March 16, 2006
Dear Everyone:
Last week I was in “Abbeville”,
The “Abbeville” offices support the “snafus” in the
The person in charge of all the training asked if I could give training with such a setup. I assured him that I could, while not mentioning that, not only is this the way we train all the time, we even make the students provide their own laptops. We call it “BYOL” (bring your own laptop) training.
My travel choices were: Leave around 6:00 in the morning, get there about 4:00 in the afternoon. Or, leave at noon and get in around 9:00. I opted for the earlier flights. Once I checked into my hotel room, I set off to find supplies at a nearby grocery store. No way I was going to pay $1.50 for a diet soft drink out of the machine.
I loaded up with soft drinks and a few other essentials and, at the last minute, added a bag of corn chips. After looking at the room service menu, I had corn chips for dinner.
The next morning, armed with directions and a map from the Internet, and different directions from the local woman at the front desk, I set off for the ERTC. It’s always such an adventure driving in a strange city, trying to read street signs, while the locals whip past you. I actually found the ERTC on the first try.
We trained in the morning, with three and a half students. One woman, who supports the training staff, had to leave several times, so I only count her as a half. We hadn’t quite finished when the class decided to break for lunch. It was 11:00 and they were afraid if we waited until 11:30, there wouldn’t be enough food left.
It turns out the ERTC has its own galley. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day. I suspect one reason is because the ERTC is out in the boonies, and if everyone got into cars and went off in search of lunch, they’d never be back in time. And many of these “snafu” folks work seven days on, seven days off; or 14 days on, 14 days off. So if they come in for training, the company wants their full attention for the whole time.
Lunch on the first day was mystery meat with red beans and rice, or what could have been meatloaf and mashed potatoes. After lunch, we finished the training and the two trainers-to-be and I talked training strategies. I finally left around 4:30.
But I didn’t have as good luck on the trip back to the hotel. I missed a turn somewhere. Got completely turned around. Finally noticed a street on my Internet map that might get me back to where I more-or-less started out and reached the hotel at 5:40. Before I knew it, it was nearing 7:00 and I hadn’t had any dinner. I tried calling room service, but got no answer. So I had corn chips for dinner again.
The next morning, I missed a turn again, but by this time I knew some of the street names and realized a left turn here and a right turn there would put me right at the ERTC. This time, one of the local trainers did the training with me as coach. Later, he asked me where I had eaten the night before (he had recommended a “great crawfish restaurant”.) I told him about the getting lost and thus, corn chips.
“Good lord!
We can’t let this woman go back to
I couldn’t refuse. As a TV character said recently, “There’s a downside to good manners.”
I headed back to the hotel around 3:00 and, by some miracle, didn’t get lost and found it on the first try. I even found a parking space right in front of the hotel entrance. The only problem was, by then it was raining. Very heavily. And the wind was blowing very hard. Nowhere near hurricane weather, but in the 20 feet it took me to get from the car to the covered entrance, I was drenched. These people have rain with muscle.
So I spent the next hour drying my clothes with the hotel iron and board. I must say, I looked positively spiffy in my freshly ironed clothes.
And I had a cup of gumbo with dinner. As near as I can tell, gumbo is made by throwing all the shellfish, and whatever other fish you have, into a pot. Add salt. Add a brownish broth of some kind and heat. Ladle into a cup and serve with a small bowl of steamed white rice. Most diners “cut” the gumbo with rice. Also, lots of crackers.
I got up around 3:30 the next morning to pack and
make my 7:00 am flight to
“There’s no place like home!”
Love, as always,
Pete
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