northwest on northwest

Listening to Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV

I've been in Vancouver on business since Monday morning. I like Vancouver, but don't really enjoy coming here for work. I always have meetings all day, and always end up working non-stop from the time I wake up in the morning until the time I go to sleep at night. The "fun" is compounded by the fact that my counterparts here aren't particularly good at what they do. After seeing presentations and information packets they put together, I always end up having to do a lot more work to make the information presentable so that meetings will go more smoothly. This trip has been no exception.

Things started off OK for me, but quickly went downhill. I got to the Minneapolis airport with plenty of time to spare on Monday morning. My co-worker that was traveling with me, however, never showed up. I called him right before the plane took off, and it turned out that he had forgotten his passport and had gone home to get it. He's a bit of a pain to be around, but since he was carrying all of our product samples, not having him for the trip would have been a problem. Fortunately, he caught a later flight and still made the one meeting for the afternoon that we weren't able to reschedule.

The flight was fine, but getting through customs took forever. My flight apparently landed at the same time as several other flights from Asia, so I was one of the few white guys in a sea of black heads. I was in line with a bunch of Koreans on both sides of me. Koreans apparently don't have the same space requirements as Americans do, because the old couple behind me kept pushing up against me, despite my repeated glares and dirty looks. Very annoying to be stuck by such people for so long. Things went further down hill when I got to the rental car parking lot and found that all they had left was a PT Cruiser. There are few cars that I hate more than the PT Cruiser. The ride and features are just as bad as the car's looks. It took me ten minutes just to figure out where all the buttons were for things like the windows, the trunk (which ended up having none), etc.

I stopped at McDonald's on the way to our Canadian office. I always enjoy seeing the differences in restaurants and other things when I travel. This McDonald's was one of the nicest I've ever been to, if not the nicest. There were several LCD TVs on the walls, and the lighting was bright and pleasant. I laughed when I saw the napkins labeled "serviettes." Differences in the English language from one place to another always entertain me. Listening to the Canadians is equally entertaining, if not a bit grating after a while.

The majority of the trip has been productive and a lot has been accomplished, which is good. I've become good friends with a few people up here, so it's good to see them and spend a little time with them, even if it is mostly work-related. I haven't had any time for fun and haven't been able to go downtown, but that's OK--I've been downtown before. Vancouver is a place I could see myself living--it's very pretty, and I love the way the city was built right in front of the mountains. It's very picturesque.

I'm leaving for the airport soon, and I'm glad to be going home. As an added bonus, my class for tonight was canceled, so I'll be able to go right home from the airport, which I hadn't been counting on.