today

work was a bit exciting today for good ol' sheena. the sun came out for a while and i got to spend half the day on rail calls. they're so much simpler than tour calls.

there's alot more to explain in rail than in tour. most of the callers on the rail lines are 'public' callers, while on the tour side they're mostly travel agents. a public caller means someone usually unfamilliar with travel in general and everything must be explained in great detail. not to mention we're americans, and therefore unprepared for things to be different than here. but it's alot easier to be someone's hero when you are willing to offer help and advice, and seem to know alot about something foreign to them (that pun was fully intended, thank you very much!) that they're about to put their entire savings into.

we also answer email sent to our website when calls are slow. some of the email we get blows my mind. today i answered one where they wanted to know the best way to take trains from germany to ireland. i felt a little condescending having to point out that ireland is an island and has to be reached by boat. the trick is to sound sincere and nice even if you are secretly thinking 'is this a joke?'

the 2 most exciting things to happen today were 1) finding out the position i want in the company has an opening, and 2) was getting a reply to the text i sent to my friend in london telling her i was praying for her. she sent a reply saying (among other things...i can't tell you all our girl-talk!) that she had a very hard weekend and has really been in need of prayer. i love the way God puts us on eachother's hearts and through that gives us strenght.

even thought we got sunshine, i got to take rail calls, and my career is waving itself before my eyes, getting janelle's text was by far the best part of my day.