Update from Brasilia

The work trip to DC has been hectic, packed with formal meetings, informal meetings, jet lag and all. Every day I am out of my hotel from 8 to 9/10pm. One night I was out until 11pm. Kae kindly checked on me as I was silent since my last post. I just couldn’t find time nor mental space to write anything down. Jet lag this time around was really tough. I had my first night of normal sleep only by Wednesday, the 5^th night, followed by another 4 hrs sleep night as I had an early morning flight on Friday. Yet, many good things happened during this trip and one expected not great thing about my move.

Great things:
I met with so many old colleagues, some of them I haven’t seen since I left US in 2017.

I met with my new boss and team, and they are wonderful. Chatting with them felt back home.

I realized that I also like my current team from Asia. Meeting with my Manila team felt like meeting family. Insider joking with Indonesia colleagues was special. I am grateful that I have this family in the other side of the globe, a place I will go back.

Despite how cold it was, I managed to run 4 mornings, 3 outdoor 1 TM. Most of the days I was jet lagged, feeling exhausted and mad with myself for failing to sleep, yet I was excited to have a cold plunge first thing in the morning.

I was glad that I shipped few things to my friend before I arrived, as I had zero time to do shopping. I got a new running watch and a LED face mask, and the only store I did go was lululemon and got few things that I love.

I facetime with Sofia every day, something that I am not very good at usually when traveling for work, even it was just few minutes. I think it’s important for her and I made an effort.

I got the support from my new boss to delay our family move. Remember I thought we would be in March altogether? Well… not happening, we can’t move until June. I prefer to work in Brasilia than remotely from Jakarta (14 hrs time difference), so I suggested to my boss that I’ll delay the formal move but will do long work trips to be mostly in Brasilia with the team. Obviously, this comes with financial implications for him, and he is supportive. That was a big relief for me, something that kept me anxious.

Well, this is also the bad news, the fact that I’ll be away from the family at least half of the time in the next 4 months or so. I know that professionally it may be better that I go first alone, focus on settling in at work, and then when the family comes I can focus on settling the life part. Yet, I feel sad to know I won’t be hugging them and listening to their daily thoughts. I am afraid I’ll fall into semi depressive mode, something that I experienced in the past when I traveled for work.

In the big scheme of things, this is still a GREAT news and move, so I’ll feel bad about it for a while and then find a way to move on and find ways to make it more tolerable. Establish daily schedule to call the girls to be part of their life as much as possible, remotely.

I arrived Brasilia midnight last night, again sleep deprived (4 hrs of sleep) to look for housing, school, groceries store, to get a sense of our new life there. I will also meet with the team and join a work trip to the Amazons. Hopefully it will not be as hectic as it was in DC, and I can slow down and get back to my routines.