewhat functional for work today, and ironically, it interfered. Ah, what a tangled web we weave...
I did mostly ok today though. We spent most of the day getting an idea of what is in version 1.2 of the product that is different from the baseline. Tomorrow, Angela and Collin will be off dealing with other aspects of the company and I'll get the run down on 1.3, which apparently has quite a bit more new stuff. I managed to stay tuned in for most of it, although there were a few places where I glazed over a bit. And I'm very, very happy that Skype means I can have the other doc team members backing up my thought processes.
Especially since the one thing that ISN'T working is my connection with my work computer back home. Since I don't have a work laptop, I have to use my Mac, which means running a Windows VM and making a remote desktop connection through that. Way too many fiddly bits for me to debug - even when I'm awake; which I'm not now. I don't HAVE to have it, but it would sure make some things easier.
The folks here are ahead of us back in Calgary - they've already had their own building put up and moved in. So it's new and clean and shiny and has nice toys. I'm very envious of it. The design scheme is pale wood floors with glass dividing walls that all have venetian blinds. Stairwells, washrooms, kitchens, etc. are all in the center, so that offices and meeting rooms are all on the outside and get tons of natural light. Each team has it's own room - so "peons" are in rooms holding 4-8 people and managers have single offices. It seems like a pretty workable setup. The only thing we might object to is that there isn't really any privacy. The rooms have something more like library carrels (sp?) instead of desks. They don't seem to keep ANY paper or personal goods - or maybe they are stored somewhere else that I just haven't worked out yet?
There's a cafeteria in the building for staff. We had lunch there and it was quite good. But it does bring me to another question. How do these people all stay so slender when they portion out food like Texans?? I haven't been able to finish lunch or dinner! As far as the meat and leaves diet goes, so far I've done ok. I went mostly protein at the hotel breakfast buffet - they'll do omelettes on demand. I had breaded chicken breast with peas and coleslaw at lunch. Dinner was at a place a couple of blocks away, where I got a Cobb style salad with turkey, peppers, corn, onion and tomatoes. I've been trying to stick mostly to water, except for tea at breakfast and I broke down and had a glass of coke just before lunch.
Oh! Last night, you probably want to know about. We wandered out into the rain and went to find the jewellery store that Angela bought all kinds of stuff at last year. It's gone. Then we went to find the Italian restaurant that she liked, but she didn't remember it's location as well as she thought she did! However, along the way we discovered a bunch of shoe stores having sales, so I expect we'll be going back. In the end, we did find a restaurant and have a nice dinner. They had an English menu which turned out to be a bit hit or miss - either the translation was iffy or they alter their sides without worrying about matching the descriptions. LOL I ended up with grilled pork neck and a really nice salad/salsa thing of zucchini, peppers and onions served cool in some kind of slightly sweet white sauce. It was very good!
The hotel is very modern. Clean, elegant design and furnishings, with niceties like the hall lights are on motion sensors, so they only come on when you come down the hall or step out of your room. It's definitely one of the nicer hotels in the city though and most of the apartment buildings have that "we aren't putting time or money into keeping the outside look new or attractive" aesthetic. Lots of rust and chipping paint - I don't know what the insides are like. From what I've seen of downtown Novi Sad (and that's not a lot yet!) it's about 80% old buildings and 20% very, very new.
I'm sure there's stuff you want to know about, but I just can't think any more today. Leave a comment with requests, if you have any!
I did mostly ok today though. We spent most of the day getting an idea of what is in version 1.2 of the product that is different from the baseline. Tomorrow, Angela and Collin will be off dealing with other aspects of the company and I'll get the run down on 1.3, which apparently has quite a bit more new stuff. I managed to stay tuned in for most of it, although there were a few places where I glazed over a bit. And I'm very, very happy that Skype means I can have the other doc team members backing up my thought processes.
Especially since the one thing that ISN'T working is my connection with my work computer back home. Since I don't have a work laptop, I have to use my Mac, which means running a Windows VM and making a remote desktop connection through that. Way too many fiddly bits for me to debug - even when I'm awake; which I'm not now. I don't HAVE to have it, but it would sure make some things easier.
The folks here are ahead of us back in Calgary - they've already had their own building put up and moved in. So it's new and clean and shiny and has nice toys. I'm very envious of it. The design scheme is pale wood floors with glass dividing walls that all have venetian blinds. Stairwells, washrooms, kitchens, etc. are all in the center, so that offices and meeting rooms are all on the outside and get tons of natural light. Each team has it's own room - so "peons" are in rooms holding 4-8 people and managers have single offices. It seems like a pretty workable setup. The only thing we might object to is that there isn't really any privacy. The rooms have something more like library carrels (sp?) instead of desks. They don't seem to keep ANY paper or personal goods - or maybe they are stored somewhere else that I just haven't worked out yet?
There's a cafeteria in the building for staff. We had lunch there and it was quite good. But it does bring me to another question. How do these people all stay so slender when they portion out food like Texans?? I haven't been able to finish lunch or dinner! As far as the meat and leaves diet goes, so far I've done ok. I went mostly protein at the hotel breakfast buffet - they'll do omelettes on demand. I had breaded chicken breast with peas and coleslaw at lunch. Dinner was at a place a couple of blocks away, where I got a Cobb style salad with turkey, peppers, corn, onion and tomatoes. I've been trying to stick mostly to water, except for tea at breakfast and I broke down and had a glass of coke just before lunch.
Oh! Last night, you probably want to know about. We wandered out into the rain and went to find the jewellery store that Angela bought all kinds of stuff at last year. It's gone. Then we went to find the Italian restaurant that she liked, but she didn't remember it's location as well as she thought she did! However, along the way we discovered a bunch of shoe stores having sales, so I expect we'll be going back. In the end, we did find a restaurant and have a nice dinner. They had an English menu which turned out to be a bit hit or miss - either the translation was iffy or they alter their sides without worrying about matching the descriptions. LOL I ended up with grilled pork neck and a really nice salad/salsa thing of zucchini, peppers and onions served cool in some kind of slightly sweet white sauce. It was very good!
The hotel is very modern. Clean, elegant design and furnishings, with niceties like the hall lights are on motion sensors, so they only come on when you come down the hall or step out of your room. It's definitely one of the nicer hotels in the city though and most of the apartment buildings have that "we aren't putting time or money into keeping the outside look new or attractive" aesthetic. Lots of rust and chipping paint - I don't know what the insides are like. From what I've seen of downtown Novi Sad (and that's not a lot yet!) it's about 80% old buildings and 20% very, very new.
I'm sure there's stuff you want to know about, but I just can't think any more today. Leave a comment with requests, if you have any!
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