I do, or do not.....

So I had this real interesting couple on my gondola the other night......we had recieved notice previously that my boat would be a proposal boat, and there were flowers on the seats awaiting the happy couple. They showed up, him: In a suit and tie, hair appropriately combed and gel'ed up, and quite obviously nervous. She: wearing an old sweatshirt, tan pants, tennis shoes, hair strewn about, unaware, or perhaps surprised to the evenings festivities.

I put on my thick accent and greeted the couple warmly, trying not to "wink" at the guy or perhaps reach down and slap him on the butt while saying "Go get `em!" So we left the dock, and I decided to get the know these people a little better. In broken english they said they were from Hong Kong, here to relax and enjoy the weekend. Perhaps get engaged. They didnt say that, but I thought it, and other than that, they were not very talkative. She knew something was up, I know WHAT was up, and the guy wasnt sure where UP was, as he was so nervous, playing with the ring box in his pocket the whole time.

We were cruising into my third zone, me, happy as can be yelling bits and pieces of italian songs, pretending to be speaking something in Italian to other gondoliers as if it were something that I didnt want others who spoke english to understand. I glanced down at the "happy couple" and saw the guy was going for it. He pivoted to one knee stance and went for the ring.

Now mind you.....this is my FIRST proposal boat.....and all the while I'm thinking to myself what this is going to mean to someone else....a romantic setting...a happy couple....lives about to be changed....forever....all in front of me.......and I might get a tip!

Going for the ring, the man was suddenly stopped by his shocked girlfriend/almost fiancee` as she pushed his shoulders back into the seat. He took to his seat shocked and unaware as he looked into his girlfriends un-approving face. She shook here head sadly and spoke to him in Chinese. His eyes became glossed over, but he tried not to show it. He never cried, but his face ached with pain. Heart broken.....

We continued the ride, me with optimism for the guy, hoping that she wanted him to do it in the turn-around where their families where.....two rotations, and nothing.....perhaps while I was singing....I puffed up my chest and sang 6 songs....still nothing. Him now holding the flowers, her, hands in between her legs trying to look anywhere but at him.

We finally finished the ride, and as I came into the dock, I saw the faces of the other gondoliers. Caked with excitement and anticipation for the "new couple." This is where now, I am supposed to get the attention of all the shoppers in the mall and yell....."She said YES!!!!", but this time, no go. I gave my supervisor and my other gondolier co-workers a stern look and they suddenly knew what was up.

With one last attempt of hope for the guy I helped his lady out of the boat and held her hand in hopes he would propose on the dock. She pulled away and left without him. leaving her purse and flowers, which he kindly gathered, thanked me with sad eyes, and went after his lady.

They did not purchase their picture, no souveniers, nothing. they disappeared. Their lives DID change.....just not for the best....at least right then. Perhaps it was a good thing. Perhaps he will try again.....Who knows......

so i know some of you have been itching for pictures...and so i have some for you.....all you have to do is log on to the website and you can view them..download them...whatever you like....ill try to keep them coming on a more regular basis for you guys!

http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/Robertpellissier/

theres the link try that out and enjoy

Phase 2!

so i have now figured out the best way to do this......write a little every day or so...and publish it on my day off...that way i can keep you all up to date....and posting more often...which has been a struggle of mine.....

so tomorrow will be the soft opening of our 2nd inside canal....we call it the "Marco Polo" canal...which features lovely italian architecture and even some chinese flare....as soon as they let me bring my camera in...ill have some pics........so we will be opening that...it is quite a bit more difficult to row that the other canal due to blind spots and stuff...so we will be relying on communication and awareness for this one..........the official opening will be on monday......but i am feeling it will not be so popular because there is not a store on that side of the mall which is open....but hey...who knows.....

this means there is one more final canal to open as with about a 1000 rooms and the cirque de sole theatre and just about everything in the venetian will be open........

food here has become quite good......when exploring.....we have found many places to dine that bring back the memories from home....my favorite....being the most expensive of coarse...(good taste comes from mom and dad....thanks guys!!) is a brazilian steak house call fogo samba.....f=for 350 MOP a person...one can go upstairs.....dine at a buffet which includes....salads....cheeses.....appetizers....some meats...fruits...veggies....all while your "personal" cantadores i think they are called deliver fresh hot cheese rolls...fresh fried polenta.....the best green beans i have had...as they are pretty much INJECTED with garlic...and of coarse mashed potatoes.........and then they offer you the MAIN coarse...you flip your poker chip to the green side to signal "go" and they waiters proceed to bring you 15 different kinds of meats....from chicken to lamb...to BEEF...oh beef!
just about every cut you could think of...they serve...after being freshly rotated slowly over a pit of coals.....they bring these meats on a long sword/skewer and carve it for you fresh right on the spot....and if at anytime you need a break...or would like to resumer service...a turn over of the poker chip is all that is required.....
and then the dessert.

picture this....fresh, ripe delicious pinnapple......good along right? imagine this freshly carved and coated generously with brown sugar...cane sugar...and cinnammin.......and roasted over hot coals so this sugary madness turns to carmel and coats this beautiful fruit...and once they serve you a piece....time to "RECOAT" the thing in sugar until you would like more.......
you may have as much meat and this as you want....MMMMMMM.

and of coarse they have other stuff too.......

wow....its 3 in the morning and this sounds glorious.

anyways.....food is no longer the issue....health of the food in the employee dinning room may be tho....things have never been quite right in there....worms WERE spotted in the broccoli.....guess its going to be cup of noodles again.....

and finally...all of the trainers have left...the rest of the training will be done in vegas and finished here.....but who knows when more will arrive....i let one of my good buddies know there might be a spot here as a supervisor....a pretty cake job....it would be great to have another familiar face here.

this seems to be it. pictures ARE coming.......
oh...i did change my name...its

Giovanni Sarducci Bounchristianni

thanks Mr. B. for the last name usage.....now i have a real name.....

ROb

Its been a while...

And so im back....finally. things are just barely starting to settle down here.....

The grand opening was amazing....like i said before..there was media from 40 different countries covering this event....i was in all kinds of newspapers, on 3 or 4 news channels, and probably some stuff i will never get to see or hear about.....we were also covered, since training in las vegas by national geographic, so coming in early january will be a special on the venetian and the gondoliers....

now since the opening things have been kind of full steam ahead.....we still have plenty of media coverage here....and all kids of celebs have been and will be showing up.....Andre 300 from outkast came over and we got to hang out.....david blaine was seen haning out at the venetian......will smith is coming in a few weeks....black eyed peas will be performing soon..the nba will be here in a few weeks.....and im rockin the court side tickets....

the ride/job itself has been interesting...you really meet some interesting characters from around the world working something like this. now...it has become more of a disneland type of thing/feel......really big with the kids...and not so romantic/authentic. gondola ride in venice type of feel.

Im going to be creating an acount that will have all of my pictures, and ill be bringing my camera along with me where i go. i have been slacking a bit.

we just also got word that we will be moving into apartments within the next 2 weeks, so me and ryan have been doing a little apartment shopping in the mean time. fully furnished pads over here are really not to expensive.

we are opening a new canal within the next 30 days called the Marco Polo canal.....it has this giant chinese boat in it....and is pretty difficult to manuever inside. we are not allowed to go in or take pictures for a while yet, same thing with the casino.

our phase 2 gondoliers came 2 weeks ago and just finished their training. they have now taken overt the outside ride...which is a really cool ride...its all open water...like being on a lake.....and a handful have been able to work with us on the inside....ahh the air conditioned, no humidity inside. for those of us who have been rowing on the inside since day one....are hopefully projected to be moving to the new canal once it opens temporarliy.

everything seems to be going great.....i upload and publish the new site soon.

Doge` SAI!

yo....just headed out the door for work...but wanted to post a little..."sneak peak" at some of the stuff in china that i have seen/visited/done while ive been over here....some are from the trip over here...some from my trip to hong kong..and some here in macau/taipa......as soon as i get my pictures from the photographer in the venetian, ill post some of the interior and work...and hopefully of the casino if i dont get tackled first....(they are kind of strict about that stuff here..) so please enjoy!

Rob

Giovanni Sarducci

and for those that were wondering...yes, that is the last name of "Father Guido Sarducci" of where i get my inspiration for my accent from.....so thank you SNL.


this is hong kong as we cruise in on the speed ferry...there are a TON of these tall/skyscraper buildings....it really is a mix of san francisco and new york...but not.


This is the ferry that takes you from the island to hong kong...and as big as it is...it is incredibly fast...45 minutes and were in hong kong....the other way to hong kong is by helicopter..but that costs roughly 200 dollars american money.


this is all of us crammed into the back of a bus after we arrived here...and this picture does it no justice...there were soo many of us you cannot see...as we had to cram because not only did we fill up the luggage storage..but we also filled up half the bus seats with the rest of our luggage!


This is me...in hong kong.....furby?


just a nice little pad in hong kong


taken from a double decker bus in hong kong...left side of the road....scared for my life!


ladies and gentlemen....those are shark fins.....if i took one bag back to america...i would be an incredibly rich man.


almost like san fran with the winding streets and hills

alright my friends...that is all...

Macau Thus Far....

Wow....so here were are, week 1...well a little more than a week here in Macau...and thus far i must say things are incredible!

right off the bat...training has been a little either grueling and hard nosed....or relatively chill. there was a lot of character work(things like accents...background information....stories....etc) to work on...and then the memorization of actual Venice landmarks and the history and the things that we would be singing. however...with that out of the way..we could finally focus on rowing and the actual "ride" itself.

it wasnt until yesterday...saturday...friday for most of you that are reading this...that we actually got ALL of our boats in the water...which meant we were practicing with only 3 boats as opposed to 7...which is huge! but for the past two days..things have integrated nicely...there are those that are really taking to the water...have become smooth...can focus on creating an atmosphere and nice "ride" and there are still those that have not found that confidence yet...but it will come..just hopefully by tuesday....the grand opening.

let me just say that this "hotel/resort" is GIGANTIC! it houses 4 large casinos...is the first in asia to offer VIP/high roller rooms.....everything is pristine from the paintings on the ceilings to the carpetry...i will hopefully get some pictures up...but not until the opening...as it is a confidentiality thing.....the suites in the hotel are amazing...they are having special intro rates for 1800 petacas a night..thats about......200 dollars american dollars.

the grand canal shops are exquisite....the canal itself is unbelieveable.....the facade(the houses and aging bridges, background) has been detailed beyond belief....from cracks...to chunks of wall missing with brick underneath...to shadows in windows....flowers..pots...it looks like a real city there...more importantly...Venice...which is awesome..the outside...well...is about the size of a small city...and houses a lake....yes...a 3 foot deep lake....hahaha.

as far as the characters go...sooooo many awesome people here that i am working with...there is soo much talent on the water its amazing..from opera singers...to professional actors/actresses...its awesome..and such a privilege to be working with them...(i hope they read this!)

everything else...geese...is awesome...im living in whats called the grand waldo(check out here) which is about a 200+ american dollar a night hotel...the host a breakfast for us and we recieve regular maid service/cleaning. which is awesome... we also get another free meal from the venetian..so we only have to spot one meal for ourselves which is not bad at all considering all i have to do is walk down the street..pick up some dim-sum for 30 petacas(about 3.50 american) and im good to go.....they have really treated us like royalty here...we have been working very hard...but it has all been very worth while.

culture wise...some of the food has been difficult to stomach...i give props to whomever first decided that the head of a duck/pigeon/goose/rats was a good idea to cook and eat......man......but for the most part..i have grown a little accustomed to the food here...some of it is really good! for the american food cravings i get though...there is a pizza hut down the street that probably has my room number/order memorized so all i have to do is call down....there is a mcdonalds..but i stay away from that...and there are 3 starbucks here.....we have been very lucky to find some amazing italian/mexican/spanish/portuguese restaurants here..for quite cheap...which by the way...food is really cheap here. so thats a good thing.

wow....there is still soo much to say...about this whole experience that i could not possibly begin to type without going into another essay...but it is all an awesome experience.

please...be on the lookout for TV specials...NBC,ABC,CBS, FOX, ALL and i mean ALL the news stations will be here...well are already here...i have been on national geographic so far..and even got to film for them which was rad! but keep an eye out the next few days for the coverage of this huge grand opening. there is media from over 40 countries here....and there is a projected estimate of about 40,000 people supposed to be gathering for the grand opening...30,000 gathered for the sands here in Macau...i feel this will generate more......by the way...the SANDS casino here...makes more money in one month than the ENTIRE vegas strip....and it only has 45 rooms......

the lowest gambling bets here are about equal to 30 american dollars.

wow.

yep...this is where i work.

anyways...ill be back soon.

Rob

(Giovanni Sarducci...Gondolier)