Month: December 2015

Moving to a new country is exciting, but the logistics are slightly more complicated for temporary-long term moves. Here’s a synthesis of the tips I’m getting from friends who have already done the move.

Banking

In my research I didn’t find one great credit card to rule them all. People seem to love the Capital One for their excellent customer service and kind attention to foreign fees. You may want to consider getting a local bank account and credit card if you want to start building credit abroad. Regardless, the most important factors are

• no international fees
• no annual fees
• points or cash back bonuses
• no atm fees
• credit card has a chip

Phone

Transfer your phone number to Google Voice to keep getting messages from the US while you’re overseas.

1. Start this process by unlocking your phone
2. Once you get to your new city (or a day before departure) transfer your phone number to Google Voice. This will cancel your US phone plan.
3. In your new city, buy a local SIM card for your unlocked phone.
4. If you travel to other nearby cities often, you can buy pre-paid simcards and swap them out so you can text/call local numbers

Some rely mostly on Facebook Messenger and Facetime for text, voice, and messaging communication. This makes sense if you want to avoid giving out your new phone number.

Mail

The US Post Office will forward your mail for one year (in six month chunks) for $1.05. Mail is sent piece by piece. You can also forward your mail to a P.O. Box which is fairly straight forward if a friend will sort your mail. Or you can have the P.O. Box mail forwarded to your new address but according to Quora that’s become slightly more difficult since 9/11.

I’ve had a hard time as an artist in San Francisco. I came here for the creative communities, and I love them. But I haven’t developed this part of myself as much as I wanted or expected.  The options that feel available are to become a programmer, muralist, or some kind of hand-crafted artisan. That’s not me.

What I see in Berlin inspires me. The fashion, installations, form, photography styles, public art, music (of course), and their relationship to politics, identity, and expression. It speaks to me.

I want to use my time in Berlin to connect with artists to see other creative paths. I believe the thing I want to do in the future is already in motion. But right now, it’s too small to see how much it could matter with more attention. Here’s the activity I want to try to unlock some ideas. I hope you’ll try it too. Please tell me how it goes 🙂

The Creative Path Activity

Supplies:

• small stack of paper
• 1 sharpie marker
• timer
• Quiet, happy place

Step 1: The artist high

Set a timer for 8 minutes. Title this piece of paper artist high and write down all the times in the last 3-5 years you felt elevated by doing or making something. That’s the feeling you get while and after you make or do something and everything clicks. Think about the times your mind, body, spirit, and environment were resonating at the same frequency.

You were in the zone and barely thinking, just blissfully doing. Perhaps afterwards you were visibly glowing and feeling charged yet also at peace. List everything from writing music to going on a long drive. Write at least 10 memories. You can do it. I know it. If you come up with more than 10, even better.

Step 2: Top three memories

Re-read the list. Without judgement, circle the three happiest, highest memories. Which ones sent you to the moon? They felt like gifts to yourself, not great heavy efforts.

Step 3: Find common ground

Take out a new piece of paper and title it common ground. Make a new list of what attributes were the same during each of your circled activity. For example: always outdoors, best when in collaboration, seems to only work at night, has a relationship with using colors, doesn’t require much setup, etc. Write at least 10 common attributes.

Step 4: Top three attributes

Re-read the list. Without judgement, circle the three best attributes. Which ones speak to you? Which do you care most about, excite you? They seem like something you could pickup and do tomorrow without much effort.

Now you might know that you like making music and cocktails. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should become a musician or bartender. It might mean that you like making things for other people to enjoy, or you care about the sensory experience, or maybe you just like doing things at night. This is why the attributes activity is so important. It lets you build on experiences you’ve had but also lets invites you to try something new.

Step 5: New activities

Ok, back to making lists. Take out your third piece of paper and title it creative path and reset the timer for 8 minutes. Start listing new activities that have all three of your attributes in common. List things you haven’t done before. It’s ok to write things you don’t even think you’d want to do. Right now, just write. What activities have all three things you figured out you love in common? Maybe giving city tours and co-writing a book show up because you find out you love collaborating, thinking about your city, and sharing information. Stay open to ideas. Keep writing.

Step 6: New activities

This is the last step. Read over your list. What stands out to you? Which is the one that’s obviously exciting, a little on the edge, somewhat scary, and looks like something you’re surprised you’re not already doing? Circle that activity. On the same sheet of paper, write down one thing you will do this week that puts that activity in motion.

Try it out for a while. If it works, keep it going. If not, lather, rinse, repeat. I’m going to try this. I’m excited to see what comes out!

I’m moving to Berlin for a year after what feels like a lifetime in San Francisco. Pivotal Labs is opening a new office in the city where East meets West. I’m going to help work with clients, hire designers, get our name out in the community, and setup the office.

It’s easy to be blinded by the sexiness of moving to a cool city and overlook the work it takes to make a new office feel natural and comfortable in just a year. But that’s the challenge and I’m game.

Of course, I’m wildly excited. I’ve been to Germany several times with my family and I spent some time in Berlin nearly a decade ago. That pic above is me with my favorite part of Berlin: Doner Kebab.

Everyone tells me the city has changed so much since then. It’s a place that’s always changing, with people coming in and out, with wonderful reasons to love it, and real city problems that are hard to solve. But if anything, that sounds a lot like San Francisco. Living in the United States, and on the West Coast no less, is quite isolating. I’m moving to be closer political world in Europe and closer to the Middle East, Africa, and even parts of Asia. I want to be immersed and engaged in world affairs.

I hope I’ll evolve my design philosophies. As a minimalism enthusiast, I want to live and breath the less is more philosophy where it’s the norm not the exception. I want to practice training up a small design team. Someday I think I’ll be a creative director or do something like help run a design shop. I want opinions and practice doing that. And this goes without saying, but I’m going listen to electronic music a lot.

This move is not to escape my life in San Francisco, start over, or eat-pray-love reinvent myself. I just have a few things I want to learn and Berlin is the best city for me to do that.

But, the transition period is chaotic. Here’s the minutia about what I’ve been thinking about:

• Am I making a sound and thoughtful decision if I really, actually want to pick up my personal life for my work? I’ve always prided myself on coming to San Francisco for music, people, art, nature and great work opportunities. It personally struggled with moving to a creative city also facing gentrification since I’ll primarily coming as a tech person.
• Will my work visa come on time?
• What’s it like there with so many refugees in the city? Is Berlin safe? Is it less safe for Indians?
• What stuff do I want to bring with me? If I don’t need it in Berlin, do I need it at all? So I sold my car, my bike, and donated lots of personal belongings. It was a true konmari.
• What will it be like having a new manager?
• Who else is going to Berlin? Do I want to work with them? Do they want to work with me?
• How much will I miss San Francisco’s everything-on-demand conveniences?
• What’s the right phone plan for me? Will I fall off the face of the earth without my US number?
• Do I need to change bank accounts?
• What’s healthcare like abroad? I had to put a rush on getting my wisdom teeth out.
• How does my roommate feel about my move?
• What do I want to do with my mail?
• When should my family visit?
• Will too many people visit? Will no one visit? Will I have time?
• Where do I want to live? Will I like the choices offered by the relocation company?
• What kinds of designers do I want to hire in Berlin?
• What’s the best way to transfer the designers who report to me to their new managers?
• How the heck am I going to keep doing the work I need to do locally so I have a good exit?
• Am I really prepared for Berlin winters?
• When will I have time to learn German?
• Will I make friends? Will I enjoy dating?
• I have too much to do right now, do I have time to go to the gym?
• Who do I need to spend time with before I go? Is there time to get together once more?
• I’m going to do a lot of things solo for the next year. Is that ok?
• I’m going to miss home sometimes. Is that ok?
• I’m going to love it! Will I love it too much? Will I want to stay forever?
• What am I forgetting?

The list obviously goes on. I’ve done two other big moves in my life (first for college, then to San Francisco). I’ve worked in London and Tokyo. Joining a foreign professional environment is exciting but also hard. There are a lot of cultural norms to learn quickly while also trying to the job like a local. But it’s great and I keep re-learning people around the world are good, kind, and want to help. At this point, it’s been so much work and planning, I’m ready to be there already.

Ok! Let’s go!

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