Being in a different site made me realize that I knew a lot of people from work.  And I am adding more to the list as this trip progresses.

I've only been in Folsom 2 days and I spent most of those 2 days meeting up with people and building my task and training list.  It all sounds so scary that I think I need to regroup and really iron out the priority list.  I don't want to extend more than what I have committed to stay here for and I really want to make sure that all my goals are met.

I just hate it that I am unable to make broadband work with my laptop.  It should've been easy as pie but then when I connected last night, I had all sorts of problems that I just decided to give it up.  And to think, the only reason why I chose that hotel was because of the free complimentary broadband, plus the fact that it's located near most of the new stores in Folsom.

Going back to my travel story, my trip was not a nightmare but it could've been better.  In the flight from MNL-HK, I was seated between a nice gentleman and a first time traveller.  I met the first time traveller while looking for the check-in counter of Cathay.  She had no inkling what she needs to do and I tried to explain to her what she needs to do, until she decided that she would just tag along with me.  So the check-in counter seated her at the window and thinking that we were friends, she seated me next to her, making me seat at the middle seat.  The gentleman that we met was so well travelled that he offered to take me to the gate where I needed to go in HK (he knew the airport very well and it was my first time at HK).  The man worked for an oil firm and he travels to all parts of the world doing explorative work.  He told me that he had just gone from LA with his family and he used his mileage to pay for his wife's ticket.  He really encouraged me to get a mileage card since it does not expire.

The trip to HK was enjoyable because I had good company and the flight was very short.  When we got to HK for my connecting flight to SFO, there was no organization and the airline just seated everybody as they lined up.  I thought they were gonna call the row numbers.  So I was one of the last passengers seated.  I sat at the window seat and the old couple seated next to me was Indian.  I am not one to discriminate, but they had a very distinct smell to them.  I think my olfactory glands got used to it 2 hours into the flight that I did not seem to mind it after some time.

But then the lady seated right next to me started to feel pain in her knees.  It might be because of seating in the same position for so long.  They complained to the flight attendant that she was not feeling well, and the flight attendant asked her to raise her knees into her husband's seat.  To make a long story short, she was pressing my arm, and was really cramping my seat that I had to "offer" the flight attendant to move my seat.  Of course, since the flight was full, I was seated in the middle seat.  The persons originally seated on that row was not happy that I decided to seat next to them.  Problem was even with an eye mask, the light was still glaring.  The person seated in the aisle seat had the light turned on the whole time and the person seated in the window seat had the windows opened the whole time.  I saw the sun rise from the horizon.  So, for short, I was not able to get decent sleep.  And then my connecting flight was cancelled so I had to wait an additional 3 hours before I can get to Sacramento.  I can barely keep my eyes open by the time I checked into the hotel.

So far everything has been hectic in the office.  I have started interfacing with people and started defining the tasks that I need to complete during my 5 week stay.

And oh!  Broadband rocks. :D

DA GANDA blogged @ 9/17/2004 08:26:00 PM