Bring on the snow!

So this weekend I got together with some old friends and had the chance to meet some new ones as well. The reason was to celebrate the first snowboarding of the season. Granted the snow was really ice from a Zamboni and the mountain was a hill in a backyard, it didn’t manage to stop the unbridled enthusiasm.

For many of us we have found ways to pacify our needs of the winter, the ability to slide down snow. This is most commonly masked in surfing, but can also be seen in other sports such as skating and now SUMO, not the wrestling. But alas, winter has now arrived.

It appears that all of the hard work has paid off because in the last four days, we have seen snow twice. In addition it looks promising that our local hill will be open this weekend to ride. So for all of you there Friday night, thank you for a great time! For all of you who want to learn to ride this winter or get better, come on out! But most importantly, keep the snow coming or all of us that have learned why this sport is so great!

Our friends to the north...

Toronto you are a strange little town. Let me start by saying I love this city and I would rank it in the top 5 cities that I have ever been to in the world. It is just strange how it is only an hour away, yet the city itself feels like a total enigma to most Americans. What is it that makes us feel this way?

Let’s face it; Toronto is the Canadian version of Chicago with a couple of major changes. The corrupt politics, well those are in Ottawa. The over presence of union labor, first it would be spelled “labour” and frankly it isn’t as repressive. The shopping and dining are both amazing in each city, with a more cosmopolitan feel going to our neighbors to the north.

But maybe my last statement sums it up. Chicago is one of the most highly educated and diverse cities in our country, but to be honest, Toronto feels smarter, worldlier. Toronto is the melting pot that the United States was close to 100 years ago with all of the sophistication on a major city. Socialized medicine and a way for its entire society to earn a degree or a trade. With the dollar falling and the world becoming smaller, I think it is time for us to drop the us vs. them attitude. Granted Strange Brew was hilarious and they have given us a lot to laugh at over the years, maybe, just maybe it is time for us all to get on the same page and truly become North America. Really do you need to stamp my passport to go there?

I am in love with YELP!

So I had a great time relaxing and discovering Yelp! this weekend. Yelp is a great site that allows you to review local establishments. I had a good time making some new friends and reminiscing about places that I liked and didn’t like. The one downfall is the same issue I have with Twitter. I hate that you cannot import contacts from outlook. Not all of us who use these sites are in high school and keep all of our contacts in gmail. So all I can say is please interface with outlook! Otherwise, keep up the good work!

The last day in Prague

Our first stop was near Hradcany, which is close to the Royal castle complex. This place is simply stunning. I would say that this was more of a full blown city and not just a castle. Don’t get me wrong; I know most castles could survive for years if attacked just on what they had behind the walls. But this place is immense and we didn’t even have time to see all of it. Some of my favorite places were the conservatory, the cathedral and of course the amazing views off of the west side of the palace. Truly an amazing place, but I think the pictures can do it more justice than I can.
After about two hours up there we made our way down to the city to have a little lunch. We ate right at the entry way to the bridge and of course they had a place that had a mojito fro six people. I have just a couple of questions to ask about that, I mean logistically this is a nightmare. Because if it is six of my friends we are either going to be unhappy or that glass is going to be the size of a smart car. In either case we could have a problem. Additionally, are we not talking about a lot of backwash here? OK I have digressed long enough, back to actually talking about the city.
We headed over to a tram we saw the first day we were there. We were pretty sure this took us up to the monastery, but to be honest we were not sure. Come to find out it did take us there and we could use our multi day metro pass to get there as well. This was working out great!
I will have to say that this was the most mysterious place that we went. On top of the mountain was an observation deck that looked like a mini Eiffel tower, a monastery and an observatory. What made it odd was the entire place was surrounded by fortified walls with arrow slots. There we also several buildings that we could not see, but they looked shady in a secret kind of way. Outside of the walls was a series of monuments dedicated to a series of religious leaders. While on the train we heard that this was a place that was actually used to detain prisoners of war as late as the civil war which happened at the fall of the eastern bloc. All in all it was a very odd place.
On our way down we saw a dirt path with a sign for a monument. We followed it and I will have to say it was a bit remote. Once we got there the view was wonderful. We actually found ourselves above the castle and found a way in through a different entrance. After spending some time there we headed back down for the second time. Across the Charles bridge we made our way over to the marinate shop where Sandy picked up some gifts.
By now it was around 4:30pm, we spent the rest of the day drinking coffee, beer and just enjoying the sunny afternoon. We were in the old town portion of Prague. Originally this was settled by Jewish immigrants. It is an amazing plaza that is full of cafes and makes for great people watching. Well I think we are all caught up at this point. Hope everyone is enjoying the blog and I look forward to seeing all of you when I get home!

The middle days in Prague

So I have decided to combine days three and four together for what I feel are legit reasons. Here is the short version, if you want more details then feel free to read below. Got up at the crack of dawn to an already light Prague day. In case you missed this in an earlier posting, morning decides to poke its head from the dark at around 4:30am, so sleeping past 6ish is difficult at best. Bumped my head on the angled shower ceiling, knocked on the door of my co-worker and headed to the metro. Spent the day in registration, tried to help people in languages I didn’t understand. Had lunch, help more people, a drink with the client, then off to dinner some sightseeing and then back to the place to catch up with friends via IM and hit the sack. That my friends was Prague in a nutshell for days 3 and 4.
But like every good story there is more than one chapter to our book. First I should say how nice it is to work at a place that gave me the chance to go and do what we do in Europe. While it is a difficult situation, I can never express enough gratitude for the opportunity to make this happen.
Prague is a bit of an enigma. Upon landing you think to yourself that this city doesn’t seem like anything too special. Once you spend some time here everything changes. This is a special place, surrounded by a millennium of unbroken history. Unlike so many of its fellow countries, Prague was untouched by both world wars that ravaged so much of old Europe. This place makes you feel like you are stepping back in to a medieval village, surrounded by a modern city. Churches, Cathedrals and Castles dominate the skyline on both sides of a city connected by a river. Connecting the cities two sides is a delicate network of bridges, boats and a metro system that moves you easily from one side of the city to the other.
Home of two Holy Roman Emperors, Prague is full of fortifications and religious icons. I have never been too much in to religion, but here you can see what its place was in medieval society. This was the binding sense of community that this society needed as it struggled through centuries of a vassal system. While I personally feel that is a horrible time in human evolution, you can not overlook the work and craftsmanship that they brought to this city. This was the equivalent to one of our super cities, and by location it became a dynamic melting pot for many cultures.
The architecture represents a host of nations as well as a time period. You can see the Russian influence and as you turn the corner you see the Baroque period staring you in the face. The Italians gave the city the art of sculpture and the Dutch showed this society how to build around a river. Finally the influence of Germany is around every corner and the French are most notable on the cities signature complex, the Royal Palace.
But the influences are seen everywhere, not just in the buildings. Gelatos on every corner, Schnitzel in every restaurant. French wine with dinner or German beer if Pilsner is not your taste. You want globalization, come here! The funny thing was they did it way before the time of the internet and media. It was done here because a large number of people collected here and shared their cultures and ideas. The difference was that this culture was accepting and used all of those influences to create something distinctly their own. It is easy to put your finger on Italian style, German efficiency, France’s love for all of the arts. But when someone asks me what makes Prague, Prague I will be a little lost from words. For once I have met a city that I can’t pigeon hole, which I don’t want to describe. The best thing I could ever do is to tell you to come here. Experience the people, the culture, but most of all take time to explore the city on your own. Tour guides always tell you what is coming up around the corner, in my mind that is like someone telling you what the ending of the movie is going to be as you walk in to the theatre.
Grab a map, put on some good shoes and hit the streets. Because around every corner in Prague there is something very special.

Day two, well it was day two, enough said. Just kidding but my day started with me feeling like I was hit by a freight train. Jet lag smacked me directly in the face, this was a bit strange, because I cannot remember the last time the whole earth rotation thing caught up to me. So instead of sleeping, I am up late tonight writing about day two, I guess some things are just a little more important than sleeping. Of course about 2 pm tomorrow I am sure I will totally different about the situation.

But tonight, I write, so here we go! I would like to start by jumping ahead a bit. Sandy now has a suitcase! The best we can figure was that the bag never got off the ground back in the states, and since we had to switch carriers and that just seemed to further complicate the situation. But upon arrival back in to the apartments, the bag was sitting front and center, like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

So once I made it up and out of bed this morning I of course headed to the shower. Upon closer inspection I realized that this was built to bathe the midget helpers in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, not a normal human. The head detaches and I am fine with that. What I am not fine with is the diagonal roof that exists. This essentially means I have to lean diagonal in the shower while not spraying the entire floor with water. Clothed versions of this picture may follow if there is a desire to see this. Really words cannot do it justice.

Done with that task, and out the door to spend the first couple of hours hitting the streets to see the city. One turn led to another and we found an entirely new part of the city. The upload on facebook keeps failing, but I will get them up as soon as I can. It was another beautiful day in Prague. Our first was a short walk to the train station. We went ahead and booked our ticket to Vienna, and coming in at just a little under 70 USD it seemed like a really fair price. Compared to many ticket brokers we looked at prior to the trip, this saved us well over 100 USD per ticket.
After grabbing out tickets we made our way over to the metro. We wanted to take a test run on it before we had to run to work. An all day metro pass is 100 KR which equals about $2.50 USD. For those who live in DC or have visited, this is a steal. A couple of minutes of waiting and we were off. The stations are clean, safe and the trains look like they aren’t more than a year or two old. This is a great way to get around town!

After heading up a stop to Muzeum we jumped off and headed up the steps, to see an American Icon staring us in the face. Eastwood, Obama, Joan Rivers, NO, Mcdonald’s… Now I was going to sing the praises about the lack of western influence in this city, until we stepped into cultural hell. Don’t get me wrong, I love all thing western, Lacoste, McDonalds even Levi’s. But this was a little much for me. Squeezed in between a Bohemian crystal shop and a violin maker were the golden arches. I know they have to eat, and who doesn’t like all the cheese and cat, but maybe I just wanted to go a couple of days without the trappings on my culture being infused half a world away.

But internally this raised a larger question with me. Does globalization mean something more than my current definition of the sociological topic of my generation? I have always looked at globalization as being something bigger. Banks and government working together to benefit a large part of the population on a level that one day we will understand, but just not today. Or is it the spread of nano technology through joint research in an effort to make our lives more efficient? What if it was so much easier than all of that? As we travel more, is cultural dilution only inevitable? Are we not setting ourselves up for a homogenized society?

Wow a little deep, but when you are running on fumes, what do you expect. I will spend the better part of the next 24 hours questioning my perspective. Feel free to contribute and give me your thoughts.

Back to the story! We killed the morning walking around and me taking pictures of the city that I hope I can share with my children one day when they are planning their own escape to Europe. After a wonderful breakfast of an apple pastry, fresh squeezed orange juice and a latte all for under $5 USD we were ready to head off to work. Winding our way through the streets we get to the metro, jump on the train and 20 minutes of effortless riding we arrive.

So we get inside and start setting up. All is going well until I plug in the power for the printer. Upon turning it on the pug pops and the aroma of a blown circuit permeates the air. With little support from IT back at home it was time to make something happen. I head to the electronics store and get laughed at for asking if I could buy a voltage converter. Keep in mind 20 minutes earlier the facility electrician did the same. So I ask around and apparently there is a place a couple of metro stops away called Electro World, the Best Buy of the Czech Republic. So I step out of the station and there appears to be a highway on both sides. Look to the left and about a mile down the road I see my destination. Let’s just say I now know what Frogger felt like.

Shockingly they could not help me. So I head back with the thought in my mind that registration opened in less than 30 minutes. I get back to the hotel and we are officially in crisis mode. After talking to the client a light went off. They have extensive AV at the event and the lead guy is from the USA. We talk, he has a converter and I can now print badges. There is still a strange humming noise, but it hasn’t caught on fire or produced a large shock, in my mind, considering where we were, that is a victory my friends.

The day went by servicing the nicest attendees and exhibitors on earth. Everyone wanted to bring us water or food and took the time to ask how we were before asking for anything. The civility of Europeans, bless you, it reminds me to take a breath and often you will accomplish so much more than you ever thought.

Sushi for lunch, more Aloe water and a quick trip to the grocery to buy some treats for the staff. We now have friends from all of the international offices, and I will tell you teaching someone your language and learing at the same time is genuinely humbling and amusing. Before we knew it we were looking at 10 pm. It was time to pack up and get ready to go home. A short metro ride back and we were home.

So we have come full circle back to the bag. While today was a challenge, I will have to write it down as one of the better ones. I am off for a late night walk to the river since sleeping doesn’t seem to be in my plans for the evening. Hope all is well at home. I miss you all and can’t wait to see you when I get back.

This morning

One word phrase describes my morning, jet lagged. Apparently I am not Bejamin Button, I do get older as time goes by.

The fist 24 hours...

The first 24 hours have been something special to say the least. We have had both our triumphs and our challenges. But really the first rule in traveling is being willing to adapt. I have been fortunate to ravel, but here is a different animal. Not only do few people understand English, but even fewer care that you are speaking it them. With a conversion of rate of 19 to 1, all of the math starts to make your head hurt. But then again I am in Prague, and I will take all of those challenges any day if this is the outcome.

So this all started in a very good way. I have to carry an enormous pelican case full of equipment. We didn’t want to take the chance of it not getting here via Fed-ex, so I checked it on to the plane. Remember this part of the story later and I have a feeling you will be able to taste the irony. The point behind all of this was I didn’t have to pay a fee to get this thing on the plane. Here is my first shout out to United.

So then we are off to security. Even though we are getting out of the country, we are still in one of the nations busiest airports on the kick-off weekend of summer. The positive to this is there are very few business men travelling, so we breeze through security. The only real moment of tension came from trying to decide which line would be faster. Longer with no stroller or shorter with one in the line, we went longer and won!

Then the best treat of all came. Through some act of divine intervention United felt they should upgrade me to business class. I win again! So I settled in to my seat that laid flat and browsed through the amenity bag. Nice touch, so this is what the extra two grand is all about. I was a charlatan in the king’s court. But, by the end of the flight I was one of the crowd, spoiled on fresh fruit and comfortable pillows.

After discovering a potential business opportunity, I found myself in London. Half way between terminal one and two we ran in to our client. We joined up with them, went through the customary security procedures, boarded the flight and settled in for my second nap of the day. Waking up I found myself listening to Matt Nathanson and looking out the window to see the beautiful countryside of the Czech Republic.

We touchdown and I begin to panic a bit. Either I was asleep and missed when they passed out the customs form, or something is wrong. After some inquiry I find out no customs form was distributed. I am the guy who likes to fill out on the plane and be ready to go. So after a couple of hallways we end up at customs. Come to find out all you have to do here is show them you passport. No paperwork! Other countries, take note, it was so easy and was still a topic of discussion almost 12 hours after we cleared.

This is where the good fortune took a turn for the worse. The big box comes out along with my bag, but after 30 minutes, Sandy’s bag is no place to be found. After fumbling our way through baggage claim we get some resolution. The resolution was, they have no clue where the bag is! Some 12 hours later we find out it never left IAD and that it will be here tomorrow afternoon.
Off to the hotel! After having a great cab ride where we saw the castle and the river, we made it to the hotel. Not what I thought it would be, but hey, it is a place to put our head. Or so we thought, until we got walked. They only had us down for one room despite us paying for two. Come to find out the own several apartments in old town and they are willing to put us up there for our stay. The building is a little shady, but it is safe and in a great location. They have been renovated and I find the accommodations very satisfactory.

So after all of that we decide to hit the streets. Three and one half hours later we had covered the better part of Prague. This city is so beautiful and a must for anyone who likes architecture and design. Life just seems a bit slower here. I will let the pictures I posted on Facebook do the talking.

After going to see the client and take care of some business, we needed to go shopping. Sandy got some stuff for tomorrow, and I think she is really happy with what she purchased more on that tomorrow. I then did my favorite thing when travelling, hit the grocery store. This apartment is already working out well. Nothing like buying products based on aesthetics because you can’t read a damn thing on the label. After being brought back our new homes in a beuatiful new Audi A6 I was done for the night.

Just finished my laughing cow cheese and aloe drink, for the record, tasty but the lumps are distrurbing. Well that sums up things for now. I am ready to hit the sack, but I am sure we certainly will have plenty more to talk about tomorrow. Hope all is well back in the states!

Epic Night On The Mountain

Tuesday was one of the best nights I have had on the hill in sometime. It snowed all day and as soon as we could we booked it from work and headed to Liberty. thanks for driving Tymon! Tymon was strapped in to his new Rome agent, I was on next year's Rome Pusher and Jess had her Burton Troop.

All said we were looking at about 4 inches of snow. For those of you outside of the Mid-Atlantic, this is nothing, for us, this is heaven! We took full advantage of it! Below is a video of Jess heading up on the chair for the first time in several years. After a couple of days on the snow she is really doing well.

Later on that night she made it to the top with one of her friends. I will have to say I am very proud of her, not to mention she has the best goggles on the hill.

Tymon and I took off with some of our friends to go ride as well. Below is a video of Cameron jumping some ropes. While the ski patrol was not totally happy about this, I will have to say that he was totally cool about the situation.

While these days are few and far between, I will never get tired of chasing them. With a storm on the way again this weekend, let's just hope that we get a couple more nights like this in again!

Today was a great day! For the first time in a long time I had some early morning riding. I feel as of late I have spent more time riding at night than usual. Today that changed.

We had a perfect blue bird day and the mountain to ourselves, well at least for the first two hours. Then it turned in to a bit of a donkey show. But to be fair, for a weekend, not too bad at all.

I want to give some props to ski liberty http://www.skilibery.com/ They have really stepped up the game this year. Sources have told me that their new snow making system is all linked to a Master computer. This system automatically calculates temperature and then mixes the chemical and water ratio. So what does this mean. Great fast, groomable and plentiful snow. Lots of fun for all of us.

We witnessed this first hand today. There were still some comical moments despite the near perfect conditions. The hats, the hats, the hats...

Ok, maybe on children these might be cute. Of course those children would have to come from the over-zealous nuclear families that seem to line the mountain, I digress. These we worn by adults, are you kidding me? Have you no respect for yourself? I can't imagine that you partner, in any way thinks you look hot in that. Drop the hat and get a life! You don't look cool, you aren't making a fashion statement. You are simply making yourself out to be a fool.

Other funny moments came from me riding a new board, TRS banana. Different edges and much different board, not bad, just different. On one of my falls today, I had a nice lady on skis ask me if I was alright as she wedged past me. I said yes and thanked her for asking. She then responded by saying "I'm glad I am not the only one falling out here!" Then she laughed at me, nice, thanks for the backhanded moment of compassion. I later went screaming past her and hopefully at that point she realized that the ass plant I demonstrated in front of her was not part of my regular riding style. I have a feeling her husband was wearing the zebra hat.

I will have to say that today was one of the best days I have had on the slopes in some time. Thanks to all of you that were out there, and I will see the rest of you out there soon!