2007 Transatlantic and First Med cruises thread

[Lynn G]

Hadley - great pictures! and great to see you posting, keep us informed as to what is going on there, we are all living vicariously thru you on this adventure!

 

[DizzneyDAnn]

I am fluent in German. I could come be your permanent translator...

We were in Vienna last week for Scott's work, and I got to practice! So fun, but i had a hard time not speaking to Scott in German. My brain was saying it would work in one language or the other, but not both!

Actually, you should look into something like Rosetta Stone. I am trying to learn Spanish, just for fun, and the language tapes really help.

 

[DizzneyDAnn]

I LOVE Kaufhof, the store in the background!

 

[DizzneyDAnn]

I LOVE Kaufhof, the store in the background!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Wow--look at all the replies already. This group is awesome!

Deanna--I speak Spanish Fluently--I'll trade you knowledge I wish Rosetta Stone were offering a free trial; I really can't tell enough from the short demo online to decide if it is worth the ridiculously high price. I think it would work well for how my brain functions (and Rio's) but not so well for Dave and Marika. The reviews are all pretty much love it or hate it. I started a 6 day free trial of Rocket German last noght (they send one lesson per day--I am waiting for tonight's to arrive any minute now)--it gets really good reviews online. I do need SOMETHING Oh and the Gallaria (that store in the background) is nice. I will head there Monday when the kdis are in school and pick up some select smurfs for Rio's Easter basket before they can sell out of hte ones he likes

I forgot to post earlier to Cayla (in case she gets her nose out of her books and reads this): Good luck with your studies and I hope you have recovered from the flaming car and I like the statement you have in your siganture now (wish it didn't need to be there . . .)

We went to the Heidelberg Zoo with my friend and her toddler this afternoon. It was a rare sunny day so we just had to get out of doors. It is a small zoo--we saw the whole thing easily in two hours--but the price matched it's size (12 euros for all of us) so it was worthwhile and a nice outing.

 

[padalyn]

I forgot to post earlier to Cayla (in case she gets her nose out of her books and reads this): Good luck with your studies and I hope you have recovered from the flaming car and I like the statement you have in your siganture now (wish it didn't need to be there . . .)

Thanks Hadley - the car is fine...I am disputing part of the charge since it was the mechanics error - but all is well for now. The books are actually pretty interesting this semester - all about HOW to educate! Love it. Well - gotta get the midterm started (50%) of my grade scared1: )

Keep the chin up - all will work out!

You might consider having Dave ask his company if they have a corporate issue of Rosetta Stone - he might need to learn German as well, and maybe can bring the disks home to do his learning? Many international companies have the software....

My comment? about music? yea a sore point for me. I met with friends from the TA cruise in Oct at WDW for their honeymoon - they are not even sure if they are legally going to be married after all the appeals, suits, and legal mumbo jumbo is over - how sad. They have been together for 15 years, got married in a rush because they saw the writing on the wall - now are not even sure it is legal....ugh.

 

[CACruisin']

Hadley - it is great to hear from you. It sounds like you are settling in well. The pictures are wonderful. I love the story about the grocery store . My family lived in Norway for a year. Mom had the darndest time with trying to find regular granulated sugar - she had to come up with some creative uses for all the sugar cubes she bought before she finally figured out which package was granulated sugar . Good luck with the German language.

Deanna - I'm taking spanish right now too - my language talent is not pretty . El profesor habla espanol en clase .

 

[NHdisneylover]

Cayla--I do not have the kind of personal stake in the marraige issue which many do, so I do not pretend to really empathize, but it has been an issue near and dear to my heart since I was a teen and it will remain so until everyone is treated equally. I like your signature because it keeps everybody thinking about it when htey see you post and it is so easy to forget things when the news dies down and life takes over

anna--I love the sugar cubes story makes me feel better about my shopping struggles. The first time I thought I had baking soda I came home and ran the name through the translater--and it didn't translate. I tried every word on the front of the package and still had no idea what I had. My friend checked yesterday--it is for putting between a cake bottom and a fruit/syrup top to keep the liquid from being absorbed into the cake--so NOT baking soda Well, that was 50 cents not so well spent.

I forgot to say about the parade that they also had some interesting "giveaways" I have never seen at a parade before. A bakery had a float and was handing out fresh baked rolls, a caterer was handing out little mugs of soup as it wheeled a giant crockpot down the rout and a different caterer had what looked like brussle sprouts in cheese sauce on a stick (still steaming hot). Also two breweries were giving out little cups if beer and someone had little cups of hot mulled wine (I got one of those--yum I was so chilly it felt great to drink something warm ). Funny thing (but very nice), unlike Fat Tuesday celebrations elsewhere in the world, in spite of that free alcohol and the German love of beer, I did not see any obviously drunk people. In fact, since we have arrived we have seen only one drunk bunch--a bunch of people on a rented bus celebrating someone's 50th birthday in Speyer. That had certainly been drinking but no one was mean, or angry or too drunk to walk or any of the over doing it bad ways to drink you tend to see so much of in the U.S. I am sure it does exist here--but it is not so much the norm as it has unfortunately become in the U.S. The culture here seems to get that it is possible to ahve a good time and to drink without over doing it

 

[Lynn G]

I survived my first day of training for the Census job, and the 65 mile drive to CO then back, but I get paid for the travel time! We got done early today, so I got home in time to walk dogs before dark. I was going to get up early and walk, but the wind was blowing 30-40mph, so I slept another 45 min instead! I also got in about 2 miles at lunch time. I also do not have to go back tomorrow, today we did mostly paperwork, next week starts the actual training.

 

[Hoagie Pie]

It was so good to see everyone's post! Hadley - the parade and the food and drink sounded great! How fun. I was going to ask you about the Galleria in the background and what stores were in there.

I am not good at languages, but my DH is and he uses Pinsleur. He has learned Hungarian (my nationality - isn't that embarassing - I don't know it), Spanish and thinking about French, Italian and Chinese. He loves Pinsleur!

 

[Lynn G]

Good Morning Cruisers!

Hadley - good to hear your stories!

Cold here today - high in the low 30's and possibility of snow! Need to get dogs out for a walk before it gets bad out!

Have a great day everyone!

 

[Lynn G]

I have not been on the boards since last Friday, we had a busy weekend, then I was in training for the Census job, and was gone 8 to 10 hours a day, with 2 hours of homework when I got home. Training finished today, I was promoted to Crew Leader (from Crew Leader Assistant), which means that I get to train a team of about 12 people, and get to supervise them - what fun! I will be spending the next week cramming with books on the training and the address canvassing itself - so that I will be able to answer any questions from my crew.

Weather has been really nice here, but I have not had the chance to really enjoy it, I only got out for a bit on my lunch breaks.

Have a great evening everyone!

 

[ssnyder]

I have not been on the boards since last Friday, we had a busy weekend, then I was in training for the Census job, and was gone 8 to 10 hours a day, with 2 hours of homework when I got home. Training finished today, I was promoted to Crew Leader (from Crew Leader Assistant), which means that I get to train a team of about 12 people, and get to supervise them - what fun! I will be spending the next week cramming with books on the training and the address canvassing itself - so that I will be able to answer any questions from my crew.

Weather has been really nice here, but I have not had the chance to really enjoy it, I only got out for a bit on my lunch breaks.

Have a great evening everyone!

Congratulations on your promotion. I just took the Census test this morning. I did get 100% on the test, so hopefully I will get something.

 

[Hoagie Pie]

Hey Susie - congrats on your test! Everything in Florida is great - including the weather if anyone wants to come and visit. All is quiet otherwise, which is a good thing.

 

[Lynn G]

Congratulations on your promotion. I just took the Census test this morning. I did get 100% on the test, so hopefully I will get something.

Good luck to you, I took the test back in Jan., and got called a couple of weeks ago - hired as a crew leader assistant, but promoted to crew leader after training. I am assuming that the one other guy in class that was assigned to the same area as me will be my assistant - but they may change the assignments. I am thinking I might prefer just to be an enumerator (or lister), they get almost the same pay, and not nearly the headaches!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Hi everybody

Lynn--DO you still have to drive to Denver every day, or now that you are finished training do you get to stay clsoer to home? I hope the work gets more enjoyable now that you are through the learning part of it. Personally--if you can have a lot less stress for a minimal pay cut I think that wounds like a good way to go

Susie--Best of luck to yo on the census job. I am sure you will get something since you did so well on the test--nice job . I knwo a number of people in New Hampshire who are working on it and htey all like it pretty well.

Sandi--Are you feeling better? I am glad to hear that the weather is nice in Florida again

 

[Hoagie Pie]

I am feeling a little better, but my ears still feel like they are stuffed with marshmellows. I am just relaxing today - we had a beautiful weekend and wish it could last longer. I hope everything in Germany is going well and all over the country for everyone!

 

[ssnyder]

We spent the day at Disneyland today (Curt, myself and DGS). It was very crowded. I was wondering if we were already getting spring break people. We still had lots of things to do, but had to pass on some things that we wanted to see. The Small World line was unbelievable - almost as far as the duck pond. So we decided that we could wait until another time to see the additions. But we walked right on to Haunted Mansion, the toontown roller coaster, and pirates. We did do the carousel, but had to wait for three turns which is unusual. The rest of the fantasyland rides had way too long of lines for us.

 

[Lynn G]

Hi everybody

Lynn--DO you still have to drive to Denver every day, or now that you are finished training do you get to stay clsoer to home? I hope the work gets more enjoyable now that you are through the learning part of it. Personally--if you can have a lot less stress for a minimal pay cut I think that wounds like a good way to go

Hadley - I will not have to go to Denver, except sometimes - but will probably have to go to Greeley once a week to see my supervisor. I doo have to go to Lakewood on Wednesday for a meeting. My area is western Cheyenne, so that is where I will be working most of the time.

Sandi - hope you are feeling better.

Sue -sounds like DL was crowded!

 

[Hoagie Pie]

We spent the day at Disneyland today (Curt, myself and DGS). It was very crowded. I was wondering if we were already getting spring break people. We still had lots of things to do, but had to pass on some things that we wanted to see. The Small World line was unbelievable - almost as far as the duck pond. So we decided that we could wait until another time to see the additions. But we walked right on to Haunted Mansion, the toontown roller coaster, and pirates. We did do the carousel, but had to wait for three turns which is unusual. The rest of the fantasyland rides had way too long of lines for us.

Is the new "Small World" done already? I thought they were closing it for a while, but was excited to hear that it might be open! We went to the Magic Kingdom on Friday and Fantasyland was crowded, but we walked on Pirates and had fast passes for everything else. Walking around wasn't bad, but I thought the lines were a little long. We even waited for the People Mover, but that is because it kept breaking down - ha ha! Have you guys that frequent Disneyland notice any of the cutbacks like we have here?