Day 4 - Where has the time gone?

  Madrid, Spain
Thursday, March 29, 2007

Thursday already! What happened on Days 2 and 3, you ask? Training, more training, and yet more training, combined with other hard work, troubleshooting, momentary pangs of panic, a fair amount of stress, and four Canadian grumbling stomachs that can't quite adjust to the 1:30-1:45pm lunch time.

I've rarely sat in training classes where time really flies. Not that our stuff is particularly fascinating - honest. But between all the pieces going on, the dense content requiring lots of concentration, and my multi-tasking, well, I'm surprised to see the days going by so fast.

Steve at his desk

Tuesday went by without glitches, but we had a couple of scares yesterday, with things not quite working as expected... Hum.... As a colleague put it, "Helen, you don't like it when things don't work, I've noticed that about you." Yes, he's right - I prefer when things go well. But this is software and pretty complex software at that -- sometimes, things don't go quite according to plan.

Radha getting ready to train

No details needed here, suffice it to say that by the end of the day, my shoulders were up by my ears, and a few "loud" emails were exchanged. Having said that, we have the A+ team here, and we're all dealing with things very well.

Helen

While we do have internet access here (obviously), we have difficult limitations: no VPN access to the office network, no international phone calls possible (at least not easily). So - it feels fairly isolated when things don't go quite to plan. Add the 6 hour time-difference, and we are completely on our own until mid-day or so. Not to mention the fact that the client has no IT support available. That's painful - and risky. Did I mention this is software training...?

Julia

The days have been long. We didn't finish training til 7:30pm on Tuesday. That was then followed by another 2 hours of preparation work for the following day. The cleaning staff must hate us - they also wait for us to leave before they come into the training room, and we don't seem to leave! Last night, we left earlier -- 8:45pm. The students had left around 7:30 again. I can only imagine how they feel, listening to and reading English for 10 hours a day, and learning difficult new things.  

Steve

Lunches have been getting more social in the last couple of days -- we mix well with the group, and everyone is very nice. One of the Italian trainees speaks fluent English and is very skilled at getting everyone to connect. The group is gelling pretty well, everyone is very nice, and lunches are becoming a regular occasion to quickly build a rapport with the various team members.

Click on the picture!

Dinners - well... I'm still waiting to eat good food in Madrid. And I'm not difficult. Granted, we haven't really taken the time to seek good places. Near our hotel, it turns out, there doesn't appear to be that many places. But I'm quite disappointed with restaurant meals so far. Again - I'm rarely, if ever, disappointed with food :-)  So, this is a bit of a let-down for me. But our Spanish friends are taking the group out tonight, so I'm hoping to get into some good Tapas and other typically Spanish dishes. Just one really good meal, to convince me that Madrid's reputation for good food is truly warranted!

One of our colleagues is vegetarian. I feel bad for him, Madrid is not a city for non-carnivores. On top of that, he doesn't speak any Spanish, and mine being fairly limited, I'm not always able to find him decent meals. 

We're starting to plan the weekend. We need a couple of days off -- everyone is tired, and the fatigue has been accumulating for months. The long days this week (plus jet lag and little sleep early in the week) mean that we have earned ourselves a weekend off.

Museo del Prado, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Museo Nacional "Centro de Arte Reina Sofia" - are all on the list.  The first house famous paintings by illustrious Spanish painters Velasquez, Goya and El Greco. The third one is home to Picasso's Guernica. I can't come all the way to Madrid and not see Guernica. That's like going to the Louvres and not seeing the Mona Lisa.

We're also planning a day trip to Toledo, to see the medieval moorish fortress. As one of my colleagues said, "Being from Canada, and seeing that this is my first time in Europe, I'd like to see some old stuff!"