Christmas 2011 and Good News

Well, most of our stuff was moved out today and I'm left here with my computer and a book, so I have no excuse not to update the blog (we are moving back to the US next week).  Before I give a summary of our Christmas, I have some great news to share: I got a job!  And since this blog is only shared with family and close friends, I feel like this is a safe place where I can give some more details about how this miracle happened because it is really a crazy story.

Back in November, I started e-mailing around to my contacts in space physics to see what the hiring environment might be when I get back to the US.  It wasn't as great as I had hoped, so I decided to branch out and prepare resumes for the tech industry as a data analyst.  I had many years of experience doing data analyst work in science, but I did not have the business or programming background recommended for most of the job listings I saw.  Well, I started applying in December and only got back rejections, if I heard anything at all.  On the second Tuesday in January, after receiving a rejection letter that morning from a company, I applied for a data analyst position at a start-up called Glassdoor.com.  I didn't really know anything about them, but their job requirements sounded vague enough that they might give me a shot.  That night, I got an email from them asking if I wanted to chat some time that week.  What a quick response!  So I prepared all Wednesday and Thursday for my first interview (there were a lot of firsts in this process) over the phone Thursday night.  I did well enough, but not fantastic, though the guy seemed to already like me, so that was great.  I then had two more phone interviews the next night and they still liked me after that.  They wanted to meet me in person, so I convinced them to fly me out for an in-person interview, but they wanted me as soon as possible.  Luckily it's January and there are cheap plane tickets to be had last-minute, and Darren had to go back to the US anyways, so I booked a ticket Friday night to leave Tuesday morning with him.

We arrived in California Tuesday night and I drove out to the office Wednesday morning for my all-day interview.  I did well during some parts and just okay in others, but at times I felt like my skills weren't good enough that they weren't going to hire me, though in the end they did give me an offer letter!  After they checked my references, they sent me the offer, I signed it, and by 5 pm on Friday, I had a job!  In nine days, I went from sending in an application to having a job!  It was so crazy and I still don't understand why they liked me or how I got so lucky when I made a lot of novice interview mistakes, but I'm not taking this opportunity for granted!  The commute will be tough from where we want to live, but after 17 months of easy living, it's time to have some challenges.  So now we have to get back to the regular blog posts!  I need to catch up so I can do some final Swiss posts before we leave.

Darren and I were able to go home for Christmas again this year and it really was a great trip all around.  Since Darren had to go to California before Christmas for work, I flew to Dallas to visit with some of my family.  Since I hadn’t been back in the US for a year, I had a lot of fun reveling in all the little things that are different from Europe.  I ate really cheap food, I went out to restaurants and got my free water refilled four times, and I reveled in the variety of cereals available.  I hadn’t bought any new clothes for a year because they are so expensive in Europe (well more expensive than I think they are worth), so I enjoyed picking up some essentials with my favorite shopping partner, my mom (seriously best shopping partner ever).  Just to point out that I do remember Christmas is a time to buy gifts for others, I was an excellent helper with getting my mom’s Christmas shopping done.

It was also fun just to do normal family activities together.  We had some great meals at home, but we also went out to one of our favorite restaurants, Café Madrid, one night.  Afterwards, we went and looked at Christmas lights in the neighborhood.

My brother and sister-in-law

Me and my mom

My mom and step-dad

We also made dozens and dozens of cinnamon rolls and while every year they are good, this year I think it was one of the best batches we’ve made.  I had three just that day.  They take a long time to make because the dough has to rise several times, so usually we have to wake up early, which I usually protest.  But since I was still jet-lagged, waking up at 5 am was no problem. :)

Rolling out the dough and putting them in the pan to cook

I also got to spend a lot of time with my brother and sister-in-law since they were off because they work for schools.  We hung out in their awesome new house that they moved into over the summer.  It's kind of crazy my brother and I are old enough that we are married and buying houses.  I guess we are adults now.

After a fantastic week in Texas, I flew to Utah to meet up with Darren in order to spend the holidays with Darren's family and see some of my dad's family as well.  All the Baker kids and spouses made an effort to be together for the holidays this year since Darren's youngest sister was leaving on a mission soon after.  She left on January 11th and after she spends several weeks in the training center in Provo, she will be spending the rest of her 18 months in South Korea (she is already doing a great job on learning the language, we hear).  So it was really great everyone could make it home this Christmas to be with her before she left.

Christmas was really fun because we first went to an hour of church and then came home and opened presents.  I think it was a great way to start the day.  After lunch, Darren and I drove down to spend time with my dad's family and have Christmas dinner with them.  I had a lot of fun chatting with family that I hadn't seen since we moved.  After that, a group of us went up to see the lights on Temple Square.  Though, since it was Sunday, a lot of the buildings you can visit on Temple Square were closed!  Whoops, guess we'll go at a different time next time.

The Robison/Peterson group after a great Christmas dinner

Me, my dad, and my little brother braving the cold

Love this picture of us next to this beautiful temple

We had a lot of other fun family activities with Darren's family and extended family while we were there.  I think all the parties we attended were really fun and I could tell people put a lot of effort into making them so.  We also had a fantastic farewell party for Rachelle where any of her friends and extended family could see her one last time and a lot of people came!  While we were there, we also took some family pictures since it will be a while before all of us are together again.

The cute Baker family

Darren's brother got into Duke, so we took a picture with shirts from all our colleges

After a fun time in Utah, I actually went back to Texas for a day since my round trip from Zurich was booked through there.  I had a chance to see some of my California family for a bit before all of us visitors flew back to our respective houses the next day.

The Williams cousins

I flew back to Zurich, while Darren went back to California to work.  It was a little bit depressing to fly home by myself, but I had some great motivation for being in Europe the first weekend in January, which I will cover next time! :)