Do we remember the way to San Jose?

I know that Hank and I have mentioned to several people that we were looking at trying to get my assignment extended by work to stay here a bit longer. After being in limbo for about a month, we found out last week that the director of my department decided not to extend me out here. As California is the main home of the company, and we're a pretty small team still out here in London, there is more need for me to head back to the main hive.

I haven't really said anything about how I feel about this so far, because really I'm torn straight down the middle. I loved working in CA, lots of exciting things happen there, it's easier to get things done when there are so many more people you can ask questions to in the hallways. But I have loved working in the smaller London office where you get to know the people you're working with so much more - it's like being at a start-up again (a very, very well-funded start-up). CA has nice lovely sun. Living in London lets me wear scarves that I like to knit... and hats are really fabulous accessories! I have friends I miss tons in CA. I have new friends I've met in London that I don't want to leave. Professionally it's better for me to go back to CA. Professionally I've done well here in London and there's still more that I can do, and you get to wear all sorts of different hats in a smaller office. We've got our nice house with a good back yard for BBQs in CA. We live in an area in London where I can walk to get anything I might need, eat at 100 different restaurants, see movies, shop, etc.

So really there are as many reasons to be in one place as there are in the other. I've been a bit teary about this a few times, but I always come back to two points: 1) I knew this was temporary when I signed up, and 2) we're insanely lucky to have had the opportunity to do this at all.

My assignment expires Aug 31. We're planning to travel around for a few weeks afterwards, then head home sometime in September. That's all we've worked out thus far... will give updates once we have actual details for the plan.