Life After Uruguay (LAU)

I am writing this post from North America, having flown back last weekend. My eleven weeks in Uruguay passed very quickly and now I am moving on to whatever is next. In the immediate future I have two weeks of vacation time to relax and decompress. I have a ton of pictures to sort through, family to reconnect with, and the longer effects of food poisoning to fight through. I have about eight more blog posts concerning Uruguay scheduled, so you are going to see some more about Uruguay as I finish out my experience from a blog perspective.

Last week was a week of many, many sad farewells. I had four holiday parties, a farewell dinner, and a farewell party. The party I missed because I was laid low with a nasty bug that took me down and still has not yet fully released me. In some ways the gentle care I received from those around me was the best kind of farewell. Some things can not be put into words.

Am I happy to be back? That is a hard question with no easy answer. My work had a very singular purpose in Uruguay, which was refreshing and invigorating. I focused on whatever I thought would help Clausen the most. I really miss all of my newfound friends and colleagues in Uruguay. It was nice to eat in great restaurants every night and to have someone else worry about the cleaning and laundry. On the other hand, it is great to be home with Elly and Sammy the dog. I can go outside here without being sun burnt. Spending holidays with family is nice and normally with my family I do not see them nearly enough in the regular course of the year. I am now enjoying many of my favorite foods and luxuriating in my book collection, magazines, etc.

So what comes next? After a few weeks of vacation, I will move onto another client. There are a couple ideas floating around, but nothing definite yet. I will be putting together a presentation about my Fellows experience to share with some local EY offices to build support for the program and to possibly recruit a few people from my region to apply next year.

The blog I will be continuing, though will a slightly different focus. Up to now, the main focus has been on interesting things I have seen and done in Uruguay. Going forward, I hope to keep you interest with more travel dispatches, food and restaurants, ruminations about the state of the world, and whatever else I think will be of interest. It will still serve the same purpose of being a way for me to keep in touch with friends wherever you may be.