Last night at dinner I got a pat on the shoulder from the guys. Usually they help me translate the menu and order for me. I started to ask S- to ask them if I could order the fish but substitute potatoes for rice. When the waiter came I stopped S- and decided to try for myself. The waiter understood me and the guys were very surprised! Before everyone is impressed with my german all I did was point to the fish on the menu and said "mit jasminreis" klein which means I ordered the small portion of fish with jasmin rice. I had learned that J is pronounced like Y so I really did say it right. Since I've been here I found that the germans do like it when you make an effort to learn their language.
Yesterday morning I went for a walk through town and got some great shots with the morning light. It was quiet with only a few people around. I was amazed at how pretty the town was. We haven't really had time to explore. Our assignment is in Porta which is 20km away and we are staying in the town of Bad Oeynhausen which is known for its spa clinics. Bad means bath and it's refering to the thermal bath houses that are around. It's killing me that I won't have the opportunity to take advantage of the spas!. I keep hoping that I could at least take in a massage at a small day spa around the corner from our hotel but it closes at 8pm. This week we have been leaving the office around 8, then go to dinner and are back at the hotel 9-10pm.
We were doing so great with our time schedule but on Tuesday our boss (who was is in China right now) threw a curveball and made an agreement without the team's knowledge. Ofcourse the guys were so pissed and upset over it. I think it was when they started drinking beer at dinner! Things worked out but it gave me a good learning opportunity on how it was handled.
Tonight we had dinner outside again. The guys talked me into having a caphrinia with dinner. I think I drank a quarter of it and poured the rest into Guido's glass. I thought I ordered spaghetti but instead I got a strange dish of flat noodles with small pieces of beefsteak. Oh well, it was good. Even though our big meeting is not until tomorrow afternoon we felt like celebrating tonight. It was the usual banter with E making fun of the germans and S and G making fun of the Turkish. For now they are leaving me out of the line of fire but I'm not sure how long that will last. Tonight I taught them some more lessons on american slang. I announced my nicknames for them. S- is Bulldog because he just latches on to something and won't let go. He has thick skin because we make fun of him so much and it just bounces right off him. He is our stick-by-the-rule guy but is very knowledgable in all areas. I called E our GQ guy because he dresses so fashionable and is very well spoken. I love his Turkish accent. He didn't understand GQ so we are going to buy him the magazine tomorrow. On the way back to the hotel the guys wanted to stop by the restaurant next to our hotel and have another round of drinks. It was such a nice night to sit outside (in the 60's). I went up to my room and grabbed my dice game LCR. We had fun playing a few rounds.
I have been learning about other colleagues on the team. I'm hoping my experiences with these colleagues will be just as nice. I've learned so much in the last two weeks. All three guys have been super patient with me. They have such a great sense of humour so even though it was a LOT of work it has also been fun. I'm amazed at some of the heated debate and how quickly they cool down and come to an agreement. I guess it's the maturity level but they argue but quickly move on. There's no sulking or holding grudges that I've seen in other working environments.
It's going to be a long day tomorrow. I have a deadline to turn in a document for my asia assignment, we have the final meeting with the site and then have to finalize the report. It will be at least 8pm before we can head back for DD and probably 10:30 before I'm home.
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