Fire trucks and bumble bees and sales reps, oh my!

“Friends don’t let friends go to the Bahamas.”  That’s what I jokingly say to my friend, Kim, when she asks what island I’m going to, and I’m on my way to the Bahamas.  It’s a short 50-minute flight from Miami, the Bahamian island of New Providence (the Bahamas consists of over 3,000 islands, islets, and cays!), and 3 of my largest hardware stores are there.  The capital of the Bahamas is Nassau, the main city in New Providence.   I don’t really know what it is, but I was rarely in a good mood on this island in the beginning.  The traffic is insane, everybody lets everybody in, everybody cuts everybody off, and it’s hard to avoid potholes and stray dogs.  You never get above 35 mph.  It’s a fairly big and busy island…lots of business there…but it’s just chaotic and it took me over 5 trips to not have to use my map.  ANYWAY, I don’t want to bash it too much, and when I really think about the situation, it’s just some cultural differences…some that I see on other islands too.  I like to think I have an open mind because I LOVE culture and the differences and get plenty of travel to fill me, but I clearly gotta shake this negativity toward the Bahamas.  While, like many other islands, it is not wealthy nor has a strong infrastructure, there are still blue waters, beautiful beaches, and loving, happy-hearted people. There’s a sense of order that takes a different meaning on the islands – it’s more like an organized chaos.  Now, with all the travel I do across the Caribbean, I am aloud to be a bit of an island snob, right?   With that said, I still would not take a personal vacation to the Bahamas.  From what I hear (I have not actually been to them), the beaches are nice, and I see really blue water driving by in my rental car.  There’s a section of the island by Nassau called Paradise Island, and it’s really nice with casinos, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and fancy steakhouses.  It also has complete tourists, music coming from little speakers in the bushes and workers constantly sweeping the streets…as if you were in Disneyworld.  If that’s what you like, well then go, but personally I prefer a place that may be a bit out of my comfort zone but where I can experience some culture, some differences, observe, eat local food, etc.

The Bahamas upon landing.  Blue, blue waters.

 I do have one highlight of Nassau, Bahamas, that took place on my last visit which reminded me to appreciate the island.  One of my customers, FYP Ltd. (Fix Your Place), has a fire truck parked in the parking lot.  Mark, the owner of FYP, bought it from the states and had it shipped down.  He wanted a fire hose for I-don’t-know-what, and when he realized it was cheaper to buy a full fire truck than just a hose (I have no idea why), he bought the whole dang thing!  Mark is really involved in the community, sponsoring kids’ baseball and soccer teams, and he puts that fire truck to good use!  He drives that thing around town to grab attention and go to sporting events.  Well, 2 months ago he suggested I had a banner made that says “Milwaukee Supports Bahamian Athletics,” one that he could put on the truck and park at the baseball and soccer fields during the games.  I had his 12-foot banner made, and on my last visit I got to ride in the fire truck to a baseball game with our 12-foot Milwaukee/FYP banner hanging from the side.  It was 4:30 pm and traffic was heavy in Nassau, but that didn’t matter—we had sirens and horns!  We seriously would blare the sirens to get people out of the way.  Until you looked in the cab and saw 3 people in t-shirts and jeans (one being a young white girl), it looked as if we were on our way to fight flames somewhere.  I do not know how this is legal, but I guess stuff like this can slide when you have a country with a lesser-developed infrastructure.  They let a lot pass.  The thing is registered as an F-150 (I’m guessing he paid them off or has connections with the government), and he can cause quite a ruckus with it on the narrow streets of Nassau, making K-turns and barely fitting on the roads.  Here is a 45-second video I took in the fire truck...

There it is! The fire truck!

The Avengers t-ball team, sponsored by FYP Ltd. and supported by Milwaukee Tool.

Most of the time I don’t experience big delays or craziness on my flights, but the bumble bee problem that delayed us 2 hours back in April is one for the memory book.  We had all just boarded a flight in Miami, flying to San Juan, and they announced that there was a bee problem outside so the ground crew could not load the luggage.  There were swarms of bees I could see from inside the plane and they wouldn’t leave.  They tried spraying the bees and plane with some sort of foam (my first glance out the window and I thought it had snowed in Miami – no joke!), and after realizing the foam was corrosive, they then sprayed the Boeing 757 down with water twice more…to no avail.  You know how when there’s a medical issue on a plane, there always seems to be a doctor or nurse?  Well a man walked up to the front and said that he was a beekeeper and asked if he could help…too funny!   Too bad he didn’t have his gear in his carry-on to be able to go outside and move the bees.  Anyway, after about an hour, the bees moved away and we could take off.  I had a flight to catch from San Juan to the island of Tortola, as did the older English couple next to me.  They were concerned we were going to miss the connection, but –since I travel all the time and have learned not to fret about the ‘small stuff’—I assured them we would have ample time, and if not then there was a later flight to Tortola.  They said they wouldn’t want to wait, so they would charter a plane for the 20-minute flight to Tortola and that I could join them.  We ended up making our connection on time…dang it – a chartered flight wouldn’t have been too shabby!

Random photo of a meal in Grand Cayman Island in April.  Banana soda and roti (almost like a burrito filled with pumpkin, garbanzo beans, spinach, potato, curry and other spices) from a Trinidadian restaurant in Cayman.

Finally, my last random topic in this email is about a sales rep I met on a return flight to Miami last month.  I meet a lot of sales reps on planes and on islands, but this guy stands out in my mind.  His name is Luis Felipe, a Spanish-speaking Latin American from Miami, probably about 55 years old.  I really feel like you will get a crack out of these stories, so I’ll briefly share two of them. 

We got chatting in English and then in Spanish (as I prefer!), and he asked me what was the craziest thing that had ever happened to me in my travels.  I really didn’t have one solid answer, but I told him a few stories that go along with the “never a dull moment on the islands” theme.  Then I asked him the same question and for the next hour he had me captivated with a few stories.  He has been traveling for his job for over 20 years.  One was an experience in Mexico, where he had to travel to Valladolid from a coastal Mexican city.  He was in his rental car and it was getting dark and he had to find a hotel.  He drove and drove and drove, hoping to find a place before Valladolid to sleep at.  He drove through towns that he said were out of a movie.  In Spanish he said, “it was a dusty, old, main road of a town that was almost deserted.  There was an old cathedral on one side and on the other side was a store with a bench outside where 3 old men in hats sat, slouched over.  And what’s the name of that plant that blows around?”  I said, “tumbleweed?” Yep.  He kept driving and finally after 9pm came to a really nice-looking hotel.  He pulled in, relieved, and asked to stay one night.  They asked him, “and where’s your partner?”  He said “what do you mean?  I’m traveling alone for business.”  They told him it was Club Med – you had to be there as a couple!  He assured the lady that he just wanted to go to his room and sleep…he wouldn’t go walking around the resort alone or anything.  Per Club Med policy she still would not let him stay, so he got back in his car and kept driving.  It was 10pm by then, and he saw a car pulled over on the side of the highway.  He slowed down and peered in to see 3 children sitting in the backseat with the 2 adults outside.  Feeling bad upon seeing the children, he pulled over.  It turned out they had a flat tire and did not have a spare.  They were Mayan Indians, complete with traditional face paint and headbands.  Luis got out of his own car to look at the flat and while he was bent over checking it out, he thought to himself, “what am I doing?!  I’m a foreigner here and my laptop and passport are sitting in my front seat with the car wide open.”  He said there was no other solution but to take them to the nearest town.  They said they knew people 5 minutes up the road, so into his rental car piled 3 Mayan children in the back and the 2 adults in front with Luis.  Just picture this!  And he said to calm his nerves and the awkwardness, he’d ask them how to say certain things in their indigenous native language (Luis spoke Spanish but these Mayan Indians spoke their language and some broken Spanish).  He’d say “how do you say ‘car?’ and they would answer “carro,” or whatever the word was…and that was it.  Well after driving 20 minutes, they directed Luis to exit, and they proceeded to climb up and up an old road on the side of the mountain until they finally got to where they knew people.  It was a Mayan village with traditional teepees and everything!  They got a spare tire and Luis drove them back to their car.  He continued on and reached Valladolid by midnight, and crashed for 5 hours on a rock-hard bed before he woke up to meet his customer.  When he told his Mexican customer the story, he couldn’t believe it.  As Luis already knew, he told him it was not really safe nor wise to stop on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in the countryside of Mexico.  Luis couldn’t believe he did it either, and was extremely thankful to be alive.  What an experience.  Don’t worry Mom and Dad – I have no stories like that nor do I stop on the side of the road at night.

One other quick and CUTE story from Luis was when he was stuck in Peru for a weekend.  He was in Lima, the capital, for business, and when Friday came around and Luis was waiting on a major customer to close a huge order, Luis’ boss informed him not to leave Peru until the order was closed.  So as he sat eating dinner alone in downtown Peru, wondering who he should call of his Peruvian friends to hang out with, he saw a newspaper with a picture of Macchu Picchu, the old Inca village in the mountains where tourists flock to because of its grandeur and adventure in getting there.  He booked a trip for Saturday and Sunday.  The next day he met a young woman at the group lunch who was in Peru for business from Spain.  They hung out until their separate tour groups parted ways.  Later, when Luis was at Macchu Picchu ready to do the climb, he met a young Mexican man who was in Peru for business as well.  They were walking around Macchu Picchu chatting together when they ran into the Spanish woman!  By the end of the trip, the 3 of them had become friends, and for years they stayed in touch and tried meeting up in Miami (where Luis lives) or somewhere in Latin America where they all traveled for work.  One day a few years after meeting, the Mexican guy called Luis and said he was in Miami.  They planned to meet for lunch, outside of Luis’ office, and when Luis walked outside, there stood the Mexican man with their Spanish friend!  They told him they had news – that they were engaged and wanted Luis to be the best man!  Awwww, what a story, right?  Luis is by far the most interesting person I’ve met on a flight thus far.  We then proceeded to wait in the longest customs lines we had ever seen when we landed in Miami, so we chatted some more.  He had a couple other stories for me, but those were the top two.

Thanks for reading!  I need to close my laptop.  I’m on a plane, wedged in the middle seat between two larger men and my arms are cramping.  Happy weekend, y’all!!!

TV appearance in Grenada. Dessert overload in St. Lucia.

My nationally-televised morning talk show appearance…on an island. 

Last month I was in Grenada, the most expensive and difficult island to fly to.  It’s the southernmost island in my territory…Trinidad is further south (right above Venezuela) but my co-worker covers that island.  Direct flights to Grenada (that are over 4 hours long) only go a couple times per week, so you have to overnight in either Trinidad or Barbados, or you can island hop and make a big trip out of it.  So, I took 5 days – flying directly from Miami down to Grenada to start, hopping over to St. Lucia on Wednesday,  and then up from St. Lucia to Miami to get back home on Friday.  These islands are on a 220 volt system.  In case you don’t know, the U.S. is on a 110V system.  Europe, parts of South America, and some Caribbean islands are on 220V.  Milwaukee Tool doesn’t carry a lot of 220V, so my trips to islands like St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent are limited.  Well, we have one account in Grenada, called The Creative House.  It’s your typical hardware store/home center, only this store has a morning TV show that airs in their building called Day Break Grenada.  Since Day Break Grenada uses The Creative House’s space for their show, The Creative House gets some freedom to have air time every once in awhile.  So, using that free air time, Milwaukee was nationally televised on the island for 2 different mornings!  The first one we were supposed to be on at 6:30 am, but Day Break got behind (island time….) and I didn’t go on until 7:30, when “everyone was already heading to work so no one saw it.”  The next day, though, the marketing lady I work with at Creative House picked me up at my hotel at 5 am so we could be on-air at 6:15…and we were!  Click the link below to see the 6-minute YouTube video of my first-ever interview on a nationally-televised news show.  It actually went REALLY well.  I’m not a natural in front of the screen, but watching the video gives me a bit more confidence that I actually DO know what I’m talking about!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGqOHISbXlM&feature=share

I didn’t have a script prepared, I just winged (wang?) it.  This just shows how much power tools have grown on me…it’s scary.  They didn’t powder my face or anything, and since I was up at the butt-crack of dawn, my raspy voice was even raspier, but I think I communicated the benefits of Milwaukee Red Lithium Ion Cordless Technology pretty well.  My boss got a crack out of it.  “Milwaukee is at a blu-ray level of battery technology while everyone else is at a DVD level.”  Yeah…I made up that analogy on the spot, but I think it worked out pretty well.

The indoor set of Day Break Grenada

Preparing the tools for the TV appearance

On the radio 98.3, talking about tools!

Aaron and me, talkin' tools.

A couple other things about Grenada – there’s a sugar cane juice man on the island who, every day, brings his cane juice making machine to the same location in the main town of Grenada to sell sugar cane juice.  He invented the machine himself.  He picks sugar cane from the fields in the morning, takes his machine to town, and shoves the cane in to produce a liquid sugar cane juice…can’t get much more natural than that!  He told me times were hard years ago and he had no money, so he invented the machine and is now sittin’ pretty.

The Grenadian sugar cane man.  He invented that machine.

Grenada from the air.

Finally, I’ll end on Grenada with a little Grenadian lingo I learned from Lou and Rhesa, the buying and marketing managers I work with at The Creative House:  at the end of MANY sentences, they say “you understand?” in a way that I never really understand, haha.  The island accent in Grenada is thick, and they speak very fast.   Next time you talk to me, I can imitate the accent for you, but it sounds something like “yunnastan?”…really really fast.  Also, instead of responding to someone by saying “we’re good” or “sounds good,” you say straight.  “Ya, everyting’s streeeight.”  “Ya, we streeeight.”  Lou and Rhesa gave me pronunciation lessons at lunch…not sure if they were laughing AT me or WITH me.

Lou "everyting streeeight," me, and Annika, one of the marketing ladies at The Creative House.

Barbados from the sky.  I had a layover here going from Grenada to St. Lucia.

 Eating 3 desserts in one meal because my hotel was all-inclusive…on an island.

Yes.  Three desserts.   A trifecta.  Story of my life, trying to stay in shape and eat even healthier than I ever used to in high school or college while constantly giving in to the ‘homemade bread’ or the ‘catch of the day with cream sauce’ or the ‘decadent tiramisu’ in restaurant after restaurant, island after island, week after week.  Oh well, one must enjoy good food when it’s available…the problem just comes when you’re at an all-inclusive hotel in St. Lucia, you have a sweet tooth and there are over 8 options of dessert, all of which you can indulge in as much as you’d like!  Ah!  This particular time I ate some healthy seafood and vegetables for dinner, but then what happened?  My lack of self-control and sweet tooth kick in, and I somehow justify eating chocolate mousse, apple pie, and banana ice cream…one after another!  I mean, they weren’t HUGE portions, but still...c’mon Anna – avoiding the potato and white rice during the meal has no point if you justify that you can then eat 3 desserts to make up for it.  Anyway, I had to share this and vent it out because I walked back to my hotel room and couldn’t believe I did that.  I manage to eat pretty healthy in all my travels, but it gets really hard sometimes, especially when you’re really hungry and lonely.  As you can tell, I occasionally cope with that by eating things with high gluten and high-fructose corn syrup.  Oh well…such is life.  On another note, I’m running a half marathon in Bermuda in May (a team of runners will be wearing Milwaukee Tools jerseys!), and so a few months ago I decided to try being pescatarian, which means partially vegetarian but you are allowed to eat seafood.  I’m just trying it, both for training reasons and for ethical reasons (talk to me, watch Food Inc., or read books by Dr. Michael Pollan if you want to know more).  This pescatarian thing works well for me since I don’t really eat pork, don’t eat much beef, and am sick of chicken.  And I’m traveling in places surrounded by ocean…you bet your britches they have fresh seafood.  The pescatarian diet is going well.  Growing up in a meat ‘n’ potatoes family back in Wisconsin, I do crave a burger or a steak once in awhile, but I will survive.  I’ll go back to eating meat again, I’m pretty sure, but I do know that once I do, I’ll be more conscious of where the meat I’m eating is coming from, how the animals were treated and fed, etc.

ANYWAY, this section was supposed to be on St. Lucia, but I’ve gone off on a food tangent, probably because it’s lunchtime.  So I had 3 desserts in St. Lucia, felt a bit guilty and laughed it off, and all is good.  As aforementioned, I’m not in St. Lucia a lot, but it was good to be back.  The island is the most mountainous of them all and thereforse is bit nauseating when riding in the taxis but extremely breathtaking and worth the upset stomach.  I met a new TINY account with a fitting name, called Tool Hut, and the owner was super chill.  He introduced me to his wife and kids and told me that next time I’m in St. Lucia, I’ll have to watch his band Chasing Monday play at a local beach bar.  We cleared up a few issues, one being that the product he is ordering from us contains owners’ manuals in Spanish.  St. Lucians speak English.  Woops!  Because it is 220 volts, the limited 220V product line available to St. Lucia was originally meant for the 220V market of Argentina, where they speak Spanish.  There’s a big risk that the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards will stop in the Tool Hut and see the Spanish manuals, which is not ‘up to standard,’ so I’m working with Milwaukee to get some sort of English manual that they can put in these boxes. 

A guava!  Call me sheltered, but I had never seen a real guava fruit before this one.

In St. Lucia, riding in the taxi amidst the banana fields (on right).

In St. Lucia

St. Lucia from a cloudy sky.  Notice the Piton Mountains, the two peaks above the clouds.

Now while St. Lucians speak English, they also speak ‘patois’ (pronounced pa-twa).  It’s a French patois, so to me it sounds like French.  St. Lucian patois is a mix of English, French Creole, and African words.  It’s the native language of the country while the official language is English.  The word patois actually means ‘informal speech’ or ‘incomprehensible speech.’  Most of the population speak patois, but it has started to die out with the newer generations.  I would compare it to what happens in cities like Miami and Dallas with Spanish.  You have heavy populations of Latinos who speak Spanish, and they teach their children, but then their children speak more Spanglish and English in the schools/with friends, so then when the next generation comes along, it’s even harder to maintain pure Spanish unless it’s strictly spoken in the household with parents and grandparents.  So, most St. Lucian adolescents understand patois but are more comfortable responding in English.  On the flip side, once you get deep into the mountains of St. Lucia, you’ll find some who rarely leave their villages and only speak patois.  Patois is found on other islands (Jamaica, Trinidad, and in parts of Latin America), but it varies from place to place.  Patois actually means ‘informal language,’ sort of like slang, even though it’s not just a few words – it’s a full-blown language.  Here is a 15 second example of St. Lucian patois (from the reliable YouTube).  Again, to me it sounds French, and you can hear the guys say ‘oui’ in the dialogue.

Thanks for keeping up with me, y'all!  I have a few other random things that I'll write about next time, including the CRAZY stories I heard yesterday on my flight back to Miami...my seat partner, a fellow sales guy, was HIL-ARIOUS.  I'll have to share a few of his adventures with you.  Below are a few random sky photos...happy weekend, everyone...all the best!


-Anna Banana

Car keys in the ocean and a bit of Caribbean radio education.

Hi everybody, here’s another post…it may be my shortest one ever.  No lies, no lies.

St. Thomas, as I’ve written about before, is one of the U.S. Virgin Islands.  I go there about every 2-3 months, and the last time I was there I traveled with Mike, a door and window sales guy who lives near Miami and does the same thing I do on the islands – only I sell tools and he sells doors and windows.  I met Mike last year at a big hardware store event on a different island, so like I’ve done with numerous sales reps, we exchanged information and once in awhile we’ll shoot each other emails asking where the other person is traveling in the next month.  We ended up going to the U.S.V.I. for the same week back in February, so while we each had our own rental cars and agendas, we were able to meet up at night a couple times for dinners and then ended up on the same return flight back to Miami at the end of the week.  Mike is in his 40’s and can sell ice to Eskimos.  He’s good at what he does and is hilarious, so what happened to him came as no surprise to me.  Mike was getting off of a ferry in St. Thomas from being on the island of Tortola all day, and when he was crossing the little bridge from the boat to the main land, he saw something slip out of the portfolio he was holding and into the water.  He noticed at the last second that it was his rental car keys.  Oh no!  He calls Avis, and they say it’s a $300 fee to replace the keys.  He gets stressed and frustrated, asking around if anyone’s a diver…to no avail.  What does Mike decide to do?  NOT pay the $300.  He finds someone with a mask, asks the local boatmen to spot him, and he dives down into the ocean IN HIS JEANS to try finding the car keys!  He said he dove down about 25 feet (typical salesman because when I heard him telling the story the 2^nd time, he said it was 50 feet…), and as it got darker and colder and “there were these huge barracuda fish swimming around me,” there sat his keys at the bottom, on a rock!  He grabbed them, swam up to the top, and went to his Toyota Yaris rental and the remote to unlock the car worked!  He’s gotta write to Toyota so they can use that as a testimony to their keyless entry technology.  So I wasn’t there when it happened, but I was finishing up at my own customer’s store a few miles down the road and walking out to my car when Mike pulls up and rolls down his window saying “Anna!  I don’t have any pants on!”  My first thoughts and response was “What?  Mike it’s only 5:30 have you been drinking already?!”  And sure enough, I walked over to his car and he was in boxers sitting in the driver’s seat.  He dove down in jeans, so he ended up driving back to the hotel and walking back to his room in boxers.  Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious.  He told the story that night at dinner (when he said it was a 50-foot dive) to the other guy we’d met, who happened to be a Canadian sales rep who covers the same islands I do, selling JEWELRY!  (Side note.  Picture that conversation:  “Hi my name is Martin, I’m here for work.”  “Hi I’m Anna, I’m here for work too.  What do you do?”  “I travel the islands as a jewelry sales rep.”  “Oh, I travel the islands selling power tools.”)  If what happened to Mike happened to me, I honestly don’t know what I’d do.  Probably cry and get a guy to dive down and get them since I can’t hold my breath more than 8 seconds!

Mike is the 2nd one in, going left to right.  A hilarious sales guy who can sell ice to Eskimos, no doubt.  Picture from when we met in Feb. of 2011.

Random picture of me trying to climb a palm tree in Babados.  Feb. 2012.

 A couple other things about St. Thomas…it’s a typical island with small windy roads and no speed limit, but you can never really get above 35mph.  One thing you can do, though, is get pulled over for illegally talking on a cell phone, like I did.  Now don’t picture a cop coming up behind me and turning his lights and sirens on until I’m pulled over.  Basically I was on the phone (for business!) and rounded a corner going up a hill at about 20 mph, and right as I turned the corner there were 2 cops, and they got me.  One just looked, pointed at me, and then motioned for me to pull over.  It was a bit unorthodox and I thought about speed off at 29 mph, but I abided.  I did not know there was a cell phone law, so I was thinking that my 20mph was somehow too fast.  At any rate, I had to pay a small fine (yes, I tried playing dumb and smiling…I guess I should have tried crying too), and I’ve learned my lesson. 

Random cloud formation from an airplane.

  

Sunset with the moon coming up, on an evening flight to Grenada.

Another thing I’d like to share about the islands in general (with a specific example from St. Thomas) is the radio stations and some of the songs.  I couldn’t stand it at first, but both the Caribbean music and the way the DJs talk on the radios are a lot different.  Sure, they listen to the music we do (even some country on a few islands!), but much of the stations have Caribbean calypso and Soca music.  Calypso is lighter and happy with the steel drums, and Soca is more like native dancing music (I’d compare it to merengue if you’re familiar with Latin merengue), really upbeat and intense.  If you listen hard to the lyrics, you might understand some of them, and if you do, they’ll probably make you smile.  Here’s an example of a Caribbean-style song from Youtube (click the link):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d90IiQOgTxo&feature=related

Now, this song doesn’t have these lyrics, but some lyrics I wrote down while listening to a song similar to this style in St. Thomas went like this…I’m going to spell out some of the words as they pronounce them to attempt to make it more real, haha:

“I love when dee mango stick in dee teeth.  Dats when you know dee mango is sweet…She gone took me mango, what I to do?  She gone took me mango, what I to do?…”

Now imagine the accent from the Youtube link, with lyrics about anything random (not always rated G, but the innocent mango song is pretty funny), and THEN you have to add in the DJ.  Can you say ‘interruption?’  That’s all that happens during many, many songs on different Caribbean radio stations.  The DJs will just turn the song volume way down and ad their own comments.  So with the mango song, the DJ would cut in and say things like “not dee green mango!”  music music music “she ain’t sweet”  music music music “oh no man dee mango be green!” music music music…then the DJ takes a caller who says “I like dee mango with meeelk! (milk)”  And then music music music and the DJ responds “What kinda ting is dat a mango wit meelk?” 

Please understand – I’m not bashing the music or the DJs at all.  It’s simply different.  At first I couldn’t listen to it much, but it has definitely grown on me because I tend to leave the radio on these days, and sometimes I even recognize songs.  That’s when you know you island hop too much…  The accents you hear in the songs are also how they speak, so one could say that I speak 3 languages: English, Spanish, and Island.  This sort of stuff fascinates me.  As you know, I love different languages, diverse accents, differences in word pronunciations and local customs, and culture in general.  I guess if I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t blog about it and wouldn’t probably survive in this job.  The difference in the English accent (which is ‘different’ to me…but I sound foreign to them…remember it’s all relative) is a part of this whole experience, and one must embrace it! 

 

That’s it for now.  Enjoy your week, everyone, and thanks for reading.  Or should I say “tanks for readen.”

A Bermudaful gem in the middle of the Atlantic

Bermuda: WOW. Have you been to Bermuda?  

Bermuda isn’t in the Caribbean (and they don’t particularly like it when you group them in with the Caribbean islands).  It’s an island about 600 miles off the coast of North Carolina in the middle of the Atlantic.  It’s a British territory, and I can describe it as a small, cute English town –with palm trees.  It is so well-kept and pretty and perfect that you feel like you’ve stepped into a postcard!  The landscaping EVERYWHERE is perfect: flawlessly-edged sidewalks, trimmed shrubs, beautiful flowers.  It’s an extremely expensive island, so it’s a good thing I go on my company’s dime.  I’ve now been there 3 times since October—my co-worker had Bermuda under his territory for most of 2011 until they made changes and I acquired it in October.  On my first trip, I landed on a Tuesday evening and had to take a taxi.  Like I’ve written before, some of my islands require you to be 25 years old to rent a car (I’m 24), so I have to take taxis, but in Bermuda it doesn’t matter if you’re 58 years old—there are no rental cars!  They don’t have any on-island.  You have to cab it or rent a mo-ped.  They do this to keep the traffic under control.  Even residents who live in Bermuda can only have one car per family.  So, I took a taxi from the airport.  And speaking of the roads, here’s an interesting fact...well let me back up by saying ALL roads on all islands I travel to are extremely lean and rarely have curbs or shoulders or ditches.  I’ve learned that the vehicle I’m driving, whatever it is, is skinnier than you think and you really don’t need 8-foot wide lanes for a 4-foot wide vehicle.  Anyway, the roads in Bermuda seem even leaner because many don’t have curbs, shoulders, or ditches –they’re built into rock cliffs sometimes so that the sides of the roads have 8-foot tall cliffs you don’t want to swerve into!  And the roads were originally built for horse & buggy, so while they’ve tried to widen them out, you can only carve into the hard aggregate of the cliff so much.  Where I stay on the island is a hotel called Rosemont Guest Suites, and it’s close to the capital town (Hamilton) and also within a mile of 2 of my 3 hardware store accounts on the island.  My other account is out in the parish (parish = little town/district/area) of Warwick.  Now, Americans, this is pronounced “warrick.”  I made a fool of myself pronouncing it the typical Yankee way, so now you know not to imitate my erroneous pronunciation when you visit Bermuda.  To get to that hardware store in Warwick, I’ve only so far taken taxis.  I have every intention of renting a mo-ped and driving one (for my first time ever!), but the 3 times I’ve been in Bermuda it has rained substantially, which isn’t conducive to learning to drive a mo-ped.  I’m back there in 2 weeks, so I hope to rent one then.  Don’t worry, Mother, they require helmets and I don’t think I’ll get over 25mph!  Even when I rent a mo-ped, though, I will still have to take taxis a couple of times, to and from the airport with my luggage, etc.  Sam is my usual taxi driver who I met on my 2^nd trip.  He’s Bermudian and loves his job and boasts in the satellite radio he has in his taxi van.  I chose him out of a line of taxis at the airport because he was dressed as any stereotypical Bermudian picking up tourists should be dressed – in Bermuda shorts!  Yes, people, Bermuda shorts ARE really worn in Bermuda.  They were actually declared official business formal attire for business men on the island.  They’re typically worn 2 inches above the knee, shorts pink or navy blue in color, with navy blue socks and a suit-coat if it’s cold enough.  And yes, it does get cold enough for suit-coats.  As I mentioned, Bermuda is off the coast of N. Carolina, and because of its location far enough north and in the middle of the cold Atlantic, it is not a tropical but a sub-tropical island.  If it weren’t for the warm Gulf Stream coming up from the Caribbean, the island could quite easily get snow!  It is also very susceptible to hurricanes.  So anyway, back to Bermuda shorts, here is a picture of Sam and I upon our first meeting at the airport.   

Sam and I at the airport when I met him.

My last time in Bermuda was early January, and the temperature was in the 50’s, so he picked me up wearing PANTS!  When I questioned where the shorts were, he said he KNEW I would say something and assured me that he had them on earlier in the day and that it just got too cold (my flight landed at 8pm). 

I’ve only been to Bermuda 3 times and feel like I could go on for hours about it because I really enjoy the island—my customers, the atmosphere, the friends I’ve met, and the natural beauty.  Click on the below link for a Youtube video promoting travel to Bermuda.  It's a bit cheesy and goes through all of the ritzy hotel options, but I like the aerial views it shows.  I've seen a lot of blue water in my island travels, but Bermuda gets the prize for clearest, blue water:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX9nd3xM_MY

To touch on the friends I’ve made in Bermuda.  I’m friends with my hardware store guys/gals on all the islands, of course, but I’ve met some people in Bermuda more in my age group who are single and who I can hang out with and not have to talk to about drills and batteries and Milwaukee’s 5-year warranty.  I met Chris, a Bermudian, through one of my accounts called Conrad’s Ltd.  Jeff, the Conrad’s owner, is on a cycling team and the day I first met him, he invited me to meet up with him and his team after their usual Wednesday evening ride and grab a beer and hang out.  I had computer work to do and almost just stayed in my hotel room by myself as usual, working on emails and PowerPoints, but simply because Jeff seemed like a cool guy and I knew it was actually safe for me to walk the 10 minutes into Hamilton, I decided to go.  The cycling team was fun to talk to, there were some Bermudians, some guys from England (lots of English peeps in Bermuda because it’s a British territory), and maybe even a Canadian or two.  I met who I now call the Spandex guys (they correct me and say it’s Lycra) and learned about the island, the people, cycling, etc.  So Chris was in that mix of guys, and when the older guys went home to their families, I went and hung out with people my age!  At one point in our conversation Steubenville, Ohio, came up, and that’s where my Miami roommate, Ashley is from.  It’s a tiny town that’s slightly ghetto (Ashley will admit) that has a prominent Catholic college – Franciscan University.  Chris used to go to youth conferences there, and no offense Ashley because I’m from a small town too, but I couldn’t believe I met someone on an island who had been to Steubenville, Ohio!  It’s a small world.  On my 2nd trip to Bermuda back in December, Chris and I got lunch at this restaurant called the Green Lantern.  On my flight in, I sat by a Bermudian lawyer and when we got to talking, he recommended that I check out this restaurant for real Bermudian cuisine and really good fish.  The restaurant was right next door to Conrad's Ltd. and when I told Chris that we should meet there, he couldn't believe that's where I was recommended, as he hadn't been there since he was 12.  Anyway, we went there for lunch and the food was OK, but it was kind of a greasy little place with wooden booths and not where I would think a lawyer would send someone to embrace Bermudian cuisine.  I didn't finish my fish sandwich and so when the stoic waitress asked me if I liked it and I said "Yes it was really good!", she sarcastically replied "Ya right it sure looks that way" and rolled her eyes.  I know before we left, though, she cracked a smile from something we had said, so I hope she wasn't too insulted that I didn't finish the famous Green Lantern Fish Sandwich.  I also rode my first EVER mo-ped when Chris brought me to my next appointment so I didn't have to walk a mile in the rain.  

My first time ever on a mo-ped!  That's Bermudian Chris.

Through Chris I met Lisa, a super intelligent and funny girl from Sweden who lives in Bermuda as an ex-pat and works in the re-insurance business.  (Re-insurance companies, which I’ve recently learned, assess and take on some of the risk of insurance companies…it’s pretty interesting.)  Lisa and I talk a lot, and she actually just booked a weekend trip to Miami to visit me in March!  She’s taught me a bit about Swedish culture and has lived in London for her job, so we have great conversation about the world, living abroad, etc.  My brothers and mom and maybe a couple other friends who enjoy watching the animated kids’ show Arthur will appreciate that the only thing I was able to say that I knew about Swedish culture is that they eat lutefisk (from the movie I watch EVERY YEAR, Arthur’s Perfect Christmas), pickled fish in a tin, and that there’s a queen of lights, Santa Lucia, who is celebrated during Christmas for some reason.  Clearly, you can see I don’t know much about Swedish culture and me bringing up these facts I got from Arthur didn’t make me much more credible, right Lisa?! And apart from Chris and Lisa I’ve met Milton the Bermudian prodigy musician, James the English meteorologist, and Alba the Spaniard who I’m going to go salsa dancing with in Bermuda the next time I’m there.

Lisa and me, before running a 10K (more on the 10K below...)

Here are some random photos:

Meet Sammy, the Malaysian sushi master...this is a salmon that he cut up right in front of us.  Talk about fresh sashimi!

This is Martin, he's on the cycling team and is a HUGE Packers fan!  He's been to Lambeau Field a few times and keeps the Green Bay spirit alive in Bermuda.

This was taken at my customer, Sacha's, house.  She invited me over for Sunday brunch.  Not too shabby of a backyard view!

Flatts Village in the background.

The pic is dark, but this is Chris picking a loquat or a kumquat (I forgot which one!) fresh from the tree.  They're tangy, little citrus fruits.  Cultural, indeed.

In all honesty I have not yet REALLY explored the island and had a ton of cultural experiences. With that said, I know I’ll have more cultural, non-work-related stuff to blog about in another post,  but for the remainder of this post I want to focus on an event that I did for my job that was way more than just setting up a table and demo-ing tools.  

I worked with my biggest account on the island, Gorham’s Home Center, to hold a Milwaukee Race & Demo Weekend.  Henry, the purchasing manager of Gorham’s, mentioned to me that he liked to run when he found out that I was a runner, and he brought up Bermuda International Race Weekend, which happens every January.  On Friday night there’s a 1 mile race down Front Street, on Saturday morning there’s a 10k through the rolling roads of the island, and on Sunday there’s a marathon/half marathon.  You can sign up for all three and conquer the Bermuda Triangle!  Well, I brought up the idea to incorporate the 10K race into a Milwaukee weekend where I’d come to the island and run the race with Henry, we could wear Milwaukee shirts, and then in the afternoon I’d go to Gorham’s and do my usual demo day.  Henry liked the idea, and after getting approval from my manager and after LOTS of planning and emailing and networking, the event WAS AWESOME!  I bought Henry and myself red running shirts, had both of our logos screen-printed on them when I was home in Wisconsin for Christmas, made sure Gorham’s was stocked up on enough product, booked my travel, and trained for the race!  We also worked together to make a flyer that went in the Bermuda Royal Gazette, sent out emails blasts, got the store staff pumped up, etc.  We wanted to advertise “Catch Us If You Can,” and have people catch our bib numbers during the race and then bring them into the store in the afternoon to get put into a raffle to win a free drill, but we decided to just advertise the event that would happen in the store and then blaze through part of the island on foot by running the 10K and sporting our shirts.  See photos.

Henry, of Gorham's, and myself...prepping for the race!

Employee training in Gorham's

My demo table, complete with 2x4s, concrete blocks, and a rocking radio!

The raffle bucket.  We raffled off an M18 Combo Kit and a Contractor Radio.

Charlie's Power Tool Angels.  This was the first time I had EVER had a good, solid tool conversation with women.  These women knew their stuff!

A customer trying out the M18 Impact Driver and realizing it's the best one on the market.  C'mon...1400 inch-pounds of torque on that bad boy.

 

The race itself: WHEW!  Now Bermuda isn’t the most mountainous terrain that I’ve seen out of an island, but a good way to describe it is ‘rolling.’ There were 3 or 4 significant hills in the race, BUT ALSO it was rolling….I don’t think there were many long periods where I was running on flat ground…it was either gradually up or gradually down.  In the end the race went well for both Henry and I.  He reached his goal of breaking an hour, and I reached my goal of breaking 48 minutes and beating my other customer’s (Jeff’s) time – 48:04—from 2 years ago when he ran it.  Jeff now owes me either dinner or a cycling shirt.  It is not my best 10K time ever, but considering the terrain and also the headwind and rain, it was a workout, to say the least.  My friends Lisa and James also ran it (see photos), and Milton came out to support.

Henry sprinting it in at the end.

Me, just trying to survive the hilliest course I'd ever ran.

Post-race...me, James the English meteorologist, and Lisa.  Awesome race, guys!

 

Later on, in Gorham’s, sales were ROCKING!  A little history of Bermuda and Gorham’s in relation to power tools: it’s an island that’s historically Makita-loyal (my competitor), but only because it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.  If it’s not broke don’t fix it, but what if Milwaukee simply has a superior product with better technology and more benefits?  This event, I hope, was the start of a mindset change in Bermuda.  I’m not saying my competitor’s product is bad, but I really believe in my product, and Bermuda is one island where I don’t have to deal with the “Well Milwaukee is just too expensive”  and just need to get the brand awareness covering the island, get some sample tools in contractors’ hands, and convince them that my product is superior and will perform just as well or better than what they’ve been using all these years.  We sold more cordless 18 volt (M18) tools at this Saturday event than we did all of last year at Gorham’s!!  Now, the huge 30% off discount that we gave really helped, but doing the run, the advertising, and simply building up the hype of the brand will pay off long-term. 

Outside the store.

Another sale!

Team Milwaukee at Gorham's! 

This grassroots event was outstanding in a number of ways.  It has started Milwaukee hype in Bermuda.  It has given my manager more confidence in me and my creativity ability to take an idea and run with it (pun intended), driving results.  I truly see immense potential of growing the business in Bermuda, working alongside of my 3 accounts.  Just yesterday I sent my manager proposals for 2 more events Milwaukee will be a part of in the coming months, and he approved them!  We are going to be corporate sponsors for the annual Bermuda Contractors’ Golf Tournament in April, where Milwaukee Tool will have flags on some tees and greens of the golf course, red t-shirts in the goody bags, and I will be possibly participating in the tournament with one of my accounts.  Lord, help me.  I golf about twice per year, and while I love all sports, this one frustrates me to no end.  It sounds fun, though (it’s a 4-man team scramble), and it will make me dust off the old ladies left-handed clubs and get to the Miami driving range a couple times before April.  

The other event I’m planning for May is another running event.  Two of my accounts (one of them Gorham’s again) are involved on a running squad from the Bermuda Rugby Club, and Milwaukee Tool is going to sponsor their shirts and shorts.  Bermuda Day (their independence day) is on May 24^th and every year there is a half marathon that takes place, starting on one end of the island and ending in Hamilton.   I’m currently working on getting a Milwaukee tent shipped to Bermuda so that we can also have a Milwaukee Hydration Station!  My vision is to have it in a location toward the end of the race (Henry keeps telling me that we can put it by the Birdcage on Front Street in Hamilton, whatever that means…I trust it’s prime location) and we’ll hand out RED Gatorade, have volunteers from the runners’ families, and then also be blasting some motivational tunes from a Milwaukee radio with its superior sound.  Of course, I need to not lose sight of the fact that I’m selling power tools and while we need to build brand awareness, I need to sell tools to my accounts, so there will be product orders and promotions as well.  Exciting stuff! 

Final note: I’ll be honest—I’m extremely used to this traveling-to-an-island-every-week-thing.  I’ve mastered making travel reservations, coordinating meetings, reading island maps, airport security, everything.  I'm writing this post as I sit 30,000 feet in the air on a flight back to Miami.  It’s been 14 months, and I thought I’d be pulling my hair out after 12, but I’m not!  The fact that I look forward to going to the island of Bermuda every time, enjoy my customers there and appreciate their willingness to work with me and be creative with sales and events, is almost essential to my sanity with this job at this point.  I like my other islands and have many other cultural experiences and a few other island friends, but Bermuda keeps me motivated for the mixture of reasons I stated above.  KNOCK ON WOOD that we don’t re-organize the territory and I have to leave it!    ….Thanks for reading…I clearly didn’t keep this one short, but I hope you liked it.  My next post will probably be some funny stories from my last trip to USVI, and then I’ll be back in Bermuda in 2 weeks and plan on doing some more cultural stuff since I’ll be there the weekend, so look for that.  Love you guys, happy weekend.  Cheers!

-Anna Banana