The Accidental Tourist

The Asia Trip

2009-02-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

Flew Overnight 18 hours from Newark to Singapore, on Singapore Airlines....my flight was all Business Class, completely lay flat beds.

Pictures from the Ukraine

2009-02-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

So now a few picks from my October trip to Ukraine:

Tried to get a picture of the Soviet signature that was still seen on the top of the building where we landed in Kharkov....this was actually the Kharkov Airport....

Next are my 2 buddies in front of the airport - Rino (left) and Ralf....the two that are running the implementation for the Confections Business in EU and CEEMA.

This was after all the crazy driving over some of the bumpiest roads I have been on when we were heading home. Two lanes with lots of passing. Thank goodness we didn't land in Kiev as planned it would have been 4 or 5 hours of that headache (literally) but from Kharkov we were only about 1 to 1.5 hours from the plant.

Not sure if it is visible but there was a ton of Mistletoe in the trees. The round blobs in the treats. These are even good pictures.....I couldn't believe all the mistletoe.

Other colleagues from Ukraine:

This is Olga she is from Kiev. Very interesting discussion with her about her choices after the Soviets left. Originally she told her parents that she wanted to continue in the Russian school. They had a choice to go to Ukrainian school or Russian school when the Soviets were withdrawing. Her parents were fine and let her go. What is interesting is how clear her next decision was and still is to her. At age 13 she decided she wanted to go to Ukrainian school. The interesting thing is how Olga described the change in her thoughts.....it was clearly completely of her own accord, based completely on her evaluation of what she had learned about the Soviet Occupation. At age 13 she decided that what they had done was wrong and wanted to change completely over to all things Ukrainian. She was Ukrainian and very proud of it.

Katerina on the other hand was really too young to remember anything about life with the Soviet Occupation. She is so sweet. She had 2 or three cell phones with her and they all rang sometime during the evening. I made a joke that the only way she could keep all her boyfriends straight was to have a different phone and number for them. She thought it was funny....but I think it might have been true! Then there is Andry....my comrade....I ask the question so how has it been for you since the Soviet Occupation has ended. The answer was: "it wasn't an occupation, it was my country". He was a member of the Soviet Military. We continued to talk about his life with the changes, he said he can't relate to being a Ukraine, in his mind he is Soviet and always will be. He has seen a lot of negative changes, children that don't have the close knit family ties anymore. Kids hanging out after school in groups or gangs, not doing anything productive. He sees this as fart of the downfall of his country. We talked more, it was certainly interesting to hear his perspective

This is the whole group....missed talking about Vi era, she is from packaging in Kiev, she was quiet. Then there is Imola, my travel buddy from Munich. She is the Hungarian that grew up in Romania. She and Andry had a very interesting discussion the prior night, but I missed it. I went to bed early.

The food in this hotel was AWESOME.....the theme of the hotel was around Kazakhstan. I loved the flavors of the food. It was very yummy. I also had Borscht while I was there. It was quite good. Most of their veggies are in the fermented form....pickled. I guess that is the way to have them through the long winters. But I liked them too.

The hotel was on a guarded compound in Sumy....but outside my side of the hotel, there were the Ukrainian version of the McMansions going up!!

I am only sorry I didn't get any good pictures of the typical homes. The economy is not good here. There are a lot of people living in unacceptable apartment buildings. Some of the buildings are abandoned....but I can't tell the difference between the empty ones and the occupied buildings.

Missing in Action!!! Next was THE UKRAINE

2009-01-17T03:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry all who follow my blog....I have been missing in action.

My next trip after Lithuania was Ukraine in October, wanted to get in and out before winter. Obviously a smart move given this Natural Gas Embargo from Russia. Can I just say WOW...that was some trip into the past! The lack of everything is just unbelievable. I have pictures I want to post, but haven't done it yet.

The Roads: Insane!! Rough, unmarked, no speed limits....flew into Austria then to Kharkov and had a car from Kharkov to Trostyonets (where our confections plant is). The mix of past and current is a bit crazy too. I saw a man leading his cow talking on a cell phone. The trucks are Soviet Union Era. There still are horse and carts on the road. The roads were so bumpy that I my brains were a bit sloshy when we got to our destination.

The homes: Our hotel was very nice, very new and on a guarded compound. Not for our physical safety but to keep our 'stuff' safe. Our rooms were very big and empty!! Had a desk, a nice bed and a TV....and a lot of empty space....the rooms were bigger than typical western high end hotels. But out my side of the hotel I saw huge McMansions being built....very much like what we have in the states but not stone or brick....plaster/smooth stucco. But everywhere else the homes were small and in decay and behind gated walls along the highway. There was an attempt to keep them painted in very bright colors, blues, greens, yellows. Or they were high rise apartment building again in horrible decay. Saw a woman moving her heard of goats along the road and all the women that live in the country wear what you would expect as typical ....babushka on the head, longer skirt, sensible shoes, over sized cardigan sweaters and aprons. In many ways it was a very cool trip to go to the past.

My colleagues: well, the down side was when I got to the meeting to do my presentation, the IS folks made all kinds of changes on my computer but still couldn't get me on the Kraft Intranet.....but then just left....didn't put anything back and my computer was hosed for days. When i got back to Munich the site IT helped a lot to get me back on the network. But it took someone from India to take over my computer over the Internet and work to reload and make changes to allow me to use my iPass again...so I could log on from off-site. The huge upside, was getting to meet all the great folks....I will post pictures later with some information about each of them.

The food: AWESOME....we were in a hotel that was modeled after Kazakhstan....I will tell you, I love Kazakhstan food. The spices and flavoring was just terrific. I did have Borscht and they pickle just about all their vegetables. It was all very good. My Hungarian friend, Imola, loves her Vodka. Every trip we need to sip on an icy shot of vodka. I just need to say I am not a fan of vodka. She usually gets to finish my too!! She knows her vodka too. Her grandfather used to make his own, but from fruit (plums?) instead of potatoes.

I will post pictures soon.

Dinner in Kaunas, Lithuania

2008-09-19T16:32:00.002-07:00

So the team had dinner at a restaurant where the name translated to English is Honeycomb. It was in a kind of catacomb area and made a Honey Beer which is typical to the area. They served the beer by the meter!! We had 2 meters of beer and then another 2 meters!! The beer was excellent. We had one that was dark and then a lighter one.

The woman on the left is Lina (our R&D Subject Matter Expert) and Virginija (the Business Develoment Manager). Lina is so young she doesn't remember the Soviet occupation and Virginija has some of the most amazing stories. Virginija said she wouldn't change her life at all, she knows what she has and is so grateful because she can contrast her life with freedom with her life under the Soviets.

On the far left is Aida, she also has a good memory of the occupation of the Soviets. Then sitting is Lina and standing is Imola (she is a Hungarian from Romania!). You can barely see the other Lina (she is the one above) then it is Virginija and then Jolita (the manager for R&D). What a great group of people I so enjoyed our meal and trying the Lithuania foods.

This next pic just includes me (Jolita is taking the pic). And the next are the fermentation tanks for the beer. One thing I learned is that in Lithuania toasting with out making eye contact results in the exact same thing it does in the the US. I think it might be a Universal knowledge. If you don't look directly into the eyes of the person you are toasting with and clinking glasses with you will have 7 years with no sex. To say the least we were all very careful to look directly into each others eyes as we clinked glasses!!! It is too funny...I confirmed that is this also the case in Germany and France.

Outside the restaurant before dinner, Virginija and Imola. These 2 talked about having to stand in lines for rice, flour and cooking oil. Imola shared when she was a child in Romania, she had seen a line forming one day and went and stood in it until her parents came home from work and they found her there. She said she was the hero for thinking of getting in the line and holding her family's place until an adult got there. Virginija talked about no electricity for weeks at a time, sometimes with no water or sewer. She said that is was always hit or miss and many nights the electricity would be turned off to entire towns after 8PM. What amazing stories. And we have a fit when our electricity is off for 1 or 2 hours.

Next Trip was to Kaunas Lithuania

2008-09-19T16:32:00.001-07:00

Boy what a great trip. Kaunas used to be the second largest city in Lithuania it is now the third largest. It is a wonderful city, but I was amazed at how few people were on the streets. The Western Europe Cities are bustling all times of the day and it was so quiet in downtown Kaunas.

Some pictures of the city, some spectacular buildings. When the Russian occupation started many of the churches were converted to Offices or Manufacturing Facilities. It has been in recent years that the communities are working to convert them back to their original state.

This is part of the pedestrian mall in the downtown area. So clean and so quiet. Our hotel was real close to here.

Very cool sculpture in downtown Kaunas.

CUTE TWINS......

2008-09-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

Are these the cutest little girls or what!! They were at the Sao Paulo airport and I just needed to take a picture of them.

Dinner in Piracicaba Brazil

2008-08-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful dinner and a lot of fun. Still taking pictures with me cell phone and they stink. I need to buy a real camera soon.

This is the gang and a bad pick at that, the server struggled getting the pic. Left to right sitting; Asmelid, Deise (pronounced Daisey), me and left to right standing Mauricio, Fernada (not the one from the plane), Karina. Mauricio is a bit of a ghost and we are all blurry.

Mauricio much less ghost like. This place we were at is a grocery store during the day and a restaurant at night. There was an awesome Cod Au Gratin thing that Fernanda and Deise got. And of course we had to finish off with Papaya Cream...yum

(the model) Asmelid, me, Deise and Karina...Karina you were such a wonderful host for our meetings, ect. It is really a great group of people in the Piracicaba plant. Thanks for everything.

I think the best picture of the night...

Hello Arlene & Fernanda

2008-08-21T14:31:00.001-07:00

On my flight from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo I met a mom (Arlene) and her daughter (Fernanda). We chatted up a storm the whole flight. They had a short holiday in Buenos Aires.

Fernanda, your English was very good!! So your verb tenses were off sometimes, but I knew what you were saying. The name of their city in Brazil is Belo Horizonte another lose translation would be Beautiful Horizon (I think). Very cool city name! They gave me their phone number and invited me to their home if I ever get close to Belo Horizonte, that is so nice....it makes me want to take a side trip just to see them!!

It was very nice to meet both of you. And Fernanda good luck on your test for Black Belt in Taekwondo at the end of the year. I hope that you find exactly what you love to do and focus on that.

THE BEST FOOD - CABANA LAS LILAS

2008-08-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

The bridge is actually a memorial to woman....but is supposed to remind you of a woman Tangoing. i don't think it is actually called "Tango bridge" I just call it that. :-)

I had one of the best meals ever. The food in Argentina is sooooo good and they feed you so much! When you sit down they fill the table with all kinds of food. The best are the cheese rolls, I think they have a different name than cheese rolls but they are soooo good. Then there is a platter of roasted vegetables and fresh mozzarella and other breads and a small cup of chicken broth. Then you order food for dinner. Asmelid and I shared a fried Provelone Cheese, it is cut about 1 to 1.5 inches thick and fried. Then I had tenderloin !!! Thank goodness I squeezed in a 30 minute workout before dinner....but in the end I am not sure how much help it was. We shared a homemade lemon sorbet...it was so wonderfully tart...yum.

They own their own beef cattle. Hmmmm....I wonder if Dean sells bull semen to them :-)

So the steaks come out with these cute little cows stuck in them. Mine was the pink cow and loosely translated means something like, "I am at the perfect point"...Asmelide who asked for hers cooked medium well was loosey translate, "I am a little over cooked" or "I am toasted"

Tango....Hooters???

2008-08-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

So out to take a walk and get dinner...the food is so good here and so cheap!! It is 3 pesos to 1USD. I am in the Puerto Madero section, it is very safe and there are tons of great places to eat. There is a pedestrian bridge across the waterway...the water way is a group of locks that used to be used for shipping...they have huge cranes every so many meters that were used for moving cargo on and off ships. But this is the second time I have been here and I haven't seen one ship or anything being moved. I think the name of the bridge is Tango Bridge, it is supposed to remind you of a womans leg during the tango?? But can you believe....nothing is sacred, Hooters in Argentina....

Arrived in Argentina

2008-08-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

So last night in the boarding area this tall blond curly haired man sat down next to me. He was wearing a really cool shirt that said Sandhurst Polo, with a ton of various patches on it. So after a few minutes I asked, "Is that just a really cool shirt? or do you play Polo?" Out of his mouth came a very British accent and he said with a smile "I play Polo." So we chatted a bit and I had to say that my sister rides 3-Day eventing and that she has a giant Irish Sport horse. He said "yes, very different horses between the 2 sports"; also noted the other horsey sister and hunter/jumper.

He was on his way to Argentina to visit Mum and Dad before his deployment to Iraq. He is a British Citizen but grew up in Argentina (his father works in Buenos Aires). So I had to ask if he ever ran into "the Royals"....Prince Harry or Prince William. He said yes he knew them both and played Polo on the same team with them once. He said they are very nice guys.

I wished him well on his deployment to Iraq...he said that his unit will be leaving in a couple of months and he seemed to be apologizing that he was really only going to be there for 3 or 4 weeks before leaving again.

He had a down jacket with him...and I said "it isn't going to be that cold is it?" He said he checked and it was to be 3 or 4C....well so much for Optimum Cable service they were telling me in the 80sF!! And that didn't make sense to me, but I trusted what they had on line. So while sitting there in the lounge I looked up the temps and sure enough the high this week will be 60F and the low about 35F.....so I didn't pack right at all!!! Well I will just have to buy a sweater.

So that is the start of this trip. I'll add more and hopefully get a good picture of the Tango Bridge. It is very cool.

Next Trip

2008-08-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

Not if anyone has been out to check to see my latest exploits, but I went to Suffolk VA last week and that was extremely uneventful...that is good. Ate at Bone Fish....awesome meal.

So my next trip is back to Latin America, fly out Aug 17th and return that following Friday (arrive US Sat AM). Fly into Buenos Aires, Argentina and spend 2 days in our Pacheco plant...this is a huge plant! And then fly to Sao Paulo and go to our Piracicaba Brazil plant. September sends me back to the EU and then I believe end of Oct is Asia Pacific! So that is my schedule for the remainder of the year. Which can change at any time!

TTFN - Suzanne

Hello to Dean! A very interesting traveling salesman!

2008-07-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

I just love this job!! I am looking for a place to park myself in the Business Club Lounge in the Sao Paulo Airport and Dean (obviously a gentleman) moves some things so I can work if I need. Well, who is going to work when the 3rd sentence out of his mouth is, "I sell Bull Semen!" Now how can you not want to find out more!!

Of course I told Dean I would have to put this on my blog! Then of course I asked who collected it and he said it wasn't him but he had tons of pictures on his computer if I were interested....nah, think I'll pass on that.

And talk about a small world...he is from the North Woods of Wisconsin (after growing up in Chicago). I spent many weeks in Medford, WI, where one of our pizza manufacturing plants is. Now if either of us could remember the name of the couple that owns the restaurant where it is like eating in her home...well, it is eating in her home....they have a bar when you enter and then you go to eat in a room behind the bar. She cooks everything and she even gives you the recipes. She comes out and tells you about the food and what came from her garden, etc. What were their names, Dean!!

So Dean now has the address for the website! Feel free to comment as you see fit Dean! Thanks for the company.

2008-07-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

still not the most interesting version of the tree.

Araucaria Trees

2008-07-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

I have a favorite tree...it is the Araucaria Tree here in Brazil. It is only in the southern part of Brazil. It is so cool. Our driver stopped this morning along the side of the road to let me take pictures. These aren't the best examples...but they are very tall and only have branches at the top. They look like an umbrella.

Sao Paulo - landing was fine

2008-07-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

I have no idea who told me about landing there, but it wasn't a problem at all. Now finding my way through the airport to get to the right airline to go to Curitiba was a bit sketchy...but I got here fine.

I love having to communicate without knowing the other's language...seriously I do. I had all kinds of help by looking confused and saying "english" and then the sign language begins. Not really sure what I had for dinner tonight. I just went to an Italian place that let you pick out the ingredients as they prepared it. I just pointed to things and said some things in English, German and then Spanish if i happen to know it in Spanish. I had Penne with broccoli, peas, and a lot of other things I am not sure what they were....it tasted good!!

My driver doesn't speak any English...he called someone at the plant talked to her, handed the phone to me, i talked to her and then I gave the phone back to him. Then at the hotel, he said something to the front desk person and Bruno (the front desk person) said your driver will be back in the morning at 7:30 AM to pick you up.

So no pictures yet but will get some in the next day or 2...probably mostly of my team here. Maybe some site seeing on Friday before I leave. So they put me on an ALL WOMAN'S floor in the Sheraton...has anyone ever heard of that....okay who called them to warn them about me!!! I guess I feel safer.

Met a guy in the gym tonight that lives in the area and speaks English really well. The hotel supplements the cost by allowing locals join. He said that Curitiba is the most beautiful city in Brazil....I'll let you know.

That is all for now.

Visa and Passport in hand

2008-07-18T14:32:00.001-07:00

Passport came back yesterday. Never had a real fear of flying, but landing in Sao Paulo makes me a little nervous. It is in a valley and the runway is almost too short. Last year a plane ran off the runway due to weather conditions. The plane needs to clear the mountains and then descend and then be sure they hit the very front end of the run way in order to have enough stopping distance.

I'll let you know how it goes on Tuesday!

Off to Brazil in 4 days

2008-07-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

So I am off to Brazil on Monday. I will be in Curitiba, it is winter there now!! I need to think about what I am going to wear!!

A visa is required to travel to Brazil, my passport is somewhere between NYC and work. The visa was granted, I just need to get the passport back in the next 2 days!

The cool part of the work I am doing right now is I have to go to almost all of the confections plants we have....my favorite so far is the one in Athens, Greece. The folks there are great and I love, love, love their dark chocolate. It is the best dark chocolate I have had.