Birthday! And a Big Change

Well, it's my birthday, and I wish I had some of you here to celebrate with.  Some of you know I'm coming home next week.  Less of you know that I'm staying home and not coming back to the UK for the time being.

I'm not giving up on the job search here though.  The decision came down to the fact that the Visa challenge makes it very hard to compete in job applications.  To sum it up - for me to get a job, the company has to sponsor my Visa.  I'm not sure if it involves money on the company's end, but it definitely involves paperwork and extra hassle that they are not willing to deal with.  There other complications too that we can discuss in person.

After some long thinking, the right decision is to come home.  I will get the Post Study Work Visa which does leave the possibility open to come back.  In the meantime I feel like I will have much more freedom in the types of jobs I can find at home.  Then maybe I can get lots of experience and eventually come back here to continue the F1 dream.

Is it extremely frustrating? Yes, absolutely.  Am I pretty mad and annoyed at this situation?  Yes.  But hopefully I can find a job I'm happy with at home instead of just settling for whatever I can get here with someone who is willing to sponsor my Visa.  Entry level salaries are supposed to be better in the US too.  Living with Jessica again will be the best part of it though!

So yea, that's that, I have to keep reminding myself that this is not 'giving up' or anything like that, even though that is kind of what it feels like to me on some level.  I know it's the right decision, even though I really didn't want it to be.  It definitely hasn't sunk in yet, and I'm starting to pack things up, and it just all feels very weird even though I am happy to be coming home.

After making that decision yesterday afternoon, I happened to see something on Twitter for a free ticket to a beer and food pairing event in London.  Since I'll be at the track this weekend, and packing all week, I decided to be impulsive and go, for one last beery night in London.  It was at the White Horse where I've been a few times, including with Will and Jessica.  The beers were from Brains which is in Wales, and they had a couple of good ones.  The food was interesting too, I had my first Welsh rarebit, and also a Cawl pie.  An interesting night, glad I happened to catch it, and glad that I had the flexibility to make it down there.  I did of course have one (okay 2) final beers at the Euston Tap to finish the night.

I was planning on taking the bus to Cambridge today as a kind of birthday present, but after doing London last night and needing to start packing I decided against it.  I might go later this week, but I kind of doubt it, we'll see.

Small Update

I love working on resumes and cover letters.  Really.  Except I don't, I'm being really sarcastic.

 I did have a good weekend though, got out on the bike and explored some, watched plenty of football of course, and tried to just relax as much as I could.  The Rugby World Cup has started now, and is being played in New Zealand, so the games are in the morning here.  England played at 9:30 am on Saturday, and I used the excuse to go to The Bull and watch it there, with a beer of course!  England finally won, though barely, and really only because Argentina missed a ton of  "field goals."  On Sunday I rode the bike down to Woburn for an Oyster festival.  It was really fun, I was glad I went, and the oysters were really tasty.  Very meaty, not gritty or overly salty, and yea, they were just fantastic.  Of course on the ride down there (almost 10 miles the way I went to avoid the main junction with the M1) I kept noticing how dark the skies looked.  Eventually it started raining, lightly at first of course.  Then heavier and heavier, and nowhere to stop for shelter either.  I'd also left my jacket at home, I was avoiding taking my backpack, I didn't want to keep up with it, or have to worry about it, so no jacket.  Finally the sun came out though, and I started to dry out.  I should've taken a picture of myself, I'm sure I looked quite sad.

Friday I finally got back to a gym, after finding a Groupon deal for 10 guest passes to a gym at Willen Lake.  It was nice, still haven't found a gym with a good free weight area like I'm used to back home though.  At least the setting was nice - it overlooked the lake with big glass windows.  I'll probably get back over there this afternoon for another visit.

Last night I was quite proud of the chili that I decided to make.  I had some ground beef to use, and some leftover tomato sauce that I didn't want to use with pasta.  So I cobbled together that with some black beans that I didn't drain completely to get enough liquid in the pan (since I should've had more sauce).  I added some chili powder, tabasco, oregano and garlic salt.  And it came out tasting legitimately like chili!  Not that I thought it would taste bad, but it was kind of just thrown together.

Sunday night and Monday were insanely windy.  I know I say that a lot, but this was really bad.  Like bad enough that I think it kept me from sleeping very well at all on Sunday night.  I kept waking up, and never really felt tired.  Think I shoulda just kept baseball on the laptop until I fell asleep.  Hadn't had a night like that in a while though, so maybe I was due for one.

At the risk of jinxing it, I'm planning on coming home week after next, using Will's buddy pass system.  This requires flexibility, so dates aren't set at the moment.  I'd come sooner, but we have another Caterham race next weekend (23-25th) that I don't want to miss.

Well I'm gonna get back to watching replays of Monday Night Football while hoping that massively charismatic verbage for my cover letters will be infused into my brain.

Hope to see you all soon, I can't wait!

So I'm Done!

Hard to believe it, but I'm done.  The presentation went pretty well yesterday, it was more relaxed than expected, even though it was technically called an oral exam.  In the afternoon all the posters were up for people to walk around and look at.  Then there was a BBQ at the CSA which was good fun.  To finish out the night, we had a final Quiz night at the Social Club.

Honestly I'm not sure what I'm going to do day to day at this point, other than look for jobs obviously.  Hopefully something comes sooner than later, we'll see.

I had plans to write more than this, but I'm just not feeling it right now, maybe because I feel like writing is all I've done for the last 2 weeks.  So I'll leave it at this, and come back in the next couple days for maybe more of a retrospective kind of post.

Almost There!

Phew, almost done, I'm getting some final comments from James this afternoon.  Hopefully it's nothing major, but we'll see.  I'm almost at the word limit already anyway, so it's all editing and rewording from here.  Glad that I seem to have done a good job with the writing and it shouldn't be as hectic a weekend as I'd anticipated.  We have to submit hard copies and an electronic version on Monday by 5 pm FYI.  Then our oral "exam" is on Wednesday morning.

We do have another Caterham race on Saturday, but no testing today.  It is at Rockingham, which is an oval track with an infield.  It was built in 2001 and is the newest circuit in the UK.  So that should be another fun day, though it will be a super early morning tomorrow.

Still no breakthroughs on the job front, though I've been a little more focused on my thesis recently.  I am sad to be missing the NCSU football home opener, it feels a little weird.  I will try to stay up and watch it online tomorrow night after we get back from the track.

The weather has been better today and yesterday, sunny and upper 60's.  This is after a cold snap, where one day seriously felt like Christmas.  Guess people had fires or something around here too, b/c it even smelled like it to me.  That was a really weird feeling, but kinda cool too!