Here we go……Overseas AGAIN!?!? Round 3 in Europe-2006!
GETTING HERE
This leg started off with a 9 hour flight from Phoenix to London. How I lucked into 5 seats by myself and 2 sleeping pills is beyond me – but I woke up about 45 minutes til landing with a crusty face (from where the drool had dried) and my hair looking a lot like Rod Stewart’s. Sweet! One more little jaunt over to Hamburg, Germany and I was here. I think after my 5th jump over the pond in 8 months – I’ve figured out the proper dosage to knock myself out for the marathon flight!

PIMP MY TOUR RIDE!
I would now like to introduce you to our bus – which for the first time in a long time – ABSOLUTELY ROCKS!!!!!! We are on a new, double decker bus with leather seats, plasma TVs, fancy tile work and a cappuccino machine in our kitchen!





And FREE foot rubs after work!!! Okay, not really - but I’ve been trying to sell the idea since there’s only 4 girls and 8 guys on our bus – you know – one guy per girl foot! Oh well…I think maybe the perpetually pouty Rodriguo is perking up to the idea (NOT)!
GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!
I don’t have much to say about Hamburg, Frankfurt, or Stuttgart, Germany. I worked two days in Hamburg, day off in Frankfurt (which I slept away because of jetlag still – maybe I’m not so clever on the dosage thing – sleeping all the way over made the jetlag worse this time!) and another work day in Stuttgart. Highlights include blowing up my power converter (220 volts?? 1800 amps?? 128 zingerdingers?? Really! What the hell are they talking about!?) and having some Veinerschnitzel (Oh shoosh! You can’t spell it either!)

AHH..ITZA FUNGHI PIZZA!!!
Onto MILANO! Bellisimo!!! Not really. So far the weather has really sucked. Low clouds, fog, mist, but I will say, not as cold as I had expected. Also, I haven’t confirmed this yet, but I think the word ‘GRAFFITTI’ originated from Milan, Italy. I mean, the word sort of looks Italian, and the people here seem to have no problem spray painting obnoxious stuff on any and every surface all over this city.



Oh! And I would never, ever own a car here!! (Although I’ve really taking a liking to the Vespa scooters!!) It’s amazing where these people will park there cars – anywhere but in a proper parking lot! Sidewalks – train tracks – middle of the street…..it just doesn’t matter.
Saw a guy drive next to us for 4 blocks without ever having touched his steering wheel – he needed both hands to cuss at the guy in front of him! Funny stuff! I’ll tell ya this: All the graffitti, road rage, and parking headaches in New York City has nothing on Milan!
Anyway – more sleep, a calzoni at the trattoria down the street for lunch, pizza with funghi (mushrooms) and a few Peroni beers in the hotel bar for dinner then another work day.


INJURY UPDATE
I guess now is as good a time as any to give you the injury update. Things have been relativey calm on the First Aid side of things. A guy on our video crew had appendicitis and had to go home to have his appendix removed. Then, just the other day there was a round of food poisoning that left one video guy doubled over, another guy to the hospital
(McDonald’s – the American “Embassy” to blame). Then, the next day, one of the riggers got very sick. Assuming it was food poisoning, too, he tried to struggle through the day. Come to find out – emergency surgery – he ALSO had appendicitis. I’ve only known one person in my entire life that had appendicitis – now two on the same tour within the same few months. WEIRD. As for me – I’ve been chugging along with just a few minor bumps and bruises. Well, there was one incident while I was at the front of house focusing a camera. Have you ever seen those little dudes that cruise around about 40 mph on the riding floor clearner machines??
Well, this guy went crashing into the front of house barricade (damn Italian drivers!) and trapped my foot between the deck and the barricade. Did he hit the brakes or reverse it? Nope. So my foot was being smashed harder and harder. So I freaked out (in typical Kim fashion) and started making a scene flailing my arms about, “BACK UP! DAMMIT! BACK UP!!! OH MY GOD!!! BACK UP!!!! I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS….THE ROOM IS GETTTING DARK – PLEASE…JUST TELL MY FAMILY I LOVE THEM!!!!” But, a lot like when the chair collapsed on me in catering, I had to embellish my limp to validate the absolutely psychotic panic scene I had just created. As it turns out, the trauma sustained was minor: A red mark on the top of my foot – and again – a bruised ego – Not to repeat myself – but this is the stupid kind of shit that happens only to me – I was nearly run over by a floor cleaning machine???????????

So far I’m pretty disappointed with myself for not ‘seizing the day’ as far as getting out and sightseeing goes. It’s just so hard to be motivated when the sun rises around 7:30-8:00 a.m. and sets around 4:30 p.m. I’m really missing the AZ sunshine! I'm out of my hotel room for sure in Zurich!!!

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND! MY FAVORITE OF FAVORITES!


I finally told myself today that I would kick my own ass if I didn’t get out and about in my favorite city! So I did. Started off with a casual stroll to find some lunch. I happened upon a bar that served food and realized I was the only woman in this restaurant. It seems it was happy hour for a lot of the neighborhood regulars – and they were all staring at me and talking about me right in front of me (well, I don’t really speak German, so they could have been just telling me about their day at work – but I doubt it.). Okay – so I took the table right in the middle of them and didn’t realize it was “their” seats in that corner. In retrospect, I might have seemed a bit rude. I was very nervous, and not but one man spoke English, but I had already ordered my food and didn’t know what to do. Well I guess they figured I was going to hold my ground and an hour later I was on my fourth beer yakking it up with them (translating thru the one English speaking guy) and another really drunk old man bought my dinner – Not bad for a rude American, eh?
As I returned to the hotel, I ran into a motley crew of my guys from the tour and they promptly spun me around in the other direction and we all headed to Old Town for the night. On the train I had a look around at our group and thought, “Wow, I’m really glad I know these guys and they have my back, because otherwise, I think they would scare the shit right outta me!” Go team black!

Old Town Zurich is amazing! I think the reason I’ve always liked this city is because before I ever came to Europe I had this idea of what it would look like over here – and Zurich is exactly how I pictured ‘Europe.’
Winding, steep, cobblestone streets, huge cathedrals,


lots of Christmas decorations,





and loads of beer.


It’s the perfect combination for drunken, sight-seeing photoshoots!





On a side note: Figuring out where the hell you are or where you are going on any train system, much less one in a foreign country, is best left to a professional....or any innocent bystander that is willing to speak to a group of sloppy, slurring Americans! Man we are lucky!


Incidentally, can anyone help me out with this sign on the train? Look closely...
No smoking the head off of the person next to you?...okay - that's a given. No poor people? Or is that no victims of pickpocketing? Because that one might have been directed at me, remembering my "incident" in Poland a few years ago. Next one...No folk singers? I can live with that. No sawing??? I can't really recall the last time I saw anyone with a hacksaw on a public transport vehicle - but, ya know, better safe than sorry, eh? And the last one - no breakdancing on the seats. Good, that trend is so passe anyway. Duh. So they weren't able to help any foreigners out by printing anything in English - but at least we got stick figures to demonstrate the hazards on the train! WHEW! Cheers to that Chad, eh?