October 26, 2008
Hi yall, I’m backkkkk! Yes ladies and gentleman I am back in never, never land! So Punk and I had an amazing week in Germany and Austria. So I show up at the Hotel on the 18th about 10 PM and I am greeted by this cute blonde American girl who is apparently having a bad day, more on that in a minute. I arrived at the airport, get through customs and find a Police officer to direct me on where I am headed; Munich has an amazing under ground and above ground transportation system. Any who I ask this feller to guide me. He just said take the S8 to, oh I can remember the name of the station, so I do and when it is time for me to exit the train I get up, stand at the door and, and, nothing freaking happens. The doors would not open, ok, I am in a foreign country and do not speak the language and I am stuck on the subway, Yeehaw! So right as I am ready to give up this women is trying her best in German to tell me to push the light on the door and it will open, so I reach for it and just as I make contact the light goes off. HMMMMM! What to do? So I exit with the rest of the trains passengers at the next stop! Ok, now I really have no idea where I am. Therefore, I follow everyone else. Now mind you I am dragging a fifty pound box, fortunately it has wheels, so I carry it up the stairs, to the street and my first obstacle is a ¼ mile hike up a hill, oh yippy, so I make it to the top and I stop in front of a DVD shop, oh wait it’s a XXXXDVD store! Great, So now I am looking for a cab, and looking, and looking. So finally one pulls up, I wave and he said no, what just cause I am in front of the store don’t mean I am buying, but wait, he parks and he goes in. wonderful, lose a fair for porn, what a dumbass! So this nicely tanned man obliviously not from Germany then walks out of the store and said do you need a cab, I said yes and he called for me one! So I get a cab and he takes me to where I need o be!

So I go in and get a key and head up to the room, I knock as to not scare my wife and she opens the door and grabs my neck and then starts crying, dang babe, glad to see you too! Then she starts telling me how ugly people were to her after she landed, Bubba not happy man now! See she didn’t find the exchange place so she still had US Dollars and not euro, when she got to the hotel, the staff was not assisting in anyway, then my Punk who hadn’t eaten went to find some food but no-one would take her Dollars. So she was very relieved when I showed up! So after kissing her hello, I took my baby to eat. The rest of the night is private! HEHEHE!

Sunday through Saturday was a whirlwind, we walked a lot, we ate a lot of Italian food, we drove to Austria and saw King Ludwig the II castle, we had a ball! My favorite part besides seeing my wife was going on the Beer Tour! My beer drinking comrades would have loved this! We started out at Marineplatz (center of town) then we walked and listened. We ended at the Haufbruer House! this my friends is the pinnacle of Beer drinkers paradise. This is one of if not the oldest beer drinking establishments and they serve beer by the mass, this is a large glass approximately 1 liter at a time! Oh darn is that for me! Yippy! There was some much and its hard to think of it all, we did meet some neat folks from Florida, New York and Australia on the tour! Gene and Don ward, Gene is his daughter and they were on holiday, cant remember the other folks names but we all had a good time!

I know this is short and I will add more later! Love yall and it looks like I am coming home in December for good!

Going to Germany to meet the PUNK. I will try to keep yall updated as the week progresses, But I make no promises! Have a great week!

Friday October 17, 2008

Alrighty then, I am in the back seat of this4-runner by choice, the Bulgarian nightmare is driving and I am typing so as not look up, he drives like crap! There are not many people in the world that I have ridden with that I would prefer to start a day earlier and walk the 150 k to where ever it is we need to go! I think my real problem aside from the fact that I need to take motion sickness pills when he drives is I just don’t like, trust, or give a darn about him and I think that’s what bothers me because I generally like everyone! So anyway imagine and I will convert speeds for you best I can, imagine seated in the front seat of a tin can at 55 mph and just enjoying the ride and all of a sudden you here the engine rpms go through the roof! You look up and you see a line of cars with no space in between in front of you, yet this doof-wad wants to pass them all, oh wait did I mention the large passenger buses lumbering down the road towards you, did I mention we are in his lane! So we wait until a fly cant fit between us and the bus and he forces the vehicle next to us to swerve off the road so we can fit in. guys I was curled up in a ball in the front seat and cussing him as if he was a rabid dog. I called him every name in the book! He is an arrogant, insecure little psychologist! Anyway, tomorrow is go day. Punk will fly to Germany, I will meet here there, and we will spend 6 ½ days together doing who knows what and really who cares as long as I can hold her hand and kiss her face! I really miss the chaos of home! Working extra jobs and coaching and begin awake more than asleep really doesn’t seem that bad when you miss the ones you do it for. Not saying my intentions were always for others when I was working but hey, I am human! At least when I want something I will work for it! So we are almost to Mitro and I am just babbling but it is keeping me from looking at the road and throwing up or hitting him in the face. Oh I need higher intervention, I cant stand him! Lord grant me the patients and the knowledge to deal with Tim, Lord he ha good intentions but I feel as if he is just immature and ignorant to what he does. Lord please place your hands on this vehicle for I would like to see my family again! Also lord I ask for your guidance in dealing with him.

Ok so we left Mitro and now we are at gate 1, the drive up wasn’t that bad because of the big trucks that followed us, they cause him to drive like a human instead of some wanna be race car driver! One thing I have learned is, in Bulgaria, to shake your head side to side means yes and up and down means no! Go figure, they are backwards. Also My little buddy likes to make horse sounds and tick tick noises when he has to stop and think, this frustrates me beyond belief.

So I am sitting here listening to dream weaver and thinking about meeting punk. My sister sent me an email about CHOW. That is the universal greeting of goodbye here. It becomes a habit after awhile. My Buddy Giovanni from, ANYONE? Italy! Yea yall. He is so funny, he is me with an Italian accent. He loves to tlk to me because of my thick draw, I explain to him where I am from I don’t have a draw, he just has a hearing problem. I have however learned that when I speak I most speak slowly, these folks just don’t understand Texan! I tried to explain it but they cant get it. Giovanni has learned how to say Howdy mam. Its so funny!

Now you might ask yourself if gate 1 is my responsibility why am I sitting in the truck, well I shall explain. See we are on a mountain and there is a really good drop off here and I am extremely tempted to throw Tim over the side so here I sit. No, really its because the workers are doing there jobs and Tim is out there sticking his nose in every butt crack he can find. I have spoken to the people I needed to and now I am letting him do whatever it is he does. See when he is here he wants to run the show, when he is actually supposed to be supporting me but he thinks because I am an American that people are intimidated by me or that I am rough because I asked direct questions, they believe you should beat around the bush and I aint got time for that. If you wanna sit over coffee and pump each others ego’s enjoy, I wanna know what I need to know to get the job done. Example: I saw JURJI this morning, I walked over and said good morning, we shook hands and he said, I am sending this group to gate 1 as promised and I don’t know when I will be able to go again, I responded with Jurji, you told me you would do this and now you are. I understand you have a bunch of things going and I promised I would not bother you and I haven’t, he said yea you are right but that one and he pointed at Tim, that one has been bothering me constantly! I just smiled and said I apologize for that but I understand your position and when you can you will. He smiled, nodded, shook my hand and said thank you! Now I ask was I undiplomatic, rude, or intimidating! Sounds to me like Tim is the pain and not the Big American!

Oh well, I will just sit and talk to yall. I am so excited, tomorrow and I am out of here! I am going to another country and chilling out for a week. Something else I have noticed is all the people from cold area’s are wrapped up as soon as it gets cool, but the Americans from the south continue to dress for summer, what’s up with that? They are used to it being cold and we are used to the heat yet when the temp drops they are wrapped up like Eskimo’s, I don’t get it.

Ok so before we leave I ask if I can drive, he said why, I said to be honest your driving scares me and its only a matter of time before you cause a major accident and I don’t wanna be riding with you when you do. He got pisses, Guess what? I drove! HEHEHEHE!
Bye
Biggen

Oct 15, 2008 Wed

So today has been interesting so far, I was supposed to go to gate 1 today for the delivery of the passport booths but the Bulgarian nightmare wanted to go so I stayed behind and had to go to a meeting in his place. I arrived at this meeting with absolutely no knowledge of what this was about. I greet everyone and I sit, they began talking about holding cells in the different regions and I had no clue what or where these places were. Then they asked my opinions on the subject, I politely stated, I am still new to this and I am in the process of learning so I will keep my opinions to myself until I am more knowledgeable on the subject matter. Well it turned out that these engineers and those engineers and the FMU specialist and everyone in the room was as lost as I was because, ANYONE? Nobody talks to anybody until there is a mandatory meeting! Gee what a concept. You and I are in charge of the same project from different angles and we cant sit and have a conversation about this until the UN orders us to, come on. Lets meet once a week and discuss this in stead of every three months because we have too.

So now I am sitting in a class room at PTC awaiting the lecture I am so excited to hear. My friend Andy the investigator is going to fill our heads with awww inspiring information! I will let you know how it goes. OH, I talked to Jason Reel and his son does not have cancer but has lost the site in his eye. Pleas continue to pray for him!

Ok, that was very interesting. I will spare you all the boring details but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I e-mailed Jason and he said there is no cancer its something else and he will be blind but they are going to try to save the eye. There are three days until I leave for Germany to meet my beautiful wife. Yea, 7 days, the only way it could be better is if the kids came too!

Ok guys I am out for the night! Chow

Oct 14 2008
Ok so again I am behind, what do ya do? So some interesting things have happened since I last wrote, the big issue on the table right now is the European Union taking over the Un Mission, yet the EU is not prepared finically, logistically, or equipped with the man power. There was a meeting at the CPI House and they discussed the EU package, and announced the 6th call for contributions, now the moneys not bad, less than what we are making now but the over all package is not favorable for Americans with family, the work schedule will be a Monday –Friday at 2pwith weekends off, cool right, no, you will earn leave at a rate of 1 ½ days a month, 1.5 X12 18 days off. Now for a single person that’s great but the married folks aren’t real interested in this. Now that doesn’t mean you cant take time off with out pay and go home but you will be strongly urged not to do this because if you are off the company is not maven money and above all, isn’t that what they are in business for. So the head of the CPI house Director of Kosovo operations, called and asked why I had not submitted my EU app. I explained to him prior to the package coming out I was interested, but after seeing the package and the lack of time to go and see the family, I would not be submitting one. He respected that and understood, I did say however that if the UN mission carried on I would stay and fulfill my obligation, though I really miss my comfy little patrol car.

Let us see, we had Escort training and let me tell you, Ii did not know you could thrash a Toyota 4-runner like the one we did. It is a very stable vehicle in a slide or J-turn. Its really amazing what you can do in 4-wheel drive backwards, man that was fun. We also had a shooting day; we went out to the range and shot a 25m 15 m 10m 7 m and 5m course. I shot well from the first three all in the black, Thank you to my shooting instructors at Tomball PD, Cliff, and Jeff. But on the reaction shooting at 7 and 5 meters I threw one and pushed 1 on the first double action shots. Oh well, it was fun and I was glad to know I could center mass shoot with this dang Beretta. Every time I look at it I think about ole Stach back at the PD. I am not real found of the Beretta but its what I have and what I have to shoot so I might as well be good with it. After shooting the course, we did a escort scenario and we had to bail out, take cover and engage two targets. I was on the drivers side, so I bailed out rounded the back of the vehicle hit the ground barricading myself, well as much as I could lying on the ground and engaging my two targets. Ten rounds and the whole scenario last about 10-15 seconds but its really a rush because it happens so fast and its basically reaction shooting. For people that doont shoot reaction shooting is point and shoot, not taking time to aim. I went10 for 10 so I was pleased, Now there were some folks from all over the world and I will say that the French and the Turks were the best shooters aside from the Americans of course! Hehe.
Some of these folks were limp wristed and stove piping every other round, others have been issued these weapons and never fired them. Others are issued these weapons and are not allowed to carry them loaded. Scary! There was one Turk with a six shot 9mm revolver and, well, umm, never mind, Scary!

After we finished the course they broke out the bad boy, YES APPLAUSE! THE MP-5. ahhhhh, now I have been waiting since we arrived to play with this fine piece of machinery. I was impressed with this weapon and fell in love with it. It was so smooth and accurate. When we shot the burst and the full auto it rose a little at first but no so much that you couldn’t control it..
Lets see what else has been going on, I was speaking to the Bulgarian nightmare about some things and his English is not so good so he misunderstood 90% of the conversation the runs to the Director Of KP FMU and starts telling him what I told him and the director exploded and called me a liar and told tim he wished for a meeting with my bosses and he would call me a liar to my face! Ok Pal, Big mistake, If you are gonna call me a liar you damn sure better be ready to back it up. So his wish for a meeting was granted. And at 3pm on the 13th of October 2008 I Mark D. Hannsz exercised diplomacy and patients. I walked into this meeting and Warren my big boss, said you look mad, I said your damn right I am. He said I know I heard. I told warren if this guy raises his voice at me or accuses me of being a liar we were gonna have a big issue. Warren said hell if he yells at me I’ll punch him in the face. So anyway the meeting starts and warren opens, he goes through the formal BS involved and then he asked if anybody had anything, I jumped right in, lets talk about gates, I don’t receive any of the request and you don’t let me know anything so how m I supposed to do my job if you want do yours. Now this guy is just dumb founded because I just called him on the carpet in front of his bosses. So I continued firing questions and he kept backing into the corner. I started to enjoy it. So I backed down until the big question. I started like this, I understand there was a conversation earlier today that involved mention of my name and I have been accused of lying, I folded my hands on the table, leaned in chest resting on my folded hands, staring him right in the eye, causing him to lean back a little and I said I would like to explain something to you. Now mind you there is a translator and she too was uneasy but to her it was like OMG what is this guy going to make me sy to this high ranking KPS officer? I said Zenol I do not know you and I do not have any reason to lie to you, for you about you or anything else. I take my honesty very seriously and I am not found of people accusing me of being a liar. Now if you would like to be as bold to call me out as I have you I am here and waiting. If not, let it be known to anyone in this room that if you think I have told you a lie, I would be happy to discuss these issues right here right now. Now from what I understand there was a little bit of lost in translation on the part of Tim and when he was made aware of his mistake he took no action to correct that, now I can not speak for him and his lack of action to correct this opinion of me you have formed but I assure you I did not lie to you. When the translator finished, there was silence in the room and it was like a tennis match. Eyes left to right. No one in the room spoke and they were extremely shocked I had called him on the carpet. Finally Zenol responded and said that is not what I said and I don’t think you lied, that’s when the meeting shifted to Tim, now Tim was accused of using a KPS worker to do duties at his accommodation on the KP dime. Now this is getting interesting and there was all kinds of craw fishing going on. Man I have never seen Warrens head whip around so fast. And Tim just sat there smug look on his face and tried to explain it but I believe it was falling on deaf ears. Anyway, I walked out of there quite satisfied with the impact of what I said. I was also impressed with my diplomacy, tactical approach and demeanor during this time, I never lost my cool and Tim stepped on himself!


So I haven’t spoke much about my friend Scottish friend and his Italian roomy Fabreeshio. Andy and Fab live about 3 minutes walk from my flat and Andy is a World renowned Detective from Scotland yard. As a matter of fact Andy could be making 5k a week lecturing about financial crimes, terrorist and corruption. Andy is an amazingly talented person and last night we got into a discussion about the differences of who you are and what you do. I said to him I admire you and your talents and I like hanging out with you because I learn so much, he then began the whole that’s not who I am, that’s what I do. But in the end we had a beer and said cheers, I don’t care what he said, he is a hell of a nice guy and an amazing person. He is doing a lecture on Wednesday and I am going to go. I would Love to hook him up with the PD back home and bring him to TX to teach us what he knows. I think someone like Brandon would benefit from this greatly. Did I mention he is a damn good pool player too!

So I am in the backseat of the truck headed to gate 1 and I am listening to my itunes on the puter and typing this. All I can think about is how I need to update this cause of my few faithful followers. Speaking of, I need to call Jason and check on his son. I heard Bitzys Benefit was a huge success, I have been trying to call him and see how he is but I keep getting his voice mail. I will continue to try. I also need to try and email Rob. Anybody that has never met him I would encourage yall to meet him. The California kid is a trp. He is such a neat guy and he really cares about his people. He has been very nice and carrying about anything my wife would need while I am gone. You know he is not the only one that has offered. I am truly Blesses By the hand of God to have the friends and Family I have. You guys are everything to me. Thank yall for being there for my family when needed. It’s the little things that mean so much. Like steve going over and fixing the ice maker. That is a huge favor when you are 6000 miles away from your true obligation. If I have learned anything with this adventure is that aquatints will say anything to make you smile, and friends will do anything. You know Marcus, we have been friends for 30 + years and he isn’t talking to me because he is mad about something that has nothing to do with me. You know I have done so much for him over the years and he wants to act like a little kid about this and I am pretty much washing my hands of it. But mark my words, when he is ready or in need he will show back up or call and all will be nice. Whatever. I have all I need in my Wife and kids. That is what matters to me! Ok, we are almost there and I am gonna close for now, smoke I am trying to get ya updated dear. Since I got my skype its hard to type when I am wanting to talk on the phone with Punk! Love you guys
Mark

Happy Birthday Baby

Monday October 6, 2008

Today I become the Father of a Teenager! OH LORD! To day is my baby's Birthday. Happy, Happy birthday Baby! 13 Man they grow up fast! Love them while you can because they grow up and runaway as fast as they can, but as we all know, they will come back! To my beautiful daughter I wish you the best birthday wishes, a happy day, and above all Daddy Loves you!

So I am behind again and I apologize, but hey, what do ya do. I read that Sgt. Bitz is headed home, is counts have stabilized, not that he doesn't need the transplant but he will be less stressed then if he were in the hospital so pray for him.

Jason's son is do for an eval at TX Children's so pray that goes well for him, Be praying for ya little man!

so I am still frustrated by the thought process of the people her.

picture this, You have a parking lot with 5o UN vehicles in it, now you have been given the task of repairing these really big pot holes. now you A: block the entire drive with freshly pored cement and block all of these vehicles in, B: do half the drive and await for it to set, then do the other half, or C: you wait till the 50 vehicles are out of the parking lot for the night, pour your concrete and wait till morning to make sure it is set?

if you answered A, you are probably Albanian!

next question, (I like these quizzes)

You are tasked with repairing a major roadway with no way to divert traffic, you A: block half the road, B: Work at night, C: you jackhammer half the road, then move to the other side allowing vehicles to drive on what you just hammered, Or D:You just block the whole road with no detour or notification and expect the 50k cars lined up to understand your situation.

Now if you answered C and D, You are probably Albanian!

anyway I have seen the first signs of winter, there is snow on the mountain tops, oh man its gonna be cold. Big boy ain't ready to freeze! that's a big dang Popsicle

Friday October 3, 2008
Ok so I am a little behind on blogging and I will apologize later. So this has been a very busy time for me. I am responsible for 5 police stations under construction and 2 gates ( Border Crossings). I am worn out. So not much to report, have been going out and inspecting a lot of buildings and have learned the people over here accept sub par work as great. It is very frustrating. When you say something about the paint or the finish, they are appalled that you would mention anything negative about a brand new building. How many people reading this have ever in your life painted anything? Now with this thought in your mind, correct me if I am wrong. You prepare the surface to be painted, then you use a base coat or a primer, then you apply you paint. Correct? Well apparently in the Balkans’ you hang the sheetrock, not concerned with floating and taping properly, then you throw some paint on it and you are done. Cost effective but looks like crap, And they think it looks great. I went for fuel the other day and saw them painting inside the booth. Now this is a dirty nasty wall from shoes, boots, dirt and pen markings. Now I bet you are thinking ahead. STOP IT, this is my story! So anyway, with out as much as wiping the wall with a paper towel they were painting it white. Then they were frustrated that it did not cover the markings on the wall, DUH!

I was told before I arrived here to be shocked by nothing I saw; now I understand this warning. The people of this country are amazingly intelligent and resourceful, but they are lazy, and look for a temporary solution to a long term problem. If they can patch it and it will hold for any amount of time when that patch is bad, they will patch it again. Simple solutions.

Now I have a new problem to contemplate. My Bulgarian boss has asked me to be the liaison between KP Admin and UN. Ok now yall are thinking hey that’s great, and I too would say this until he begins to explain to me why it is I he has chosen, (Buckle up boys and girls). So the conversation begins like this. In broken English he said to me, Mark, I will be relieving you of your duties at gate 31 so you can have Thursdays free to meet with Zorin at KP Admin, I respond, Ok? He then begins to explain to me that A: I am big and Intimidating, B: I am rude and wont take any mess off of him, and C: I am not diplomatic! Now imagine what I am thinking as he is saying this to me…… anyone? Ok first of all, my friends don’t call me the politician for nothing, diplomacy is what I used in my daily job duties as a police officer in Texas, secondly, I have a very guilty conscious when I am rude to someone, Including some of the low life scum I have dealt with. Do not mistake my passion for a job done right and I get upset with the work here that is sub par as rude when I make a comment about it. Do you not think the officers who are depending on me to get this project done would rather have it done right than half-baked?

So I was very confused and hopeful that he was using these words incorrectly. My Deputy Chief approached me and said Mark; I have never known you to be rude, un-diplomatic, or intimidating. You are a large man but you are a gentle bear. I agreed. I would give the shirt off my back for anyone who needed it. He said, I believe he knows not what he said. I said I do not really care; I am exercising my diplomacy right now and not taking offense to his ignorance of who I am nor what I stand for.

So with that out of the way and I do feel better thank you. I am asking at this time for your thought and prayers for too people in my life that have always been there for me. Sgt Keith Bitz of the Tomball police Department is experiencing liver failure and awaiting a transplant, and Jason Reel, His son has a tumor behind his eye and is awaiting admittance into Tx Children’s Hospital to have this tumor removed, his eye site has been affected and it is possible he will be blind in this eye forever. So please pray for healing and Gods will in both of these people’s lives.

I bid you Farwell and goodnight
Biggen