Driving and Moving...

I got a car!  I'm pretty sure it is temporary, but nonetheless, I have a car.  It is pretty sweet.

Ok, so it is a little bit embarrassing driving a branded car, but who cares? I don't know anyone is Serbia anyway. The reason I need a car is because tomorrow (Thursday) I am getting up super early to drive to the plant to run my first test here in Serbia. I will be at the plant on Thursday and Friday. Which means I have to move out of the hotel. I have spent 14 nights in this great hotel. I really hoped I would be in my apartment by now, but everything takes a long time.

I just finished packing up my 100lbs of luggage (yes, literally 100 lbs) so I can go to Novi Sad to another hotel for one night before coming back to this hotel again. But my apartment contract came in last night. Now approximately 709232349873 people have to approve it and then sign and then I can move out of the hotel. God bless bureaucracy.

I did choose an apartment, but you will have to wait until I actually move in before I tell you which one I chose.  Part of me doesn't actually believe that I will get to move into an apartment.

I drove for the first time here and it wasn't too bad. The HR and Logistics team asked me several times if I could drive a standard and I said I could. But when you haven't driven a standard in a long time (probably 2 years), the beginning is always a little rocky. So I stalled it in the underground garage trying to get up the very steep slope. But I made it and didn't stall any more. It was dark and raining, so I was trying to navigate, drive in a new country with strange signs and signals, find wipers, find lights, keep the windows from fogging, and drive a stick for the first time in 2 years. But I made it to the hotel in one piece. Luckily, I'm leaving very early tomorrow so there shouldn’t be any traffic. My manager loaned me his GPS which speaks English, and hopefully I won't get lost.

I'm excited about my first plant test, but also nervous. It is amazing how similar the Operations/R&D relationship is in the US and in Serbia. Ops never trusts us and thinks we are a bunch of nerds with our heads in the clouds that are trying to mess up their plant. And we don't understand why they can't be more flexible. But after a couple of tests, you learn to trust each other. Wish me luck tomorrow for driving, not getting lost, and having a successful test run.