Caracas

It is sort of unnerving to return to a place after ten years. Especially if you lived in that place for two years. You feel as if you should know the place, and indeed it seems familiar, but in a déjà vu sort of way. The roads have names you recognize, but you don’t know where they go. The buildings look familiar, but not enough to walk into. You think you can find your way around, and yet you are lost. You think about the route you took home everyday, the drive to the country, the streets you knew took you to your clients. But they just don’t seem to be the same.

The offices I visited I have visited many times before. But all the players have changed. That should be expected after ten years, but because of the oil strike of a couple of years ago, the corporate memory is gone also. From my standpoint it is neither good nor bad, it just is. The people I meet want to like our stuff, and I think that they will. They want to BUY our stuff, and I think that they will.

I was much younger than I am now when I lived here. To me, it was the biggest adventure of my life, and I thought it was the coolest thing that anyone could possibly do. The coolest job that anyone could possibly have. Working overseas, especially in a “hard duty” post was what I had wanted to do for years. Coming back here makes me just a tiny bit nostalgic. But more for the feeling than the experience. I have had all the experiences that I need. But that desire to be at the front of the pack, the drive to experience it all was something else.

Expats are funny. I have written about that life before, and I probably will again. I think I mentioned about the expat game where you talk about how cool it was before the new guy got here. I still see people playing that game.

I am hoping to have dinner tomorrow with someone I used to work with here. More on that later, I hope.