Here we go again...

I've now been living and working in Poland for two months. I'm not sure if I'm getting too old to be an expat or that Poland is more difficult than Germany.

To be continued...

No words

My soul hurts tonight for the downed Germanwings flight.  DUS was my primary airport for 5.5 years and Spain was my 'go to' place to replenish the sun.

My soul hurts for the Germans, Spanish and anyone else on this flight.

I've been following the German and Spanish news tonight, along with the BBC.  Grateful for my language skills, to be able to keep up.

The beginning of the end

I arrived in the UK in Mar 2003 then Germany Jul 2003 - Jan 2009.  I've lived in the UK since Feb 2009.  I realize I'm not doing a very good job of this blog.  In many ways, the UK doesn't justify a proper post, the life, language and culture just aren't different enough.

My life in Germany was a new adventure every day but in the UK...not so much.

I gained permanent residency here just like in Germany...and then I went on for citizenship here.  The US/UK allow for dual, something not open to me in Germany.

I've met many wonderful people here though the blog and didn't want to leave you hanging.  Nothing exciting happened, I just got on with a normal life here.

My UK citizenship ceremony is next week, and then on to a UK passport after that.  As the US and UK allow for dual, all good here.

Feel free to drop a line in the meantime or otherwise I'll try to do the same.

Eurostar's response

I wrote the other day about my displeasure with my recent experience trying to claim for delay compensation from Eurostar.  Even though I arrived home 16+ hours late, due to the Eurostar distinction of 'delay vs cancellation', no disruption compensation will be granted.  Eurostar's response follows.  I must say, I am a bit disappointed in the whole experience, although their customer service agents are certainly polite enough, Eurostar's policies seem to be a bit smoke and mirrors, like one of those fairground games that you can never win.

I did send a final note back thanking Ian for his response and suggesting that Eurostar update their website to better explain this distinction, in particular on this page. 

**********************************************

Disruption Compensation request - #0100XXXX

traveller.care@eurostar.com

13/02/2015

Dear Heather,

My colleague Carole has escalated your case to me. My name is Ian and I am the Team Leader in our Traveller Care department.

I firstly wish to take the opportunity to apologise for the inconvenience that this service disruption caused to you.

I am of course also sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the explanation offered by Carole but can advise that she is correct in the information provided.

When a train is cancelled you have the option to cancel the journey and obtain a refund. If you accept our offer to move you to a different timed service then the delay is taken into account from the scheduled arrival time of the this new service.

I am of course sorry that this is not the response you had wished for and hope future journeys with us are more successful.

Kind Regards

Ian
Eurostar Traveller Care

My Eurostar adventure

Apologies for the radio silence, it requires a separate post.  However, I’ve been caught up in a situation that was on facebook and now twitter, so I thought I’d detail it all out here, to alleviate any confusion.

Nov 19

Booked a sale ticket on Eurostar, return London/Lille, Jan 16-18.  I am a strong believer in rail travel, and even though it will take an extra hour for me personally, I find it’s consistently on time and much more relaxing, so I am willing to sacrifice the extra hour and choose to use it for work travel.  I have choices and it’s close in timing and cost whether I go by rail or fly (German Wings/AirBerlin), so I’m going to choose the more comfortable and environmentally sound option, and that tends to be Eurostar.

Jan 16

My better half and I lightly packed for a weekend in Lille.  The French sales were going on, so we only took half empty backpacks, expecting to see the city, shop, and enjoy the fine mussels and beer found in Lille.  We went to St. Pancras on Friday morning with coffee in hand and were delighted to be on our way in (economy) style.  Eurostar cattle class is a billion times better than any airline’s equivalent!  As it’s Eurostar you can take along your lunch, coffee, wine, etc. and enjoy the view of the French countryside as you tootle along your merry way.

We arrived on time and made our way to our hotel, marveling in the fact that we’re leaving London at 10.58 and arriving at 13.26 in France (as they’re one hour ahead).  In roughly 1 hour 20 min, I’ve heard this journey is the fastest connection to the continent.

Jan 17

We heard of Eurostar delays and thanked our lucky stars we traveled yesterday; Eurostar delays are cleared quickly!  We went shopping at the big Carrefour near the station to stock up on wine and French foods, as they would be closed on Sunday.   All the while we said, ‘Thank goodness we’re on Eurostar and not Ryanair, so we can carry along a bottle of wine and some olives and not be stressed about airport liquid regulations.’

Jan 18

We had a lovely morning sightseeing in Lille.  It’s a super city for a weekend break!  Our homeward journey was at 16.36, so we went to a local market and bought cheese, bread and fresh produce to take back.  Trains were running again in the morning, so we were not worried.  We popped into a coffee shop and checked the internet; it was after 14 and Eurostar cancelled the rest of the day at that point.

Issue:  It’s Sunday on the continent.  If they would have cancelled sooner, we could have made alternate plans, but now we were stuck!

We went back to our very forgiving hotel who let us use the hotel lobby/free internet to re-group and plan.  At 16.00 we realized that we had no chance to make it back to work the next morning. 

  

Eurostar was advertising that they would pay for hotel plus meals, £150 for hotel and £50 for meals, so £200 each for the night.  As we’re two people travelling together, that would be £400.

We’re both strong believers in the Eurostar brand, and train travel in general.  I’ve lived 5+ years on the continent and have seen where rail travel is better than air travel for many reasons.  With that in mind, we followed the Eurostar web instructions, got re-booked into our budget hotel and got on the phone to be rebooked on Eurostar.  We stayed with our cheap hotel because we trusted Eurostar to make things right.

We sat on hold for 30+ min before the hotel disconnected us due to the possible bill to a UK number.  After a brief visit to the desk, they authorized us an unlimited phone waiting time as we assured them that we would pay and be reimbursed by Eurostar, we got back into the Eurostar phone queue and sat on hold for another 45 minutes.  We took the first available option, 8.36 from Lille to arrive at 8.57 into London (time difference in our favour this time!)  We were now against the clock as we wouldn’t get home in time to get to work, so we’ve now lost .5 day of work.

As we believe in the Eurostar brand, we decided to make the best of a bad situation.  We were now booked back into our budget hotel so we decided to go to dinner and cut our losses, especially as our cheese was now a lost cause as that should have been home and refrigerated.

As we trusted Eurostar to deliver on it’s promise of paying for stranded hotel /meal compensation plus a free ticket (due to being delayed 300+ minutes) as documented here on their website:  http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-information/service-information/disruption-compensation/exchanges-refunds-and-compensation  we did not want to take advantage, so we kept well under the food allowances.

Our grand total for two of use for hotel plus food was £120.63, well under the £400 allowance.  I felt that Eurostar would make things right so we wanted to stay on the cheap for them.  Had I known how things would have gone, I would have spent every last penny!

Jan 19

We arrived home late.  The train left on time and then we sat on the train on the French side as the tunnel was down to one tunnel at a time.  We were just under the 60 minute penalty clause for Eurostar to issue any sort of compensation.  We scraped into work for 12, thereby losing a half day of holiday and not in the best form as we were worried about getting home so didn’t sleep well.

Jan 22

Eurostar asked on its website, that you wait until 72 hours after completed travel to lodge any claims, so I did so, following their rules.

--------------- Original Message ---------------
From: heather in europe
Sent: 22/01/2015 14:38
To: traveller.care@eurostar.com
Subject: Disruption Compensation request
 

Booking reference TRXXXX, 2 persons.  We went on 16/01 from London St Pancras--> Lille (no problem).
Our return train 9145 on Sunday 18/01 at 16.36 was cancelled.

As we were stranded in Lille overnight until the call centre could rebook us onto Monday's 08.36 AM, we would like to claim:

-Two free return journeys (one for each person travelling:  Heather in Europe and X)
-Hotel, one room at 91.20 EUR
-Dinner, 70.90 EUR

Total claim for meal + hotel = 162.10 EUR (receipts attached)
Please let me know if you require further details to process this request.

Thank you,
Heather in Europe

Feb 6

Eurostar’s response:

Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2015 14:23:29 +0000
From: traveller.care@eurostar.com
To: Heather in Europe
Subject: Disruption Compensation request - #01000XXX
 

Case Reference: 01000XXX

Hello Ms Heather in Europe

Thank you for your email. Please accept our apologies for the delay in our reply. As I'm sure you can imagine, we are currently experiencing a high volume of emails but we are working very hard to get back to everyone as quickly as we can.

I am so sorry to hear your journey was affected by the recent tunnel closure. We were under instruction from Eurotunnel on how we could run our services and unfortunately, the events in the tunnel caused us to make some cancellations.

I am more than happy to arrange a payment to cover the costs of your hotel and meal expenses. From your receipt attachments, I have calculated this to be a payment of 162.1 euros ( this at the moment converts to £120.63 ).

In order to reimburse you with this payment, I would need for you to supply us with some bank details. If your account is UK based, I would need your 8 digit account number and 6 digit sort code. If you have an account in France or Belgium, we would need yoru BIC / SWIFT code and IBAN number.

As soon as we receive the details from you, we will process the payment as quickly as we can.

I have investigated any further compensation for you. I will explain that our compensation policy comes into place when you are delayed on train for a particular amount of time. Your train was cancelled and you were reaccommodated onto the deaprture on 19th January at 08.36. Having checked the log of delays, that particular departure suffered a delay of less than 60 minutes on arrival. As stated in our compensation policy, unfortunately there is no entitlement for that delay. Compensation is offered for delays of more than 60 minutes when travelling. If you wish to read the details of our policy, you will be able to locate this on our web site within our conditions of carriage.

Thank you so much for your patience in this matter and, again, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

We look forward to hearing from you again soon with your details.

Kind regards,
Carole
Eurostar Customer Care

Feb 6

I was a little disappointed with this, to be honest.  I reviewed all of their policy documents on their website, as well as the governing EU legislation.  In particular, I found their grid to be misleading, as there isn’t anywhere on it that references that cancellations don’t count.

From: Heather in Europe
Sent: 06/02/2015 16:35
To: traveller.care@eurostar.com
Subject: RE: Disruption Compensation request - #01000XXX
 

Dear Carole,
Thank you for the note.  The UK bank account for the 162.10 EUR/120.63 GBP is XXXXXXXX and sort code XX-XX-XX.

I am afraid there is a miscalculation on the delayed booking tickets.  My original booking was to arrive back in London at 16.57 on Sunday 18/1.  Instead I arrived back on Monday 19/1 at 08.57 (which indeed was later than that as you note).  Therefore I am delayed by over 16 hours or 960 minutes!

In good faith we stayed well under the budget for both hotel and meal, as we both are strong believers in the Eurostar brand and would like to see the railways continue to flourish as the environmentally preferred option.  As I have choices for my business travel, I choose to travel Eurostar over flying, although it is completely my choice.  Both of us lost half a day of work due to this delay, but we did not claim for this either.

I have reviewed your conditions of carriage, as well your delayed compensation grid located here:  http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-information/service-information/disruption-compensation/exchanges-refunds-and-compensation

According to your grid as advertised, we qualify for delayed compensation tickets.  I am requesting that you review again the delayed compensation tickets, or please forward to a supervisor as appropriate.

Many thanks and regards,
Heather in Europe

Feb 8

Glad to see Eurostar working weekends to catch up with the backlog, but a little disappointed in the message:

From:  traveller.care@eurostar.com

Sent: 08/02/2015

To: Heather in Europe

Subject: Case Reference: 01000XXX

Hello Ms Heather in Europe

Thank you for your reply.

I have arranged for a payment, as agreed, of £120.63 to be credited to your account. The process usually takes around 10 working days.

I have investigated further into your compensation entitlement and I am afraid the information I gave you is correct to our policy. As an explanation, your original service was cancelled and you agreed to change your booking to travel on 19th January. That particular train was due to leave at 08.36 and arrive at 08.57 Uk time. This becomes your new travel arrangement and any compensations are based on this particular train and not the difference of the your original arrival time. This train arrived into the Uk with a delay of less than 60 minutes so therefore has no compensation entitlement.

I really do understand your frustrations but I hope that this has explained things a little clearer for you.

Feb 11

I’m beginning to understand that it’s a smoke and mirrors game with Eurostar at this point.  A ‘cancellation’ is treated differently than a ‘delay’.  I understand the finer distinction, but I’m still 16+ hours late home and out a half day of work.  If this is the case they may as well cancel every delayed train that goes beyond 60 minutes late.  

I’m tired and disappointed, as I’ve always been a strong believer in train travel in general and Eurostar in particular.  Needless to say, my other half is not willing to entertain my previous plans for the ski train and personally I am doubting whether to use them again for work travel after this experience.  

I’m giving it one last chance, as I previously asked Carole to have a supervisor to review the claim, and I missed a response that she had done so.  I’m giving them one last chance as I don’t want to give up on Eurostar, but it is a last chance at this point…

From:  Heather in Europe

Sent 11/02/2015, 09:59

To: traveller.care@eurostar.com

 Subject: Case Reference: 01000XXX

Dear Carole,
Thank you for your reply and for arranging the payment.

I am a bit surprised to hear your reply that 'your original service was cancelled and you agreed to change your booking to travel on 19th January.'  From my perspective, I was stranded in Lille, I'm not sure what other option I had to get home, but to agree to the first available option that Eurostar could offer to me...thereby getting me and my partner home 16+ hours late, making both of us lose .5 day of work. 

I previously requested that you forward to a supervisor if you are not able to effect the delayed compensation as advertised on your website here http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-information/service-information/disruption-compensation/exchanges-refunds-and-compensation  I respectfully ask again if you can honour this request.

Thank you and regards,
Heather in Europe

Giving up US citizenship?

I haven't had much to say of relevance in to the blog world recently, but saw an interesting article today on the BBC:

Why are Americans giving up their citizenship?

On the expat forums I read in the UK, this seems to becoming more prevalent, especially the longer that people are here.  So it's not so much the newly christianed UK citizens but more those who have been UK citizens for many years.

I don't think I'd even remotely consider to give up my US citizenship (which would be an option at some stage, once I get UK citizenship).  Would you consider it?

Parking the German mentality in an American parking spot

I am in the US for work for two weeks, along with many of my colleagues from around the globe, whom I've known for many years.  I went out with the German contingent last night, and we ended up downtown for dinner.  It's been snowy here in the midwest where Benevolent Company J is located, and while the streets have been plowed, it's remained chilly and the snow hasn't budged much, making parallel parking quite an adventure.

When we saw a decent parking spot near our destination, German Colleague 2 hops out to be able to inform Colleague 1 how far away he is from the other cars.  Colleague 3 and I stayed in the car. 

Colleague 1 probably isn't so great at parallel parking in the best of times, and it was a difficult situation:  a small spot with a big American car, leftover snow/slush, and a relatively busy road, so time pressures to get out of the way.  And therefore he botched it, requiring a second and third attempt, and finally, the back and forth to squeeze into the spot due to turning too quick.

As I stood with Colleage 2 at the curb, Colleague 2 remarked, 'he turned in too hard.' 
I answered, 'Yes, I knew each time he was off, but didn't want to pressure him.'
Colleague 1:  'Ah, but H, you must instruct him!  Else how will he ever learn or improve?'

In that moment I was reminded of living in Germany, and how different it was, and how out of place it seemed in that very moment on a US street. 

Literal translation

As seen last week at the beach in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria:

 



It was good to escape the grey and chilly UK weather and to warm up in the sunshine.

Hello January!

Dear Internet,
Slocombe the cat here.  It's been a busy few months and the Main Human has the flu, so time to catch you all up on activities here.  I was away for my winter holidays while she went to the States in December.  Winter holidays really seemed to fly this year, although it's been warm, wet and grey in our corner of Essex, so not really a holiday feel.

In brighter news, the Human finished her dissertation!  Two years part-time of classes and then the dissertation was put into this effort.  I suspect Main Human will take a little time to relax but will then become terribly bored!  I enjoyed the school work, as it meant plenty of lap time for me.

Work?  Eh, same old, it pays for the cat food and litter.  She tells me that March will be ten years with benevolent company J.  That means she'll have been 10 years in Europe as well in March.  My, my, time really does fly.  February will already be four years in the UK! 

I've noticed the travel books have come out though.  She was mentioning Italy, Scotland and all sorts of interesting places!  That's nothing for me though, I'm more of a homebody cat.

Well, that's all for now.  I need to go bat at the shades so that I can go outside and have a sniff around the balkon.
Furry greetings from Essex,
Slocombe the Cat

The stained glass results

I mentioned earlier, about my stained glass class.  Here is how the final result ended up, now that it's in place.  I'm hoping it will liven up the dreary, grey UK winter days:

 

Camping at the Norfolk seaside

It's been a few years since I've been camping properly for anything more than a weekend.  I had a lovely time last week, enjoying the summer weather at Overstrand, in Norfolk.

Here is my tent (and Mr. Polo in the background), all set up:

The tent is a few years old now, but still holding up well, especially when there is no rain or strong winds to worry about.  Here is a closer view of the North Sea, so a few steps behind the tent, to the edge of the cliff:

The beaches in Norfolk were quite lovely, well worth the 2.5 hour drive from Essex.  I spent the days walking, as one beach connected to the next and then the next one after, so you could easily walk for hours.  I stopped in at the supermarket in Cromer and picked up some snacks and fruit to carry along.  However, since it was just me, I did more meals out than normal, especially as most places had fish and chips cheap, or the locally caught crab on offer.  Also, at the campsite came out to £15/night and I already had the tent, etc. so it was a moderately cheap holiday.

And finally, here is the campsite that I stayed at:  http://www.overstrandcampsite.co.uk/the-campsite.html  There was a German family with their bicycles, car, etc. so I imagine they drove over, taking the ferry from Hook to Harwich.  Otherwise, it was Brits, and many from the North as their school holidays start earlier than ours.  Perhaps this week it's filled with Brits from the South as school hols have now started here, as of last week.

On the move

After all the cold and wet weather this summer, we're finally poised for a string of nice days, so I'm heading north, to the seaside:  Norfolk.  Slocombe the cat will be staying at home, enjoying a staycation with a different human.



It will be my first time camping in the UK, and driving so far north.  Temperatures seaside are forecasted at 22 C, while inland and further south, back at home in Essex they'll be 24.

Nothing major on the agenda except for exploring a string of seaside towns, enjoying fish and chips and catching up on reading while on sandy beaches.  The nice weather is supposed to break on Friday, so I'll be back on Thursday night.  :)

Creativity Unleashed

For a long time, I've wanted to try working with glass, like stained glass.  I've been working a lot of hours recently, especially late US ones, leaving my mornings open, so just right to try out a 'taster course'.  Yours truly is in the background, in grey (a very rare Heather sighting, on the internet!):

And here is my project, in progress:

The instructor will be 'fusing' the items today in her kiln, so that I'll be able to pick up the finished item on Wednesday.  I'm actually very excited by this topic, to see how it all turned out (even though we don't have much sun this summer in the UK, so it might not be the best year to make such decorations.)

From the office

I was on a work call today, and we were talking about how a particular item was 'grandfathered' into the project.  Afterwards, my colleague from Germany pinged me:

A:  I understood the topics and how we must keep the old things, but I do not understand the use of this word?

H:  Grandfathered?  It's an English term, for if something is currently against the rules, but previously it was allowed under the rules at the time.  Therefore we allow it now, it is 'grandfathered' in.

A:  Hmm......ok.

H:  So you don't 'Grossvater' or 'Opa' anything?

A:  No.

H:  So what if something is an exception to the rule?  It is not correct according to the rules, but because of certain reasons, we allow it.  How do you call this in German?

A:  (silence)

H:  (imagining a German staring at the screen with a befuddled look.)  A, you don't have this in German do you?  An exception to the rules that is allowed? 

A:  No H, I don't think we have a word for that...

Yet another example of where the language reflects the culture.

The Royal Jubilee weekend

While spirits were high and the mood friendly, the weather was most uncooperative, and rain dampened much of the Queen's festivities.

I did like this humorous take on the four day weekend:

Saturday yoga

In my month of being sporty, I am trying out a yoga class. Having never done it, a class is starting at the church hall literally one minute from my front door, so no excuses really. It's being done by a young lady who recently qualified as a yoga instructor, so at a substantial discount from other local options. As I'm only giving it a trial run, the bottom tier pricing structure works just fine for me. As well, I sometimes find that someone who is just starting to build up their business is more enthusiastic and committed than someone who is maybe tired and jaded of the work. So we'll see...

A week's worth of dancing

Sunday - an 'adult taster' day at a local dance school. 2.7 miles away, I walked there, not the nicest walk at it was leaving town along a main thoroughfare that runs out of sidewalks. Then it was 6 classes of 45 minutes each (broken up by breaks and lunch). Then I walked home the 2.7 miles. While two of the classes were ok, it doesn't suit my needs so well as the classes that interest me are on the weeknights when the walk is too dark and dangerous.

Tuesday - swing dance class here in Essex, a 10 minute walk away, through a well populated area and onto the university campus (read: safe). It's probably the most fun I've had at something where I went on my own no knowing anyone. Everyone was quite pleasant and it was some intense cardio at times, good fun. They go on Easter break next week and then the week after, classes start at the beginning for...the Charleston! I shall return.

On speaking multiple languages

Some interesting articles just out from the BBC, for the language wonks amongst us:

1. How do you become fluent in 11 languages? - A 20 year old who does quite a good job in the video; I appreciate his optimism about meeting new people.

2. The cult of the hyperpolyglot - About a fellow who speaks 18 languages.

'So what enables hyperpolyglots to seemingly pick up a new language at the push of a button?

Erard says it is hard to explain, but whatever an individual's biographical reasons are, he believes there is something that distinguishes hyperpolyglots neurologically.

"They have a neurological hardware that responds to the world, that's fed by the world, that is suited to a pattern that is recognition-heavy, sound-heavy and memory-heavy - that is very structured, and also very sociable.'

The article also includes this line, but I'm not sure I believe it: 'Easiest language for native English speakers to learn is said to be Dutch.'

Time for some language study

If you've read me the past few years, you know that language courses (and education in general) are my weakness areas. Even in Germany, where I didn't like the sound of the language, I still fell into the trap.

The past few years, I've been distracted with other things: the UK driver's test, law coursework, and my work permit paperwork. Finally, some free time, it's time for language study again!

I have an Excel with various options and my requirements to rate them against.
Here's my short list of languages:

german
dutch
spanish
portuguese
polish
lithuanian
french
british sign language
italian

You may notice, I'm taking it easy and aiming for the continent languages. I love my Asia colleagues to death but I'm awful at tonal languages like Chinese.

And my criteria for judging:

ability to find a native teacher in the UK
ability for native practice in the uk
future location for living
ability to move towards fluency
worth of learning, when locals can speak english instead
current knowledge level
enjoyment of the language

For background, my levels are the following:

-I've tested out at German B1

-I have an undergraduate degree in Spanish. My fluency 10+ years on? I can lead business meetings and fully get around as a tourist amidst local dialects. I'm not going to improve that one until I live there.

-Polish: A1

Thoughts? Anything I'm missing?

The snow in my corner of Essex

We had the most delightful snow, Sat night into Sunday. It started around 22.00 and continued on heavily into the morning. It was the first snow of winter in my region.

Slocombe the cat was curious but decided not to venture out onto the roof terrace:

I decided to venture to the park, with my snowshoes as we had 4-5 inches. The last time I had the opportunity to use my snowshoes was in Germany, in Feb 2008. We've had a few UK snowstorms since I've arrived, but never on a weekend. Fortunately the weather predictions were good so I had done all of my food shopping on Saturday so to be able to fully enjoy Sunday.

It was good packing snow on the roof terrace, so I made a snowman. We're supposed to have above freezing drizzle tomorrow, so we'll see how long he lasts.

I was a little surprised on Saturday night when I called home to the US; my relatives had not heard about our 'deep freeze' in Europe, or the snow that has been raging across the continent. Usually they keep an eye out for news over here, so it seems that it did not get much coverage over there on this go round.