49 - Aller et, enfin, retour - Dax, Capbreton, Biarritz, & NYC
Monday, 5 February 2024
As I was getting out of bed, got a call from my US colleague; she'd taken the wrong turn to the office. Her GPS had gotten her close but no cigar; nothing a U-turn and hanging a left for another kilometer couldn't fix.
Many other guests were on-site today too, many of them had last been on-site my 2nd week in November. My time was spent with my colleague getting her familiar with the process and what differences exist between the plant in France and home. Her presence helped me realize just how much my ability to speak French must've been a boon for this project: having documents and discussion in French might slow things down for her but she's equipped with all sorts of modern translation tools and most people can there can speak at least a bit of English.
Most of us went to a group dinner at Mr. Mouette; sadly my US colleague skipped as she was reeling from jet lag and a cold. The table was similar to the group meal organized in November but this time my brain wasn't fried by the end of the evening from listening/talking. Instead of everyone ordering things, the site manager just ordered many multiples of entrees and plats for the table, which added to the atmosphere of camaraderie by passing food around the table. It was nice for the site to organize the meal; it may not have been an official send off for me, but it kinda felt like it.
I got an email from the HR consultants managing the company's application for a work permit; it kinda worried me if we'll have everything in place by my appointment next Wedensday. Some of the things they asked for I can pretty readily furnish (just need to blow the dust off my CV) but I don't see myself sending them a copy of my degree before I return to the US on Thursday evening / Friday morning. At that point, it'll just be a few days before I need a printed copy of the company's application to bring to my own appointment Wednesday morning...
Tuesday, 6 February 2024
Wow, today flew by. Another day getting my US colleague caught up on the plant; we spent the morning going over the computer controls while in the control room. She brought up a couple good points and I think we have some items to work on tomorrow; the afternoon was a whirlwind of a few meetings and responding to an email about my work permit.
Turns out the email I got yesterday about info needed for the work permit was supposedly written January 26th but I have no record of receiving it until yesterday as part of an "I'll be out of the office" message; still I took a bit of time to update my resume as they'd requested. I guess part of the permit application involves proving I'm competent and possess skills that can't be readily found by the company in Europe; there's probably not too many people who have worked with this exact product so I'll be sure to name drop the product and include the "trademark pending" icon 😆
Dinner was at Chez Nous; it was my first time making a reservation and it was super easy via their website! We were 4 at dinner (my US colleague was to attend!) and the food was great, comme d'habitude. I was the first to arrive and the server asked if I'd be interested in tasting the bottle of special Panamanian rum he'd mentioned to me at my last visit. I mean, it'd be rude not to try his rum, right? 🤣 It was a tasty barrel-aged rum, I believe he said the brand was Zafra; probably intended as a digestif but made for a pleasant aperitif to savor while waiting for the others.
Conversation at dinner was mostly in English tonight; it really impressed me at how well versed in both languages the two francophones were, it leaves me with something to aspire to. There was a good amount of reflection on how the project's gone given that one of us has spent 7 months at the site, I've spent 3 months, one has visited for the 2nd time and extended her stay an extra day, and the other is just starting a 2 week stay.
Pork skewer with black currant sauce and parsnip purée
We all agreed that Chez Nous probably tops the list of places to eat in Dax for any given night. As far as dinner tomorrow, I was told that I'll need to pick the place since it'll be my final meal of this trip.
Wednesday, 7 February 2024
Dawn of the Final Day: 24 hours remain
Another whirlwind day at the office. I spent the morning with my US colleague going over the diagrams of the plant and brainstorming activities/areas she will probably want to get a head start on. Hopefully it was enough to get her comfortable; I've been keeping tabs on this project for almost 5 years and she was dropped in with basically a 1.5 week notice. Sure she understands how we run things in Newark but there's small changes between Newark and Castets and the devil is in the details; still, I'm confident that she'll be a steadying hand at the wheel over the next weeks.
Lunch was with a group of site visitors and the site manager, it was a quick meal but a good one. It was interesting to get some perspective from the site manager over the meal about the business side of the project as well as what else is coming down the pipeline for him. There was one project he mentioned in particular that could be interesting to assist with when I return later this year (assuming this project has calmed down).
The afternoon was non-stop meetings with trying to get affairs put in order, reviewing progress on a technical solution by a vendor, and doing a quick pass at a cleaning procedure with my US colleague. At one point, I was able to check my email to discover that I should probably delay my embassy appointment for the long-stay by a week so that all the company's paperwork can be ready; now I just gotta figure out how to request a date change or restart the appointment process...
It was touching that almost everyone stopped by at closing time to wish me safe travels. I'm glad to hear that they found my presence helpful and are eager to have me return; I suppose I was sure they wouldn't have the inverse of that reaction but it was nice to serrer la main with each one. À la prochaine, mes colleagues; n'hestitez pas de m'appeller et bon courage!
The final meal was at El Meson with the two AIGP engineers. Seems like it was only a couple weeks ago that we were dining here for my first time. Anyhow, it was great to spend one last meal with them; I hope for their sake that they'll get a chance to take a break at the end of next week. I learned a lot of French by talking with them and it was a pleasure to work with them.
Hake (merlu) in "shell sauce". Seeing the dish was an "so that's what that means" moment 🤣
The suitcases are packed and the appartment is cleaned. All I need to do is take out the trash and return the key. The flight is at 10:15 AM from Biarritz so I don't have to wake up super early, but probably earlier than I've been waking up for work 😅
Thursday, 8 February 2024
All the hustle and bustle of the past few days has come to this. The travel today went very smoothly: check out from hotel was quick and easy, returning the car was quick, checking both of my suitcases was a breeze, and security at BIQ took 5 minutes. What was nice in the BIQ airport was that the shop included a few Pays Basque souvenir items, including little chocolates (cherry or piment d'Espelette flavors) just perfect for sharing with friends and folks at the office; I was also surprised to see that they were selling Laulhère berets there too 😂
I was a bit tired so I mostly slept the 1 hour flight from Biarritz to Paris, but only after observing the shoreline as the plane banked to turn north. And soon enough, we were in CDG. Since my bags were booked all the way to JFK, I just needed to get my passport stamped and then navigate my way to the M wing of terminal 2E (I don't know how somebody thought the naming convention was ok). The wait to get my exit stamp was only 5 minutes and I had time to grab a ~meh lunch from the bakery in the terminal (yeah, PAUL, I'm saying your stuff was mediocre and that's not just cause I spent 3 months refining my palette).
My flight wasn't completely sold out so I had plenty of space to myself. Rather than sleeping, I stayed up the full 7-8 hour flight. Flight entertainment consisted of movies: Bottoms, Barbie, Oppenheimer, and ~2/3 of Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken. It was funny to see the stark difference between a flight operated by Air France vs Delta: while the meal service was perfectly adequate, I chuckled to myself when after saying "merci" to the hostess, she replied with an emphatic "you're welcome". I had meant to have 3 "glasses" of wine (two verrry full disposable coffee mugs with the lunch meal and one with the 2nd meal service) but I ended up being handed a 4th cup with my 3rd because the server had poured the wrong colored wine for the next person 😅.
Passport control in JFK took longer than I think it did for entering and exiting the EU combined. I understand that Global Entry exists, but why would I pay to justify a fast-pass system that objectively incentivizes making the unpaid option as inconvenient as possible? Still, I can't complain because it really didn't take that long in the grand scheme of things and I didn't have a connection pending. Annnd nobody cared about what was in my suitcases, so my little jar of foie gras and cord of piment d'Espelette survived the trip! Can't wait to let me friends try some good, authentic paté 😜
I figured getting back home from JFK had many options and a quick check on my phone revealed that taking an Uber home vs public transit to Jersey had only a 5 minutes difference (which could easily spiral out of control given rush hour traffic) and a price tag difference of >$100. Being more concerned about the time than the price tag (I'd be charging it to the company anyway), I opted to take the Air Train, subway, and PATH to Hoboken and then called a $10 Uber to convey me and my suitcases the last leg of the journey.
Once home, I took a shower and decompressed by going to Thursday's weekly game night among friends. It's good to be back and I managed to hang with them until 4AM European time. It's a mixed bag coming home: it's sad that the adventure in Europe is coming to an end (at least for now) but it'll be great to sleep in my bed (the mattress in Dax was a little firmer than I like) and be among friends.
🤔🤔🤔 I probably should have mentioned the friends thing before the bed thing 😅
Friday, 9 February 2024
I woke up before my alarm went off, my phone was saying it was 11:30 in the morning but was also set for the European time zone. I managed to find my way around my bedroom and grabbed my diplomas from the closet before grabbing an Uber to work. This should come as no surprise, but the commute from Jersey City to Port Newark is verrrry different from Dax to Castets despite being similar in commute time 🤣 Much less green to see and way less Chante France radio music.
The day at work consisted mostly of checking the email chains I'd missed while in the air yesterday and catching up with coworkers. I finished up with a call with my HR rep about the work permit (I was able to push back the embassy appointment but it's now March 5th) and she'll organize a call next week among all groups to ensure everyone's on the same page or at least that I understand the text.
Several people at lunch had told me I shouldn't hesitate to give them a
holler if my car needed a jump to start, which was a nice offer. After lunch I went down to the parking lot and confirmed that my car's battery survived the 3 months in the cold. The brakes were a little squeeky but a few laps around the parking lot fixed that right up. The drive home went smoothly and was a surreal demonstration of muscle memory as I subconsciously remembered the route home.
The feeling of being back in my normal habitat is a little unreal: everything is both familiar and foreign at the same time. I'm sure the feeling will pass soon enough but I fear that my French will also partially regress quickly since I won't be using it for most of the day (but I caught myself wishing my roommate an "a tes souhaites" in lieu of a "bless you" after he sneezed).
To finish off the day, several friends came over to the apartment. Around lunch I had the idea of ordering Chinese food since it was the eve of Chinese New Year, when someone pointed out it was also national pizza day (who'd have thought such a day existed) I opted to embrace the American melting pot and get a fusion of pizza and Chinese going at the dinner table. It was a fun night to eat, share some souvenir floc de Gascogne, and catch up with the gang.
Pizza with char siu pork!
And thus concludes the saga of my three months in France. It was one hell of an opportunity and a real journey; for now, I'll do a little housekeeping and relaxing back in the Shire but I don't think I'll be settling back into the exact same routines. Adventure is an attitude and my time is limited no matter which country I'm in, so I hope to carry some of the energy I had in Europe to explore and strike a balance here.
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