Hawaii

Back in the day, when Sandy hit, we had a choice of being stuck on the 33rd flour with our newborn or leave. We decided to leave, far, far away. 11 hours later we found ourselves in the paradise.

11 weeks have passed...

. 

Today, I just realized that Jascha is already 11 weeks old and I haven't been able to enjoy my leave, yet. First, it was all those papers one needs to file to get maternity leave, to get a birth certificate, to get a passport, what have you. Then with Jaschas colic it has been 11 weeks of crying all day long and all night long. It is almost impossible to go with him anywhere as he is crying constantly and nothing I can do to stop it. Miraculously, we get 4 hours of sleep once in a while but that is obviously not enough. So, I believe Mortens idea of me being at home for at least 4 months is not going to happen. One thing to hear Jascha crying all the time, the other thing is not being able to do anything to make him comfortable and to stop crying. A part of colic and crying, Jaschkin is doing fine, getting weigh but mostly height, that I wonder why.

However, I shouldn't complain. For the past few weeks, David has been an awesome help. It all started one Friday, when Masha, all dressed, came into our bedroom and said that she was on her way to school. I seriously thought that it was a dream. But no, David got up, woke her up, helped her to dress, made both lunch boxes, and they both went to school. David, my David, did all that. And since that day, he continued doing that. So we made a deal. He wants an IPhone, and no way I will buy it to him, but... with the way he helps me, he get a sort of pocket money for that, so, according to his calculations in 750 days from now he will be able to get one. This might happen earlier, but poor kids shouldn't have too many expectation, he is my kid after all.

On a work side, Morten has been asked to renew his contract, and that is where, me and Morten have differences of opinions. It is not that I don't like living in North America, it is not that I desperately want to go back to Denmark, but it is the fact that Morten works for such a Sh... hole, yes, you read me correctly, makes me think twice. It breaks my heart to see Mortens client bitching about the reporting hours, and we are talking about 3 minutes! (just because of the reporting system not supporting quarter.) 3 minutes! It make me sad seeing that most of Mortens colleagues think that the project is super easy, but no one sees that it is a political mine field and what ever you do or say will be for sure used against you. It makes me sad to see that Morten loves what he is doing but at the end of the day, someone else getting the honers for that. And it makes me sad that at the end of the day, he is all by himself in there, just because he doesn't want to use a beer facade to get friends.
Oh well, it looks like we will be continuing in August but in what quantity that remains to be seen. 

Aftermath in Jersey City

God has simply put a hand on us and turned us away from Jersey City, as the storm was approaching.
Our area was not damaged as bad as some parts of Queens, Long Island, Staten Island, our building was still there, but even then it was not a pleasant sight to come to. Just see the lobby of our building, the shops, restaurants and the coffee shops in our neighborhood, the streets and the play ground.

Two elephant statues toppled by the storm

A snowplow is used to clear debris from a flooded grocery store

Damaged building 

A walkway along the waterfront has been lifted and pushed on to the river bank by the flood waters

We spoke to our doorman, George, who was on duty when the storm has arrived and was stuck in the building for 72 hours. Water, Wind, Dark and Silence, these are 4 words we were told repeatedly. Bear in mind, we live in a good neighborhood, where buildings were relatively new and well kept, where people who could go away, did go away, where there is a possibility to restore some kind of live relatively quick (by quick I mean 2-3 weeks). I can only imagine how it was and it is for people in other areas, especially now when the cold weather is approaching rapidly.
As usual we have a plan or two. Learning from the previous storms (the one last year) and the location of our building (yes, we are right on the Hudson river), learning from the previous experience with Mortens company, we decided not to trust our naivety, not to wait, see and hope, but to take a matter in our hands and simply to evacuate ourselves as far as we could. And I am so thankful to God to give us all the green lights to do so.
Mortens manager eventually did contact us, a week later, wondering if we were all right. Yes, you are reading this correct, a week later. The same manager, who was praised that despite the weather conditions, he did manage to go to the client and work for them (a guy is single and has nothing to loose). Evacuate yourself and never look back - that is the way to do it. Employees, what employees, oh, those ones, oh, whose with families, wives, children, houses, oh well... What can I say, thank you for contacting us at all, but what I really want to say, is that I am grateful that God gave us senses to follow them and I pray for those who are in more need then we are. At least we could pay ourselves out of that mess (out of our own pocket!).

Approximately π weeks old

It has been 22 days since Jascha was born and what a time it has been! In and out of hospitals to go under the blue light, passports, going on his first foreign trip, and experiencing Canadian Thanksgiving with our closest here. Now this does sound like quite an ordeal for someone so young but when you factor in what happened in the year leading up to his birth, it sounds rather... well... normal! Which I know it doesn't but that's just our life, I guess.

There have been many hardships, tears, road blocks, etc. to get us to this point but who cares about that when you get this in return?

My dearest Zhenya has somehow mustered the strength to stand tall through all of this even though it is she who has had the hardest job as Jascha's world is firmly centered around her - I am only playing second fiddle for now. Not that I doubted she would because I know her quite well but it is still rather impressive. Now I cannot wait for Jascha to grow up so I can tell him how his mother fought for him and what she had to endure (not mentioning all his dads terrible puns).

David and Masha are taking it well and are quite happy about their younger sibling even though he obviously takes quite a bit of attention away from them. It's been somewhat tumultuous for them as well but somehow they have emerged as helpful and happy and at the end of the day, that's really all we could ask for. Now, life seems to be back on track and the gameplan appears clear. Until life changes again and we make a new plan.

Beginning of school

So, school begins again.

Abigail is going to start in Grand section and boy, she is looking forward to go to school. What she doesn't know is that two of her friends are not going to be there. One of her boyfriends will be in elementaire (CP), but at least another one Ewan will be there. However I am sure she will make it just fine.

David starts in 6eme and already has been asking about when the autumn vacations will start. However there is a special girl in the class, whom he is looking forward to see again. I wonder how it will be. Most of his classmates are at least 6 month to a year and a half older than him and in the age of 11-12 fun development begins. And knowing that girls grow up, at a certain point, faster than the boys, it will be fun to see him coping with that.

It is time not only for the school bills but time to sign the kids to the activities as well. During the camp we were recommended to sign Abigail into sports, and not to sign David into sports. (fair enough, I believe so)

So, one thing we are holding to a Jewish tradition, we will continue with the violin with David, but have decided that he should probably do some sports but stay away from the balls. So he will be starting running in the team, and continue swimming.

As for Abigail, we will try to sign her for gymnastics (apparently we were recommended to sign her in particularly into gymnastics), and swimming, and of course, she will be, as everyone in my family, playing violin.

With a new addition coming up, it will be a logistics beyond believes, but this is what you will do to make sure your kids are not on your neck every day in the afternoons.

Master the requirements process

It looks like we are finally heading in right direction. Well, we were heading there all the time just with some road blocks and pit-stops.

One thing we have learned from last year is to do everything ourselves. So this time, we have submitted our papers well in advance and then we start calling, and calling, and calling. Even while in France we were keeping calling, (try to call a toll-free Canada only number from Europe, good luck!). And we were calling. Time passed, we have returned from vacations, and we were still calling.

Finally, one beautiful day (isn't it that what they say in fairy tales), we got our approval. What a relieve!  Just a fact that I am about to go on a maternity leave, and trust me to get paid in North America, while you are on leave, is something people will die for, and was a huge motivation to renew the paperwork before the baby... You grab an opportunity and not letting it go.

So, last weekend, with lots of hopes and paperwork we headed north. Getting ourselves first to Burlington, Vermont for a great lunch, getting a beer supply in Plattsburg, New York and then up to the boarder.

I love Canadian immigration. They are so nice. I think they are the nicest people in the public authorities. The paperwork was organized very fast. When we asked for an additional info, corrections, there was not problem what so ever.

So a huge road block was removed that day. However, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw my work permit.

Yes, you are reading it correctly! Just up to 24th of July this year, sex related professions were on the list of demanded professions in Canada. What are you going to do, if there is a lack of qualified and skilled workers in that area. So it was perfectly legal to get a job offer from a strip joint and apply for a 3-year work permit. Wow, how on earth Mortens company didn't think about that?

A very simple business case:

1. One registrate a strip club in one of the offices in Toronto. SimStrip as an example (checked the name is still available)

2. Give an offer (you don't even need to work as a stripper, as long as you have a job offer) to the consultants spouses/girlfriends.

3. Spouses apply for visa and get it.

4. Consultants get an open spouse visa (no need to show tons of paperwork, proof of education, etc.)

5. The company faces a minimum cost (ok, face it, they should probably invest in high-hill shoes and a push-up bra with the belt, to make it look provable while crossing the border).

And that is it. I am sure there is a demand to all kind of woman, so that could be a perfect scenario.

The worse part of all that joke is, that this was a complete legal scenario!

Oh well, I am sure some other opportunities will come along. Just for me, at that particular moment, standing there with two kids, broken foot and highly pregnant, and looking at that note, gave me tears in my eyes (joy? sorrow? hard to say! but a sense of keep living and experience things!) Definitely worth it!

"Loosing" a friend

Yesterday I called one of my dear friends, I got to know during my French classes in Montreal. It was wonderful to hear her voice, but the news I got was not that wonderful. She has been applying for an extention of her stay in Canada. It was a long process and last Thursday she got a negative answer. So now, she has to leave the country as soon as possible.
It is not only I am loosing a friend, thanks to Internet, Scype, Facebook, we will keep in touch, and Ukraine is something where I can go to, but it is the fact of that a person like her, a hard-working person, honest, has been denied an apportunity to stay.
As many from the former Soviet Union, people try to find a better life outside of their country: - some, for themselves, - some are motivated to create a better future for their children, - some, just don't see any future in their motherlands. When these poeple come to a new country, they don't sit and wait for the government to support them, to provide for everything. They work, they integrate, they do all they can to do a be the citizens of the country they are in. So the question is, why? Why do countries don't allow these people to continue to contribute to the society.
During my life in Denmark I have seen people that were granded a status of an immigrant, because there were "in danger" in their own country (right, maybe 5% were, but not all of them), and as soon as they recieved their status, they did nothing, absolutely nothing. It took them years to learn the language (forgive me, but Danish is one of the easiest language to learn), but why to hurry, they got paid to go to the language school. Then the job, again, why to find it, if you can get away with receiving a support money from the government and stay at home. The best way is to get as many children as possible and then you are good to go for a long time.
And then there were people like me: learning language, taking education (again, as my education was apparently not good enough, or I should say not Danish enough), getting jobs, paying taxes,never get any government support. But somehow we always found ourselves in a worse position, always had to prove that we were worth to be allowed to stay.
My friend has a Ph.D in phylosophy, but she was working as a cleaning lady for the past several years. Not by choice, but because she needed to feed herself and her son. She never asked for any government help, she just did all she could to provide. She even paid for French courses out of her own pocket just to make sure she can be a full part of the society. And now... She has to go back.
Yes, there is no war in Ukraine, there is no political regression, but have you been there? It is glamour, it is peaceful, but is there any future in that country for her or for anyone who is honest?
She is not just 25 years old lady, that can somehow start her life again.
I wish I could help, I wish I could put sense in the immigration authority and point out to what idiots they are. But right now, I can only cry with her and try to incourage her not to give up and to try to find another way out of there.

Expanding our circus

I think we forgot to update some of you, who are not on a Facebook, but follow us via blog that we are going to be welcoming a little boy into our family very soon.

Yep, this is ours and yes, we are expanding our circus.
He was a complete surprise (knowing our fertility treatment history and all the disappointments in that area), followed by even more surprises (in the beginning there were two boys (unfortunately, one didn't make it)), followed by seeing the best and the worse of human nature from the people surrounding us (that is a chapter of its own and I don't even want to waist my time on the worse part).
It was fun to observe the reaction of the two other kids of ours. First, Abigail was very mad, due to the fact that she really wanted a little sister and she was asking more then David to get one. Then she realized that her dress budget will not be affected, which she agreed with herself is a good thing. She even wants the baby to move into her room, for sometime, not permanently!
Kids are so much looking forward that even David, our pre-teen boy, wants to build a bed, that we got for the baby by himself just for his little brother.
We managed to agree on the names (funny, boys names happened to get more discussions then girl names), but there are still issues with the spelling part. Morten is going after more proper English, more conservative spelling, that is approved in the Western world. I prefer the same name spelled in the old fashion way.

On the regular news, we have just return from France, where we had the most wonderful time with friends, relaxing, doing a little bit of cultural education (introducing Napoleon, Tour de France, foie gras and champagne to the kids), and just enjoying life and free time.

Move, Formula 1, off with the kid

And once again, there is a slight change of plans. Guess what, we have rented out our apartment. This has happened completely to our surprise. One should notice that we did inform the office of the building that we were willing to sublet the place due to the house, we are moving in, but that it will go that fast, no one has expected. Partly it is my fault I guess. NB! Never clean up your place, buy flowers, make it look very nice and enjoyable and leave for vacations. You see what's happening.
So, we have to be out of our apartment by July 1. Ups, that is the biggest moving day in Quebec. But not to worry.
Thanks to Smith, Randy, Jones, Grout, Stellman and Kvist families we were able: quickly organize and start resending our mail, get to water the flowers (oh my, I hope that will work), get a roof over our heads, get moving suggestions and just not to panic. All in less then 24 hours. Good, now I can relax?! (Rhetoric question)

Formula 1 is coming to town and guess what... we are going this time. Yes, and it is right. And it is right on Mortens birthday. So, that is the way to celebrate him (not that I have already forced him to fly on a float plane as a present anyway). As usual with massive plans exactly on the same weekend (Scavenger hunt, David is off to a birthday party, David has a violin concert), we will be able to spare some time over the weekend and even on Saturday to attend this event. And just being on the street on that particular weekend is something else. Last year, exactly at this time, we were on our reallocation trip and oh boy, it was fun. Ferraries, Porsche, you name it, are all over the streets. The owners are showing off their cars and some of them, look at the car under the tent, go to that extreme is to hire a person to wipe off the rain drops from the car the second it hits it. Fun, right?

And to finish it up we have  a very good news. David is off for a camp for 5 days (somewhere in Ontario region). The guy was so excited that I could barely made his to pack his stuff by himself.(wait, did I misunderstood something, was I suppose to pack his bag?).  But his parents were even more excited. (I don't even remember how it is to have a live with one kid only.) I was mostly looking forward for the parents giving each other "high five" as soon as the bus would leave the school.  Remember, our kids are all 10-11 years old pre-teens, who know the world better then us, and who think that we are old and very embarrassing ;-( I know that David will have a great time with his friends and bugs, having fun learning, swimming, listening to the teachers (I am so optimistic today) and just enjoying his life  in the wood during the rain.

Alaska adventures

And yes, we are back. Back from a "short" but wonderful vacations. Where were we?

Let me see: Toronto, New York (wait, those were not vacations), Phoenix (7 hours layover, does that consider as vacations?), Portland, OR (thanks for the Star Alliance on taking us on a detour flight) and finally Anchorage.

Yes, we were visiting Alaska. Funny, the first question we would get is: you didn't have enough cold and snow in Canada this winter? The second question: would be I need to see a picture of you with a polar bear. Well, no polar bears this time (November! look out for those ones), but pictures with moose, whales (not with the ones on the ship ones but the ones out side of the ship ones), eagles, brown and black bears, glaciers, mountains, snow, and snow again, are there.

We were taking a cruise. And you know what was the best part of all that? RADIO SILENCE! Yes, we did not have any signal on our mobile phones for 5 days. We got to enjoy the life we haven't been enjoying for the past, well, when did our careers have started, never mind, we haven't enjoy for the past many years.
I do admit that cruising is something we were not considering as a way of travel before but experiencing a free child care, getting to know other nerds like us, seeing the beauty of US, and, yes, that is the most beautiful site I have seen in my life.

I got to the extreme and gave Morten a 2 hour flight on a float-plane as a birthday present.

• (just a tip for those, who will take a cruise in a near or far future, don't ever buy excursions on the ship! You will end up paying 2-3 times more! For a float plane bear watch excursion we would be have been charged 300$ per person (that is per kid as well) on the ship. Just walking outside on the dock and going into the travel information centre saved us 700$ in total). 

Flying over the mountains, into the remote areas, where otherwise you will not be able to get to go, seeing fresh bear footprints in the snow and just enjoying the awesome creation of God was a real treat. But yes, we were quite happy to get to the main land after 2 hours of a bumpy flight.

Evaluation

So, I just did my mid-evaluation. What I find quite a difference between Denmark and Canada, that in here (at least in my company), your manager doesn't try to make you feel bad and put you down. Yes, that is the Nordea style (for some) unfortunately. And to tell you the truth, that works much, much better! Instead of been pointed out your mistakes all the time, you try to take your strengths and use them even more. On the down side of the evaluation, I have again and again been confirmed that I am a nerd. "The only one who can calculate a correlation factor manually"  And yes, that is a complement! Ok, I will admit, Oracle, SQL, SAS and statistics will not scare me at all but, please, think about how on earth one should develop good relationships in the company with that kind of description, especially when you are trying to be a lady. But... I am working on in. I am trying to be more social and getting out for a beer or two once in a while with my colleagues or eat lunch and discuss hockey, murders, politics and not! medical care. ;-)

Camp, junior, apartment

I gets lots and lots of e-mails around the world, asking if we are fine and that people don't hear a lot from us at the moment.
I do appreciate your emails and I am answering them as fast as my time allows me.

So...  a little update on us.

The youngest addition to the family is desperately trying to terminate his lease with me and to get into this world. Even that he has been told that according to Quebec rules, he is not allowed to do so at least until week 38, so that is in a while. The desire to ender this world is so big that I have to keep my walking to the minimum, and knowing me, my lifestyle, that is almost impossible.

Summer is coming. As shocking as it can be, it is coming, even in Canada. And guess, what do you do with the kids during the summer in North America? Well, the day camp. Thanks to Jessica, who told us how things work, and Nathania, who told us all about good places to dump, sorry, place our children. And that is not a cheap thing, 2000$ per kid for 8 weeks. But yes, we made it. Our kids are sign into the Champion camp, and it is all about sports. So, Jewish kids with sport... Hmmmm. All right, I am keeping it positive. US boarder is only 45 minutes by car.

We are slowing but surely starting to pack our stuff. However, we are trying to rent out our apartment, as we have a house already.
I am not sure if I told, how it works in Quebec regarding the rental agreements. If you have signed the lease, it is for a year, and as a renter, you can't get out of your lease, unless:

• you got a cheaper place, subsidise but the government of Quebec
• you moved to an elderly home
• you can't access your apartment (if you end up in a wheelchair and your apartment on the second floor and there is no elevator)

There are the only 3 reasons! Yes, so if you decide to die, do it at the end of the lease, otherwise your relatives will be responsible to pay. And yes, I am not joking. So unless we find someone who would sublet the apartment we would have to pay double rent. We would prefer not to. 

Well, this is all for now. We are about to leave for vacations to explore a new state in America. See you soon.

12 years ago...

12 years ago I was sitting in the plane taking off from Moscow to Copenhagen - crying, knowing that this trip will change my life forever.
I was going to Denmark, to a country, I had quite a limited knowledge: Hans Christian Andersen, Hamlet, Queen Margrethe and Little Mermaid. That is about all. OK, I knew it was not a part of Sweden at least. 
In a way I was very happy and proud of myself. I was going to be an exchange student for Copenhagen University, a bright student, full of life and ideas, chosen and gotten a full scholarship. On the other hand, I was sad, as upon my departure, I got some clear instructions NOT to come back, no matter what. Not because my mum didn't want to see me, or she didn't want to have anything to do with me. No, it was simply because I had to create a better life for myself, a safe and a stable life for myself, not matter what.
This is how a new chapter of my grown-up life began. Me, beginning 19 years old of age, facing life all by myself. And I have decided:

If I ask any of you, I guess, you all will answer me the same way. I do live my life memorable. Why? I guess, with all ups and downs, challenges and successes, every time, I am trying to get the best out of every situation.
These 12 years gave me the most wonderful husband, whom I love dearly, and that is why he gets to hear and experience my hysterical fits once in a while; my 2 kids and 1 on a way, whom I love dearly, too, and who get to experience a "tiger mum" constantly going after them with homework, violin, behaviour (and yes, the new one will get to experience his share of love); my 'former' colleagues and my friends, who have been crying with me, fought for me and are there for me, even there is a 6-8 and 12-hour difference one way or the other.
Thank you. Thank you  for being there for me (not matter it was all 12 years or just a few months) and I do hope that the years to come will be as fun and will feel life a roller coaster as it did so far.

Art of skiing

When you move to Canada, you should try all the winter sports like skating, hockey, whatever includes snow, and of course skiing.

So 8 weeks ago, 3 out of 4 never tried to ski before, and the last one did it 20 years ago.

So there we were on the mountain, all members of the ski school (some Penguins, some Zebras and some Explosions). We were ready to rock-n-roll.

Wait, how do we put those shoes on? Maybe we should start with that.

Getting the basics fast, we have started to ski. First on a “bunny hill”, as they call it. That took a whole lesson to get used to. So slowly, Morten and I, got higher and higher, steeper and steeper. It took some of us 2 lessons to realize how fun it was, some almost 6.

Our teacher was so great, she just took us where ever she thought we were ready for. Right, she thought we were ready for. How about us, did she think about us? Personally, I have faced my biggest fears before skiing, realizing how “chicken” I was, that the hill was not that steep but the fright was all in my head.

Back to the hill. Why going slowly down and learning the technical stuff, one just waves to your own 4 year old one, who slides naturally down with jumps on a way. Damp it, why is it that easy for them.

Anyway, all of us graduated. All are allowed to come back and ski, some more places than others. But just to see Mortens face of achievement of skiing on a Black diamond was priceless, seeing David and Masha having fun and not being afraid, and looking at myself and be surprised with my results makes me want to continue doing that again next year and years to come. 

Great bunch of people

So, it has been an eventful week but boy, it did teach me a huge lesson. A lesson to trust my instincts, to listen to MY god feeling and to see the best in people.
I am about to return from the a business trip when I met a bunch of highly intelligent, dedicated and motivated people, my colleagues. People, whom in my opinion, work for one of the most cheap, when we talk about the expenses to the employees, company, but people who look beyond that and really dedicated to what they do and what they stand for. Being a part of a such groups make me being proud, proud for being chosen and representing this group.
I do thank so much God, faith or what ever one chosen to call this to get me across those people. To see how actually a department can work is something one should experience in its own carrier.
And who cares, that one is expected to work a day and night, if one is really passionate about his/her work, this will be just a fun ride with a bumps on a way. But this makes it more fun, doesn't it.

Doctors and salary

Lots and lots of stuff came up during our stay in Canada.
Some of them as still give me a chock, chills and I simply don't understand how on earth things can be done this way.
One of the things we have discovered in here is simply the lack of doctors. No wonder. One studies for 7 years, and then what? One gets paid much less in Quebec then any other province (and I am not talking about what is happening 50 km south from here), and one needs to be 100% bilingual. No wonder that a minimum amount of doctor wants to stay in this province. So, if one needs to get some help, it doesn't even pays out to have a good insurance, that will cover it all. You can't simply use it, unless you drive 50 km south. You should, just as everyone else, go to the clinic, sit in the room with lots of other people for at least 3 hours in order to get to be seen by a doctor for about 3 minutes in total. It is all free, which is great, I do believe so. But, when you are in a situation like us, that can and want to pay in order to get it fast, then no, no, and no. So, guys, if you think in Denmark sitting at the emergency room for 12 hours made it to the media, here it is a normal story for every kind of sickness.
Today, I have discovered that my salary hasn't arrive at my back account. So, I did question that. At Bell, a nice lady at an employee service sword on her parents graves that it takes 7 days to settle the money. 7 days! You must be joking. It doesn't. It never does. I come from a bank industry and I know that the longest time for money to settle takes 2 days. And that is when one convert the currency, sends the money from one country to the other, etc. Very interesting that it does 7 days for Bell to get my money to my bank account, or does it not. What Bell does, is using employees like me, to wire the money and to get the percentage on the salaried right into the company's pocket. I am sure if tomorrow a CEO of Bell will call, the money will be able to be on my disposal in couple of hours. Oh well, we learn something new every day, don't we?

My first days at Bell

Well, I will be honest. Right out front. It is different. Way different then one would ever imagine. How different? It is basically all about costs and nothing else. It is a different way of looking at the reduction of the cost. I can see that no one is talking about ROE should be 15%, that we should think about output management and print of both side of the paper. The real reduction comes with the train travel, even that takes 5 hours instead of flying, it is economy and no, there is no any kind of lounge involved. The real reduction comes with a budget when one department doesn't even have resources to go out for a beer when the colleagues. and the worse of all, ones should pay for coffee.Here it is way different then Denmark or I guess any Scandinavian country. But it is nice to see inside out. it is nice to experience a different style boss, even something tells me, he reminds me wy to much about myself. It is interesting to get to know another business, another set of rules, another behavior code, etc. It is tough, I admire. Tougher then I thought. I am hanging in there but a cultural/corporate shock is still there.