Mushing along at only 486 MPH, headwinds blocking us all the way. As restful and serene as our last trip was, this is a cattle-car. Seems like every coach seat is taken, and I’m seated in the middle of the 767 off the left Aisle. Turbulence has people getting airsick and the ‘fasten seatbelts sign’ constantly illuminated. Ugh.
At least we ARE going home today. For most of yesterday’s marathon, 8am to 1:30am session, it looked like we hade no end of problems and that we’d have to stay through monday or deep into next week to solve their problems. However, we caught some breaks in the afternoon, and again in the evening, culminating in a successful test at 1:30. If we did the same procedures 10 times, probably 9 out of those 10 times, UBS would’ve demanded us to stay.
I prayed so hard to get to come home. . .just homesick and fed-up.
Didn’t see much of the land of banks and Chocolates, but I did experience some fine chocolates, coffee, and (of course) the banking world. Surprise–they’re business-casual IT folks. I expected 3-piece suits everywhere, but no! I learned some of their ticks, as well…Kurt couldn’t speak english too well, but had piercing blue eyes; Yvonne would make a weird sound whenever she decided the product was broken; and William had the best tick of all – he had Restless Eyebrows Syndrom. He would stand around raising and lowering his eyebrows, just a tick
Snapped a few photos while waiting for the shuttle to the airport, but that’s about it. The bill for the hotel room was truly spectacular– 988 Swiss Francs (“We do not use the Euro, damnit!”), including two calls home from me that were 180 and 280 francs apiece. Given that it’s abotu 1.2 francs / dollar, that’s UNREAL.
The Zurich airport was a mess–we arrived 2 hours before departure and only JUST made it to the plane before they closed boarding. 1:40 of processing, including an hour for check–in.
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Did learn some interesting things about European culture while I was there: They have very good table manners. Tip for everything (having no cash on me, this was a problem). The Swiss (at least) seem to work very hard. Nothing is complimentary (yuck). The Swiss DO wear deodorant, and are very conservative. Everyone seems to be an environmentallist, and Cars are looked down upon.
Okay, digression: THE CARS WERE AWESOME. I turned around every 5 minutes on the street and saw some neat European model – Citroen, Renault, various Italian and off-make vechicles – not offered in the States. Charlie and I thought we could bluff our way into a test-drive at the Citroen dealer across the street from the Hotel Continental, but we spent barely 6 hours at the hotel in 2 days, so no chance there. In particluar classic german hardware – E30 BMW’s, Audi’s, porsches–were everywhere. Oh, and the standard Taxi is a Mercedes. :-)
Don’t know why I’d ever visit Zurich on vacation–I don’t ski, and the city doesn’t appeal to me, being super-expensive.
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So, what does this trip mean in the grander scheme of things? I have no idea. . .C’s been talking to me much more about the company, and I like his perspective on things. But then again, the guy’s a workaholic.
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Movie reviews: We’ve seen two movies so far during the flight, “Chicken Litte” and “Aeon Flux”. “Chicken Little” was derivative of almost every other kids movie, most notably “Shrek” (Lots of sing-along songs) and “Finding Nemo” (Message about father letting his ungifted son achieve and grow)
“Aeon Flux” was…umm….bad. Not worth Netflix’ing, even. My recommendation is grab the animated featurettes that MTV ran in the 90’s. Much more enjoyable….