Pittsburgh-Montreal-Madrid-Crespin... Berlin!!!

Dizzy project!
First weeks of work have been too much!
First in the US, then to Canada, then a perfect jet lag to spend 1 day and a half in Berlin to fly to Madrid (back to Spain, uooh!), and now going to Crespin (north of France, in the border with Belgium) to finish this project. And you will think "wow, what a lucky guy that Dave is!!" right? well... in some aspects I would say I am enjoying a lot this trips, but on the other hand... honestly, it's not that funny, really. Pack and unpack every week, fly up and down every week, wait for the flight, wait for your colleagues, wait for the taxi, wait, wait wait!! Instead of an auditor I am starting to think I am a waiter!! uff, I think it's the worst joke I've done lately... But not everything is that bad... I flight to US and back to Berlin in business class... and it really makes the difference when you spend 9 hours in the plane! You have your own TV, very good food, whatever you need... it's really nice! It HAS TO BE, if my company forces me to take a flight from Monteal at 20.30 on Friday to arrive to Berlin at 12.30 on Saturday morning... all the day fucking tired and then because of the jet lag 15 hours sleeping... and then grab a cap at 6am to go to Madrid on Monday, I lost almost all the weekend then! Anyway, It was relly nice to be back to Spain. I could understand everybody, I could order exactly what I wanted in a restaurant... I felt like the king of the world!! and now again to the darkness... I can't wait to be able to speak german and get rid of this vulnerability! Of course you can comunicate in english with a lot of people, but sometimes you really need German... I was in the hotel in Madrid and I had a soppy moment, wishing to be back in Spain again... fortunately It was only a matter of a couple of hours to know I am where I WANT TO BE.

Highlights of the trips:

1. I have to be an exact copy of a extremely dangerous terrorist, because everywhere I wanted to enter, I was the most searched!
Berlin: the guys from Continental Airlines start doing me questions "why you fly to US, which company you work for, show me some evidence that you are not lying... " and then they checked my luggage in front of everybody... WHAT THE FUCK!! bastards... what if I am taking some gay porno magazines to have fun in the hotel? (it was not the case!) everybody in TEGEL AIRPORT would have known... I really felt very humiliated.
And then in Canada, again, I had to to go the immigration office to answer silly questions such as "what is the name of your mother" or "could you tell me again the project you are in?" motherfuckers...
And entering to europe, in Franckfurt, AGAIN! "How long have you been living in Berlin? Do you speak german? Why do you work for Bombardier?" YOU DON'T GIVE A SHIT WHY! I am a European citizen and I can move wherever I fucking want, JUST LET ME BE! (I did not say this things, just answering with a big smile, swallowing all the rage).

2. If you go to the US, you have to pay 20!! % of tip to the waiter... that's the normal... I was really shocked and it was reeally hard to write the amount... anyway, I have to say that the americans are very friendly and opened to everybody. I really felt very well treated in the restaurants "hi guys! I'm Amanda, I will be taking care of you tonight... just tell me everything you want..." with a big smile in her face, very false, but convincing to me.

3. Wow, FISH GROTTO. The best restaurant I ve ever been... in a top of a hill, we could see all Pittsburgh at night. Very beautiful!

4. Montreal... what an amazing city! we spent the weekend there and could do some tourism stuf... it seems a european old city that has grown like an american city, with its skycrappers and everything... really nice. And the nightlife also quite good. We (my boss and I...) had a "crazy weekend", partying till 5am on Saturday... honestly, I did not like the disco very much, although he enjoyed it a lot! Black music, hip hop, r&b... uff, just boring...

5. Business Class... just amazing! not just because you fly in your own space which you can convert to a bed, not just because you have your own TV with a lot of movies, serials, music and so on, not because the food is amazing and you can have EVERYTHING you want, but because you wait your plane in the Lunch of your company, where you have even a shower!

6. Madrid, SI SI SI! Hopefully, on November I am back to Spain, yes! what an amazing weather we had, and food... I really miss somethings that I could not imagine...

Crespin... next week destination. I don't want to go! I've been told we will have amazing food and beer... but I want to stay in Berlin for a little bit! And good food is not the best I can have now... I think I'm putting on weight a little bit...

First week of work at Bombardier Transportation

september, 8th 2008
It’s been a busy week, yes!
First of all, I started my job at Bombardier. It’s been a training week for all the new internal auditor, which are Ming, a Chinese girl, Igor, a Russian guy, Sarah, a British girl, Luis a guy from Venezuela and myself.
A lot of information, new procedures, databases, figures, “how to” s and a lot of in some way useful stuff but too much!! I am really looking forward to starting to Work, not training, although it’s going to be really tough to do English reports, and have to do everything in English… I hope to get used very soon!
We also had a brief overlook to our coming agenda. Tomorrow I am flying to Pittsburgh, US. On Friday we will go to Montreal, Canada, coming back to Berlin on the 17th. Next week I will go to Madrid and the week after to Crespin, France. So, not bad for being the first weeks!! I just hope to have enough time to get to know Berlin!!

Apart from work, I have very good news, I FINALLY FOUND A SHARED FLAT!! Yeees!! It’s been hard, but finally I can say that I fly to the States with a fixed place to stay. It’s in Prenzlauer Berg, one of the best areas to live in Berlin, close to loads of restaurants, bars, parks, and so on. My room is very big (with a lack of furniture that I will fix when I arrive from Montreal), the flat is very nice, and my flatmate is a French guy, Bastien. He seems very nice also, I think we will get along very well (in case he reads that, I will not tell bad things about him… just joking, he is indeed nice ;-)

This weekend I went out with some guys from Bombardier. We went to a cool club called BANG BANG CLUB. It’s in Hackescher Markt, near AlexanderPlatz. We had a very good time in there. At the beginning it was a german band playing some music. It was something like rock, but we just heared two songs, so I can’t tell you much about them… and after the gig we had a indie rock session, with very good music. It reminded me a lot the kind of music you can hear in the Sala Indie in Razzmatazz. It was fun!! And beer, and shots of Burgemeister… I had my first german hangover. YEAH!

26… MOLTES GRACIES!! MUCHAS GRACIAS!!! THANKS A LOT!!!

31st of August, 2008
(a small english version below)
El Jordi i la Tina han vingut a passar el cap de setmana a Berlin. Així no passaré el dia que faig 26 anys solet a Berlín...
S’agraeix moltíssim tenir-los per aquí aquest parell de dies abans de començar a currar... tot és molt menys dur. Tinc a qui despotricar sobre el transport, fins i tot ho pateixen més que jo! Tinc a qui explicar-li cara a cara el difícil que se m’està fent el trobar un lloc on viure, i sobretot tinc amb qui passar el dia del meu aniversari! Us ho heu currat molt, GRACIES!!
I moltíssimes gràcies a tots els que us heu recordat del meu aniversari, ja sigui per xivatos al facebook o similars, o pel que sigui, és molt d’ agrair que us hagueu molestat en felicitar-me, tenint en compte lo mandrós i lo desastre que sóc jo per aquestes coses... i si no m’heu felicitat, no passa res, clar que no! Jo sóc el primer que m’oblido d’aquestes coses!
I a partir de demà, comença de veritat la meva nova vida, primer dia a BOMBARDIER...


Thanks a lot for remembering about my birthday!! Its always a little bit tough when you are alone on your birthday… and a lot of you guys have contacted me…so THANK YOU!!
And tomorrow, 1st of september first day at Bombardier…

FIRST CONTACT

August, 29th 2008
I am here!!! Heidi, the realocation lady came to pick me up from the airport. I expected some “HERR CARBO” sign… but no, she just was hanging a bag with the name of the Reallocation company on it… what a deception… no, I’m not going to complain! She came to the airport and brought me to the temporary apartment I have on the 1st month. Her plans were to show me a little bit the surrounding to know a little bit more the area, where to buy grocery, where to eat out and so on but I had an appointment to see a room at 9pm, and I arrived at Berlin airport at 8pm… so we had to do everything very fast. She gave me as a welcome present a Lonely Planet guide of Berlin and a map-book, or whatever is called this books you have a directory with all the streets and then a lot of pages with maps of the areas of the city that links one with each other (c’mon, you know what I mean!!). I think that this little book has been like my bible since I arrived, carrying it everywhere, reeeeaally useful!

Ok, I am here, but I have to find somewhere fix to live, because I have this temporary apartment for one month, but on the 8th I am flying to the US and then to Canada… so actually I have a little more than one week to do it…
And trust me, this room searching it’s being very hard! There is a lot of shared apartments, that’s true, but it’s fucking unbelievable all the guys that are also looking for a room, just like me. It seems that everybody in Europe has decided to live in Prenzlauer Berg, bloody hell!
This war I am having is even worse and far more difficult than to find a job!

Another thing to spot on these first days is Berliner public transport, the underground to be more specific.
You think that in Germany everything works fine, on time, good signs and information everywhere, even in English, and so on, right? WRONG ANSWER!! At least with Berlin underground! It’s a disaster. On the first day, after coming back of visiting the room in Prenzlauer Berg (the area I am looking for a room) was already 11pm (the underground works till 1.30). In the middle of the way I see that almost everybody gets off the train, but as there were some guys left I didn’t worry about it. One or two minutes after the dazed guys just get off the train… “ok, that’s not normal at all” I though, and obviously I get off the train as well. I see some signs in german. I don’t understand anything but “bussen”, that means Bus ;-) I understand that we do the rest of the way by bus because some constructions whatsoever…
But when I get to the street, I can’t see any bus, any people neither, nothing, in the middle of one of the darkest areas in Berlin… without underground, with no bus, with no way of getting back home, but with my fantastic book-map! I had to walk for 1 hour and a half, swearing on all the family and saints of U6 underground line…
The Next day I also went back late to the room. I was ready. I got off with everybody else, and YES!! A bus was waiting for us… great right! WRONG! After two stops I stay alone in the bus and there is a sign saying “this bus ends here” in german. Of course this is not normal again. I get up and when the driver sees me he just yells at me something in german and opens the door. I was able to understand I had to get off the bus… and now what! I am just one stop away from home, so it’s not a big deal to walk back… but it’s annoying and frustating!! Next day and the day after, the line worked perfectly till my stop… but the day after again, get off the train, go to the bus, and then, I was quick enough to follow everybody and realise that I had to get on the underground again… so, I finally did it!! As you can see, it’s not that easy!! It’s not a joke, it’s a warning for the tourist and newcomers to Berlin, be VERY CAREFULL. The changes between the two kinds of trains (S-bahn and U-bahn) are not that direct, sometimes you have to walk over the street a little bit to go from one to the other… so, WATCH OUT!!

Si em dius adéu...

August, 27th 2008

(The spanish and english speakers must have to apologise me, but I had to tell GOOD BYE to my city in catalan...)

El punt de partida d’aquesta història és un comiat, un “fins després” a la que fins ara crec que és la millor ciutat del món per viure. Els últims dies a Barcelona van ser molt especials. Vaig gaudir dels seus carrers, passejant durant hores pel barri Gòtic, amb tot l’encant que tenen els seus carrerons, els artistes al carrer. Vaig passejar pel meu Raval. Amb quin orgull dic que sóc del Raval! Potser no vaig néixer allà, i me’n vaig anar quan encara no era adolescent, però els 7 anys que he passat allà han servit perquè em pugui identificar amb aquest barri i tingui les meves arrels ben plantades. Un desig: tornar a Barcelona i viure a la plaça de la meva infància, la Plaça Vicenç Martorell. Allà vaig jugar a futbol, vaig fer molts amics, vaig trencar-me ossos, vaig barallar-me, vaig riure i vaig plorar molt. Si hi ha algun record per sobre de qualsevol altre són els partits de futbol que feia amb els meus amics de tota la vida de la “plazoleta”.
I poder tornar a gaudir de tot el que ens ofereix Barcelona i que molt poques vegades sabem adonar-nos-en. Una de les últimes experiències va ser gaudir d’una de les millors actuacions al carrer que mai he vist. Es tracta d’un mim que treballa a la plaça de la catedral (al menys jo l’he vist un parell de cops allà). Porta la cara pintada de blanc amb un nas vermell i enlloc de parlar fa anar un xiulet una mica estrident, però que amb una mica d’imaginació pots endevinar el que està dient. Improvisant constantment juga amb la gent que passeja i passa davant seu, una mare amb el seu fill, una parella acaramelada... és molt divertit.
Us trobaré molt a faltar a tots. Estic segur que la vida a Berlin serà molt intensa i plena d' experiències increibles, al menys això espero!, però trobaré molt a faltar durant el temps que estigui fora les escapades en bici per les muntanyes a prop de Centelles amb el Jordi, no hem acabat d’arrencar, i els plans que teniem de duatlons, curses i més s’han truncat... pero m’hagués agradat seguir fent escapades. Quan baixi serà una de les coses que penso fixar a l’agenda, llogar una bici i a patir pel Puigsagordi! I què dir de la meva germana Marta i de la Imma i el Raúl, a la família sempre se la vol tenir a prop, no?

I a tots els demés, no us oblidéu que teniu un amic a Berlín que podeu visitar quan vulgueu, fins molt aviat!!

Once upon a time...

August, 27th, 2008
Once upon a time there was a guy that wanted to have some fun and some adventures, and decided to go abroad to work. As fallen from the sky (i'm not really sure this expression exists in english, but you get it, right?) a firm offered him a job in Berlin. After a while thinking about it he liked the idea so much! he could travel a lot and learn german a little bit. So, he packed everything he could and left Barcelona to live in a unknown city, with nobody he knew, unkown language and he didn't know exactly what this job was about either...
This is the begining of the story, in which for good or evil I am the main character... Step by step we will discover all together how it goes and how is going to be the end. I will try to write about all the places I visit in Berlin and abroad. So maybe it will become my own "Berlin and some other places Guide". I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I will enjoy writing!