4 Down, 10 To Go!

Wow – Friday is already here! (I can tell because there is a pretty rowdy group of people sitting outside downstairs, under my window.) The week has gone by pretty quickly –I can’t believe it is already the weekend again! Although I have to say, I am ready for it. It was a little harder getting out of bed this morning when the alarm went off. Actually, it will be nice when I get to stop the hour-long commute sometime next week. I think my project is about to wrap up soon. So for those of you wanting good stories at the end of my blog posts, I will be back in the office Monday, and possibly more of next week. So the mX entertainment will resume next week before I head down to Canberra.
Today was the first day I have really seen the effects of World Youth Day. Traffic coming home tonight was pretty bad! It took a while to get home tonight, and the motorway was pretty backed up. I have a good story, but I am going to wait to tell it as my closing entertainment for today’s post. But as I was saying, traffic was bad, and it was really hard to come close to the speed limit, which made for a much longer commute tonight. I am not sure where everyone was headed. I can guess; but I thought most people with WYD were already in the city. Of course, I could be wrong.
I actually heard a little more about what was going on with the WYD pilgrims tomorrow. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that the Harbour Bridge is being shut down to traffic tomorrow. The only things going over the Bridge will be the trains (they run on one side of the Bridge) and a ton of walkers. The pilgrims will be walking from the city, over the Bridge, and on to Randwick, which is the area to the east of town near Centennial Park. The pilgrims will be able to start walking at 5 am, and will end up in the Park at various times throughout the day tomorrow. (I have no idea how far they will be walking.) WYD will then have a big concert and evening vigil with the Pope tomorrow night, and the pilgrims will all spend the night in the Park. It has been pretty cold at night lately, and I can’t say that I would want to spend tomorrow night sleeping outside. Especially since there is going to be rain moving in early Sunday. Is it wrong to think it slightly funny that there is a chance there could be thousands of people spending the night in the rain tomorrow night?
Other than WYD, there is only some random stuff going on here this weekend. Of course, there is a rugby match in town Sunday evening. Apparently there are quite a few people from the office going to the match. They all got tickets separately and figured out that everyone else was going. Two of the people I have been working with this week are going, and told me I should come, too. Of course, it will be just about impossible to get a ticket now, and I don’t have anyone to go with. But I told my co-workers that we needed to all go to a match sometime, so that someone could explain the rules to me. So maybe I’ll be headed to a rugby match before too long. Aside from work, having someone explain the rules of rugby to me was a big reason I came here!
Speaking of co-workers... I have to say, it is a little different being known around the office without knowing people. Let me try to explain: In Charlotte, if people know me, I know them. Here, people seem to know who I am, but I am not sure who they are. With something like 100 people working in my department, it is hard to keep track of who all I have met. Last night, on the way home, I got on the elevator with someone who I did not remember meeting, but that I was sure I had probably seen around the office. As we got on the elevator, she was asking me how I was settling in, and how things were different here than they were in the US. So I guess I have met her...? Then during one of our random conversations today, the staff person I have been working with asked me if I had met So-And-So (I can’t remember who it was). I said I wasn’t sure, and then he said, “Oh yeah, you met her after bowling two weeks ago. You guys were talking to each other in the bar.” Uh... Okay... I guess people are keeping tabs on me here!
Other than that, there was nothing really going on today. But, as promised, I think I owe you guys my funny story for the night. As I said before, traffic was slow, and things were taking a while. On the way home, we had to sit and wait at the toll booth. I am still not sure what the hold-up was, but there was a truck in front of us towing a big trailer. Maybe the guy was arguing how many axles were on the truck to pay a lower toll, or maybe he just couldn’t find his wallet. But whatever the reason, it took a while. I finally pulled up to the toll booth, and, as soon as I pulled up, the worker said, “I guess they need some toilets for World Youth Day!” It took me a second, but as the truck in front of me was driving away, I figured out that the truck was towing about 40 Port-O-Johns, and I started laughing. The toll worker laughed with me and said, “Yep, I guess there was a shortage, and they had to call in for back up!” Man, the adventures can’t get much better!
Okay, so I need to run. I have a conference call in a little while. Yes, on Friday night. It seems that I am a sucker and agreed to have a conference call for the office back home. The folks who the call is with actually wanted me to figure out how to do a video conference call. But since it will be midnight here when I get on the call, it was out of the question. Good thing for me, though. I can sit here in the apartment in my pajamas for the call, rather than having to look nice! Seems like a pretty fair trade to me...
Have a great weekend, everyone. And I’ll talk to you again as we begin Week #5!