FINAL BLOG - Includes Bucharest and Nottingham

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Well, my time in Europe is coming to an end. I am spending most of the day today wrapping up some loose ends, and “packing my trash” (as we used to say in the Marine Corps).

My last week was spent with one of my co-workers and good friends, Tim Morris. We took the train to Nottingham, England Monday for a couple of business meetings. It’s about a 2 hour train, so we left the flat at about 6:00 a.m., catching the underground over to King’s Cross/St. Pancras station to jump the train. When we arrived in Nottingham, Garth picked us up and we headed over to our office for two team meetings and a nice lunch. We also celebrated Tim’s birthday with a cake and the worse version of “happy birthday” I’ve ever heard!
We made a late train ride back to London that night, and did all-day conference calls Tuesday. Finally made it over to the Hard Rock in London for some over-priced burgers!

We had a car pick us up at 4:30 a.m. Wed. morning to haul us to Heathrow so we could make an early flight to Bucharest, Romania. We have an office in this Eastern European city, and held an all-hands meeting as well as looked at some potential office buildings for lease. We are outgrowing our existing space, so we need to find a new building. There is plenty of new building going up in Bucharest, so this shouldn’t be an issue.
The thing that really struck me about Bucharest is that it still very much looks like a communist country. In fact, if you don’t know the history - Romania was under communist rule less than 20 years ago! On December 22nd, 1989, the revolution started and on December 29th, they executed the dictator and his wife! Now that’s swift justice!

The city has many old decaying buildings, and the social housing system is still alive and well. I’ve never seen cables strung around a city like they are in Bucharest, and I’ve included a couple of photos to try and give you a sense of what I’m talking about. It’s a city that seems to be on the verge of becoming something special, but it has a long way to go. There is lot’s of construction going on, but the infrastructure is lacking in every way. The traffic is a combination of Mexico, Italy and NYC! Police corruption seems to be an issue, and it will take a strong government if they are going to truly become the city I “think” they are trying to become.

But the people are really quite friendly. Dan, Tim and myself went for a walk Thursday morning and found a beautiful little park in the city center. As we were walking through it, we stumbled into a little courtyard that was filled with old guys playing board games. Tim, who doesn’t know a stranger, took this as an opportunity to meet some new friends. Unfortunately, no one there spoke English - but that didn’t stop Tim! He sat down for a game of Backgammon, and gathered a crowd. Even though there was a language barrier, Tim still was able to call the guy out for cheating. Apparently, “bullshit” is a global term because when Tim called it, his opponent understood and put himself on the fence! It cause some good laughs from the locals, and made for a really nice morning.

The heat was substantial, along with some pretty harsh humidity. I guess it was just training for my return to Dallas!

I’ll be coming back to Europe in a few weeks, but this will be the end to our “Living in London” blog series. Thanks to each of you for your encouraging words and thoughts during our stay. We were blessed to have this opportunity, and hopefully we made the most of our few months in Europe. It’s a great place to visit, but there is no place like home! Next week fill find us on the road again, taking Austin to Nebraska for his first year in college. I can’t believe we’ve got another one at that stage already! Where is the time going????

I also included a photo of me and my driver, Dave. Dave is a 72 year old “Brit”, and has been a good friend to me during my few months. He’s really given me the inside scoop on how Brits think, and has been a great history professor as well. I won’t share his feelings about the French and Germans, but he LOVES Thailand!!

Cheers all!!

Scott

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