In the back of my mind I hear the lyrics of “I’m leaving on a jet plane”, by John Denver. Whenever I’m about to embark on a long trip of sorts, I’m excited to pack up my bags and leave everything in order for while I’m gone. Today, I write to you from Arlanda Airport in Stockholm between quite a layover. I’m on my way to the San Francisco Bay Area to say good bye for now to California as my parents move to the Netherlands. Then, my youngest brother Ivar and I take off on our road trip through the United States and Canada. When I’m back I’ll be spending two more months in the Netherlands before moving to Bologna, Italy in August (See about trip to Bologna here).
PEX Life and ConHIT in Berlin
More below photos
The last week I’ve spent at the Connecting Healthcare IT conference in Berlin, together with PEX Life and a group of Dutch Health tech companies. As Arjen Huizinga, the Managing Director of PEX Life, says, this conference is my farewell tour from the company. This was my last week at PEX Life, where I’ve been working in Sales and Business Development over the last 8 months. I have to stand still and thanks Arjen and Dirk Jan Dokman from CX Company for giving me the opportunity to work with them in what must have been an unusual arrangement. I’ve learned an incredible amount not only in job skills, but also in life management. One valuable lesson from the latter was to not overload myself with being busy, and prioritize properly. It was great working at PEX Life, as I learned much more about the eHealth field, but was also given enough room to complete work in ways that I saw as most effective. Going with the company to both Dublin in November, and Berlin this last week were eye opening experiences.
Though I’ve been to Berlin twice before, this third time was really the charm for me. Being able to put together all of the places I’d seen before in Berlin together on my mind’s map made the city more understandable to me. Of course, the beautiful weather helped to. On the advice of one of the participants, I took the extra time I had yesterday evening to check out the Pergamon Museum. The museum hosts the literal gates to cities of antiquity, which were excavated from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Reconstruction of the precessional corridor and gateway to Babylon was absolutely stunning. Within the museum, there was additionally the Museum of Islamic Art. It was an amazing show of art of the Middle East, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Berlin.
If you’re going to San Fran-cis-cooooo
Talking about songs, I’ve been sung to about “putting flowers in your hair” multiple times over the last couple weeks as I’ve shared my upcoming road trip plans. It’s been great to hear the enthusiasm and ideas about which national parks are must sees and other highlights along the way. I’m taking this road trip not only to enjoy everything along the way, but to experiment with some ideas. I’ve packed lightly for this trip, with one carry-on suitcase with all my clothes, and my backpack holding my Macbook Pro, USB Microphone, my dSLR camera, and some other small gadgets. As my brothers and I explore the route, I hope to be able to capture some great content both audio for podcasts and photos for the blog and for fun. In this way, I hope I can find interesting people to interview, and continue developing my writing style and questioning skills. Having Ivar along the way, a natural talker, will be of great help to this regard. Since we will have alot of time on the road, there will be many more learning moments including our attempt to learn Italian with an audio course. Updates about that will be sure to come.
In the mean time, I’m on my way to California. It will be a short stay but I’m incredibly excited. If you have any tips for a cross-country USA road trip, do let me know!
