Goodbye Cleveland :(

As my American adventure continues, I have now left the ACC project team in Cleveland for a few weeks of travelling, before I go home. I could have never predicted how good a time I would have in Cleveland. This has been a combination of the project team (in the photo above), and Cleveland itself. If anyone tells you Cleveland is anything less than a great city, tell them they have not tried, and maybe the problem is themself.

I was there for about 7 weeks working in a room with my new friends above. We also had the ACS team visiting as special guest starts on occasion. We spent the days together in our 15603 sharing stories from home, planning our weekends and evenings together and, sometimes working (no, we really did, I swear Lisa).

The work involved significant amounts of reading and concentration, so we would break this up with our chats. This is hands down the most valuable thing I have taken from this. I have learned many things about the team members’ respective homes, and a little about me (like I am offensive in any language and calling someone a dirty bitch is somehow bad- go figure). Dirty bitch did become Lyudmila’s favourite new term.

Some other things I have learned:
- Not all Russians drink vodka
- How to call people bad names in Spanish
- Hats keep your head warm, puffy hats have the benefit of keeping your hair style in shape as well
- The toothfairy does not get to every country. Sometimes, she sends a mouse (or does the mouse send the toothfairy?)
- Utah is weird
- Petrol (gas) is cheaper than water in Bahrain
- Ice is not fun and romantic, it makes you fall
- Walking on 2 inches of snow is easier than walking on ¼ of an inch of snow
- The German advent calendars kicks arse over Australian advent calendars

Some things I have taught the team:
- You do not turn left in the car, you chuck a left
- Hiccupping is a great attention seeking device
- Jumpers keep you warm in the cold (American use sweaters but that just sounds unpleasant)
- Koalas are not bears. Please share this with everyone you know so when you visit Australia it is one less thing we will laugh at you about behind your back
- Snow is fun and romantic, it is not a pain. You choose to live in the north so suck it up people

Let me introduce the team to you properly. From the right of the photo, we have:
- Shuichi (Shu) from Japan who looks like he is concentrating all the time but now and then a smile will creep over his face during our conversations in the room. He also enjoys a bit of “professional” wrestling (at any cost). He is also the most impressive eater I have ever seen. Bravo Shu.
- Brent, the all American man. He is ex-Marine and an all round good bloke. He is an Australian’s saviour, taking me to the pub at the end of my first week (sorry about the whole hot sauce incident).
- Emma, my boss’ boss who is from England who I had to fight with to be the loudest in the room. She invited us to her house for a night of foods’o’the world and is a mean competitor on arcade dance games (self professed champion).
- Me. I write blogs.
- Julia from Germany who was kind enough to make the room a German advent calendar which was made up of 24 individually wrapped presents. We would revert to children each day opening up the new one. She also had the natural German efficiency coursing through her veins as displayed on many occasions.
- On top is Lisa from country Australia (and Adelaide, which is really the same thing). She was the guiding light through this project and also was a great provider of ideas on things to do in Cleveland (even “ice” skating). She will often stand in the shadows with her huge camera (it has its own post/zip code) taking streams of photos that can be viewed in succession to form a video.
- Luis (Antonio) from Chile, my best mate in Cleveland. When he arrived, he had no idea what I was saying. I think it took 6 weeks before he could understand me (he started a week after me). We went out for dinner in his first week and I was concerned about how we were going to communicate but apparently interpretative dance is universal. He has an amazing family who very kindly fed me for most of the time I was here. Chilean food is impressive.
- Lyudmila, the non vodka drinking Russian and my favourite. Lyudmila was quite at first and I think she was in shock at my level of obnoxiousness. It was talking to Lyudmila which highlighted most to me the literal meanings to phrases and words we use are not always what they mean in a sentence. She also has the most expressive eyes and eyebrows in the history of communication.
- Asad, the Pakistani Bahraini. He joined us later in the project but jumped straight into the dynamic. He is a mean poker player and is entirely styled by Cleveland sporting teams.
- Last, but not least, is Vijai, the Indian American who has filled the void left by the departure of Brent (not to a better place, to client service work). He also has a very sneaky wife who contacted me on his Birthday (which Vijai had kept to himself) to organise something. Vijai supplied us with mountains of American candy so we immediately liked him.

Other special guest stars during my time are:
The ACS team who take what we do and turn it into something that makes sense. They are Jennifer K, Jennifer W, Hunter, Bern, Alexis, Larry who have contributed their stories to the room and added to the fun we have. Hunter is a crazy traveller, balanced by his domestic Utahness. Jenn K loves to live in other peoples’ houses and Jennifer W is as loud as I am. Thanks for the work and fun team.

I cannot sign-off from Cleveland without mentioning the Phoenix team. On my first morning, after 6 hours sleep which proceeded 30 hours of being awake, I walked the city looking for coffee goodness. After a few false starts, I found Phoenix who have dutifully coffeed me up every morning, with a side of toasted raisin bagel with cream cheese. In the order of meeting you, thanks Elizabeth, Wes, Shannon, Nathan and the rest of the team. Thanks for the coffee and crazy chats.

So with my friends from Cleveland I have experienced a lot. I have seen every major local sporting team play (who were in season), been to Niagara, been “ice” skating, eaten, drunk, and had an amazing time- thank you all!!!!

PS I just beat Jesus, I have 13 disciples now