Today is sad.

I leave this evening, 7:30, for Frankfurt.

I'm very, very sad.

the title

as some of you might have noticed I have been changing my title of my blog with primarily misquotes from movies (because I never quite get it right). Well "We are not Machines" is actually not a quote from a film but my favorite "I'm so frustrated with the my job" story that I've heard so far from any NBC employee. My new friend Debbie, who is actually Tannan's boss and let us stay at her apartment for a couple of nights, is having some problems with her Italian employees. The Italian PSA (Production Services Assistant) have been working for her since the fall. From the beginning she's had some trouble getting them to understand that working for an American company was quite different from working for an Italian one. For example, when she was having them inventory one day by opening all of the boxes that they had stored from Greece and counting the contents, she caught one employee just putting boxes on the shelf. When she asked what he was doing he said to her, "it is impossible to do this thing that you ask, this counting. Impossible." That kind of stuff. So when she told them that starting in the new year they were no longer going to have weekends off and 2 hour lunches with breaks every 2 hours one employee said in shock, "Debbie, We are not Machines." That has turned into the slogan of the games--We are not Machines. I'm making T-Shirts.

it was worth a shot.

So after being here for a few days and exhausting all of the options I was unable to get gainful employment and have to come home. (insert sad sound here) We knew it was an option but gave it a shot anyway and while I have been told multiple times by multiple people that if it were any OTHER games it would have worked, thanks to the Italian gov sucking ass this time it didn't. Actually I have to give credit to everybody at NBC who really did try to help me out despite the fact that I am not directly related to an executive and/or speak no Italian. The general vibe from everybody here is not good and these games are turning out to be somewhat of a nightmare for Tannan. The Italian government is making it really difficult for NBC and everybody is getting really frustrated. They are having problems with NBC too, who has decided this games to give out demerites to people like they were in Jr High. Everybody is miserable and that is compounded by the fact that they are in the ugly part of Torino which, thanks to Fiat being headquatered there in the past, seriously looks like Flint or Detroit or anywhere else that was a big auto town. Seriously. And it's cold enough to be miserable but there is NO snow. I think I knew it was going to be bad when we found out that there was no snow. Anyway they are seriously understaffed in Tannan's department with the Italian PSA's being practically worthless and the American PSA's being 19 and nieces of executives. Tannan and his boss Debbie are beyond frustrated. Debbie and her husband Bill were kind enough to let us crash in their living room (when the place that I was going to crash fell through) and I LOVE THEM. Debbie was in my position in Athens and not only ended up getting a job, but is now Tannan's boss. Of course she spoke Greek--I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE TAKEN SPANISH! Anyway she's been at the end of her rope. When Tannan and I first got to the field shop she came flying out of her office and gave Tannan a hug that was like "THANK GOD YOU ARE HERE I WAS SECONDS AWAY FROM KILLING MYSELF." Anyway Tannan and Debbie are working a minimum of 12 hours a day 9-9, 7 days a week, with 0 days off until he comes home. I guess that is the one thing that is probably best about me not getting to work is that even if I did I would never see him. Anyway we are trying to get our minds around being apart for 3 months. I know that it is for the best but it still really really sucks. My flight leaves Monday evening for Frankfurt and then I leave for the states Tuesday morning which, incidentally, is our first anniversary. Sad. I guess the positive is that when we celebrate our first real anniversary it'll be super special. I'm trying to stay positive. :)

That's the news and it's a bummer. But I've had a great vacation! Oh yeah, Tannan has a blog now to document his life in Italy. It's http://tannanw2.blogspot.com and forgive him for his typos and spelling errors. :) Thank goodness I think he's hot. Just kidding.

Night Train to Italy

So Vienna has the BEST TAP WATER EVER. I'm not kidding. It's fabulous and makes life so much cheaper when you can just keep refilling water bottles from the sink.

We are taking a night train to Torino tonight. I love sleeping on trains so I'm quite excited. Once we're in Torino we have less plans then we did getting to Vienna. It's a fun way to travel though and we're having a lot of fun. Vienna has been an absolute blast, the city is georgeous and it's easy to understand how Aimee was able to fall in love with it so easily. Also big congrats to Aims who has had quite a happy weekend and I'm glad that I got to be here to experience it with her.

I'm excited to be in Italy and ready to get settled or at least ready to try to get settled. Until then, ciao or rather auf wiedershen (I'm so Heidi Klum--shout out to Tele W/o Pity for keeping me updated on Project Runway by the way). Peace out.

Quicky.

Tannan and I are in Europe! We landed in Frankfurt on Thursday morning (after getting out standby a day later than planned which was so worth it because we got to be in BUSINESS on the way over--THANKS AUNT GWEN!) and took the train to Vienna where we are hanging out with Aimee and her boy before heading out to Torino on Sunday. Don't worry, I'm still as clueless as I ever was about what is going on. It's fun though--having no plan is definitely something that is out of my comfort zone. Anyway it's cold and there is snow on the ground so it makes me happy.

Did you know that they give you a menu when you ride business? A MENU. And lots of champagne which helps with the sleeping on the plane.

ALSO YAY TO MATT AND BRENDA FOR HAVING A LITTLE GIRL!!!! GIRLS ARE SO MUCH FUN! THERE'S EVEN A SONG ABOUT IT! I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU BOTH!!!!!!

Alright, peace out and I'll update more when I've got it.

To 2006...

Happy New Year Kiddies.