rockover

Turn out the lights, we are home I noticed that with Eudora, not all input from the european keyboard translated. If you have questions, please let me know. Speaking of translating... Our day began around 6 am for breakfast and then an early cab ride to the airport. On the way, Azucena and the driver had the usual conversation (ARO has a conversation with anyone at the drop of an eyebrow, she don't wait for the hat). Anyway, I vaguely make out that he's from Belgium or such and she asked how long he's been in the country. I'd say I understood him when he said 32 years, but I'd be lying. She had some trouble with this, so he finally asked if she was fluent in spanish. She said yes and off they went. From German to Spanish like it was nothing. Now, I don't know about you, but it takes me awhile to go from Normal US to Yankee, then to Valley Girl, then to Texan, etc. I guess that's why it's always good to take your own personal translator with you when you travel abroad. For one thing, it's fairly cheap. Cost of travel, food, goods. We had to wait for about 1 1/2 hours for the plane and surprisingly enough, I was booked, but as a random passenger. This means, I had no seat assigned to me. So, needless to say, we didn't get to play cards all the way home. BUT, did get to watch 2 of 4 movies; Austin Powers 3 (a bit crude as usual), Serving Sarah, watch it, pretty good, funny and Matthew Perry. Since we had our own personal viewers, I could pick which movie to watch. I saw pieces of the other two from other seats (my earphones kept cutting out so I had to play with them to hear decently). By the way, it was a 777. Pretty nice. American Airlines did good by adding more leg room. Alas, we had to wait at the gate (in the plane) for about 1 hour before we took off. This meant that we missed our connecting flight by about 30 minutes. When we landed, the next flight was about 45 minutes away, but when you go through customs, it gives you about 10 minutes to make it. An no, they didn't move us to the new flight like we were told. So, again, we didn't sit next to each other. Doesn't matter. ARO was asleep before we took off. You should have seen the people running down the aisle saying, "In a rush, etc." only to miss their connecting flights. To go through customs and pick up your bags was about a 30 minute ordeal and these people had connecting flights about 10 - 15 minutes after we got to the gate. I laughed in their face. HA!. Actually, it was a silent laugh for I knew that as much as they ran and stood in place, they were not going to connect. It is now 11:18pm Austin. Some friends came over, fixed a great bowl of chili and cornbread (can't remember last time I had either of these). Pulled out the goodies, played a round of cards and now it is time for bed. (I think, it is either 4 or 5am for me (looks like 6:30am if it's 7 hours). ARO fell asleep on the couch about 1 1/2 hours ago). Two things I like when travelling with Azucena. She is a great translator and travel agent. She knows the ins and outs of travel as well as how to negotiate the airports. There's other things she's good at when travelling, but dare I go into those and suffer the wrath of a bloated ego. Sounds like I'm coming to an end, which I am. I had (we had) a great time. I enjoyed the travel, except for Friday, when my home was west and I went east forever. Probably would have gone into another country, if I let it go long enough. We adapt to the country pretty well, which makes for easy travel. The natives spoke a good english which made it easy for people like me. Currency exchange with the Euro is about 1 to 1 which also makes it easy. Food settles pretty good and was very delicious. Scenery is always good. I love castles and she loves cathedrals. What more can you ask for. Ciao, tchoose, sianara, adios, good bye, mahalo, so long, hasta luego, aloha (who cares about spelling, when you can sound it out!!!!). Randy (and Azucena, partner in travel)