Road trip redux
All back and settled in from the road trip. Still recovering a tad, as the trip back was a little crazy. We were supposed to leave at 8a-9am, depending on when we actually got up, but didn't leave until late afternoon which was pretty much my fault as some work stuff came up... which meant we didn't get back until the wee hours of the morning. Very wee hours. We went up through Michigan, through Sarnia... you can see a shot of the bridge through the windshield to the right.
"Road trip" and my name aren't something you generally hear mentioned in the same breath. I don't like cars. I don't enjoy being around them, I most certainly don't enjoy riding in them, especially at high speeds. I've made some decent progress with them. My nails aren't ruining whoever is unlucky enough to have me in their car with them, but I just can't relax. The whole thing just isn't my cup of tea, and I try to avoid being in places where they're necessary.
So, road trips just aren't things I do. Jaunts are doable. I used to love quick trips out to red rock at dusk when I was living in vegas. But nothing time-intensive. The longest car ride I've been in over the last 10 years has prolly been 4 hours, and that was a must-do thing for a wedding of a friend where it wouldn't have been a cool thing to miss, for a lot of reasons.
So, why on earth would I end up going to Toronto of all places via a car? One part is I had to go for work anyways. The other part was that I sort of lost a bet and her winnings were due. Unamused, but a bet's a bet.
Work aspect:
I'm still not sure how this went. Everything went well, but was a bit odd. I'm going to have to think about the oddness, as I think I may be reaching a professional crossroads with this teaching thing. Anyways, the first two days were the things I do day in, day out. My pal wasn't happy about me not getting back to the hote until 9pm and having a late dinner, but every day after that was much less time intensive (giving classes) and I was free from 5:30pm on, and one of the days was completely free. Since my pal had a big paper to work on, this worked out pretty well.
Most of the grunge that was going on with these guys has worked itself out, there's a new project manager in play which is going to do wonders. So far, she seems to be a huge step up. Her first week is pretty much going to be nothing but damage control, so its too early to tell, but the fact that she realized she needed to do some serious damage control is a big step in the right direction.
It was actually fun to see those developers again face to face. I think their morale had taken some seriously hard hits: in addition to the project manager being moved out, the two teams were restructured in big ways. The indians just crack me the hell up. They again brought me the slag they consider to be coffee, which I assume means they either think I'm "one of them" enough to offer, or are playing a cruel joke. This time, when "Yes, like Turkish" was brought up, I had to do a google:
Turkey - A Turkish proverb calls coffee "Black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love." Turkish coffee is very finely ground (finer than espresso) and is brewed in little pots called ibriks or cezves. Turkish coffee is often spiced with cardamom, chicory or coriander.
I'm reasonably assured now that they don't completely hate me and aren't just giving me the 8 day old grounds left in the filter.
Other aspects:
Toronto is one cool as hell town. I just really dig that city... the people, mix of cultures, its vibe. Montreal is beautiful, but les francais asshats make you want to look at pictures of it but not actually go there. Toronto is much more of a Chicago-style city, or "very, very big town". I grouse about having to come here so much lately, but that doesn't really have anything to do with the city, just the feeling that I'm always going somewhere when a lot times I'm not sure its necessary.
It's also a lot more fun when you're there for more than 2-3 days max and not having to back to the hotel in the evening after dinner and then get more work done. If you ever have a chance to go, do so. The exchange rate really sucks right now, but even with the big jump you're talking 25%+ more bang for your buck.
Road trip aspect:
What can I say? Kinda surreal. It took a hair over 14 hours to get from Chicago to downtown Toronto, which is, well, insane. Mapquest said it should have taken 8, but due to a whole lot of factors that just wasn't realistic. :) I saw lots of cows and pastures, something I'm not used to seeing. Some of the small towns where we stopped to get gas were a little scary. Some odd looks. I saw one of the worst bathrooms I've ever seen in a little gas station.
I can't believe how much crap you consume on a trip like this. Lots of snackie treats. The weather was sunny, but I think it would have been a lot more fun if it had been warmer and you could have cracked the windows and stuff. It's also kind of fun to spend that much time with a person alone, it gets "comfortable" even after you run out of stuff to talk about. I learned I'm a decent road trip partner, in that I don't just conk out and sleep half the trip, but she was prolly just being polite.
I was also conscious of just how much time you waste now at airports. I'm not a big fan of having to deal with airport security. Having to get your boarding pass, horrific security... I took off my shoes for part of the trip, but it was voluntary and not because I was passing through a metal detector.
Going through customs was a bit of a trip on the way there, I guess we were kind of shady looking, so we got pulled over and had drug sniffing dogs going all over the place. I was glad we didn't take any drugs, and it turns out its not something mounties really want to talk about (I was bored, we were standing outside while dogs ran through the car, so I figured why not make conversation), so I didn't learn if drug-sniffing dogs are more sensitive to different kinds: IE, are they less sensitive to shrooms.
Posted by drunkenbatmanMarch 08, 2004, at 10:46 PM
