Okay, okay, so maybe the whole moving to Hong Kong thing took a little more energy than I thought... Starting today, I'm back on the grid, and hoping to post a little more frequently than once a month... but don't hold me to it! ;)
So... to give you an update of how things have been going, let me start at the beginning. After we officially found out that we had gotten the offer, we decided that we definitely needed to see our families one last time before we headed twelve time zones away. We spent a few days both in Ohio (to see my family) and Washington, D.C. (where Brian's sister lives) getting to say one last goodbye to everyone. It was pretty surreal, I have to say. I kind of forgot that we were moving, changing jobs, changing companies, etc, especially when we went to see Brian's sister Lisa, who had just given birth to our first nephew, Oliver Adin, about two weeks prior. With all the excitement of the new little guy, we kind of forgot everything else. He was just the sweetest little guy ever (despite barfing on me within about 30 seconds of meeting - generally, bad manners, my dear nephew!), and we loved getting to see him, even if it was just for a few days.
The reality hit on October 4th, when I had to fly to Boston in preparation for... the first day of work. You might be asking yourself, "why the heck did she go to Boston?". Well, in fact, adidas (which I now know is really pronounced adi-DAS, which I still can't bring myself to say, as opposed to the American a-DI-das), owns Reebok (much in the same way that Nike owns Converse, etc.), which is headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts. It was great to get started, although, to be honest, a little overwhelming to try to figure out what was the same and what was different from my former employer. It's a lot of the same, but just enough different to make things confusing. Plus... all of the new people! There was one familiar face there, though... my former co-worker and the person who had had my job at Nike right before me. We had dinner together one night in Canton, and he was a big help in explaining how things work at Reebok. After three days of meetings, it was certainly nice to head "home" to Portland, where Brian me me at the airport. By that point, our house had been empty for about 2 weeks (sniffle, sniffle), so we made our new home for a week in a hotel in downtown Portland. I had three more days of meetings at the North America headquarters of adidas in Portland (LONG story on how that happened), and then Brian and I had two more days to wrap things up. It was really tough trying to see everyone one last time... I never wanted to say "yes, this is the last time I will see you." I kept wanting to make it one last, really last time. We spent our absolute LAST day in Portland doing really tourist-y things... like going to Voodoo donuts (which I have to say, we had NEVER been to together before), then to Multnomah Falls (which Brian had never been to!). One last Mexican dinner (we both decided that Mexican was probably going to be the hardest kind of food to find in HK), and then we were OFF for our new adventure! We happened to be on the same flight to Hong Kong as my friend from Nike, who I'd worked with for 6 years, so it was nice to talk with her while we had our long layover in Vancouver, BC. And then, we were REALLY off... 14 more hours in the air, and, there we were.
When we arrived (along with our, um, 5 suitcases), we had a driver pick us up and bring us to our new (temporary) home in Causeway Bay. Unfortunately, our room wasn't quite ready, so, at 8am, we got changed and headed out to see the city! We were a little overwhelmed, by the amount of people (seriously, it's like the start of a marathon all the time... constantly weaving in and out of people that walk much slower than you do!), the height of the buildings (we've had to adjust the bend in our necks to accommodate this), the smells, the prices... the whole experience is just A LOT. We spent the next few days looking at apartments, setting up bank accounts, getting ID's... all that fun stuff you do when you move to a new city, none of it particularly fun, but all of it necessary. I also started work that week, just going in for two days. There is so much to learn, and my direct reports are spread out all over Asia, so I'm just trying to get my arms around this new role.
Last Saturday, I entered my 4th time zone in 4 weeks... I went to Herzogenaurach, Germany, which is where adidas is headquartered, for another week of meetings. It was fantastic to get to see the HQ side of adidas and get to know the people there. I got to see another friend from the industry on Saturday, who went from Nike to Puma (also headquartered in "Herzo"... also a long story). As I mentioned, it's a small industry. :) Definitely great to catch up, and surreal to be back in Europe again. I didn't realize how much I had missed it, but it felt almost like home after being in such a foreign place as Hong Kong.
Life is crazy here. Absolutely crazy. The work day is 10+ hours long. There are people EVERYWHERE. All the time. Things are expensive. It's loud and the lights are always on. Etc. BUT... we are really, really happy. I have to say, this experience has brought Brian and I even closer together than we already were as newlyweds (seriously... we moved to Asia on our three month anniversary!). We kind of feel like this is a new challenge that we are in on together, and we are such a great team. He's not working yet, so he has been SO wonderful in helping to get things set up, in cooking dinners for us (with ingredients from the market - amazing!), and just being so, so supportive.
We miss you all dearly, and hope to be better at keeping in touch soon. We haven't really gotten into a great routine yet, but hopefully will soon. Sending lots of love to our friends all over the world. xoxo
