Vipassana

May, 24th

in an attempt to take a break and calm down after my last working day, i booked a meditation seminar with the german vipassana-center. Quiteness, no words spoken for 10 days, meditating 10 hrs a day.. to make a long story short: i stopped after 3 days :) - was not the right way for me, i should have prepared better, i guess...but anyway dont know if meditation is sort of my way..

i return to Freiburg to prepare the Mountain Trekking Tour starting mid june in the french pyrenees, where in the first two weeks my brother Stefan will join. I hope that traversing the pyrenees from the mediterranean to the atlantique will bring back calm.



Die Pyrenäen nochmal zu durchwandern war richtig, es bringt ruhe, zeit zum nachdenken, einen klaren Kopf, ein paar überflüssige Pfunde weniger und nette neue Kontakte. Gerade habe ich keine Lust, viele Details zur 2007 Tour zu schreiben - ich möchte erstmal schnell bis zum heutigen Datum kommen (please understand). Nur soviel: es gibt den Plan, im Jahr 2008 eine 3-wöchige Best-of-Pyrenäen Tour zu machen und ich will das auf jeden Fall machen. Wann genau müssen wir mal schauen....doch ich werde genug Urlaub haben, weiß nur noch nicht ob ich 3-4 Wochen am Stück nehmen kann...mal sehen ob das Projekt das hergibt...

Leaving Capgemini

Wednesday, february 28th

leaving capgemini. my first job. on february 28th my resignation shakes the organization. i am surprised what happens when you decide to leave. organizations seem to be incapable of reacting early enough even if they know. my boss talks to me. tries to understand why i want to leave. i did not resign for a strategic reason but realize that this is the best opportunity to negotiate salary, promotion - queer! i explain again my reasons for dissapointment. don't know if he understands. i tell him i don't believe things will change in the future. we discuss about structure, loyality, promises broken - i truly respect the wish to keep me in the organization. but i feel that its too late. it is strange to understand that resigning seems to be a call for action for an organization. it is hard to understand for my boss that i decide to leave without a "clear option" - as he puts it. my option is clear to me. i want to widen up my narrowed horizon, want to see the light again at the end of the tunnel. and i cannot change my life while staying in a consulting organization. true i dont know nothin about my future, where i will go, what i will do. Sure as nothing i need to stop first what it is not...

the next 3 months until the end of May proof to me that i took the right decision... i want to see the world i live in...my horizon widens again...opportunities and possibilities start taking over...everything seems possible...this feels good :)

in the end i know today that people follow primarily their own beliefs and interests. i dont think i will ever go back to my old organization. i learned a lot (which i realize today) - but you need to go on to be able to use your knowledge...so lets go on :)

how it all started

February 27th - Zurich, Lobby of Zürichberg-Hotel, around 21:00

Today I have decided to resign from a well-paid and career-promising consulting job after long months of dissapointment and thinking. i recall having talked about this resign with friends and family for more than a year and remember that some of them stopped believing i ever would :)

This tuesday evening i am not excited anymore, rather i feel calm - the decision is taken and it feels good, relieving and right. i have written and signed my resignation letter many times these last february days - how frightening it felt to hold this paper in my hands in the beginning. i trembled when i test-signed it the first time...crazy.

This evening though i enter the lobby, heading to the reception desk, this signed letter in my hand, ready to have it faxed to HR right after check-in...I have Haiko on the cellphone..we start talking while i commentlessly handover the letter to the receptionist "please fax this to the above number" -she realizes the content and stares at me with eyes wide-open "but...." . I look up to her, smiling "its ok...just send it" - no emotions any more - decision taken, i will be out of this consulting by the end of May. Exactly 2 years - i remember my parents saying "you should not go before 2 years" - Punktlandung.

a short introduction

Dear all,

welcome to my blog which i finally managed to start writing some 3 weeks after leaving germany on 21.11.2007. i hope and know from several emails that many of you are waiting for the news - so i hope you forgive me for being late. this blog is for you and me: to remember, to tell, to comment, to never forget, to ask, to help and to whatever it can be used for in the future. to give it a little bit of a structure i will start by resuming the past weeks and months before using it as an up-to-date resource. As there's a history to this work-and-travel-around-the-globe project...i will start out in feb 2007

you may wonder why it is in english and signed with misterhey... the language may change from time to time but one thing seems to remain constant over time. Arriving in indonesia with rather bright skin and more than one head taller than everybody makes you special in some waya...the indonesian way to address this is simple...Realizing you as a stranger or "bulet" (bahasa indonesia for "foreigner") they smile to you and say "hey mister, how are you?"...followed by various attempts to offer you anything that could sell...hard to get rid of them once you reply to this ;)

so i chose to be misterhey for the time being...