Let's wrap it up!!

Well, it's almost time for my Mexico trip to come to an end and it won't be a day too soon. As much as I'm enjoying the warmth outside, it's usually during the third week of the audit that I am ready to go back to Midland to regroup. Plus, the more I talk to Ben and Natalie, the more excited I get to see them this weekend!

This past weekend we didn't have to work so Friday evening me and the other lady on my audit hopped on a bus and 3.5 hours later we were in Veracruz!! We didn't actually get there until 10 pm so it was an early night. Saturday morning I woke up and stepped outside to see...RAIN!! Of all the days it could rain! Luckily, our hotel was attached to a shopping mall so I spent the day exploring stores. Some of it was...interesting. The best part was that they had a Zara which I love so I spent a good deal of time in there.

Early Saturday evening we ventured downtown (in a light drizzle) and took some pictures. It wasn't that cool so we then headed to a restaurant that was recommended to us by some people at the site here. I don't know how it happens but I always order the wrong thing on the menu. I even asked the waiter what I was getting and he said "A fillet of fish stuffed with shrimp, crab, and octopus". Ok, sounds good. What he failed to mention was that when it arrived, it would be coated in an usually thick (and unappetizing) layer of mayonaise. But after I scraped that part off, the rest was decent.

Sunday morning I woke up to find the rain had stopped and sun was shining. So I suited up and caught the shuttle to the "Galeria Plaza Beach Club"! It was a fabulous day complete with a warm sun, nice breeze and cold drinks by the pool. I decided not to venture onto the beach b/c I have learned from past experiences that sand is a lot like glitter and if you get it on you, be prepared to have it on you FOREVER.

Three and a half hours later, we headed back to hotel to shower and change. Then we stopped by the mall food court to get these delicous drinks called Liquados which are basically milkshakes that aren't as thick and come in cups the size of Den Pops! Then it was off to the buses. The buses are surprisingly punctual here so we made sure to get there with plenty of time.

Yesterday I woke up not feeling so hot (which I have officially blamed on the chicken I ate on Sunday) and by noon, it was decided that I needed to see a doctor. So, our driver took me to the doctors office where she asked me some questions, poked me (she litterally poked me), and then wrote me 3 prescriptions. I have a feeling those are a lot easier to get around here. I then was taken back to the hotel where I slept from 4:30pm until 6 am and woke up feeling 85% better (so whatever the doctor gave me must be working)! Unfortuantely, one of the auditors got sick and she didn't make it into work today. I think if this would have been a 4 week audit, we wouldn't have made it.

I'm hoping that we'll all pull it together for these last couple of days and finish strong. Thursday afternoon after our exit meeting, we're being driven to Mexico City. Then Friday morning, I'm on the first flight to Houston where I'll meet up with Natalie and Ryan. Then we're all off to Kansas City to meet up Ben, Bill and Blake for some wedding fun!!

Elbows out, side to side

It's finally Friday and tonight me and the other lady on my audit and I are off to Veracruz!! We're staying at the Galeria Plaza Hotel which we picked mainly because it's attached to the mall. But it also looks nice and is supposed to have a great outdoor pool where I hope to be spending most of my time. Currently the weather forecast shows high winds so keep your fingers crossed that the indoor pool is below a glass roof on the top floor.

I finally figured out why they only make Spring Break a week long. If you stay in Mexico more then a week, you get sick of the food. I did try octopus this week and fresh guava. And I drank some sort of white powdery milky substance at lunch that smelled a lot like Christmas but didn't taste as good. They put some sort of sauce on everything and I think that's what has made me get sick of it. I've decided to stick to the basics of soups and salads for the remainder of the trip. I figure, 10 days of authentic Mexican was enough to satisfy any craving. I might actually be set for the year.

The other staff auditor on this audit is Brazilian and while his English is fantastic, we sometimes stumble across words that he doesn't know. For instance, the other day I said "Are you mocking me?" and he didn't know the word "mocking". So, I explained it and now I can say he's not leaving this audit empty handed. Another word I taught him is "baller". This one might not have be as useful but it's quite amusing when he points to random guys on the street and says "That guy is such a baller" in his sweet Brazilian accent. He tried to help me learn Portugese for my next audit but it's a very difficult language. I could barely get out the sentence "Where is the bathroom" so he said they'd probably know what I was talking about if I just asked in Spanish and that IS one of the things I know how to say in Spanish!

There is some construction going on between where we work and our hotel. At one point, the road splits and one side goes downhill and the other side (which is 2 lanes) goes up hill. Right before the road splits, there is a sign that says "Good traffic" which points to the side that goes up hill and another that says "Bad traffic" and points to the side that goes down. This in itself, I find amusing. But on top of all that, 95% of the time, we choose the "bad traffic" side!! We also pass a giant blowup Godzilla that we haven't figured out what it's there for. And you also see signs for bull fighting and cock fighting (which is apparently legal here).

The other night we went to dinner with some of the people from our sight. We went to an Argentinian restaurant which was quite delicious. And the people were so funny! They told some great stories about some of the spring break places and kept doing impersonations of people from other Latin American countries. It's meeting all these new people in addition to all the traveling that I love this job!

When I told the people here that I spent the best week of my life in Acapulco, the started recommending all these other places to go. They pushed Cancun really hard which I thought was wierd since there are so many other nice places in Mexico. I was sad to bring up the point that I don't have Spring Break anymore! Its one of the sad facts about getting older.

One of the people on this site bears a very strong resemblance to Mr. Bean. It's keepiing up with the fact that I'm constantly finding movie star look-alikes on all my trips.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Weekend fun...and some work

Well, it's Sunday evening and what a weekend it's been!

Saturday we were stuck counting inventory at the plant all day. However, I truely believe everything happens for a reason and this time was no different. Had I not been in front of my computer all day, I never would have received an e-mail from my sister telling me....SHE'S ENGAGED!! It took every ounce of self control I had to not jump up and down screaming in the conference room when I got the news!

For those of you who think that being an accountant is no fun, you would be mistaken. Saturday while I was counting inventory, I got to play "dress up". The attached picture shows me in my hard hat and goggles. What you can see are my sweet Dow issued steel-toed shoes. Next to me is the in-charge auditor (who strangely enough was also a Kappa at Wash U in St. Louis.

When we finally made it back to the hotel there wasn't much else to do but relax and wait for dinner. And that's exactly what I did.

Sunday, our driver came to pick us up at 10 to take us out and about. Oh, but I would like to first talk about breakfast. Every day I get this delicious fruit and yogurt cup with granola for breakfast. It's beautiful when I get it and it tastes even better. I like it so much I even took a picture of it but since I don't have my camera cord, that will have to be attached at another time. However, on the weekend they have a huge brunch buffet. Frankly everything is so covered in sauce that I couldn't really see what it was so I stuck to the fruit section but everyone else seemed to be enjoying their meals so I'm sure it was good.

Our first stop for site-seeing was a city called Cholula (which some of you might regonize at the hot sauce you see at a lot of Mexican restaurants). We thought there were going to be pyramids but for some reason there wasn't (and the reason was lost in translation). But there were ruins of an old sacrificial alter where children between the ages of 6 and 7 were sacrificed so it would rain. There was also a church that we had to climb several steps to get to but the view from the top was worth it.

Our next stop was a city named Puebla. There is large cathedral but strangely enough it's closed on Sundays. I can't explain it. There was also a huge "art" fair. I put art in quotes b/c while there was jewelry and other hand made items there was also a lot of...junk. Old locks with keys, keys that go to nothing, tiny empty bottles (some with a little leftover stuff that seems to have molded), coin collections, and all sorts of other stuff that would just clutter a house. But as the saying goes "one man's trash is another man's treasure" so maybe someone found there treasure there today. We walked around for a while, had lunch and then headed back to Tlaxcala.

On the way home, we discussed the possibilities for next weekend. The original plan was Mexico city but now we're leaning towards a weekend on the beach in Veracruz!! Nothing has been decided yet but that's where my vote is going. I need to do something to fix this sweet tank top tan I got today.

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Blending right in!

Buenos tardes everyone!

Yes, it's true, I'm using Spanish jargon on a daily basis now! Now when people ask me if I speak Spanish, I reply "Si, un poquito" which means "yes, a little." But then they usually start speaking to me in full-blown Spanish after that and I usually just stare at them blankly. But i'm getting better! I can even ask for the check at dinner!

So the other night, I ordered a steak for dinner and they asked me how I wanted it done. I wasn't sure how to say medium well so I just said "medio mas!" and even though it came out well done, I like to think I got my point across.

In other news, I've tried some new foods here in Mexico. Some good, some...not so good. For instance, I found that I really like Cactus!! It tastes a lot like okra. I have also discovered that I don't like corn fungus (which really shouldn't have been much of a surprise) and this sauce they called mole (which is supposed to rhyme with ole!). They told me it has chocolate in it but I know what chocolate tastes like, and that isn't it. The options at lunch the other day were pork and cooked cheese and since we all know my feelings on pork, i went with the cheese. Who knew something so simple could taste so good!

The in-charge auditor and I were joined by another staff auditor on Thursday. He spent the first few days of the audit on another site but will be completing the rest of his work here with us. This is a good thing b/c he tells some really funny stories. And he's on my next audit with me so if 2.5 weeks in Mexico wasn't enough Emel for him, he's going to get 3 more weeks in Brazil!!

I went to go do some testing the other day and I had to take my laptop with me. As I was closing everything down, the auditees saw my desktop picture which is a picture of some of me and the Kappas from KPs wedding. Needless to say they loved it and they told me several times that all my friends are beautiful! They'd also liked to be invited to the next wedding so I gave them Annie's number. (Just kidding Annie!!)

This weekend we have to count inventory on Saturday (boo!) but Sunday we're going to hopefully see some pyramids and go to a city called Puebla for some sightseeing. I brought my camera on this trip so I hope to get some good pictures!

People here keep asking me if the weather is too cold because it dropped into the the 60s for one day. I'd like them to come spend the week in Midland with me so they can see what cold really feels like. I look forward to our walk to the cafeteria every day b/c it's the only time I really spend in the sun! Hopefully that'll change this weekend!

As always, I've brought some books along on this trip. They've come in handy since we have a 40 minute drive to work everyday. So, if anyone needs any suggestions, here they are.

Atonement by Ian McEwan or something like that. I'm a little sorry I saw the movie first b/c now I already know what happened but it's still an enjoyable book.

A Time To Kill by John Grisham. I have yet to not like a book he's written. I believe that this was actually his first book but he didn't become famous until he wrote another one and then everyone went back to read A Time to Kill.

I'm signing off for now but hopefully the inventory count and day of sightseeing will provide lots more entertainment next week!!

I love you all!!

Spring Break--Corporate Style

Hola Senoritas!

Well, I'm out on another audit and this time they sent me to Mexico!! It's kinda like Spring Break 2004 and 2006...except not at all. For one, I'm about 2 hours south east of Mexico City and am surrounded by land and mountains. Second, instead of spending my days baking in the sun enjoying all inclusive beverages poolside, I'm in a conference room working. And instead of prancing around in a swimsuit, I'm stuck in workclothes and I'm actually freezing in the conference room so the whole outfit is complimented by my Northface fleece.

But there are definately some perks.

For one...it's about 60 degrees warmer here then it is in Midland and there isn't even any humidity! There isn't a cloud in the sky and i'm definately geting my moneys worth from my sunglasses. Two, our hotel is super cute and if my room had balcony doors that opened, i could walk right out onto the pool deck and hopefully I'll be spending some time there Saturday and Sunday. Also, we're in downtown Tlaxcala so we have tons of cute restaurants we can walk to. Last night when were were walking around they had all these booths of jewelry and stuff that we walked around to look at. While the lady here with me is super into all that stuff, I prefer to look. They do offer all that hair braiding stuff that they offered on the beaches of Alcapulco so maybe i'll come back to the U.S. with a sweet new hairstyle.

I do have to say that I was relieved to find when I arrived, 2 sealed bottles of water in my room. That was the one thing lacking for most of the trip to Germany.

There is currently talk about 2 of us going to Mexico City next weekend just to explore a bit more. One of the auditors wants to go to a town where there is supposedly good pottery. Now, call me crazy but I could care less about the pottery and would rather go to the big city!! Plus I heard the accomodations there are amazing and I want to see what it's all about!

Of course, my lack of Spanish isn't really helping me at all while I'm here. I've actually already received an e-mail back from one of my interviewees that said "I don't speak English." Sweet. And more then once I've had people just look at me and assume I speak Spanish. Even my customs guy refused to believe I didn't know what he was saying! Also, apprently having an L at the end of your name is a very difficult thing to pronounce here so I'm enjoying all the creativity with the pronunciation of my name. I also had a little deja vu when the guy who picked us up in the airport were waiting for the other lady to withdraw some money. He looked at me and said "Do you speak Spanish?" which is a key phrase that I memorized so that I could respond "No." He then replied "I don't speak English" and we went back to standing in silence.

Even though Farley and I are not in the same area, I feel some bonding going on between me and her. It's about 7900 feet above sea level here and I was a little short of breath during my workout this morning. But I figure, if her training in Arizona will get her more red blood cells that will get her Eugene then far be it for me to deny the benefits. Maybe this will be the first step in my quest to become the next American Gladiator.

I miss you all and if anyone wants to come play, they gave me two beds (with extremely hard mattresses) so if anyone wants to bask in the "luxury", come visit. It wouldn't be the worst thing to hang out by the pool while I worked all day! Otherwise, just look forward to more e-mails!

Sleepless in Seattle

I got to go play with Kathryn over the weekend and it's made me miss being back at Purdue and playing on campus.

For those of you who have never been to Seattle, I highly recommend it. Kathryn and I were the ultimate tourists starting bright and early Saturday morning and not stopping until she dropped me off on Monday morning at the airport. I'd like to say that we saw Seattle from land, air and sea.
On land, we walked everywhere! Starting from her cute little apartment (which I'm quite jealous of) all the way downtown to where they have the most Victorian buildings in a square of about 20 blocks. We also saw everything in between. We went to the fish market where they let me hold a crab!!
We drank tea at the original starbucks, and I was even talked into buying jam from some cute vendor guy. We ate the world's best mac and cheese, saw a statue of a Russian dictator, saw a troll under a bridge and ate Pho!Needless to say that when we finally fell into bed at night it didn't take long for us to pass out! And I got to see the U of Washington campus which is absolutely beautiful and while I will always love Purdue, it would have been nice to have amazingly huge buildings of beautiful architecture and a football statium looking out over a lake. We also did one of those bus/boat tours when the bus actually drives right into the water and turns into a boat!!


That was when I decided I wanted to live in a floating house on Lake Union. Our driver was a little quirky but that just made it all the more interesting!

Now, we didn't actually fly over Seattle to see it by air (well, I guess I did to get there but that's beside the point) but we did go the top of Smith Tower which is a really tall building downtown that actually has a caged in deck on the 35th floor that you can walk out onto. We happened to choose the windiest day ever to do this so it did feel like we were flying! And I'm pretty sure if we had a fear of heights before that adventure, we conquered it that day! And we found out that people actually live in the point of the Smith tower and that's when I decided to live there (notice a trend?)!!

Other random things: we met a guy who was trying to find himself by getting people's e-mail addresses to send them a website link that didn't exist yet. If you just read that sentence and said "huh?" then you're pretty much in the same boat G-spach and I were in. We just smiled and backed out of the cheese shop he found us in (but not before I gave him my old purdue e-mail address b/c who am I to judge someone's way of finding themselves?). We also are pretty sure we saw some ballet dancers and what could only be there bodyguard. We followed them around for awhile…on purpose or on accident we're pretty sure we're on the bodyguard's hit list.

The theme of the weekend though I'd have to say was car trouble!! It all started when Kathryn picked me up at the airport and in the 30 seconds it took me to get into her car, a cop knocked on the window to tell her that the tags on her car had expired. Well it was her roommates car and I can only describe the inside of it as Colleen, Goody and my room senior year at it's worst multiplied by 50. So Kathryn kindly thanked him for the information and tried to end the conversation right there but unfortunately he wanted to see licence and registration and all that other stuff. Thankfully the seattle police were on an off night and since they were taking to long, he let us off with a warning.

Later in the weekend, we rented a flex car (which is actually a great concept where you can rent cars that are parked around the city for a few hours or days at a time). Unfortunately, there was a slight mix up and we ended up at the wrong car. Then when we got that sorted out, we did out adventure and came back to find that someone was parked in the spot we're supposed to leave the car in! So we let them a "friendly reminder" as the flex car company calls it which pretty much says "listen up bitchass, we're towing your car b/c you were such an idiot. Maybe you'll know better in the future."

When I got back to Detroit on Monday night I got to my car and got in only to find that the driver's side door wouldn't latch shut. Now, I live 2 hours from the Detroit airport and as strong as I like to think my arms are, they aren't strong enough to hold the door closed while steering with my other arm for that long. So I drove to the closest decent sized town looking for someplace open 24 hours. I finally found a walgreens and of couse they were closed but a lady outside of it had an elastic thing in her truck that she gave to me and came to help me fix my car. Of course as soon as that happened, the door decided to latch making me look like a huge idiot or possibly some person who was actually hoping to rob a walgreens while carryng around her laptop that she was too afraid to leave in the car. Ugh, what a night!!

But now I'm back in Midland and enjoying a few nights in my own bed until Friday when I pack up and leave for Houston! I figure if Dow gives me 5 free flights to Texas a year, I might as well use them when it's bitter cold in Michigan and I know Nat loves visitors!!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!! I love you all!!

Happy Fat Tuesday!

I'm getting ready to embark upon a tour of the western hemisphere and I thought I'd send out a little note before I leave.

This weekend I'm off to the great state of Washington to visit Miss Kathryn Gramelspacher. I can only imagine our weekend will be full of Starbucks and Pho which are the only two things that I know exist there. Rumor has it that KG is living in the top of the space needle and one can only imagine the view. It will be a treat!

Next weekend I'm off to the giant state of Texas!! I'll be visitng the new Laskowski family and Ryan and I will officially duel it out for the love of Natalie. Rumor has it he's a little jealous of my facebook status and the fact that my phone number has been memorized. I can't say I blame him but let's face it, I met Nat first.

After that I'm off to Mexico--Corporate Style. In other words, I'm not going to be near the coast, I'm not going to be drinking an abundance of cerverzas or taking any siestas. But I'm sure it will still be an adventure. I've heard that the people are not as friendly when you can't speak Spanish so I'm doing my best to at least LOOK Mexican by leaving my hair curly, and hoping for the best.

My trip home from Mexico is going to route me through Kansas City, Kansas where I'll be attending a wedding that one might say I invited myself to. I'm sure it will be a great time because Ben and Nat and Ryan and Bill Kercher and Blake (who you might remember from the Laskowski wedding of '07) will also be in attendance. I have never been to a wedding that wasn't a grand time so I can't see this one being any different!

Finally, I'll round off my tour with a trip to Brazil where I will be equipped with a bodyguard and will be working with two other Brazilians. I might even attempt a side trip to Rio b/c it's one of the only 2 places that have impressed my dad (the other being Hong Kong if anyone is curious). Regardless, it's another trip to another country where I don't speak the language which I can only hope will provide you guys with entertaining e-mails at the very least.

After that, I think i'm scheduled to spend May and June in the beautiful state of Michigan which actually isn't bad b/c summer is the only reason I agreed to live in this state. So, if anyone wants to come visit, that'd be the time to do it!! There is no saying where I'll be starting in July (except that I will be in Turkey but that's for a personal vacation).

I hope that everyone is having a good day!!

I miss you all!!