# Summer 2019


This is something of a post-summer retrospective. I
[graduated](/blog/2019/05/22/On-Graduating-or-What-to-Optimize-For/) in May, and
"took the summer off" to work on personal projects and travel.  I
haven't posted much this summer and, since I'm adjusting to a new job, probably
won't have much to post about in the next couple months. So, I thought it'd be
fun to write a overview of what I've been up to.

To start the summer, I trained for and ran my first **half marathon**. It was
way more fun than I expected. I picked a great time of year to do training runs
in the Seattle area. The weather was just warm enough to be pleasant – and all
the greenery was blooming.

![View from a Training Run](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/trainingRun.jpg)

I ran the Seattle "Rock 'n' Roll" Half Marathon. Despite some newbie mistakes
(e.g. not getting to my time corral early enough, and having to wade through a
huge crowd), everything went great day-of. My primary goal was to just finish
the race, and I had a secondary goal of finishing in under 2:15:00. My time
ended up being sub-2hours, which I'm proud of.

![](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/halfMarathon.jpg)

During the few weeks that I was training, I also polished and shipped **my first
iOS App**, [Messy](/blog/2019/05/28/Introducing-Messy-An-iOS-Grid-Puzzle-Game/).
Unsurprisingly, it didn't take the world by storm. However, it (still) has a
couple dozen active users, which I'm more than happy with. It was a fun
experience, and I learned a lot about a different type of programming than I
normally do.

Shortly after the half-marathon, I went on a quick trip to **Rocky Mountain
National Park** with some extended family. We didn't get quite so lucky
weather-wise; it rained one of the days we were there. However, we did get one
really excellent day of hiking in.

![Loch Vale in Rocky Mountain National Park](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/lochVale.jpg)

Next, I visited **NYC** with some friends. It was (by my standards) quite hot
and humid. NYC felt immense, especially in the summer. My "tour guide" was a
[friend](https://www.joshdunigan.com) who lives in the city. I ended up spending
a lot of time in the Lower East Side, especially in the Ukrainian Village. We
walked through various parks and neighborhoods, saw a show at Comedy Underground
and, of course, ate some tasty bagels and pizza.

![NYC](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/nyc.jpg)

From NYC, I took a train up to **Boston**. I was born in the Boston area and
later transplanted to Seattle. It's been a while since I've been back to my
hometown, so it was fun to reconnect with family friends and see childhood
locations that have (fortunately) largely remained unchanged. I love Boston's
public transit system, and had a lot of fun bouncing around the city on the
[T](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBTA_subway).

![Boston](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/boston.jpg)

A week later, my Dad and I flew to **Ireland**. We spent a couple days in
Dublin, and then drove to Ireland's east coast and stayed in BNBs in Dingle and
Galway. My Dad's side of the family is from Ireland, but neither of us had ever
visited. It's a beautiful country.

Ireland drives on the left side of the road and many of its roads are extremely
narrow. So, we had some harrowing adventures zipping along the Irish
countryside. (I was in the passenger seat the whole time, holding on to the
armrests with white knuckles.)

![Ireland](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/ireland.jpg)

Then, I had a 2 day stopover in **London**. I'd been to London once before, but
it was part of an organized tour, so I didn't get a chance to explore the city
by myself. My impression of London now that I visited it solo? Wow. London has a
lot to see and do – in many ways, it felt like NYC: so huge and varied that
you'd need several weeks to experience a representative sample of everything.

I particularly enjoyed visiting the Tate Modern art museum, and Borough Market –
a street market with fresh produce and quality food products from all over
Europe.

![London](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/london.jpg)

Next, I hopped from London to **Bratislava, Slovakia** where I attended a Slovak
language and cultural immersion course for 3 weeks. I have extended family that
lives in Bratislava, who I've visited a couple times. While there isn't a huge
language barrier (all of the "younger generation" speak English fluently) I've
always wanted to learn Slovak. My Mom speaks Slovak, but I never learned it.

![Bratislava](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/bratislava.jpg)

I didn't really know what I was getting myself in to, but it ended up being an
incredibly rewarding experience on many levels.
[SAS](https://fphil.uniba.sk/katedry-a-odborne-pracoviska/sas/), the course I
participated in, draws people from all around the world (mostly Europe and North
America, but there were also a fair number of people from Asia). So, on top of
learning Slovak, there was a great deal of cultural exchange with other
countries. I became friends with people from Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden,
Finland, and Romania.

I also really enjoyed living a European-paced life for a few weeks. Grocery
stores had tons of fresh bread, beer was cheap, and I got to eat Slovak food
that is difficult or impossible to find in the US. My favorites were
_kapustnica_, a sauerkraut soup, and the "national dish of Slovakia", _bryndzové
halusky_, which is potato dumplings with a special regional sheep cheese. I got
to run along the Danube river every morning, which never got old.

As part of the course, we also went on a trip around Slovakia. It's a smaller
country, so you can see a lot in just a few days. Highlights of the trip
included: hiking in the
[High Tatras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Tatras), visiting an immense
cave full of mineral formations
([Demänovská Cave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demänovská_Cave_of_Liberty)),
and touring an old silver and gold mine
([Banská Štiavnica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bansk%C3%A1_%C5%A0tiavnica)).

![](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/slovakia.jpg)

All that without even discussing the language course itself! I really enjoyed
learning Slovak. It was fun studying a subject where I was highly motivated and
immersed in an environment that supported the learning. We covered a crazy
amount of grammar and vocabulary in the short 3 weeks we had… Of course, I'm
still internalizing it all, but it was quite intellectually and personally
satisfying.

After my language course ended, I flew back to Seattle and (almost) immediately
flew to Mountain View to start my orientation at Google. Summer is over! Back to
work! I "officially" started at **Google Cloud** in Seattle this week. I'm still
getting settled in, but I'm super excited to be doing "real work" again.

![First Day at Work](https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2019/09/05/Summer-2019/google.jpg)

I value travel because it knocks you out of your routine and nudges you to
consider viewpoints outside your quotidian bubble. Coming off this summer of
traveling, I've been sufficiently knocked out of my old routines – and I'm
looking forward to establishing new ones. It is an immense privilege to have the
time and resources to go on a trip like this. I don't take that lightly. This
summer had an ineffable "once-in-a-lifetime" quality; I'm so thankful everything
fell into place the way it did.