Germany Day 3

What a fun day. I think I was originally supposed to go with one of the guys here and do some pre-tests before the big one on Thursday but in the end I wasn’t allowed to go. It was a government lab and me being a foreigner and all made it difficult. I asked them if it would be easier if I told them I was a Canadian rather than an American (yes I know that Canadians are technically Americans as well but you know what I mean). So what we ended up doing was spending the day touring my host company. What a beautiful facility they have here. This place is 25 square kilometers big and I was beginning to get a bit jealous of all the resources they have here when he pointed out that they have been waiting three weeks for a small mold to be built and he also pointed out that it was going to be very expensive. That reminded me of all the red tape involved in getting stuff done in a big company while in a small company I can just go and do pretty much anything I want and if we can’t do it in house I can always get it done at a small shop somewhere and in the end it is usually cheaper and much faster. In house services are not very responsive to their customers.

I don’t think my dinner from last night is sitting too well with me. It was very good when I had it the first time but I’ve been doing those sour burps all day and I’m about killing myself.  I hate it when that happens. My host has been kind enough not to comment on it but I’m sure I’m about killing him too.

So I thought sure that I would be able to get the internet here at work I technically there is supposed to be a guest WiFi service but guess what? It isn’t working in our building.  I can’t go the entire week without connecting to the internet so I’m going back to the hotel tonight and raising a stink with someone.

It is now late afternoon here and after a good time in the labs we’re waiting to make a conference call with Hi-Z so I’ve got some down time. I figured my host could get some work done since he’s been entertaining me all day and I would review my day with you. It looks like losing my card may have been a good thing. These guys are going to pick up my tab at the hotel, buy me a ticket to Frankfurt on the weekend and I think they’re going to pick up the tab for the hotel in Frankfurt. Honest, I didn’t plan that, it just happened and I feel rather stupid about the whole thing.

As you can tell I now have internet. I figured out why it didn't work for me last night, they were raising their prices. Tonight when I went to log in the prices were all higher. It sure is expensive here. Most hotels now days give you free WiFi but not here. We put in a long day at work but now I think I'm going to go for another walk and see if there is something I want to eat. I'm still a bit queasy from that meal last night.

Sorry about the pictures from the internet but nothing seems to be going right on this trip. I'd planned on taking pictures with my cool new phone but for some reason it is telling me that I don't have a data card in it. I do have a card but perhaps it is corrupted. Oh well, the pictures off the internet are better ones anyway and the weather here is so dreary that everything would look sad anyway. The train in the picture is the train I took getting down here. Boy was it a fast train. They tell me it can go up to 500kph and I believe it. It was very smooth and quiet too. You could hardly tell it was moving. 

Well, I'll talk to you again tomorrow.