Sunday, April 12, 2009

Where in the world is Robert?

I'm in Santiago, Chile this week for a meeting of the CLOUG (http://www.cloug.org/1.html). This is one of the things I love most about speaking... getting to go places I've never been before. I've never been south of the equator, so I'm looking forward to seeing a whole new set of stars tonight. Francisco Munoz wrote me and asked if I would attend.... So far this has been a wonderful trip. I'm in a very nice hotel with a great patio all to myself... just my luck that I get wonderful accommodations and I'm all by myself.

Today is a recover day for me. I've already managed to make trouble by blowing a fuse in my hotel room when I tried to plug something in. I thought I had the voltage thing worked out, but apparently not. Anyway... after a whiff of ozone and a call to maintenance, they got right up and fixed my problem and educated me on Chilean electricity.

The airport here in Santiago is very modern and having traveled internationally a bit, I find it to be one of the easiest to traverse for incomming travelers. I don't speak spanish, but thus far that has been no issue. I had a representitive of one of the airport cab companies pretty much accost me right out of customs, but he was quite nice and honestly, very helpful. The Cabbie (need to find out what they really call them here) was quite nice, telling me the names of the different places as we passed them and trying to teach me some elementry spanish. I know a little spanish but certanly not enough to be conversant. The poor man just didn't seem to realize that I'm language ... whats the word, hampered... constrained... basicly I don't learn languages well at all (just ask Lisa!!). He was trying to talk to me in some basic Spanish... I figured out his family lives in New Orleans (I knew the word for family, but didn't get New Orleans for a while). It took me a while before I realized he was asking me if I was from California. He didn't know exactly where Utah was, but he seemed to understand when I said Next to California (well, not really, but close enough).

So, here I am in Chile.... I'm looking forward to meeting Oracle professionals here and talking to them about RMAN!!!

6 comments:

skymaster said...

Robert,

It was a pleasure meeting you in Chile at CLOUG. Look forward to see you at future Oracle conferences in Latin America. Chile is a lot of fun. Good luck with the Spanish and maybe I can help you :-)

Saludos (Cheers)
-Ben

Angel Barra said...

Hi Robert.
It was an honor to have attended lectures in your CLOUG, you're really an expert.

Your tips for rman are very powerfull, thanks a lots

Many thanks
Angel Barra
www.oracle-dba.cl

Robert Freeman said...

Ben I had a great time and it was nice to meet you and the whole gang! Angel I loved coming down to Chile! I was wonderful!

I'll post more about the Chile trip soon!

La belle mère said...

LOL ... I could be wrong Robert, but I believe you meant to say *it* was wonderful, not *I* was wonderful! Not that you aren't wonderful, of course. ;-)

Robert Freeman said...

Hmmmm... either I fixed this booboo baby or you are talking about another post... and I don't remember fixing any booboo like this.

I am of course, wonderful! ;-)
AND humble!

Robert Freeman said...

Oh, I see, it was in the comment. Yes, that should have been IT was wonderful. I was mediocre at best... :-)

 
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