There is no College Football in London

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful in London. Crisp autumn air filled the mornings and evenings, and there were cloudless skies all day. It really reminded me of college football season and made me a little sad that I had no games to watch or anyone to watch them with. But I did get out a little and enjoyed a great London weekend!

Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Camden#

I ended up going out with a couple co-workers on Friday night. It had been a long week and we needed a good time. Unfortunately the night went a bit late and I didn't feel too motivated to do very much on Saturday. I did get a lot of stuff done around the flat that I've been putting off for weeks, and I also made it to the gym in the afternoon. Then I went over to Hayley's for a movie and some movie snacks. It was a nice, chill day. When I got home that night, I checked out the Oregon score on ESPN and saw that they were in overtime! They ended up winning in double overtime...GO DUCKS!

On Sunday I went for a great run in the morning and then met up with a co-worker, Fran. We had tickets to see The Dark Knight at the London IMAX Sunday night so we thought we'd make a day out of it. We went to the Camden Markets which were really cool. Sunday is definitely the day to go and the streets, alleyways and buildings are filled with endless booths of market goods. Lots of clothing, jewelry, sunglasses, food, etc. Camden is also a really neat area and known for it's cultural atmosphere and fun nightlife. It made for some really good (and interesting) people watching!

I ended up buying a pretty sweet hat that you can see a pic of in this post. I also found a mexican food stand that served giant burritos! Mexican food here is really just brown people pretending to serve food similar to what Mexicans eat, but it was good nonetheless. However, it was nothing like Qdoba. I feel like I could open a real Mexican food restaurant here and it would be amazing!

We then headed down to Central London and randomly found out that it was the River Thames Festival. The banks of the river were surrounded with more booths, entertainment and even a parade! We walked around quite a bit along the river and views were great. It was a really nice evening and it was so nice to finally have some great weather. We stopped for some coffee before the film and then headed to the IMAX to see the movie.

Fran has this joke that something bad always has to happen when she goes out. Up to this point, everything went really well - other than our excursion in Camden trying to find an ATM. When we finally found one there was a passed out drunk guy pretty laying right beside it. As the movie went on, we realized that it was getting pretty late. Soon we realized that it was getting late enough that we were probably going to miss the last tube home. The movie started at 9pm and the tubes close around 11 or 11:30 so we thought we would have enough time. Once we got out of the movie after 11:30, we ran to the station to find that it was shut down. Neither of us knowing London very well, we had to figure out the bus system to get home, which is always a fun venture. I felt pretty good that I got us to a central area where we then found bus stops with buses that would get each of us home. After making sure Fran was at the right place, I walked over to my stop and got on my bus home. Fran ended up getting freaked out by a homeless guy and getting a taxi. Wimp! :-)

Moving on to a different subject, this week has been pretty exciting at work. As most of you know, I work for a company called RegOnline based in Boulder. However, about 10 months ago we were purchased by a much larger company based in San Diego called Active Network. RegOnline and Active share an office in London and there are also Active offices in France and Australia, among other individuals scattered around the world. This week a number of executives from the States have been here to visit, along with employees from the other international offices. All of the "Active" people left Wednesday for France to hold the rest of their meetings there. The CEO of RegOnline also left on Wednesday to finish the week vacationing in Paris with his wife. Our direct manager from RegOnline will be here all week. It was really great having our CEO (Attila) and our direct manager (Eric) here so they could see what I've been trying to communicate with them over the past few months. It was also a great opportunity for them to discuss and approve these changes with the director of Active International and an Active Senior VP who was here as well. Some of those changes include a different/larger office and better office organization.

With all of that said, it sounds like my stay here could be considerably extended if I'd like it to be. It's still too early to know exactly what will happen, but if all goes well I will be here at least another 6 months and more likely another 1-2 years. We are still researching legal implications of extended my stay, especially tax implications for me and the company. Further, we can't apply for an extension until 3 months before my current permit expires (which will be October) and then I'll have to wait to see if it is accepted. And of course we still need to discuss my specific position and the organization of the office itself. A lot of you have been asking how long I'm staying, so I thought I'd give everyone an update on what is happening. If things go wrong I'll be back in December. If they go really well then I'll be back in 2010...???

It was really nice to talk to Attila and Eric about my position here. It was great to hear that hey wanted me to stay, and it was especially nice to hear Attila say that he completely trusts me and thinks that I'm the perfect person for the job. It's nice to know that I've made a difference here and that they see the benefit of having me stay.

The last few weeks I wasn't sure how I felt about the opportunity of me staying longer. However, now that it's actually a possibility, I feel pretty good about it. I think a lot of my hesitation has to do with the fact that my future here has been unknown. It's really hard to settle somewhere when you feel like it's temporary. It's hard to justify spending time making friendships and things that can tie you to a place. It's also hard to purchase things like a mobile phone due to contracts or more expensive items like a bike. If I knew I was going to be here for a while, then I would be able to make more of a life for myself here which would be really nice. So for now I think I like the option of staying for a while. We'll see if things change between now and November and I'll keep you all updated!

I'm heading to Munich this weekend to celebrate Oktoberfest. I'll be blogging about it when I get back!