5 weeks down, 2 to go

I still can’t believe that I’ve been in Italy for 5 weeks now since it feels like it’s been a whole lot longer than that.  The last few weeks has been sort of like a roller coaster – a lot of ups and downs, speed up and slow down, sunny and rainy, windy and not so windy.  Our main crane, an LG1550 in case you were curious, is finally back up and running. Our 2nd main crane, an LG 1750, will be here around the end of the week and in the middle of the week we’ll be re-starting the pre-erection (installing only the first 2 tower sections).  Hopefully the weather cooperates since the project managers want to have 33 turbines erected by March 21st... (16 are complete and 7 are pre-erected).

The other weekend I also had my first Italian discotheque experience.  Who knew that my little town had such a fun disco?  The first thing I noticed that is unlike the US is that in Italy the discotheque doesn’t open until like 1am... and after getting up at 6:30am every day for work it took some work to stay up.  The 2nd thing, which I really liked, was how when people go out they “really“ dress up.  No one dresses like a scrub in grubby jeans and a t-shirt, but then again I guess that’s true even when people aren’t going out.  The last thing was that when you bought drinks you first went to the cashier to get a drink ticket and then you went to the bartender and ordered your drink.  I dunno if that was just unique to this disco but at least they still understood “Gin and Tonic“

Finally, another note about the food.  I know that this isn’t unique to Italy but I still just don’t understand how the Italians can eat dinner so late in the evening and still be ready for work the next morning.  We eat at 7pm every night and we’re always the only ones in the restaurant and by the time we finish around 8:15-8:30 other people are just starting to arrive.  That said I am still enjoying the food - it's nice to have a little dinner crew and to try interesting new dishes.

Underwhelming Pompeii

Yesterday I went to Pompeii with a bunch of my German colleagues.  It’s kind of ironic that in Italy I’m learning German.  On the way there we saw a really terrible accident involving a motorcycle – later I found out that the rider died from the crash... RIP rider.  It really put a damper on an otherwise quite fun day. 

The first thing I noticed about Pompeii was how much bigger it was than I had imagined.  I was also quite underwhelmed by what I saw.  It felt like every other old run down place I’d ever been.  I didn’t feel like I saw anything there that I probably couldn’t have seen somewhere else in Italy.  There were a bunch of run of the mill ruins as far as I’m concerned.  That said, I’m still glad that I went and I don’t plan on going back. 

After Pompeii, since it was such a nice day, we decided to go for a drive to the sea.  Let’s just say that everything you’ve heard about the roads along the Amalfi coast are true.  The roads are endlessly twisty, the drivers (especially the motorcycles and scooters) are crazy and don’t understand the meaning of lanes, the views are exceptional, and the roads are very narrow.  We ended up going to a small harbor to walk around near the water and to get there had to navigate a set of switchbacks.  Let’s just say that the Renault did not have the best turning radius for the narrow switchbacks so I was doing 3 point turns (much to my dismay and to the dismay of everyone behind me) at every turn...

It's all about the little things

Well that last post was a little more serious than I had hoped for but I’ve been in a very contemplative mood this week - I feel like this post will probably continue that trend. Work has been up and down since we had our main crane go down in flames, literally.  The commissioners have arrived and I’ve changed hotels which I think has helped my mood.  We all have rooms next to each other and we meet every day for breakfast and dinner.  The toughest thing about being on the road for extended periods of time is the loneliness.  Work is work no matter where you go.  But when you’re on the road having someone to talk to and share meals with and do non-work things is the difference between having a terrible time and actually enjoying yourself.  It’s the little things that are all the difference between having a good time and a shitty time.

People who don’t travel for a living are always jealous when I tell them about all the places I “get to go“.  What I’m not sure they all realize is that when I am traveling I am going for work and not vacation, plus I generally don’t go to glamorous places.  I usually work a 6 days a week and ~10 hours/day so it’s not like I have a lot of free time anyways.  I know everyone always tells me that it’s good to be traveling while you’re young and don’t have a family but until you’ve spent more nights in a Holiday Inn in Northern Michigan than in your own house I don’t want to hear it. 

My return to Seattle and then Italy again

It’s been many days, hundreds of miles driven and many thousands of miles flown since I last updated.  My journey back to the US before Christmas was a long and quite stressful journey.  It started on a Saturday afternoon with a 5hr drive to Napoli for my 6:40am flight on Sunday.  Finding a gas station that would take my company card at 5am was quite an experience.  I should have known that having a big red fire truck parked next to my plane with a bunch of guys pointing at the wings was a sign of how the next few days were going to be.  

I missed my connection in Munich like thousands of other people.  I tried going standby on a flight to Chicago and it took me over an hr to even get on the list.  After that I somehow managed to get on standby for a flight to Newark which I somehow got on, and I got a business class seat too.  I arrived in Newark sans bags (they would take almost 10 days to get to Seattle...) Waited in line for a long time before I finally got a hotel voucher, not that I actually slept in the hotel since I was rebooked on a 6am flight through Dulles to Seattle.  When I finally arrived in Seattle I had been traveling for about 53 hours, I was still wearing the same clothes from when I left work on Saturday and I hadn’t really slept in 2 days.

The next 3 weeks I was actually able to be home in Seattle and live a somewhat normal life – although for much of the time everyone was either away for the holidays or working.  It was pretty weird at first being back in Seattle since I hadn’t been „home" in about 3 months.  I had been sorta keeping in contact with most of my friends and I knew that everyone had lives and would move on.  I guess I just hadn’t expected how much people had moved on and continued with their lives.  Consequently, one of the things my job has taught me is to not worry about the what if’s and to just live in the here and now.  My time off is usually quite limited and there just isn’t enough time to worry about what if’s and general bullshit.  If anything, my time away have made me realize that there are certain people who I always make it a point to hang out with and then... there is everyone else.  I’ve also come to the conclusion that 3 weeks is entirely too much time for me to take off all at once.  Don’t get me wrong I enjoy a vacation as much as the next but after being on the road for so long I had just been so used to always being busy and then to all of a sudden not have any set plans... well that took some getting used to.

A few highlights of my time in Seattle were in no particular order – Chicken Teriyaki, New Years Eve, Stevens Pass, Christmas, Buenos Aires Grill.  Now here are a few pictures of what I’ve come back to in Italy.