It rained all day today. I guess this is the weather the locals are used to. I was told I should carry umbrellas with me at all times because you never know. No wonder the europeans go on vacation in July & August when there are better chances of sunny days. Actually the weather here has been very nice. It has been mostly sunny and in the 70's. Now I understand why few places have air conditioning. I remember being worried when i discovered that my apt did not have ac, neither did our office, or the plant we visited or the hotel.... I am getting the trend! Emrah told me it does not get too hot in germany and if it does the time is very short, so ac is not needed. I keep the windows and the patio door open so it has been fine so far.
THis morning I walked to my favorite bakery down the street. Actually it's the only place opened on Sunday. It's so great to pick up fresh baked bread for the day. Let's forget about my carb intake since I've been here. I also ignored my goal to eat healthy and bought one of those yummy desert. The lady was nice and was explaining to me what each desert was. I thought she would have known my limited german by the way I bought the bread (by pointing to it and said zweit bitte which means two please). As she is explaining nicely what each desert was, I put her out of her misery by pointing to one in random. It turned out to be a sweet concoction of thick custard with peaches on a soft pie crust. OMG I ate the whole thing in 5 minutes! OK, I need to walk more that's all.
Let me just say that the ipad is the best thing ever! I am so glad I bought it and brought it with me on this trip. I have music playing most of the time and have my music library of 5000 songs. I can play scrabble on line with friends and family in the states (I'm totally addicted to Words with Friends). I can watch movies that I downloaded before I left. I can also download pictures into my photo library as I take them. Need to figure out shutterbug so I can post them on the blog. Stefan also has an ipad and convinced me to buy Flight Navigator so we can play against each other.
Did some research on my asia assignment in September. Since I'm leading that one it's up to me to coordinate the workload and also do the little things like choosing hotels and meetings and such. "Unfortunately" due to proximity of the assignment we will have to book a VERY nice hotel near Manila. It's reasonable for expense budget but high by Philippines standard, or so I'm told. I'm coordinating the asia assignment with another hkl colleague who lives in Hong Kong. It's tough with the time difference. I just tried to set up a conference call. My laptop is set to Scottsdale time so I had to make sure I understood it's the right time for where I am in germany and where she is in hong kong. It was confusing!
I already got a note on my assignment in France in October - colleagues from France asking me if I had any dietary requirements. Hello, french food, what's there not to like? I think I'm in bigger trouble there than here with the weight gain. Just remembered that I downloaded Turbo kickboxing on the ipad (have I said it's the best toy ever?!) and have to get into a daily routine. Who wants to diet with so much good food around?! I remember my friend H* saying that she excercises so she can eat whatever she wants. What a great motto.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
After one week....
A week has flown by. It has been exhausting but so interesting. I wish I could go into details about my job because that part is so interesting. I know that with each assignment I will see different situations and experiences. We had a prelim wrap up for the general mgr and his mgmnt team on Thurs where we gave him bullet points of our findings and what will be in our report to headquarters in dd. I was told by my team that it could go either way but ours went well and they agreed to the points we made. THe gm was very serious about making the easy changes right away. The plant was very old and originally a brickmaking plant. In parts of the warehouse there were actually catacombs! It was hot & danky when we were going through those part. For those who knows me can imagine how hot & sweaty I got!
On Thursday we had dinner at a restaurant in the city center in bad oyenhausen by our hotel. A had a nice dish of huge grilled shrimp on top of risotto. It was bad timing that Guido mentioned he gained 13 lbs when he started this job, which was only 6 months ago!! Crap, I can see how it could happen, especially when i reluctantly agreed to eat Burger King on Wed so we could get back to the hotel for more work. So junk food along with big meals at restaurants, great bread at breakfast, cheeses, coffee with lots of cream & sugar - I might hit that 13 lb gain in the first 3 months! This morning back at my apt I forced myself to eat a bowl of cereal and a yogurt for breakfast.
Anyway, after dinner Emrah, Guido & myself decided to walk back to the hotel while Stefan drives the car back. The city center was so quaint and quite crowded. The streets are of cobble stones so my rolling laptop bag felt really loud and obnoxious. We stopped halfway to get gelato. It was an afterthought that this was not helping my goal to not gain weight during this assignment! By the time we got to our hotel I realized that the city center was only a couple of blocks away! I will definitely do more strolls and take pictures next week. I also plan to book some massages as well! The main tourist draw for this small town are the spa clinics. I learned that it's not so easy to get massages in DD. They don't have spa resorts like Scottsdale that's for sure!
We left the Porta office at 6 for the 2 hr drive back to DD. Had to stop for dinner at McDonalds midway. OMG, more junk food! I don't remember that last time I ate at McD! Guido loves fast food but at least Emrah is the same court as me and likes to eat decent meals. When we were driving to Mcdonalds there was a strip joint right next to it with big billboards of naked women. What the hell?! We parked our car right in front of the pink door that leads into the club. I offered to take a picture of the guys in front of the 30 foot cut out of a naked woman but they declined :-) I think they said something to the effect of careers being ruined over a picture.
Before dropping off the company car at the hkl campus the guys drove through and showed me parts of the campus including our office building. In a word, it's ugly! Our building looked old and in the same area as the detergent factory buildings. We are not near the big wigs who are in the much nicer part of the campus.
Last night I walked to the grocery store to buy some misc stuff. I needed hand soap and literally walked by it 4-5 times looking for rows of choices. At home there's at least a dozen brand and types of hand soap so I was expecting the same. I finally found something I thought was hand soap. It was in a bottle and it had a pump in it. I forgot to look up the german word for handsoap and was hoping to see a picture or a word or brand I would recognize - no Dial brands here! I also had to buy dishwashing soap and it was mixed in with the soaps for soap for dishwashing machines. Again, no pictures to help me! Then I had to figure out how to buy yogurt, not so easy either! No yoplait brand so I just took a guess. What I bought - Sahne Joghurt lime flavor - turned out to be sooooo yummy! I am going back to get more later! Whew this was a much more challenging shopping trip than last week. I know bread and fruits and veggies when I see it!! They don't have grocery bags here so you have to bring your own. I am SO glad I threw in a recyable grocery bag when I packed. This and my big roomy purse is enough room to carry what I need. Again, I used the basket instead of the shopping cart to make sure I only buy what I can carry home.
It is challenging not knowing german but I seem to get by. I already know a few simple words like please, thank you, days of the week, 1-10. I found that I do like the german language and really do want to learn it. Each day I try to learn a new word and my colleagues have been very helpful. I am confident that I will at least learn broken german within this next year, only because I will not be in germany the whole time. It's also helpful being around people speaking german. Sometimes the guys forget I'm there, or I come into the room later and they are deep in a conversation in german. They try to convert to english after awhile! Now I know how Gary feels when he's in my parents' kitchen sandwhiched between my brother in law while they yak away in vietnamese. SOmetimes they remember he's there and speak some english to him. What a good sport he is to stick to the custom of the men sitting together to chat while the women hang out separately.
I slept for 9 hours! I guess I needed to catch up with my sleep from the past week. This morning I decided to go for a long walk. Put on my merrels and looked on the map with a destination in mind. THe Konigsalle shopping is easily reached by subway but I wanted to see if I could walk there. The long and short of it was I only got half way when I realized I was a little overambitous! I had already walked 2 miles and getting hungry so I decided to turn around. On the way back I stopped in a chinese take out place to pick up lunch. The menu was in german as most are here and I asked the lady if she spoke english. Ofcourse she shook her head! Crap, I was trying to figure out how to say to go in german and I didn't quite have my meats in german yet. Then suddenly I heard the cook say something in vietnamese. what luck! I was then able to talk to her in vietnamese and place my order. I would come back to this place but not too much since they only took cash which makes it more of a pain when I do my expense report.
After lunch I decided to take a quick nap. Well, for the first time I used the eye cover that the airlines give you. OMG, I passed out for two hours! That thing is great! Parker had texted me to see if I wanted to meet him & family earlier to shop before we eat and I only had half an hour to get ready. Parker had been here since June and is doing a 2 year expat assignment. He was my old boss and a great guy. I met his wife Melissa and 5 year old daughter for the first time. We got along great. Parker & Melissa never had a chance to travel so they are so excited about this new adventure. This was Melissa's first time out of the country. I was amazed at their daughter's ability to pick up the language, they actually just got here 2 weeks ago. Parker would tell her how something is said in german and she just repeats it perfectly. The expats have an international school where the kids can go. It's taught in english but they get at least one hour a day of german lessons. It's definitely a different way of life. The tram stop is right in front of their house and it stops right in front of the supermarket so that's house she does their shopping. THey did bring their bmw over from the states and Parker is already zipping around in the city. I was amazed at how quickly he has caught on in the ways of german life in the 2+ months he's been here. Anyway, I was very happy to have a chance to hang out with them. We had dinner at an italian restaurant - Ga Noi. It was sooo yummy, I will definitely go back.
3 more weeks before Gary gets here! I can't wait to see my guy. Last week I booked our hotel in Amsterdam. We'll spend 5 days there. I still have to decide where we want to go the weekend before that. Either Berlin or Hamburg I think.
Need to read over the report tonight. The guys are appreciating the fact that I am a native english speaker as they are using to help with grammar and overall writing of the report. We are meeting at 5pm tomorrow to work in the office for a few hours before driving north to the plant.
On Thursday we had dinner at a restaurant in the city center in bad oyenhausen by our hotel. A had a nice dish of huge grilled shrimp on top of risotto. It was bad timing that Guido mentioned he gained 13 lbs when he started this job, which was only 6 months ago!! Crap, I can see how it could happen, especially when i reluctantly agreed to eat Burger King on Wed so we could get back to the hotel for more work. So junk food along with big meals at restaurants, great bread at breakfast, cheeses, coffee with lots of cream & sugar - I might hit that 13 lb gain in the first 3 months! This morning back at my apt I forced myself to eat a bowl of cereal and a yogurt for breakfast.
Anyway, after dinner Emrah, Guido & myself decided to walk back to the hotel while Stefan drives the car back. The city center was so quaint and quite crowded. The streets are of cobble stones so my rolling laptop bag felt really loud and obnoxious. We stopped halfway to get gelato. It was an afterthought that this was not helping my goal to not gain weight during this assignment! By the time we got to our hotel I realized that the city center was only a couple of blocks away! I will definitely do more strolls and take pictures next week. I also plan to book some massages as well! The main tourist draw for this small town are the spa clinics. I learned that it's not so easy to get massages in DD. They don't have spa resorts like Scottsdale that's for sure!
We left the Porta office at 6 for the 2 hr drive back to DD. Had to stop for dinner at McDonalds midway. OMG, more junk food! I don't remember that last time I ate at McD! Guido loves fast food but at least Emrah is the same court as me and likes to eat decent meals. When we were driving to Mcdonalds there was a strip joint right next to it with big billboards of naked women. What the hell?! We parked our car right in front of the pink door that leads into the club. I offered to take a picture of the guys in front of the 30 foot cut out of a naked woman but they declined :-) I think they said something to the effect of careers being ruined over a picture.
Before dropping off the company car at the hkl campus the guys drove through and showed me parts of the campus including our office building. In a word, it's ugly! Our building looked old and in the same area as the detergent factory buildings. We are not near the big wigs who are in the much nicer part of the campus.
Last night I walked to the grocery store to buy some misc stuff. I needed hand soap and literally walked by it 4-5 times looking for rows of choices. At home there's at least a dozen brand and types of hand soap so I was expecting the same. I finally found something I thought was hand soap. It was in a bottle and it had a pump in it. I forgot to look up the german word for handsoap and was hoping to see a picture or a word or brand I would recognize - no Dial brands here! I also had to buy dishwashing soap and it was mixed in with the soaps for soap for dishwashing machines. Again, no pictures to help me! Then I had to figure out how to buy yogurt, not so easy either! No yoplait brand so I just took a guess. What I bought - Sahne Joghurt lime flavor - turned out to be sooooo yummy! I am going back to get more later! Whew this was a much more challenging shopping trip than last week. I know bread and fruits and veggies when I see it!! They don't have grocery bags here so you have to bring your own. I am SO glad I threw in a recyable grocery bag when I packed. This and my big roomy purse is enough room to carry what I need. Again, I used the basket instead of the shopping cart to make sure I only buy what I can carry home.
It is challenging not knowing german but I seem to get by. I already know a few simple words like please, thank you, days of the week, 1-10. I found that I do like the german language and really do want to learn it. Each day I try to learn a new word and my colleagues have been very helpful. I am confident that I will at least learn broken german within this next year, only because I will not be in germany the whole time. It's also helpful being around people speaking german. Sometimes the guys forget I'm there, or I come into the room later and they are deep in a conversation in german. They try to convert to english after awhile! Now I know how Gary feels when he's in my parents' kitchen sandwhiched between my brother in law while they yak away in vietnamese. SOmetimes they remember he's there and speak some english to him. What a good sport he is to stick to the custom of the men sitting together to chat while the women hang out separately.
I slept for 9 hours! I guess I needed to catch up with my sleep from the past week. This morning I decided to go for a long walk. Put on my merrels and looked on the map with a destination in mind. THe Konigsalle shopping is easily reached by subway but I wanted to see if I could walk there. The long and short of it was I only got half way when I realized I was a little overambitous! I had already walked 2 miles and getting hungry so I decided to turn around. On the way back I stopped in a chinese take out place to pick up lunch. The menu was in german as most are here and I asked the lady if she spoke english. Ofcourse she shook her head! Crap, I was trying to figure out how to say to go in german and I didn't quite have my meats in german yet. Then suddenly I heard the cook say something in vietnamese. what luck! I was then able to talk to her in vietnamese and place my order. I would come back to this place but not too much since they only took cash which makes it more of a pain when I do my expense report.
After lunch I decided to take a quick nap. Well, for the first time I used the eye cover that the airlines give you. OMG, I passed out for two hours! That thing is great! Parker had texted me to see if I wanted to meet him & family earlier to shop before we eat and I only had half an hour to get ready. Parker had been here since June and is doing a 2 year expat assignment. He was my old boss and a great guy. I met his wife Melissa and 5 year old daughter for the first time. We got along great. Parker & Melissa never had a chance to travel so they are so excited about this new adventure. This was Melissa's first time out of the country. I was amazed at their daughter's ability to pick up the language, they actually just got here 2 weeks ago. Parker would tell her how something is said in german and she just repeats it perfectly. The expats have an international school where the kids can go. It's taught in english but they get at least one hour a day of german lessons. It's definitely a different way of life. The tram stop is right in front of their house and it stops right in front of the supermarket so that's house she does their shopping. THey did bring their bmw over from the states and Parker is already zipping around in the city. I was amazed at how quickly he has caught on in the ways of german life in the 2+ months he's been here. Anyway, I was very happy to have a chance to hang out with them. We had dinner at an italian restaurant - Ga Noi. It was sooo yummy, I will definitely go back.
3 more weeks before Gary gets here! I can't wait to see my guy. Last week I booked our hotel in Amsterdam. We'll spend 5 days there. I still have to decide where we want to go the weekend before that. Either Berlin or Hamburg I think.
Need to read over the report tonight. The guys are appreciating the fact that I am a native english speaker as they are using to help with grammar and overall writing of the report. We are meeting at 5pm tomorrow to work in the office for a few hours before driving north to the plant.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Third day on assignment
Assignment is very interesting so far. I could tell by the 1st day that this job is going to be fun. It takes me longer to write the reports but the topics are at least familiar. The days have been grueling so far. We start early in the morning and go back to our room after dinner to continue working. Next week will be much better. The people at the plant are very friendly. They are very shy about their english but I tell them it's much better than mine. It was fine for me since I had no trouble understanding what they are saying. I felt bad that they have to make special efforts to speak english when I am in the room. Last night we had dinner at an Italian restaurant around the corner. Stefan is always helpful with translating the menu for me but this time I told him I could manage since they also had italian on the menu. We talked about age and all three are 30 or younger. Oi vay, I felt old.
Our hotel in Bad Oeynhausen (20km from Porta) is nice but not fancy. Great breakfast. Crispy bread, cold cuts, cheeses, fresh fruits and yogurts. The germans love their nutella! I don't eat much cheese at home but love the local cheeses in europe.
I hate to say that I have become a coffee drinker. I never drink coffe at home because it upsets my stomach and it doesn't taste so good. The coffee here tastes much better and I am liking the custom of a cup of coffee after lunch to give you a boost for the rest of the afternoon. Today at lunch I told the group about employees in AZ have asked for a special area where they could take "cat naps" during their breaks. They had a good laugh and said they don't need a nap, just coffee.
Today we agreed to have a quick dinner at Burger King in order to get back to work. I told them I will only do this once in awhile since it's bad food! Stefan showed me how to eat fries with a small wooden fork. I thought it was funny, who needs to be dignified in a fast food place?!
Our hotel in Bad Oeynhausen (20km from Porta) is nice but not fancy. Great breakfast. Crispy bread, cold cuts, cheeses, fresh fruits and yogurts. The germans love their nutella! I don't eat much cheese at home but love the local cheeses in europe.
I hate to say that I have become a coffee drinker. I never drink coffe at home because it upsets my stomach and it doesn't taste so good. The coffee here tastes much better and I am liking the custom of a cup of coffee after lunch to give you a boost for the rest of the afternoon. Today at lunch I told the group about employees in AZ have asked for a special area where they could take "cat naps" during their breaks. They had a good laugh and said they don't need a nap, just coffee.
Today we agreed to have a quick dinner at Burger King in order to get back to work. I told them I will only do this once in awhile since it's bad food! Stefan showed me how to eat fries with a small wooden fork. I thought it was funny, who needs to be dignified in a fast food place?!
Monday, August 2, 2010
1st day cont'd
Found a little bakery on my morning walk so ofcourse I stopped in to pick up a fresh baguette. Very happy with this find since everyone warned me that everything is closed on Sunday. On top of that a few doors down was a small florist shop so I bought some fresh cut sunflowers to brighten up the apartment.
I met Megan for dinner. She showed me how to use the tram/subway when we used it to get to Altadt (old town DD). What a difference to the mellow neighborhood of the apartment. It was a bustling area of shops and restaurants. WIth the nice weather everyone was sitting outside and people watching. Megan warned me that this area gets crazy on Saturday nights with party groups. I will have to come back when I'm in town for the weekend. We found a nice french restaurant in the area. I ordered the day's special even though I wasn't sure what it was. There was a 50/50 chance I would like it so what the hey. It was a whole long description in german but what I got was a salad with chicken. Not bad but not great. That will teach me to be adventurous.
Got back just in time to meet my colleagues at 8pm for the drive up to Porta, a small town 2.5 hours north of DD. A group of 3 young guys. Very nice but very different in personalities. We had fun getting to know each other. Two from germany and one from Turkey. Emrah just got back from the mandatory military service. I remember learning about this and always thought it would be a good thing if we had this law in the US. The whole ride up we made fun of stefan who had points against him from a previous ticket and could not afford to get a ticket, so he barely drove above speed limit. 1st day of work tomorrow!
I met Megan for dinner. She showed me how to use the tram/subway when we used it to get to Altadt (old town DD). What a difference to the mellow neighborhood of the apartment. It was a bustling area of shops and restaurants. WIth the nice weather everyone was sitting outside and people watching. Megan warned me that this area gets crazy on Saturday nights with party groups. I will have to come back when I'm in town for the weekend. We found a nice french restaurant in the area. I ordered the day's special even though I wasn't sure what it was. There was a 50/50 chance I would like it so what the hey. It was a whole long description in german but what I got was a salad with chicken. Not bad but not great. That will teach me to be adventurous.
Got back just in time to meet my colleagues at 8pm for the drive up to Porta, a small town 2.5 hours north of DD. A group of 3 young guys. Very nice but very different in personalities. We had fun getting to know each other. Two from germany and one from Turkey. Emrah just got back from the mandatory military service. I remember learning about this and always thought it would be a good thing if we had this law in the US. The whole ride up we made fun of stefan who had points against him from a previous ticket and could not afford to get a ticket, so he barely drove above speed limit. 1st day of work tomorrow!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
First day in DD
It's 7:30am in DD and I'm drinking a cup of tea and enjoying the cool morning air. I know it's 11pm Phx time although soon this time difference will fade from my memory as I become acclimated to my new location. I'll only remember my rendevous time with Gary - 10pm Phx time and 7am DD time will be the best time for us to talk. We have IM'd each other on our blackberry throughout my travel.
The trip went smoothly enough and I got my first taste of traveling business class. I was so lost when I got on the 747 for the Phx to London leg of the trip. I couldn't find the seat number and had to flag down the stewardess. Then I was so mystified by the pod looking seats I felt I was on a space ship. For a second I looked longingly at the normal seats in the economy class behind me. OK so it was only for a second. The seats were alternately facing each other so I felt uncomfortable with the fact that I was facing the person next to me. Ofcourse I found out later that there was a privacy screen that you can raise once the flight is off the ground. Luckily I noticed instructions to using my little pod. After 15 minutes I was set. I won't bore with the details but the setup was sweet. I could move my seat to all positions including straight out so I could stretch out like on a bed when it was time to sleep. I accepted a glass of champagne while waiting for take off. I don't really drink but it was the thought that counted! When mealtime came I expected a tray of food like I was used to so didn't realize they serve your meal in 3 courses. I had requested a lowfat low sodium meal so didn't know what to expect. When they put a plate of cucumber salad stuff in a roasted red pepper along with a green salad I was very pissed that this was all I was getting! Although it was tasty I was missing out on the great looking menu they offered for everyone else! Yeah, I caught on by the time they served my fish and pasta meal. It was great to partake in the British Air executive lounge in Phx and London. It made waiting for my flight very pleasand. Free drinks, food(the brits love their curries), wi-fi and comfy couches. It was great having my ipad, I think I'll be glad to have it with me for travels.
There was one worry on my mind for my first weekend in DD - I could potentially be without food! I found out that the supermarket by the apartment is not open on Sundays and closes by 10 on Saturday. My flight comes in at 7:30pm on Sat and my the time I get my luggage, go through customer, go to the security booth at Henkel to pick up my key, get to my apartment and walk to the store it would be too late, especially if there were any flight delays. Just in case I did grab from the BA lounge and apple, a small can of coke and some mini biscottis. Oh well, it was a good diet plan and I could stand to lose a few pounds. Actually things went smoothly and I was at the apartment by 8:30. I was damn lucky to run into a guy from the Scottsdale office just as I was standing outside the builing and trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get my 55 pound suitcase up 4 flights of stairs, there was no frickin elevator!! Marty offered to help with my suitcase. Poor guy didn't realize how heavy it was before he offered and I didn't want to tell him in case he changed his mind.
The apt was small and efficient. It was a studio with a separate kitchen and patio and included a desk for my laptop. I got my recycle bad and set out for the grocery store which was only a short block away. I forced myself to use a basket instead of a cart so I know my limit. If I cant
carry the basket then I'm definitely not going to be able to carry it home! It was fun to shop. I was able to figure out most things. Why pay 3 euros for a US brand cereal when you can pay 1 euro for a local brand. I was happy to see "BIO" veggies which I assumed means organic. It was in a separate section and it was more expensive so there you go. Parker had warned me that his credit card did not work so be prepared to pay cash. I only had $35 EUR with me so I hoped for the best with my card. Luckily no problems with the card. Spent the rest of the night unpacking and putting everything away. My shower is small and has a curtain that goes all the way around. I didn't notice the position of the shower head and ofcourse water sprayed all over and flooded the floor, damn I miss my shower at home. I didn't feel sleepy but forced myself to go to bed by midnight. We start on an audit first thing Monday morning so I don't want to go through jetlag.
Going for a walk now to check out the neighborhood. It's a nice cool morning but guess what, overcast. I've already put out of my head sunny skies everyday as in Phx!
The trip went smoothly enough and I got my first taste of traveling business class. I was so lost when I got on the 747 for the Phx to London leg of the trip. I couldn't find the seat number and had to flag down the stewardess. Then I was so mystified by the pod looking seats I felt I was on a space ship. For a second I looked longingly at the normal seats in the economy class behind me. OK so it was only for a second. The seats were alternately facing each other so I felt uncomfortable with the fact that I was facing the person next to me. Ofcourse I found out later that there was a privacy screen that you can raise once the flight is off the ground. Luckily I noticed instructions to using my little pod. After 15 minutes I was set. I won't bore with the details but the setup was sweet. I could move my seat to all positions including straight out so I could stretch out like on a bed when it was time to sleep. I accepted a glass of champagne while waiting for take off. I don't really drink but it was the thought that counted! When mealtime came I expected a tray of food like I was used to so didn't realize they serve your meal in 3 courses. I had requested a lowfat low sodium meal so didn't know what to expect. When they put a plate of cucumber salad stuff in a roasted red pepper along with a green salad I was very pissed that this was all I was getting! Although it was tasty I was missing out on the great looking menu they offered for everyone else! Yeah, I caught on by the time they served my fish and pasta meal. It was great to partake in the British Air executive lounge in Phx and London. It made waiting for my flight very pleasand. Free drinks, food(the brits love their curries), wi-fi and comfy couches. It was great having my ipad, I think I'll be glad to have it with me for travels.
There was one worry on my mind for my first weekend in DD - I could potentially be without food! I found out that the supermarket by the apartment is not open on Sundays and closes by 10 on Saturday. My flight comes in at 7:30pm on Sat and my the time I get my luggage, go through customer, go to the security booth at Henkel to pick up my key, get to my apartment and walk to the store it would be too late, especially if there were any flight delays. Just in case I did grab from the BA lounge and apple, a small can of coke and some mini biscottis. Oh well, it was a good diet plan and I could stand to lose a few pounds. Actually things went smoothly and I was at the apartment by 8:30. I was damn lucky to run into a guy from the Scottsdale office just as I was standing outside the builing and trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get my 55 pound suitcase up 4 flights of stairs, there was no frickin elevator!! Marty offered to help with my suitcase. Poor guy didn't realize how heavy it was before he offered and I didn't want to tell him in case he changed his mind.
The apt was small and efficient. It was a studio with a separate kitchen and patio and included a desk for my laptop. I got my recycle bad and set out for the grocery store which was only a short block away. I forced myself to use a basket instead of a cart so I know my limit. If I cant
carry the basket then I'm definitely not going to be able to carry it home! It was fun to shop. I was able to figure out most things. Why pay 3 euros for a US brand cereal when you can pay 1 euro for a local brand. I was happy to see "BIO" veggies which I assumed means organic. It was in a separate section and it was more expensive so there you go. Parker had warned me that his credit card did not work so be prepared to pay cash. I only had $35 EUR with me so I hoped for the best with my card. Luckily no problems with the card. Spent the rest of the night unpacking and putting everything away. My shower is small and has a curtain that goes all the way around. I didn't notice the position of the shower head and ofcourse water sprayed all over and flooded the floor, damn I miss my shower at home. I didn't feel sleepy but forced myself to go to bed by midnight. We start on an audit first thing Monday morning so I don't want to go through jetlag.
Going for a walk now to check out the neighborhood. It's a nice cool morning but guess what, overcast. I've already put out of my head sunny skies everyday as in Phx!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Last night in Phoenix
I can't believe it, this time tomorrow I'll be on a 747 on my way to europe! I just finished packing. Everything fit in the suitcase so that's a good thing. Angie laughed at me when I told her I packed travel size bottles of Oyster sauce and Siracha hot sauce. I have a feeling I will crave good asian food so I need my ingredients with me. I did have to swap out some clothes when I looked at the weather forecast. When it's hotter than hell here you tend to pack light cooler clothes. It's actually going to be in the 70's during the day in germany so I had to pack for cooler weather. I'm going to miss the 110 degree weather of Phx, NOT.
Tonight Gary declared that, as a show of love and dedication to me, he will not shave until I finish my one year assignment. My response? Good luck with that. A beard would drive him crazy after a few weeks. I just hope he won't expect me to not shave my legs as a show of my love for him!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Last free weekend in town
With Gary in NY for his 25th high school reunion I spent my last free wknd getting everything together for the trip. The other big project was to finish cooking and organizing the freezer so that Gary can easily access his dinners - 40 dinners at last count, which should be enough to feed him during the time I am gone (not including weekends). Also stocked up the freezer with Klondite ice cream bars. I felt better after all that was done. Now I won't worry so much about him starving to death!
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