Well, it’s been a busy 2 weeks, spent most of my time looking for an apartment at the end of week 1 and then most of the rest of the time trying to convince them that I’m not a criminal — just because I don’t have a social security number!!

Got back to the social security office, remember I’ve been sent back as they didn’t have my entry processed, and they go through my details ans give me a reference number and tell me that I’ll know in anything up to 4 weeks. Nice. In the meantime — my apartment now needs a guarantor… plus 2 months rent up front. Plus security deposit. Ahhh… what fun. Next stop — car insurance…. looks like to be expensive and may not happen until I get the… you guessed it, social security number! On the plus side, I can fill the can for $36 dollars :) And car prices are pretty decent. The upside of the recession I guess.

On the plus side, I’ve been having some good times, bowling one night was fun — including the incredulous looks I got when the guy who was giving me bowling shoes asked me what size I was to which I could only honestly reply: “I don’t know!” and then take off my shoes and read the label on my shoes (thankfully they had the american size as well as EU and UK written on them) — but they guy clearly thought I was missing more than one or two marbles.

Saturday was a good day, I looked at some furniture that was OK, more on that later, but then I went shopping — lots of goodies for less than $50 — and the shoes are far enough away from any borrowing *cough* sisters to keep them safe!

Last weekend on Sunday I drove past a little park in the middle of a housing estate, that’s one of things about Atlanta, it’s full of trees and parks and lots of little places that aren’t marked on the maps! I sat here for about an hour or two just reading a book and having lunch on a bench — it’s was really nice — thankfully it wasn’t crazy humid.

Best of all, there were a few little creatures floating around to keep me company.

One of the things I was missing about work in Dublin was having a park next door, while it’s not the same, the “Garden Level” in the office block is quite nice and has some amazing views.

One of the views is of the lovely buildings called the King and Queen buildings, they’re quite pretty!

They also look nice at night, I had no tripod with me, so it’s quite a shaky picture, but you get the idea:

(yes, that is the roof of my car in the lower part of the picture).

The view from my desk has the best view in the place (trees, grass, etc), but turning slightly it overlooks the car park, and when it rains, it’s just like home:

The rain can be torrential, but is usually over in minutes. I’ve seen lightening at least twice a week since I got here! The humidity is the worst part, you really do end up running from car (air con) to buldings (air con) — and surprisingly it seems to be just as warm in the evenings, 6pm feels sweltering, going out at night usually needs shorts… a bit like Bermuda, but more sweltering — no sea breezes I think is why.

I’m starting to get my desk a little more organised, got some photos from home, and the other picture pinned up is Mr Men representations of all the people in the office I did when I was in really late one night waiting for other folks.

It’s kinda cool too, we’ve just got a Bell installed, that they ring when there’s a deal signed, ala Lloyd’s and the NY Stock Exchange — already there’s a great buzz around it in the office, generally results in cheers and claps from us and visits from our co-workers in different business units — it’s a real conversation piece — the trick is to get it when no one is looking — and it’s right behind my head so I’m generally the one who jumps!

There’s always a certain amount of slagging over my “Irish” accent, the number 3 amuses people to no end, we’ve also started a translation board to help people out…

Speaking of Games, I’ve finally managed to master Blokus I think…. first of many victories :)

More next time!