Gringo

I arrived in Miami yesterday so the next few days will be posts from the road. I have been to Miami a few times prior and never had an enjoyable experience. I'm hoping this time will be different.

My trip did not get off to a good start. After waiting an hour for my luggage among the other thousands of people (the baggage area looked like a refugee camp with people splayed out all over the place and derelict luggage strewn every wear), I was deposited at the wrong hotel. Something never felt right and I asked the bellhop and the reservation clerk if I was at the right place and they all said yes! Turns out the name of the hotel I was suppose to be staying was once used at a different hotel. They kept telling me, yes, used to be. Considering hotels are turned over quickly, I thought maybe it was recent, but no! So, another cab ride later to the other end of South Beach I finally checked in.

Unpacking I realized I forgot to pack my black belt (no not my karate belt, then again, I think yellow was the highest belt obtained!) so I put on my jogging gear and went out in search of a men's store.

Jogging on the beach. Good exercise, great scenery! However, seeing all the tan bodies on the beach I realized I must look translucent and compared to all the hard bodies I felt quite soft (and I thought I was in good shape)!

My meeting started off with an icebreaker and that was fun. However, I knew coming in I was the only native English speaking guest and quickly those in attendance fell back into either Spanish and Portuguese. I was the gringo. I just smiled and nodded my head having no idea what they were talking about. Same thing occured at dinner.

Now, I must preface that the group is a good group of people. Genuine and incredibly nice. For many, this was the first time all from South America have been in the same place so they spent the evening catching up. Nonetheless, I askee a lot of questions as I'm genuinely curious about other cultures and as a result we had great conversations. Ryan - unless you learn Spanish this will be you in your own home if Kerry teaches Tommy Spanish!

As the evening wore on, the conversations did change and I was able to participate as lots of talk around politics (our election), the war, and economy, and what is taking place at Global (our equivalent of corporate) as that is where I work.

At the close of the day, it was the best start of my trip despite the early missteps. More notes from the road later...