My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

OK. That's not really true. I still haven't packed, but I think that I am ready to go. Jason and I are going to have quite a busy couple of weeks. I fly from Boston to London Sunday morning at 8am, arriving in London at 8pm. I'll be on the same flight as one of my co-workers, so we'll share a car that will drive us the two hours to Cambridge. For the week I'm in Cambridge I'll be sharing a two-bedroom apartment with another co-worker who will have been in the apartment for a day already by the time I arrive.

Monday morning at 8am we'll be driven to the office to start the work week. We have some topics planned to cover during the week to take advantage of the face time we'll have. I'm excited to see some people I usually see only once a year at the Supercomputing conference, and some people I'll be meeting in person for the first time even though we've worked together for over two years. It will also be fun to take part in our Monday team meeting from the other side of the video conference.

While I'll be working regular hours Monday through Thursday, I think the UK team has some fun planned for us too. Our visit purposely coincides with the Cambridge Beer Festival, so we'll be spending our evenings sampling local brews. I also found out today that we'll be going punting on the river. It's a hobby of a co-worker of mine, so it should be a fun adventure.
Friday morning I'll head from Cambridge to London's Gatwick airport for the true start of my vacation. I fly directly to Venice, Italy, where I will meet up with Jason and his mom. They will have arrived three hours earlier from Boston via Zurich.

While on travel I will not be using my phone. Since I will be working next week, I will have my laptop with me and I will be able to email (via Gmail) and Skype. Jason and I plan to keep in touch the first week via Skype video chat. I'll also try to post pictures as we take them.