What is it about me and my timing? Should I expect a volcano eruption when I go to Estonia next month?!
Last week our colleagues in France warned me of an impending strike on Tuesday to protest the new law that went into effect raising the age for retirement. This means that all public transportation including bus, trains, planes will come to a standstill for an unknow amount of time. Typically it lasts a day mainly to make a statement, although in 1995 the strike lasted for a month. I got into Paris on Sunday morning so no problem there. The concern is that on Monday night I have to take a train to south of France to begin my assignment at the plant. When we had the opening meeting on Monday morning in Serris (about 20km outside of Paris city center) people were saying that I could have a problem because even though the strike is announcement for Tuesday it usually starts at 8pm the night before. They had that "good luck with you" look when I told them that my train to Villefranche sur Saone leaves at 6pm on Monday! I suddenly had visions of being stuck in Paris amid all the chaos, struggling with luggage and not having a way to get to my destination! Anyway, it turned out ok.
My team mates Sascha and Juliana stayed in Paris for another part of the assignment while I go to the south. I would be on my own for a week and then Juliana will join me for the second week and then we will all be together in Paris for the 3rd week.
I wish I was a little braver in driving in Europe so I could rent a car and have more freedom of moving around. Right now I am relying on taxis which is really expensive! My train from Paris to Macon Loche was 1 1/2 hours and then a half hour taxi ride further south to the little town of Villefranche sur Saone. I love the french countryside. Rolling green hills, vinyards and old stone houses. Villefranche is in the middle of Beaujolais country. I was told that there are a lot of japanese tourist because they love this particular type of wine which is fruitier and sweeter. I also learned from colleagues here that this wine is not meant to last a long time. There are lots of wineries scattered throughout this town so I will definitely make time to do a tour. The map says that these are wine caves, not sure what this means but I intend to find out.
Met me colleagues from Villefranche plant and all are very nice. Their english is very good, much better than my french! Lunch at the cantine was cornish hen slow cooked in white wine, I was surprised to not see a pitcher of wine at the table!
The city center of VF is so cute. Typical european old town complete with a small cathedral smack in the middle. I can't wait to explore more of it this weekend since our hotel is 2-3 miles from the center and too far to walk at night.
I'm still getting used the time change and this times seems a bit more difficult. Haven't had much sleep and thinking that I am coming down with something. I really hope it's just from lack of sleep. It's been an average of 3 hours of sleep the last 2 nights. To make it worse this morning I woke up at the clock on my BB wrong and thought it was 6:30am and time to get up. So I got up, got ready, dressed and ready to go when I looked at the time again and it said 4am! That mean I actually got up at 3am! Another bonehead move. I never questioned it because I was wide awake! It turned out to be ok since I made good use of the time and got some work done and was able to skype with Gary.
My biggest struggle so far is understand the french colleague when they speak english to quickly, it's like another foreign language. I mainly struggle with their names. This morning their were at least a dozen people that introduced themselves to me and I got ZERO of their names! It was too embarrassing to ask them to write it down. I figured I would get who they were when I have my one on one sessions with them. Same thing happened in the meeting in Paris on Monday!
One word for France so far - EXPENSIVE. Good thing I'm not paying for all this. The half hour taxi ride last night from the train station was $130! yikes, I'm hoping they are not just fleecing the stupid american!
No comments:
Post a Comment