Happy Holidays!

NI Search Testing

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update about my job and the tasks I do. Ok fine I just wanted to post my funny graphic that I put at the bottom of my status report today.



I have done other Confidence-O-Meters in the past and it took a LONG time for it to get into the green section, so this is a great sign.

Wish me luck - we're continuing to test until the end of this week.

Kate

Christmas Shopping - DONE

Did almost all my Christmas shopping on amazon.com this year and I just have to say it was delightful. I didn't have too much to do because my sister was naughty this year so I just had to get coal for her.

Weather

Yeah so I know I'm my mother's child when I start talking about the weather but just had to mention this:

Sunday 80ish for the high
Monday 49 for the high (at midnight - even colder during the day)
Tuesday 85 is the forecast high (we've hit 76 at least)
Wednesday 45 is the forecast high

All I know is - I need it to be warm enough for me to wear open toed shoes to show off my new pedicure.

Christmas Shopping

Here are a couple of sites I found that I am probably going to do some shopping at:

• Perpetual Kid - the ABC* cookie cutters are such a hilarious idea
  
• ThinkGeek - I've been wanting some light sabers for around the house
  

I'll add more as I run across them.

Happy Holidays!

Kate

*Already Been Chewed

~Cake Picture~

Made a cake for our Department Pot Luck and BA Charity Event today - here it is. The cake itself is Butter Pecan.



And yes Santa's coat has always been pink. It just looks red in pictures.

Back in Austin!

Just wanted to say how wonderful it is to be home and to have slept in my own bed last night.

Things I Love About Home:

• Water pressure
• Being able to call people on the phone and not worry about the cost
• Diet Coke (not Coke Light) in big American 20 oz containers
• Driving myself whenever and wherever I want
• 82 degree weather in December (record high)
  
• Abigail :)
• Being able to leave at lunch
• Not having to bundle up in order to go outside

~Day 27~ I Hate O'Hare Bonus Post

So I got an extra day of fun because of ice/snow in Chicago. Got to stay at a lovely airport hotel and just got home about an hour ago. It actually went smoothly - including my car a) still being where I parked it, b) not having a flat tire and c) starting right up! It's nice in Austin - 78 degrees. My winter coat is going right to the cleaners - maybe I'll wear it in January/February. :)

It is so nice to be home. Just finished Abigail Lovefest 2007 and I'm starting the marathon laundry session now.

P.S. Verily - Efay is just trying to start controversy by saying I snubbed you! I did not see anything of Chicago except what I saw out the hotel shuttle window on the way there and back!!

~Day 26~ Budapest to London to Chicago to Austin

Can't wait to be back home! Thanks to everyone for reading my blog.

I can't promise that I will have as many posts but I will keep this blog going (and I'm sure I will have more trips in the future).

Kate

~Day 25~ Help a Nice Hungarian Data Steward

So one of the data stewards is doing a thesis on linguistics and asked me if we had any forbidden or taboo words/phrases in English.

I.e. She said in Hungary, if you have a headache, and ask someone for an aspirin and they give it to you, you can't say "Thank you". If you say it, the aspirin won't work.

If you can think of anything similar for English, please put it in the comments and I will pass them along to her.

~Day 25~ Last Day in Debrecen *sniff sniff*

Non-work stuff:
Supposed to snow today! Finally!

Work stuff:
I taught the data stewards how to say "y'all" today. :)

Heading into Budapest this afternoon - flying out tomorrow at 12:45pm Budapest time. Home tomorrow night late (a few minutes after midnight Austin time).

Hotel bill was 347,000 forint ($2K). Not bad for 19 nights and 19 breakfasts.

~Day 24~ Bonus Post

Just got an email from my friend Kelly that made me giggle right in front of my entire group of data stewards. Good thing I'm leaving tomorrow.

Subject: "It took me all weekend, but I finally got my tree up!"

I was all excited to see what Kelly's tree looked like, so I opened it up and saw this (click to enlarge to get the full effect):

~Day 24~ Wrapping Things Up

Work stuff:
Gave the same lecture to the 8:00am shift as I gave to the 2:00pm shift yesterday.

Things to work on today:
Finish documentation for Vicky - DONE
Add in time to query to pull records for stewards - Tried - can't figure out - emailed Caleb.
Run query for how many tasks have been created since golive - ran but it is not including resolved so need to figure out how to add that
Update Progress - DONE
Update Speed - DONE
Track Data Steward Agency Hours - Update Spreadsheet to look at Budget - DONE
Look at ERDs - DONE - sent meeting invite to get additional info
Finish Self-Eval - Yuck
Distribute Windows/Citrix logins to 3 new stewards - DONE
Troubleshoot login :) - STILL in progress
Send Att11 and Att12 email - DONE
Vicky test plans - Have Questions
Vicky benchmarking - TOMORROW
Rerun scores and organize - In Progress

Non-Work Stuff Placeholder:
Lycium tree

~Day 23~ Only Three More Days Here and Chicken Boy Parts for Dinner

Wednesday, Thursday, and part of Friday. I am hoping to share a taxi with someone heading to Budapest on Friday afternoon. Attila the Receptionist is arranging it.

Work update as of 3:30pm. Just did announcement time for the data stewards. I distributed speeds to everyone and also told them the following things (writing this down because I need to give this same speech tomorrow morning):

Too fast is not good - slow down and focus on accuracy if you are above 350.
Already had 3 errors reported from Austin (2 that were not linked that should have been, 1 that was linked and should not have been <-- v. bad).
If you aren't sure, don't link it. We are not TRYING to make things link.
Don't Defer - Needs Research on a name issue - just resolve as singleton.
Report False positives to me
The occasional email or phone call is fine but I've seen people on the web, on instant messenger and working on papers and that is crossing the line. We want them to work without interruption not only to get the job done, but also so they get into a rhythm.
Told them I was leaving Friday and they would have a new supervisor - Vicky. I told them that she talks fast. :)

Non-work stuff: Went to a restaurant in downtown Debrecen with Dana and Anna.

We had a really neat dinner. Anna's main dish was a steak that was seared with a flat iron tableside. The iron looked like an old timey cast iron ummm iron like they used in Little House on the Prairie. I had grilled chicken with chicken testicles and cockscomb.

I made Dana and Anna try the comb but I was the only one brave enough to try the boy parts. I just HAD to try them. There were like 12 of the boy parts and like 6-8 of the combs. Had to keep telling myself "it's just culture it's just culture". Clarification: I did not EAT all 12 boy parts. 11.5 boy parts went to waste.

Then we finished off the evening with FLAMING DESSERT! Sour cherries and pineapples flambe over ice cream. Delicious!

Edited to add name of restaurant:
Csokonai Söröző

And description of my dish:
The favourite of Count Butler
Ragout made of sour cream, paprika, mushrooms, cocks comb and testicles served with turkey breasts and uniquely fried potatoes.

~Bonus Post~ Pictures and Videos

I shot this video while walking around the Vienna city center after the mean people made me get off my warm wonderful bus. I saw at least 3 different 'acts' and they were all really good.



Hey! Buy one - get what free??



We looked and looked for an Eloqua, Multi-Media Foundation or Event Manager Mercedes...



Excuse me. Is this the cutest pizza you have ever seen or what. It has a black olive holding up a Hungarian flag in the middle.



Hot Dog Bun Spikes



Strands of Paprikas (they call peppers "paprikas" here) Decorating a House



One of the data stewards asked me if I could fill out a questionnaire about youth literature for a college project so I did - and passed it along and got her several more responses (she needed Americans and was having a very hard time finding any). When I returned to my desk one day after a meeting, this nice card and origami swan were there - so nice!



Someone knew that I missed Abigail and sent along someone in a care package to keep me company. And this cat doesn't barf on the floor! Thanks Misty and Kathy!!! Doesn't look like it from the picture, but she has a very special spot in my room.

~Day 22~ I think I've Learned Everyone's Names Now

Work Stuff:

It's harder than you'd think - learning 40 people by their names. I feel like a teacher. They all know me but I mostly know them by their logins and by their error and speed rate.

We're making good progress - for those of you who are following along at home, here is an updated pie chart. Red is finished/blue is unfinished. We are on track to finish December 6th. A coworker from the UK is going to take over next week and help finish up (Thanks Vicky!!). It's a pretty tight ship and they can troubleshoot most things themselves, but you never know what might happen - new data stewards might show up, for example.



Non-Work Stuff: I saw on the subway platform in Budapest that there is a Marks & Spencer in Debrecen so I am going to try and find that tonight. Might also walk over to Tesco (or brave the bus if it's really cold). The buses seem fine as far as cleanliness and time - I just don't know the schedule and how to buy a ticket. I want to make the most out of my last week here - and I can't think of a better way than supporting the Debrecen economy!

~Day 21~ Two - Scratch that - Make it Five (!) New Data Stewards

Work Stuff:
So I walk in today and find two new data stewards happily working along with their friends. This is great because we had requested more people from the agency in order to finish more quickly. It's also nice because they are friends with two of the better data stewards, so they are able to explain how things work in Hungarian. One minor detail: no one told me they were coming today! :)

So I quickly got them set up on Guardian and they are going to work there until 10:00 (this post is a little after the fact). Sent Zsolt an email asking him to set them up on Athena so once I check their quality, I can put them right to work.

Also saw Dana Fisher and Anna Sowden at breakfast. We might do dinner sometime this week. They are leaving Friday.

Oh! And I just found out we are going to have more data stewards in the 2:00pm shift as well. Update: 3 new data stewards started at 2:00pm. One has nem English - but speaks German which is um yeah great. :)

Had two false positives reported to me today. I have seen 3 total so far and have fixed them all on Athena.

Non-Work Stuff:
Nothing so far.
1:38pm update: still nothing :)
6:35pm update: yeah not a lot besides work today. :)

~Bonus Post~ German/Hungarian I Have Learned So Far

Saving this for posterity:

German I Have Learned So Far

• Yes - ja (yah)
• No - nein (nine)
• Please - bitte (bittah)
• You're welcome - bitte (that's easy)
• Thank you - danke (score! One I already knew!)
• Good day - Guten Tag! (score! had heard of that one too!)
• Goodbye - Auf Wiedersehen! (ty Heidi Klum)
• Hello - Hallo (learned that one from Nadja)
• Excuse me - Entschuldigen Sie! (I'll just say this really fast and soft)
• And of course - Wo ist die Toilette? vo ist dee toy-LET-uh
  

Hungarian I Have Learned So Far (Phonetic Because This Language is Ridiculously Hard)

• Big Train Station (Debrecen) - Nagya'lloma's
• Restaurant - Aiterrem
• Table - Asztal
• Ticket office - pénztár
• Closed - Zarva
• Open - Nyitva
• Square - tér (tare)
• Tomorrow - holnap
• Today - ma
• How do you say __ in Hungarian? Hogyan mondyam madarul ___?
• Where? - hol?
• I Don't Understand (Hungarian)- Nem airtem (magyarul)
• Cheese - Sajt
• Ananahslay - Pineapple
• Apple - Alma
• Have a nice day - sep napot (Thanks to Nanetta for that one)
• Where is the restroom? - Hol van a vaitsay?
• Cheers - Egészségédre! - egishSHAYgadra
• You're Welcome - Seeveshen
• Very Good - Nayon Yo
• Excuse me (to apologize) - Bo-chanat
• Good - Yo
• Thank You (very much) - Koosonom (saypen)
• Please - Kairem
• No - Nem
• Yes - Igen

~Day 20~ Vienna (Sunday)

Didn't have a lot of time on Sunday (especially after sleeping a little bit late), so I just did a couple of things.

Hiked through the arctic north to the Sigmund Freud Museum. It's his old apartment. I went in - didn't do the whole tour (which I now regret) and then went to the:

Christmas Market (Christkindlmarkt)! OOOOooooo so many shinies!

I'll put some pictures up later but it's basically lots and lots of decorated booths selling toys and crafts and hot wine and sausages and decorated cookies and really neat stuff. I had a Käsekrainer sausage in a bun and a Coke Light™ of course. I will put up a picture but the buns are mercilessly impaled on these long silver spikes to warm them. Wasn't really hungry after that, but I saw a ton of people eating these things that looked like marshmallow kabobs. 4-5 marshmallows (shaped like hearts/stars) on a skewer and then dipped in chocolate. Besides being full, I had already taunted my coat with German mustard with the Käsekrainer so I didn't dare eat anything chocolate. Btw, my coat is just now starting to look kind of shabby. Still totally wearable though. Yay for Tide Stick!

Entrance:



Cookie Booth (don't get all excited - I didn't buy any):



Hot Wine Booth:

~Day 19~ Vienna

Had a nice breakfast at the hotel and spent a little time figuring out the subway and then I had a plan. I would go to the Weiner Prater (huge rickety ferris wheel) and then spend the rest of the afternoon seeing the city. Btw, Wein means Vienna in German. So Weiner means Viennese. I know a few of you reading this blog would have had a field day with all the Weiner jokes. Xarxet guys - I'm looking at you.

Here is what the Ferris Wheel looks like (except I'm pretty sure mine had more rust and some missing bolts).



Ate at Starbucks (I WAS IN A HURRY) and then did a bus tour, like Misty and I did on our free day in London. There were three separate tours - each 1 hour - Old Vienna, New Vienna, and the palaces. I did them back to back. :) I had an awesome seat on the bus and it was nice and warm.

Interesting tidbits

• Saw the United Nations building
• Saw Cafe Landtmann where Sigmund Freud used to have coffee every day.
• Over 1/3 of the city of Vienna was destroyed in WWII.
• Austria (landlocked) used to have a Navy. Their military port was in current day Croatia and their trade port was in current day Italy.
• Saw where Sachertorte (like Jamie gets from La Madeleine) was invented
• Saw Danube Island (they split the Danube into two for flood protection. They piled up all the land from the second river bed into an island in between. It is now used for hiking/jogging/swimming.)

Once they forced me off the bus, I walked around the city center and window shopped. The city center is a blocked-off pedestrian area and it was packed with people.

Oh and dog lovers - when I rode the subway in Vienna I saw a ton of dogs! Yay for dogs on subways!

~Day 18~ Work/Vienna

Work Stuff:
We have 13 students today which is great! Supposed to be getting 15 students per day for the rest of the project. Some of the students who we trained didn't want to work on the project (which I am not taking personally :)) but there are 5 students who have friends who DO want to work on it. So I am working with Nanetta/Tunde/the agency to do a mini training session for them sometime next week.

Non-Work Stuff:
Not much went on as far as non-work stuff. I was on the train most of the night. Made it in to my hotel fine - it was outside the ring, but literally only about a block outside. It was no problem to take the subway to the closest stop and then walk there - less than 5 minutes I'm sure. The key to my hotel room (picture to come) was this big huge brass thing with a key attached. I had read up on this hotel and found out that you are supposed to leave the key with them when you leave and then pick it up when you come in again. I asked the front desk guy about this and he said (in a French accent) - well, you are most welcome to use eet as a weapon". ha ha Mr. Eugene. Room was small but clean and cozy. Bathtub - 5 stars.

Oh! Almost forgot! When I walked in, they had hot spiced wine (Glühwein) in cups at the front desk ready for anyone who was arriving. I am not much of a wine drinker but it was really good especially because I was quite cold.

~Day 17 Bonus Post~ Best.Thanksgiving.Feast.Ever!

I just got a box. From the nice receptionist in Hungary. Wonder what could be inside?

It's stuff from Texas! And I have no idea who sent it except that they are super nice and they know I miss Abigail and that I heart Pringles!

Whoever it is tell me so I don't go crazy!!!

Kate

~Day 17~ Happy Thanksgiving Americans!

Non-work stuff:
Booked my hotel in Vienna today. Nothing like waiting til the last minute! Lots of hotels are super expensive though so I think I got a pretty good deal even though I waited. 208 euro for two nights - when most other hotels were 150 euro per night. Yes mother it is safe. Here are the reviews from TripAdvisor.

Here is a little picture of the front:



Doing a little bit of research on Austria - and I realized it would be handy to learn a few words in German - mostly the same as what I know in Hungarian (minus the words for fruit). So I'm gonna find a good site and learn a bit on the train trip. Where is Nadja when I need her!?

The receptionist here (Attila G.) is so great! He wrote me this letter to show to the person at the Debrecen train station to help me easily get the tickets I need. He did the same thing for me for my Budapest trip. I must think of something Texas-y to get him as a thank you gift - he's been so much help with all my random requests. I asked the students to translate it for me and it basically says "My name is Kate Porter - I need your help getting the following tickets blah blah. Thanks for your help. Bye." :)




Work stuff:
Speed went back up again today after I mentioned that we went down in speed yesterday. We are at 265 members per hour now. Also handed out Monday's quality and speed reports. There was a lot of interest in this but it's a little awkward to see the people (especially with lots of errors/slow speed) reading their sheets. Oh well! Room for improvement.

Off for my fitness lunch now - spaghetti bacon and cheese. Happy Thanksgiving to me!

~Day 16~ Wednesday Before Thanksgiving

Milestone - 100,000 Records Resolved!

This morning we resolved our 100,000th record. I was going to post this on the board, but I really don't think the stewards will be too excited. In my Understanding Hungarian Culture class, Carol Watson said that Hungarians think Americans are too theatrical. So I'm putting this on my theatrical American blog for you other theatrical Americans and Canadians to see.

There is still a long way to go (478,000 more to be exact) but it's a big step and it's great to see.

Update: Couldn't help myself. Wrote it on the board and this is pretty much the response I got:



I got a couple of smiles too but pretty much they just kept working. God love 'em.

Lunch Update: You know it's a bad sign when there is NO ONE in your line and a BUNCH of people in the other line. It's also a bad sign when not only could I not match the food I was looking at to the lunch I picked, I couldn't match it to anything on the menu. I do like their clear soup thank goodness. :)

Night Update: Got home at a reasonable hour so I ate a little something and then went to the DaVinci exhibit. It was neat but small. Favorite part: gift shop!

~Day 15~ Tuesday

Update: Sadly, I caught my first student surfing the web today when I walked in from lunch. He quickly closed the window but my "teacher-eye" spotted it. I think he knew he was busted.

I'm going to be passing out quality and speed reports today. It will probably encourage everyone to see their specific progress.

Here is the graph that Misty worked so hard on. I am putting on our NI Wiki and am recreating in white-board marker for the students. It's an eye-bite (is that word)? If not, I hereby trademark it. Eye-bite™ 2007.

You can compare this to the numbers below to see our progress. Jo, igen? (Good, yes?)




Food update: I did not die from the weird cheese so I am going to have some more tonight. Thing I might die from tonight is: Cheetos Peanut flavor. They are like the puffy Cheetos but the flavor is "peanut". Will update when I know how to describe the taste.

Update: They taste like you would imagine they would taste. Like salty peanut butter on a crunchy poof. Glad I tried them but they won't be a staple.

Update: I can smell peanut fumes from the open bag 2 feet away. Cheetos peanut are on notice.

P.S. Staying in tonight because I have a bit of a headache. Tram and DaVinci exhibit will have to wait.

~Day 14~ First Day of First Full Week

Work stuff:
Snuck up on the students this morning and of course they were all working. Not a single person surfing, talking, anything. I provided them an update on how many records they had done as a group, and how many were remaining as of right now. Still a pretty tough crowd.

Resolved - 9%
Unexamined - 89%
Needs Research - 2%
Character Set - < 1% NI Employee - < 1%

I ran the numbers about an hour later and they were a tiny bit better so I went up and reposted:
Resolved - 9%
Unexamined - 88%
Needs Research - 2%
NI Employee - 1%
Character Set - <1%

A few students giggled when I reposted. Yay!

There is an odd phenomenon that I guess the students agreed upon - one person has internet radio running on their computer and has it running through speakers so everyone can hear. I am getting my fill of techno, pop, US 80's and lots of songs where I can't understand a word. Possibly German possibly Hungarian.

Non-Work Stuff: Tonight is laundry/cleaning night. You'd be surprised how messy a hotel room can get. I went over to Match Match Match (grocery store) and got some food for dinner. In honor of my sister, I am hoping to fall in love with some obscure Hungarian brand of cheese or crackers or something and then never be able to get it again. I took pictures of an interesting package of cheese and I'll post it either today or tomorrow. It's like braided string cheese. Cheli said some of their milk isn't pasteurized so I'm not sure about their cheese. I ate a bite tonight and if I don't get super sick by tomorrow, I will eat some more. Tomorrow night is either - figure out how to buy a booklet of tram tickets night or DaVinci exhibition night. The DaVinci thing is literally in the other half of the hotel building. I will probably go Wednesday or Thursday. I didn't realize how big of a deal it is - but I looked it up today and the two previous stops were Florence, Italy and Tokyo.

~Bonus Post~ Info on Attila the Hun and NI Hungary Menu for Next Week

Nanetta Komiszár from NI sent Misty and I some information about Attila the Hun(garian).
The most interesting tidbit (to me) was this: Legend says that he was laid to rest in a triple coffin made of gold, silver, and iron, along with some of the spoils of his conquests. His men diverted a section of the Tisza, buried the coffin under the riverbed, and then were killed to keep the exact location a secret.

This was his land:



You might wonder why these two things are in the same Bonus Post. Well, the receptionist that sends the weekly menu is named, yep - you guessed it - Attila. Along with over 50 other people at NIH. This is from a Wikipedia article about Hungarian naming:

By law every person can have a maximum of two surnames (most people have only one; those who have two have to hyphenate them) and a maximum of two given names (religious names not included, see below). The given names have to be chosen by the parents from an officially approved list of several thousand names; if the chosen name is not on the list, the parents can apply to get the chosen name approved. The names get approval if they aren't derogatory, can be written and pronounced easily and can be recognised as either male or female. Recently the list got widened by many foreign names, which have to be written following their Hungarian spelling, e.g. Jennifer becomes Dzsenifer or Jessica as Dzsesszika.

Here's the menu:

~Day 13~ Guess the Number of Forms of Transportation

So today I took a:
1) Taxi (from the Hilton to Vaci St). Vaci St (Vaci Utca) is very high end. Budapest is kinda like Austin prices. Debrecen is kinda like "everything is on sale 50% off". London is like "convenience store prices" Even at Austin prices though, I could only window-shop. This worked out fine because I was schlepping all my stuff with me because I had checked out of my hotel.

At some point during my trip, I grew some "lady-balls" because I asked the taxi driver to drop me off where I couldn't walk to the train station. So I had to figure out how to use:

2) The Budapest Metro. This was not hard. In fact, it was easier than the London one. It was clean and nice. Granted, there are only 3 lines on the Budapest Metro, but keep in mind nobody speaks English. And my latest words in Hungarian (alma = apple and ananaslay = pineapple) were not useful. I even transferred lines. I took the Metro to the:

3) Keleti Train Station. Ok talk about no English. I had a wonderful guy at the Debrecen office reserve a ticket for me and even wrote me a little letter in Hungarian telling the person what was going on. I have no idea what it said but it seemed to work. I pulled it up on my Blackberry and stuck the face of the Blackberry to the ticket window. The lady read it and seemed to know what was going on. I heard that some movies had been filmed in Budapest and I would believe it if you said this train station was a set for a depressing movie set during a World War. I took the IC train to Debrecen. Cold and rainy is a lot colder than just cold btw. When I got off the train, I took:

4) The Debrecen Tram. There couldn't be an easier tram line than this one. There is only one line. It costs 215 forint to ride it (about $1.25). I took the tram to Debrecen Plaza. Then I:

5) Walked to the Lycium. :)

Took about 3.5 hours on the train from Budapest to Debrecen. So I watched Ratatouille.

~Day 12~ Trip to Budapest

So I tagged along with Misty as she was going back to Austin and we stayed in Budapest on Friday night. I had already reserved a room at the Hilton Budapest for Saturday night.

We went and ate Friday night at a Italian/Hungarian restaurant. Misty had lasagna and I had goulash*. Yeah I think I've had enough goulash for a while now. There was also some interesting live music. Misty - send me the file and I'll post it for everyone's enjoyment.



*This is not a picture of my exact goulash but its fairly close.
On Saturday, poor Misty had to be up at 4:30am to get her flight. Thank goodness she didn't wake me up. :) After I checked out, I went to the train station to pick up my train ticket for Saturday. For some reason, you have to actually pay for it and pick it up 24 hours in advance. Then I walked around a bit before I went to my hotel. The hotel is on the "Buda" side. The Buda side is the West side of the Danube river. The Pest side is the East side. They say you go to Pest for dining/shopping and go to Buda for history. The Hilton is definitely right in the middle of the castle district. I got there, relaxed for a bit, watched some soccer and then went out and supported the Hungarian economy. I bought a bunch of souvenir-type stuff and then went to a Hungarian grocery story. Thanks to Cheli, I remembered not to shoplift plastic bags. You have to buy them separately. I think they are 15 forint each.

~Day 11~ Porno King

Ok so I walk in today, and one of our team leads (Adam) walks up to Misty and I and starts to ask us a question. Misty, who does not have ADD/ADHD, just listens to the question and possibly answers it (I don't even remember). I could do nothing but stare at the 5-inch hot pink letters on his black t-shirt.

PORNO
KING

He's really been doing a pretty good job and he's the person who unlocks the doors at 8am (so that I don't have to be there) so he could wear a t-shirt that said pretty much anything except "National Instruments Sucks" and I wouldn't care.

~Day 10~ Second Day on Production

Quick update:
Day 2 is starting smoothly. We have some of the same people from yesterday plus 5 people who are new to the production system. We had a major announcement today - that they could wear iPods. Not sure if this is coincidence or what, but every guy in our class put headphones on immediately but none of the girls have. We had our first issue with too much talking today - so The Enforcer went and mentioned it to them and the room is dead silent now. All I hear is the air conditioner and 10 keyboards/mouse clicks.

Here are some pictures of the students:

Left-hand side of the class:


Right-hand side


Late evening update:
So I am packing up for a trip to Budapest on the train tomorrow. I'm going to stay with Misty tomorrow night and then I have a room at the Hilton Budapest for Saturday night. We also found out that Kashmir restaurant does delivery - SCORE!

~Day 9~ First Day on Athena

Non-Work Stuff:
Found out that "clear soup with paste" on the menu for tomorrow MIGHT mean "clear soup with pasta" Score!

Work Stuff:
Got to work at around 7:45am to meet the first group of 10 students who are starting to work on Athena. The first shift is going to work this schedule:
8:00am - 11:45am Work
11:45am - 12:15am Break
12:15am - 2:00pm Work

Almost all the students are doing well. When we started them on Athena, we asked them to check with us on every single task they resolved before saving. This seemed to work well, and we are going to use this strategy for the 2:00pm shift as well.

We had Search Criteria ready for them (i.e. one person is doing Potential Duplicate/Score 12.2) and another is doing Potential Linkage/12.2). We also had them write their name on a sign and post it in front of their desk so we can learn their names (and know who to axe if needed).

~Day 8~ Second Day of Training

Non-Work Stuff:
We had a nice dinner at Krudy Restaurant at the Villa Hotel.




I had a funny menu item:

„Rossz lányok tésztája” (csirkehús, sonkás, tejszínes szósz, spagetti)
Crappy girls’s pastry (chicken, ham, cream sauce and spaghetti)
Teig der schlechten Mädchen (Hähnchen, Spaghetti mit Schinken und Sahnesosse)

I did not have the nerve to try this:

„Javas asszony ajánlata”
(kiskakas melle heréjével, tarajával, sztrapacskával)
Breast of rooster with its testicle and crest and „sztrapacska”
Hahnenbrust mit Hoden, Kamm und „Sztrapacska”

^ I mean whut. BTW, that is not a typo or incorrect translation. It was several places in the menu.

I also had a flaming dessert which made me very happy. It is a personal rule of mine to order pretty much anything made tableside and ANY flaming dessert.




Misty, Bex and I all learned lots of new and interesting Hungarian words, most of which are NSFB (Not Safe For Blog).

Work Stuff
Trained 19 more students today. Seemed fairly similar to the group yesterday. Have seen a few 0dd Auditor bugs but nothing that was a show-stopper. The most amusing is the one where at the bottom of the screen, the "Highlight Same" and "Highlight Different" colors both turn black, instead of GREEN for the same and RED for different. This is a bit of a problem because their text is also black.

~Day 7~ First Day of Training

Placeholder for Non-Work Stuff Here:

Work Stuff:
Just completed our first training class of Hungarian students today. Instead of 15, we had 23 students, which was ok but unexpected. Our schedule was this:
10:00am - 11:45am - Presentation
11:45am - 12:00pm - Quiz
12:00pm - 1:00pm - Lunch
1:00pm - 3:00pm - Practice on Guardian

Graded tests over lunch - mixed results. When we got back to the training room, we got everyone set up on computers and logged in on Auditor. That last sentence sounds so easy but trust me, it was like herding cats. I am checking results of their practice tasks right now.

Oh - highlight of the day was a task of everyone with the first name/last name of F*** and Off and every combination under the sun. I took a picture of the task for posterity. It was a big hit in the training class.

Ate dinner at Palma tonight. It's my new favorite restaurant in Debrecen! I had roasted salmon with fried mozzarella on top with some kind of red sauce and potatoes and Misty had pork medallions with croquette potatoes. That plus two drinks and two desserts and our total bill was $44 including tip! I can't get over how inexpensive Hungary is.

~Day 6~ Made it to Debrecen!

It was snowing like crazy when we landed. Our cab driver spoke almost no English but we were able to get to the hotel fine, even thought we had to follow the snow trucks part of the way. The hotel is nice, and we walked to Cafe Burger and had some dinner.

One of my most pleasant surprises is that hotel is within walking distance of a Coke machine. Oh did I mention we changed hotels? I will go in and update the itinerary - but we are at the Lycium now instead of the Acquaticum.

Work stuff: didn't do much today because it was Sunday - but I am looking over my presentation and quiz one last time (and creating an answer key). I've also confirmed that I can log in to Guardian via Citrix and that the Highlight Same and Highlight Different colors are working and that the correct Workflow statuses are there. Yay! :)

I'm going to be training all day tomorrow and Tuesday but I'll try to find some time to get some pictures posted.

Kate

Edited to add: I'll update my clock and weather soon, but pretty much you can just know that the weather here is 38 to 42 degrees F for the high. Brrrrrr.

~Day 5~ - Partial Day Off in London

Did some sightseeing today and learned how to navigate through the subway system here.

Pictures to come.

Prepping for testing on Arapaho at 9pm local time. Misty and I have both been keeping up with messages via Blackberry and it seems like everything is on schedule and looking good so far.

Testing update as of 12:34am - CRM is signed off - hub algorithm is looking very solid. Business verification passed fully. DQM is running - Indexing is off until next weekend. Merge is off until next week as well.

~Day 4~ Work and then Travel to London Via Paddington Station (omg Paddington station sounds sooooo cute)

Gas is £1 per liter here.
There are 5 liters to a gallon (for all us Metric haters).
£1 = $2
So yeah a gallon of gas is $10. Whoa. It would cost me $180 to fill my gas tank. I'm going to stop complaining about $3 gas now.

Work stuff: now have my computer set up for testing tomorrow night and Sunday morning. Finishing final details for data stewardship training on Monday and Tuesday, with plans to begin data stewardship on production Wednesday, November 14th.

~Day 3~ - If it's Thursday, I must be in Newbury

**Placeholder for Non-Work Stuff Here**
Oh this morning on tv, they were talking about chicken pox vaccine here. They call getting a 'shot' getting a 'jab.' Ow! I guess shot sounds pretty bad too. :)
Dinner Tonight is going to be at Sun in the Wood. I was told there are no bangers, only mash, but there are some fantastic-looking puddings. Here is a picture of the restaurant.



And here we are:



They didn't have bangers - only mash, which was delicious. I also learned a lot of new British terms.

Like: bunches means pigtails
Plaits means braids
And pudding is generic for dessert - i.e. "what kind of pudding are you going to have?" "ice cream" Crazy! Of course they though Misty and I were crazy when we said that we use Coke as generic for soft drink. "What kind of Coke do you want?" "Sprite".

Lunch update: Vicky took Misty and I to the grocery store and they had to drag me out of the store. It is so interesting to see what all is available here. I also got a British coin lesson. After we got back to the office, we went to the BP station to get a Diet Coke (it had been more than 24 hours people). I stocked up and also got this:



It's um yeah interesting. Glad I tried it but probably won't get another one. Regular Coke gives me 'teeth sweaters' (phrase credited to Vallory Martin) anyway.

Work stuff:
Had a call with Tunde and Nanetta to finalize details of the data stewardship training and overall plan for how the whole project is going to work. Finalizing user setups - found out they only need Windows logins to use Auditor so that will be faster to set up than Oracle logins. I am going to send over the Auditor test document to Tunde and Nanetta for them to review.

Update: found out logins won't be available until tomorrow which is cutting it rather close. Hoping the Help Desk Europe can set them up and put them in the correct Citrix group tomorrow. We won't be actually using the logins until Monday afternoon, but it would be much preferred to have them first thing Monday.

~Day 2~ Bonus Post

When we left the office we heard what I automatically assumed were gunshots (comes from my 2 years living in New Orleans). Apparently the sound was just fireworks because November 5th is Fireworks Night.

We then went and ate at Nawab Indian Restaurant. (Wow I am a classy broad)



I've seen hand-held credit card swipe machines at both of the places we have eaten so far. I love that idea because it cuts out the extra time you spend between having the check dropped off and picked back up. It is a bit intimidating having to figure the tip in your head while they stand and wait though.

I believe the plan tonight is to go to a traditional English countryside pub for 'pub grub' like bangers and mash.

Work stuff: Finished polishing the training presentation and worked on the test for the data stewards Set up a meeting for today with Tunde and Nanetta to finalize details. Had a short meeting with Vicky regarding search results and provided further numbers to use in decision-making. Met Sara Giudici in person and talked with Leslie, Bex, Vicky and Sam.

~Day 2~ We made it to the UK!

Just wanted to let you know that we (and our luggage) made it into London last night/this morning and we are at at NI Newbury office drinking English tea and working hard.

If I can stay awake past 9pm, I think I will have totally avoided jetlag.

Bye all - more later.

P.S. It is cold enough to wear my coat and my gloves. Score!

Edited to add: Yall. It gets dark here at like 4:30pm.

~Day 1~ Hurry Up and Wait

So we are in the Austin airport and just found out that our flight is delayed by an hour. This wouldn't normally be a big deal but it might make us miss our connection to London. So we're stalking the ticketing desk at the gate - ready to pounce on anyone who can reschedule us or hold the plane in London.

More soon I'm sure :)

Update as of 4:40pm Central - looks like we are going to make it. We're at least going to get on the plane and take our chances in Chicago. Wish us luck.

Deep Fried Mac and Cheese? Really?

So I am watching a little tv as I do a laundry marathon today and I see a commercial for Sonic Mac and Cheese bites.

From Sonic's web site:

Today I'd like to introduce the term "unrestricted eating." It refers eating whatever you want, whenever you want it. Like macaroni & cheese, for example. Typically, you'd need a bowl, spoon and both hands to enjoy this quintessentially American dish. Lucky for you, SONIC® invented Mac & Cheese Snacks—a cheesy favorite packed into crunchy bite-size morsels. It's portable and pop-able. Which means you can now have Mac & Cheese anytime, anywhere. So like I said, it's "unrestricted eating." Got it?

Don't get me wrong. I like Sonic. But do we really need to be able to eat mac and cheese in the car? The only thing keeping Sonic from being on my personal "On Notice" board is their commercials. Oh and Route 44 Vanilla Diet Cokes with Extra Ice™. ;)

1977 JC Penney Catalog

I got this from a friend of mine at work and had to share.

Cowboy Chachi Loves You Best

Leaving One Week from Today

Ok so I don't want to jinx myself, but I think I might be somewhat ready to go. I have purchased everything that was on my list of things to get, the cat schedule has been prepared and distributed, and I have surrounded myself with electronics to make sure it is physically impossible for me to be bored for even one minute.

I even bought some ugly (but warm and comfy) boots. They look similar to this:

Unrelated to the trip but Cute

I made these cakes today for a friend of mine's 1 year old twins and I just had to post them. They are "smash" cakes so they get to eat them with their hands!

Click Here to Hear The Hungarian Alphabet

I've been reading up on Hungarian, but so far the only things that has stuck in my mind is that the letter 's' is pronounced 'sh'.

Sho I am practicing shaying shtuff like thish.

You might think I shound a little drunk but I shwear I'm not.

The 44 letters of the Hungarian alphabet are:
A Á B C Cs D Dz Dzs E É F
G Gy H I Í J K L Ly M N
Ny O Ó Ö Ő P Q R S Sz T
Ty U Ú Ü Ű V W X Y Z Zs

Must.stop.adding.blog.widgets

But it's SO FUN!

Already realized I need to add a Flickr Badge and a Google profile. Weeee.

Itinerary

~Day 1~ Tue, November 6 - Austin to Chicago. Chicago to London.
~Day 2~ Wed, November 7 - London to Newbury - Newbury Manor
~Day 3~ Thu, November 8 - Newbury Branch Office - Newbury Manor
~Day 4~ Fri, November 9 - Newbury to London - Best Western Delmere Hotel
~Day 5~ Sat, November 10 - London - Best Western Delmere Hotel
~Day 6~ Sun, November 11 - London to Budapest to Debrecen - Lycium Hotel
~Day 7~ Mon, November 12 - Training Starts - Lycium Hotel
~Day 8~ Tue, November 13 - Project Starts - Lycium Hotel
~Day 9~ Wed, November 14 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 10~ Thu, November 15 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 11~ Fri, November 16 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 12~ Sat, November 17 - Trip to Budapest - Hilton Budapest
~Day 13~ Sun, November 18 - Trip to Budapest - Lycium Hotel
~Day 14~ Mon, November 19 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 15~ Tue, November 20 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 16~ Wed, November 21 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel- Thanksgiving
~Day 17~ Thu, November 22 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 18~ Fri, November 23 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 19~ Sat, November 24 - Trip to Vienna - Hotel City Center
~Day 20~ Sun, November 25 - Trip to Vienna - Hotel City Center
~Day 21~ Mon, November 26 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 22~ Tue, November 27 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 23~ Wed, November 28 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 24~ Thu, November 29 - Project Continues - Lycium Hotel
~Day 25~ Fri, November 30 - Budapest Millennium Court Marriott Executive Apts.
~Day 26~ Sat, December 1 - Leave Budapest for London/Chicago/HOME!

Here we go!

I decided that I could probably avoid doing an official trip report if I kept a blog, so I started this.

I am realizing it's going to be a lot more effort than just doing the trip report in the first place but a) it's pretty and I thought b) my friends and family (ok my mom) would be interested in my daily activities.

Frequently Asked Questions by People Who Don't Work At NI:
Q:Where is Debrecen?



Q:And why in the world are you going there?
NI has a big service center there. I am going there to train a big group of seasonal employees who are going to do a massive data clean-up project.

Q:Who is going to take care of Abigail!? You aren't just going to leave her with a 3 foot tall mount of food and a 55-gallon drum of litter are you?
No. I have recruited a team of highly-trained people to feed and play with Abigail while I'm gone.