I just got back from a business trip to Redmond. My primary objective was to see my team, to meet my skip-managers and to talk to my manager. I successfully accomplished my mission and even exceeded it. We went out 3 times in 2 days. We had a team lunch, a few folks joined me to go to Seattle for a little drink and we had a cross-team building bowling activity on the day of my departure. I tend to think I had the brightest journey among all MCDC folks . No doubts SNAC team is the best!

My impressions are very diverse. On one hand I see a tremendous boost option in moving to US. You can participate the meetings in person, you can find an advice as fast as walk in someone's office. You can make an impact with your opinion. On the other hand you can't survive in US without a car. Seattle is much bigger than Vancouver but it's also a way dirtier. I love walking but you can't walk in Seattle. Don't know about the night life though but from my tiny experience I learned that Vancouver is much more active at night.

I guess I need to see Puget Sound a couple more times to develop a solid opinion on business/life balance. My trip pictures are posted here.