Leaving on a jet plane

Tomorrow is the big trip to Germany. We have to be to the airport around 7 pm tomorrow for the redeye to Paris. From Paris to Strousburg, France. Kehl, Germany is right across the border from Strousburg, so we'll drive from there. From all that I'm hearing, Kehl is pretty westernized. It has the GAP, McDonalds and an 8 tiered car dealership. Strousburg on the other hand, is supposed to have some really interesting (and old) churches and fun little shops and markets.

The trip should be a little more relaxed than Brazil was. We're staying in one place the entire week, and the evenings will be ours to do with as we choose, rather than being forced into 4 hour dinners every night. I imagine we'll spend most of our free time in Strousburg. We also have a "free" day on Saturday and I hear that the Black Forest in Germany is pretty interesting.

I'm excited to be going, although I'll really miss Ryan. If only he'd fit in my suitcase. So far, working for Gerdau has added two new countries to my traveling and many new cities. Cool. It's nice to see the world on your company's dime!

Ha ha, I'm winning!

This just in ... I'm whooping Ryan in the NCAA BB Tournament Bracket. Not that I'm entered in any kind of illegal office pool or anything.

Having a heat wave

Today it was 75 degrees outside. Love love love that it's almost spring time. Of course there's supposed to be another snow storm the first week of April. There are several things that bother me about this. First, who has a snow storm in April? Second, how can the pathological liars known as meteorologists possible know what the weather is next week, let alone 3 weeks from now? Are .... you .... kidding me? Donne moi une .... break.

In other news, I'm catching a cold. I'm really freaking tired of getting random illnesses this week. My company nurse and our admin assistant have started taking bets on what I'm bringing home from Germany. Yeah, I'm a side bet. Meh.

An honorary Canadian

So I made it back from Toronto with no ill effect. Our training was actually very good ... actual training, not just talking about issues. I also really enjoyed being in Canada.

The Toronto airport is huge, and when I got in on Wednesday I literally walked for 15 minutes before getting to the customs agent. Then I had another 10 minute walk to the rental car place. After getting off a flight, it felt really good to walk, but it made me realize how coddled US travelers are. Aside from O'Hare, most US airports are more compact or if there is any walk they have a train to get you there.

Getting used to driving in kilometers was a kick. It makes you feel like you're really getting somewhere! Most of the highways around Toronto were 100 km/h, but like all big cities, no one was going slower than 110 km/h.

I also got a lesson in Canadian temperatures while I was there. Our trip was about 10 Canadians and 3 people from the US. The first afternoon of the training we were discussing the temperature. I'm not bad at converting C to F in my brain, so I actually knew how cold it was. Anyhow, we were discussing the temperature and I said that my car said it was negative 5 C ... and oh how my Canadian counterparts laughed. It's minus 5, they told me. As I listened to radio stations for the next two days, I realized that indeed, no one says negative 5. Another of my US colleagues said the same thing about 5 hours later ... so at least I felt better about that.

It also seems that Canadians are far more concerned about environmental issues than most in the US. As we toured the mill, our tour guide mentioned several environmental issues that they were working on. About 50% of the energy they use is provided by methane from a landfill a mile from the plant. Cool huh? They said that have about 20 years of methane left.

I really enjoyed my trip and my colleagues made me an honorary Canadian (they were going to give me a hat, but alas I had to leave and come back to NJ). All in all, I liked Toronto better than NJ. Of course, they all wanted to come to NJ so they could visit New York City. I guess you always want what you don't have.

Toronto ... in the winter

As if winter wasn't cold enough in New Jersey, I'm heading to Toronto, Ontario tomorrow, eh. This little trip is cleverly disguised as training. What that really means of course is we'll spend the day talking around issues and not having any questions answered.

On the bright side, I get to see some of my colleagues from Canada and spend time in a city I've not been in before.

You probably don't care

But since I work in the steel industry, I find the hostile takeover bid by Mittal Steel of Arcelor Steel quite interesting. Like everything else, most of the steel companies in the world are starting to be controlled by a few companies ... very few of the them U.S. companies. My mill is owned by a Brazillian company, and Mittal and Nippan both own many of the other U.S. mills. It's becoming more and more difficult for U.S. companies to compete with the upcoming Asian markets. This is especcially true in the North East, where power costs more than anywhere else in the country, people get paid more and we're next to an ocean so importing is becoming a serious issue. I guess it's why so many companies are embracing lean manufacturing (after Japan whooped the U.S. for a few years I guess).

More info you don't need

Now that I'm feeling better, I have to say that I'm amazed by the body's ability to continue to generate material far after the stomach and intestines are vacant. Even after the chicken picatta, apple pie, and salad were gone, my body was still able to produce something for me to offer to the porcelain gods. Today I am finally able to replace some of the missing sustenance without feeling likely to assume the position. I wonder how long it would take to be truly empty?

The office, finally

With all the traveling Ryan and I have done recently, it took us waaayy too long to finish the office. To be honest, there were a couple times that Ryan wanted to get it finished up and I, well, didn't. I blame it on the weekend couch gnomes.

Last weekend Ryan finished up the caulking and paining on the window frames. We painted the room and Ryan hung the blinds while I was away on my ill-fated business trip. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you actually get motivated.

The first picture is what the office looked like when we moved in. Since then we have replaced the windows, framed them out, painted the walls and put in furniture (of course).

The second picture is the after shot. I think I'm going to add some pictures from our various Hawaii trips and put up a painting I bought from a woman in Hawaii to finish up.

I was pukin' in Georgia

After a successful day on a benchmarking trip to Cartersville, GA, our host took us to the Appalachain Grill. "The best meal in Georgia!" "This place is great!" I was looking forward to the highly praised meal, and indeed, it was good. We had fried green tomatoes, salad topped with walnuts and cranburys, chicken piccata and apple pie for desert. Yummy ... until 1 am.

When I woke up with a terrible feeling in my stomach. I threw up from 1 am until 11 am. I was supposed to be on a flight at 3:45. Fat chance. My co-workers brought me medicine and gatorade and took me to a hotel near the airport where Becky came and babysat for the night. Thank goodness she lives in Atlanta.

I finally got home this afternoon. I don't feel great, but have managed to keep down some food today. Food poisoning sucks. Sisters rock. Being sick away from home is really lame.

At Volcano

Some of the monsooning we experienced.

Spelunking

Here is the opening of a cave we went exploring.

Cool looking orchids

In Hilo.

Donkey!

There are apparently wild donkeys hanging out in Waipio. We also saw wild goats at one of the more deserted beaches.

Waipio Valley

Waipio Valley is a beautiful valley that you have to have 4 wheel drive to get into. It used to be the vacation spot for Hawaiin Kings and Queens. A couple thousand people lived here at one time until a Tsunami wiped it out in the early 1900s. It's slowly being repopulated, but still only a few dozen people live there, without running water, electricity or other creature comforts.

The end :(

On Friday we really just hung out at some beaches and soaked the last of the Hawaiian rays. Our trip home was sad (and long). Like last time, Hawaii is one of the only places I've visited that I really wanted to stay. I'm going to post a few more of our favorite pictures from the trip, in no particular order.

Whale Watching

Since it was whale season in Hawaii we had to go on a whale watching cruise. Right now, it is calving and breeding season, so guess what we saw? First were two groups of three, a mother, her calf and her escort. Before we went in, we also saw a female being followed by a couple of amorous males. She turned on her side and slapped the water with her flipper to let the guys know she wasn't interested just yet.

These are amazing creatures. They are the size of a bus. A couple times, we got to see them right off the bow of the boat. We also got to see spinner and bottle nosed dolphins, taking a free trip in our wake. This was maybe the coolest experience of the vacation.

One of God's little clues

That maybe we shouldn't go any further into the water. The ocean was super rough the entire time we were in Hawaii. Apparently the ocean is rougher in the winter anyway, but it was even rougher than normal because of some strange ocean currents. This beach had tide pools where the ocean broke on the lava before the pools. It makes you feel very insignificant to observe the awe inspiring power of the ocean.

The aftermath

We had to get a picture of the aftermath of all our 4 wheel driving. The jeep looks red in this picture, but it was Illini orange. Even after we took it through the car wash, you could definitely tell we had been off roading. Ooops. The good news is we didn't get charged extra.

Don't adjust your colors

It's green sand. We headed back to the south point of Hawaii, which is the southern most point of the United States. This was defininately one of the most fun days of the trip. The south point is a 4 wheel drive to the green sand beach. This is a beach you literally have to climb down into. It's also the one where I got an earful of green sand that took almost a year to get completely cleared. I thought that this year it would be different. Alas, I still ended up with green sand in places it should never ever be. For whatever reason, Ryan seems to get away from the beach without getting knocked tail over teakettle.

As an aside, it looks like we're getting a blizzard this weekend, so I may actually have time to finish blogging the trip.

So I have a thing for Hawaiians

I assure you, I went home with Ryan.