More New People!

Today started off about the same as the rest of the week. I headed out to my client to work on my special project. But I only was out there half a day, as I had to drive back to the city to attend a training session in the afternoon. So I sat down with the client, ran through what I had done, and drove back to down in really good time. It’s nice to drive around at noon when there is no traffic!

I have noticed this one before, but neglected to mention it. (Apparently my mind only stays in the gutter for so long before it eventually makes its way back out again.) I was reminded today since I saw in during the light of day. But on the way back home, the Motorway I travel along (M5) meets back up with the Eastern Distributor. I remember the name of the highway for this reason: I was driving home the first night, and I saw this huge “E D” painted on the roadway. “What in the world is ED?” I said out loud. Then I kind of chuckled to myself at the thought of those stupid commercials that are repeatedly run back home. (No, apparently they do not have that problem here because they don’t show commercials for it.) It suddenly occurred to me that “E D” painted on the M5 was not Australia’s way of telling men to deal with a personal issue, but it was signifying which lanes carried on to the Eastern Distributor.

One thing I noticed today: There really are no billboards along the motorway. I think I counted three during my hour-long commute, and one of those was just a tall sign to let you know where to exit so that you could get to the McDonald’s on the side of the road. Another was an ad for I have no idea what – maybe a zoo or aquarium – it was really hard to figure out what it was advertising. The third was for some sort of convention which includes strip poker tournaments. I didn’t pay too much attention to that one. The only reason I would want to know anything about it would be to know where not to be when it comes to town. But it is a lot different to drive without all of the advertisements along the road.

So I came into training, and some of the people there were giving me a hard time. “Glad to see you finally got here!” But there are folks here from all of the Australian offices. It is training for all the lateral hires (people who transferred into the country). I got to talk to some folks during some breaks, and everyone here is pretty nice.

The training wrapped up around 5, and dinner was not until 7. Since I had my car here, I decided to drive back home and then ride public transport back over here for dinner. I find myself eating words from prior posts a little more often now. Traffic was terrible going home! I ended up missing an exit as I crossed the Harbour Bridge because I could not get over, so I took the next exit, had to go back across the Bridge, turn around, and then come back and try again. Then I heard on the radio that the main road I drive to get to my apartment was backed up because of a broken-down taxi.

So while I could be put into a foul mood because traffic was bad and I was beginning to wonder how I was getting home and back in time, I ended up pulling out the street map book I have and I found a new route home. Good thing – it was a little easier to get to my apartment, and I might end up taking this route more often! Then I lucked out, because I managed to find a parking space where I can leave my car for a couple of days. You guys have to understand – all of the parking around my apartment is 2 hours only between 8 am and 6 pm Monday through Saturday. (Meaning I can park overnight, but you have to be gone by 10 am.) Since I would not be driving on Friday or Saturday, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my car during that time. So for me to find this spot for the next couple of days was really quite lucky! Of course, this spot gave way to a new challenge for me: Parallel parking. Yeah, you may think it is relatively easy and not a big deal. But try doing it backwards sometime. It is a little harder than you think!

So I walked in the front door of my apartment building, and there is a concierge desk right there in front of the elevator. The funny thing is that I have yet to see anyone sitting at the desk. There is a door behind it with some little TVs and a bunch of packages sitting in this little room. I happen to look over, and there is a package sitting there with my name on it. So I go to the mailboxes to see if there is a note in my box, and there’s nothing. I walked back to the desk, shout out “Excuse me?” and a girl appears. I ask her about how I would know if there was a package for me, and she says there’s usually a note, but it takes a little while to get through everything. So she asked my name, went back, pulled my package, and handed it to me. It’s a good day! It was from Bootsie and Don, who were good enough to send me some goodies, including a mouse pad with the Charlotte skyline on it. Cool! I’m kind of excited about taking it in to work and showing Charlotte off to everyone in the office!

So I get upstairs, change clothes, and run back out the door to head to dinner. I missed catching the bus I needed to get into the city, so I jump on the next bus, and head to a train station. I got off the train, and figured out that I had no idea how to get from the station to the restaurant. Man, I really suck at directions. So I wander around the city for a little while, until I find a map that can help me out. I finally figure out how to get there, and can’t find the restaurant. (The order of street addresses doesn’t quite work the same here, at least not consistently. I still haven’t figured it out.) At this point in time, I'm back to wondering if it is a bad night that I should just write off. Give up and go home. I tell myself that I will give it one more pass before giving up, and there it is, right in front of me. It's back to being a good day! So I walk in 15 minutes late, and squeeze in at the end of the table. However, I picked the right spot, because the people I sat with were a lot of fun. Of course, they all work in the Melbourne office, but it was still nice to hang out with them. They were originally from the UK and South Africa, and all wanted to talk about how great the US is. One guy had lived in Tampa for a little while. So to hear them talk about traveling around the US was pretty fun.

After dinner, some of us went out to a local place for drinks. I got to meet some more people. And these folks are all genuinely enthralled by the US, so it is kind of fun to answer all their questions. One of the guys I met is from New Zealand. NZs are referred to as “Kiwis” in Australia, so I asked him, “What is a kiwi?” Apparently it is a bird. Learn something new every day. But it makes a lot more sense than the fruit, like I originally thought. I also learned another interesting fact at the bar. I’m not trying to get into any kind of racial debate here, but we walked into the bar, and there were a few black guys scattered around the bar. At this point, I had sort of a weird realization that these guys were the first black people I had seen in Australia. Seriously. There are a ton of white, Asian, and Indian people here, but that’s it. I found out that it really is a big deal here. Apparently, black people have a very hard time here – there is some level of racism. There are very few black people, and those that you do see tend to be directly from certain areas of Africa. I don’t know why I am so amazed by this fact. Perhaps because I thought this city was one of the most diverse populations I have seen. There are people from everywhere here. It is a huge city for tourism. And the folks who lieve here are people from all sorts of diverse backgrounds, with different economic, social, and other situations in life. They have no issues (that I have seen) with things like sexual orientation, but something that seems to simple, it is a big deal. I just think it is perplexing that there is still an entire population that is not really included. I guess this kind of stuff is everywhere...

Unfortunately I don’t have much else for you guys; that’s about it for my evening. As a note, on the way home, I saw a huge set up of people and news cameras. Apparently the new 3G iPhone is coming out tomorrow (I have no idea what that means), and it is being released here before anywhere else in the world. So people are lined up at midnight to get the phone as soon as the stores open in the morning. Freaking nuts. I mean, it’s pretty cold out at midnight, and I can’t imagine what it will get down to overnight! It’s a freaking phone, people. Whatever.

Okay, I should run (because that meowing cat is back!), but I am trying to figure out what to tell you to wrap up this post with no stupid news story and no mX tonight. Oh, wait! One of the girls from the Sydney office and I were walking to the bar together tonight. She was asking me about how I liked the city and the people. Somehow mX came up in our conversation. I told her how I had to share some of the reader stories with my friends back home. She laughed and said, “'You stupid idiot with the ugly shoes who sat next to me on the train: you smell!' Like that?” I told her the latest was the guy bashing on the homeless man. She immediately got excited and said, “But did you see the response from the guy who said he gave the homeless man those shoes?” So you can see – I am not the only one who reads these stories!

Tomorrow, I promise – I will have some good mX quotes for you guys!