Blog Number 143

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well, just 4 1/2 more days and I will be home.  Today was a very frustrating day.  The building we are in is pretty new and has a slow network connection for a building its size.  It is going to be upgraded soon, but for now it is slow.  It is getting slower everyday as each new day there are more workers coming to the building sharing the same network connection.  It may not be upgraded until my last day or two so for now we have to grit our teeth and wait.

Yesterday was also a busy day and even after work, my co-worker and I had to log in from the hotel.  This is also frustrating as the hotel has a router that only allows one of us to connect to the VPN at a time.  We can both get to the internet OK, just not VPN into our work's network.  So we have to trade back and forth.  We have several hurdles like this in our day to day work and just have to handle them as best we can.  After working for a few hours we hit the hotel restaurant for dinner.  The menu had so many great choices it was hard to decide and nothing was a simple dish.  For instance, I ended up ordering the deer meat and goat cheese stuffed ravioli and my co-worker had some sort of lasagna with spider crab meat, shrimp and salmon (I think).  He quit after he finished his dish but since this is my last week here I took a look at the desert menu.  I don't know what I had but it was gorgeous.  The plate was a rectangle and there were 2 tear dropped shaped sauces surrounding this brownie like cake topped with some sort of crunchy layer and a dip of what the menu called "bitter" chocolate ice cream.  Wow!  It was good but in the morning I was feeling the effects of eating too big of a meal too late.

Anyway, there is not much exciting going on, just a lot of last minute changes that we are trying to take care of before I leave for good.  I hope my last few days here are exciting, but in a good way. 

Until then....

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 142

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Saturday was Tour de Cow II...

My teammate from Michigan and I were invited to a Bar-B-Que, Argentinian-style at the team leader's house.  He came a picked us up at the hotel and took the long way (through the mountains) to his house.  It was a rainy day but it was still beautiful.  He had been talking about this day most of the week but then on the way to his house he admitted that he was really bad at preparing bar-b-que.  So his friend was going to prepare the bar-b-que for us.  We arrived at his house and just hung around for about an hour and got the full house tour.  Also in attendance was our host's wife and 1 year old son (his birthday is today) and the bar-b-que expert, his wife and 11 year old son.  His friend spoke some English and he was quite a character.

My co-worker had read my blog about the original Tour de Cow so he knew what to expect.  This is a little unfair I think as he knew what he was eating at all times whereas I did not when I was at my first one.  Oh well, a good time was had by all.  Besides tons of meat from all parts of the cow, also served was a salad, bowls full of (what appeared to be) tomatoes and eggs, bread, and French fries (with scrambled eggs on them of course) and wine.  Once again I had to take everyone's word for it that the wine was good as I do not have a sophisticated enough palate for wine tasting.  Anyway, we had a great time and the host's 1 year old son warmed up to us and started doing his various array of cute things by the end of the meal.

This morning I am heading up to the co-worker's room for breakfast.  The maid has failed to leave me the form to fill out for breakfast to be delivered to your room so he is ordering enough for 2 people.  After that 2 of my trainees are coming to pick us up to go shopping.  I have exactly in mind what I want to get my wife and kids for presents for when I arrive home.  For some reason, even though they are really missing me, I think I need to have some sort of memento of my visit to give to them.  Wish me luck in finding the perfect gift.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 141

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Since today was Friday and on Monday the team starts doing "real" work, today was a little festive.  Weeks of training are now over and everyone is excited to start working.  One thing that is very popular in Argentina is Mate.  It is basically a tea of sorts but is drank from a hollowed out gourd cup.  You put some yerba in the cup, pour water over it and then stick in your "bombilla" (straw).  The straw has small holes in the bottom that filters out the yerba as you drink the mate.  It is also very typical to pass the cup around to your friends and today (for the first time) the cup was passed to me...

It was about what I expected.  It tasted about like you had went out to your lawn, grabbed some weeds, put them in a cup, poured hot water over them and then drank it.  This is also my last mate I think.

My teammate from Michigan arrived today as well and I met him after work in his hotel room.  He looked about like you should look after spending 20 hours or so in airports and on airplanes but we headed over to the grocery store and I loaded him up on pop, water and snacks.  We came back and talked for about an hour and then ordered a pizza from room service.  Now one thing you must know about he and I.  We have an annual wager when the Pistons and Pacers meet in the playoffs.  In a nutshell the loser has to buy a piece of clothing (hat, shirt, etc.) with the other teams logo on it and pose for a picture and email that to the rest of the team.  Since I am rooting for the Pacers I now own a Pistons hat and t-shirt.  This I proudly wore as we did our shopping.  Anyway, after the pizza was delivered we flipped on the TV and as luck would have it, the Pistons were playing.  So at long last he and I actually watched a Piston's game together.

All it took was both of us to come to Argentina!  Tomorrow we are heading to someone's house for another "Tour de Cow" type bar-b-que.  I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 140

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

One of my trainees took pity on me last night and took me out to dinner.  This means that I whined just enough about being alone this week I guess.  It was a little funny as I was telling my wife that I was going out to dinner.  I told her the name of the guy who was picking my up (the way the name is pronounced makes it sound like it was a woman who was picking me up).  It took a little convincing that it was indeed a guy who I was hanging out with.  I am still not sure she believes me fully.  Trust me dear, it was a dude.

He offered many choices of places to go and I picked the one that sounded the most "Cordoba-ian" since I wanted to taste more of the local food.  As we made the 15 minute drive, he told me some of the history of Argentina and what "really" happened instead of what my history books might have said.  It was all very interesting.  We found the restaurant and ended up having a nice dinner for around $9 US (total for both of us combined - with tip).  He ordered something he had never had before which ended up being a tamale.  Of course I have had tamales so I had to educate him on food (something that I have not had to do for anyone yet).  I don't think he liked them very much.

Then we walked down the city square and saw many of the old buildings and churches there...

The above pic is a little blurry but I am not that accustomed to the camera and its settings for low light pictures.  We walked along the side streets where there were many vendors selling items right on the street...

I was not tempted to buy anything really.  We ended up at a local hot spot and had a seat for 20 minutes or so and discussed chess.  This guy was the same guy I discussed chess with at the "after office" get together we had last Wednesday.  I arrived back at the hotel around 12:15 and went to bed pretty quickly thereafter.

Today the class moves from the classroom we have been in for the last 2 weeks into their actual cubicles (or boxes as they say down here).  While I still had the projector yesterday, I went to the dilbert.com website and told them that in a few weeks these cartoons would be very funny to them.  Today though, everything changes as they gear up to take on actual work next Monday.  I think they are excited and nervous at the same time about this.  I am confident they will do fine once they get their feet wet.  Time will tell however how well of a teacher I have been.

Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 139

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Since my coworker has left to come back to the states and my friend from Buenos Aires is also at his home, this has been a boring week so far.  That is OK though since I have used the time alone to catch up on sleep (about 10 hours last night).  Also since I am alone I have not been eating near as much.  Dinner the last 2 nights has been bread, cheese and some chips that I bought from the grocery store on Sunday afternoon.  So 2 meals for less than $6 US.  Not a bad deal for my company that is footing the bill for my food.  Tonight though I am going to order room service and hopefully have a nice meal.  I only have 3 more days alone before another coworker from the states arrives and then I will not be alone any more.  Also a few of my trainees have volunteered to be my guide the next 2 nights while I am alone and to them I am grateful.

Training is still going very well.  The entire team is catching on to the processes that they need to master by the time I leave in 12 days.  Next week we start doing real work and I will be there in a mentor role rather than a trainer role.  This means that I will not be in a training room with a projector but will have to walk around a lot to all of their cubicles so I might try to sneak in my tennis shoes so my feet are not screaming at me by the end of the day.  Since there are 19 more people that are going to be trained by my coworker who is coming on Friday, the team leader / manager of my group has been with that new group all week.  This leaves me alone to run the whole show.  While it is a little scary to have all the responsibility it is also a pat on the back to me (I think) that he feels comfortable to leave me in charge.  Time will tell if this was a good choice I guess.  I am starting to head in about 1 hour early to meet with the manager to give him an overview and some extra training as he is missing out.

I did get the chance to go to a "gas" station today as I am having the manager pick my up at this new hotel as it is close to work.  We needed to get propane (yes, his car and many cars down here run on propane).  I am told it is cleaner, has higher octane and gets better mileage but has about 20% less power than gasoline.  You pull up and they open your gas door on the side of your car and there is a little nozzle there like you would see if you were filling up your car tire (not quite the same, but the same concept).  The service guy sticks the hose in there and then releases the gas and very quickly you are filled.  The tank has to fit in the trunk so it cannot hold that much so you cannot get as far on a tank as you would with a car that holds gas but everyone here mostly drives in the city so this is not an issue.  I think this would be annoying if you had a long commute.

Driving downtown is a little scary too especially on the side streets as there are no STOP or YIELD signs.  You cannot see if anyone is coming the other way or not because the buildings obstruct your view.  This is quite an adventure for me as basically it is one giant game of chicken the whole trip to wherever you are going.  At night you flash your lights to see if someone else is coming, during the day you honk your horn.  But if there are 2 cars coming and each are close to arriving at the intersection at the same time it is a matter of who blinks first.  If you sit in the back seat and pretend that the front windshield is a screen and you are just watching a movie or a video game it makes the ride easier.  Once you remember you are in danger of dying at every intersection then you cannot enjoy the ride as much.

Well it is time for the wife to call.  Hopefully the team can take me to some exciting places and I can spice the blog up a little.  Until then...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 138

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

So I am at a new hotel now (the Holiday Inn).  I actually had a reservation at the Sheraton until the day I was to leave to come home so it felt a little weird telling the remis (taxi) driver to take us to the Holiday Inn.  He gave us a funny look but I assured him this is where we wanted to go.  The Holiday Inn is probably 20 minutes from the Sheraton and in a much different part of town.  I think it is a better part of town but I really have no way of knowing.  There are a lot more families with children here and there is a game room with a pool table, foosball table and a table tennis table.  When we went down to play though, the room was filled with children.

The staff here speaks even less English than at the other hotel and since my coworker was leaving at 5 PM to come home I was semi-dreading being here alone for the next 6 days.  This is a little cheaper than the Sheraton (but what do I care as my company is picking up the bill?).  Also, they offer (a much needed) laundry service.  It is a little pricey...

• Shirt - 6 Pesos
• T-Shirt - 3 Pesos
• Socks - 2 Pesos
• Underwear - 2 Pesos
• Trousers - 8 Pesos (they do not offer laundry for this, only dry cleaning)

But again, my company is paying for this as laundry is an expendable item.  I will remind you that 3 Pesos = $1 US.  Adding it all up I can estimate my laundry bill to be around 140 Pesos ($47 US).  I guess that is not too bad but it does sound like a lot for laundry.

The mall right next to this hotel is huge but is dominated by many shops selling things that you would see at a Lowe's or Home Depot only they are in individual shops.  There are the standard mall shops as well (clothing, coffee, food court, etc.) but they are scattered between places selling flooring, sinks, hardware, paint, furniture, etc.  I wandered around and found the supermarket (for some reason, there is always one in all the malls) and bought some drinks for the room and also a snack (Oreos with caramel filling – Dulce de Leche).  Carmel is very big down here.  It is probably comparable to our peanut butter since they put it on about everything.  I would not recommend Dulce de Leche Oreos (or the Mandarin 7-Up).  I did like the Pritty Limon (strong lemon flavored "gaseosa" [soft drink]).  I walked through the entire store twice but could not find the water.  I pretty much stayed in the room the rest of the day and caught up on some sleep.  Today I have a lot of work to do and hopefully I can catch the NFL games later.

I know this entry is boring, but hey, so was yesterday.  I am hoping that nothing exciting happens today (except a Colts win!) and since my breakfast has just arrived...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 137

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well today I am changing hotels (from the Sheraton to the Holiday Inn).  The Holiday Inn is closer to work and since my coworker is leaving this evening to go home (to 20 degree weather), today is as good a day as any to move.  Plus, another coworker is arriving next Friday and he is staying at the Holiday Inn.  I don't know if I will miss this hotel much really as I spend very little time here but I am not really looking forward to being alone for the next 6 days in the evenings.

I wanted to upload some pics of the "After Office" party so here they are...

I did not get any great shots but as you can tell from the first picture, I still have my great bowling form (just kidding).

Last night was a little sad as someone I have hung out with the last week or so was returning to Buenos Aires and I will not likely ever see him again the rest of my life but we promised to keep in touch via emails and blogs.  He is getting married in early March so I tried to give him a little advice on these matters but who knows if he will take it.

Dinner last night was an amazing buffet at the hotel restaurant and even though for the most part we had no idea what it was that we were putting on our plates, it was very good.  We have given up on guessing what it is that we are eating since we have almost always been wrong.  I am serious, I think we have guessed right maybe once or twice, other than that it is a surprise to our mouths.  Since everything here has been so good, I just dive in without fear.  What we think is fish is chicken, what we think is a meat turns out to be a vegetable, what we think will be hot is cold, what we think is crunchy ends up melting in our mouths.  A great example is desert last night.  There was a large cake shaped thing that we thought was cheesecake.  It was surrounded by sauces and toppings and to the American mind it seemed you would slice off a piece, shower it with toppings and be happy.  Once I cut a piece I knew I was wrong.  This cut like a hot knife through butter.  So I was thinking maybe it was some sort of whipped cream thing at this point in time.  I (of course) was wrong again.  This whole thing (probably 4 inches tall and 12 inches by 12 inches in size) was all meringue!  The whole thing!  It had this incredibly sweet sugary kind of sauce on it and it was great.  I have never tasted anything like it.  Next we took a small pie that was individually sized and shared it.  We thought that it would be apple pie.  Wrong!  We discussed what we thought it might be (after we finished the whole thing) but we still have no idea.  There was this lingering flavor in your mouth that we could not quite place (mint maybe but not as refreshing).  Who knows, it was good.  Our hosts (when they are eating with us) do not speak "food" very well (see the Tour de Cow blog for a great example) so even with their help, we seldom know what it is we are putting in our mouths.  But again, I have yet to be disappointed so I have no reservations.  As much as I want to be back home with my wife and kids, I will never have food like this again in my life probably.

The Holiday Inn will have internet access in the room so I should be able to keep up on the blogs better the rest of my trip.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon