Watching the huge hull of the Europa slowly sailing into the dock of the New York Shipyard, he nodded with great satisfaction. After the modification of such a big toy was completed, he could take his whole family to play around the world.
Although airplanes are fast, the comfort of airplanes in this era is still a big problem. If you are working in a hurry, airplanes are naturally the best choice.
But for a simple trip, it is more comfortable to take a boat.
Especially this kind of giant cruise ship that is larger than an aircraft carrier.
However, such a giant cruise ship is about to become Josie's personal toy. Isn't this more exciting than the so-called super yachts owned by the rich?
Of course, there is a price to pay for the excitement. The cost of construction and maintenance of a cruise ship is not comparable to that of a yacht.
If the Europa's hull were not already ready, only the internal facilities would need to be modified, which greatly reduced the cost.
In addition, Josie's unrecorded "spare money" is indeed a lot.
Otherwise, if you use this thing as a private yacht, even he won't be able to live and eat.
However, this giant ship is not just a plaything. After the modification of power, living and entertainment facilities is completed at the New York Shipyard, the ship will undergo some special modifications when it sails to Austria next time.
The reason why the ship needs to be refitted in the United States instead of being completed directly in Austria is that there is no other way. After all, the Austrian shipyards are still building it. It is a bit difficult to even repair a small sampan. There is really no ability to renovate this ship.
Build a 50,000-ton super ship.
As for France, the United Kingdom and other countries, they had just finished the war and were overwhelmed with shipbuilding business in their own countries. Naturally, they could not take on an order as big as Josie's.
Therefore, the only ones in the world that have the spare capacity to complete this 10,000-ton ship in the short term are American shipyards.
Anyway, Europa itself also has a power system, but it is a little behind compared to the post-war standards, and it will not be very troublesome to drive to the United States.
"Let's go! Let's go home!" Qiao Xi said to Jia Ying beside him.
That's right, it's not just the giant ship Europa that came to the United States this time.
Also arriving at the same time were Jia Ying, the steward who had just graduated from the steward academy, and the four-headed giant St. Bernard who was scheduled by Josie.
In fact, normally, a regular training session at the Butler Academy only takes about half a year.
And Jia Ying's studies are often beyond the standard.
But there is no way. As a person born at the bottom of society in this era, Jia Ying's foundation is too weak, so what she has to learn is far beyond that of an ordinary housekeeper.
Just the language and some common sense of European and American society require no small amount of learning.
Even if she can return from her studies within a year, it already belongs to the fact that Lin Deng has found a lot of personal trainers for her, as well as Jia Ying’s nearly infinite energy and the strengthening of her memory and reflexes after awakening her own abilities.
The result of comprehensive factors such as physical fitness.
Otherwise, if it were an ordinary person, it would be difficult to achieve results without studying for several years.
However, after returning to Chicago, Josie did not immediately let Jia Ying take over the affairs at home. After all, it was impossible for Jia Ying to be able to master everything at once when she arrived here, so for the time being, she just asked her to familiarize herself with the Vitos and brother-in-law.
industry.
Today Francesca is also Josie's housekeeper, but the two are different.
Francesca is just the housekeeper of the Chicago estate and Margot's personal assistant.
What Jia Ying wants to do is to be the steward of all Qiao Xi's non-commercial industries around the world, so there won't be much conflict between the two.
When Josie suddenly mentioned bringing back a housekeeper, Margot, as the hostess, was a little wary at first.
But now after meeting Jia Ying in person, Margot is relieved.
Jia Ying's appearance cannot be said to be ugly, but she definitely cannot be said to be beautiful, and her figure is average.
Not to mention the mature Margot, even Francesca was far inferior, so Margot relaxed and accepted the other person's existence.
After all, she knew Qiao Xi's taste very well.
Qiao Xi is also a man. Although he can control himself very well, sometimes when he meets a more beautiful woman outside, he can't help but look at her a few more times.
Margot is not a fool, so she can naturally notice it, but she will not make trouble with Josie because of such a trivial matter.
Compared with Jia Ying's arrival, the four big dogs, which are burly but extremely docile, are very popular with the whole family.
"Oh, my God, this kid is fat again." Josie couldn't help but sigh as she picked up her eldest son, Mike, from the cradle.
"Nonsense, Mike is not fat, he just gains weight faster when he is growing rapidly!" Margot was tinkering with the guest list and rolled her eyes after hearing this.
What she is preparing is the invitation letter for Josie's birthday party. In half a month, it will be Josie's birthday.
Normally, neither she nor Qiao Xi had the habit of organizing their birthdays in a big way. At most, they would just invite some friends with whom they were very close to each other.
But this time is different, because this is Josie's 18th birthday party.
On August 8, 1945, Josie officially turned 18.
In later generations, Americans generally have three coming-of-age ceremonies.
One is 16 years old, because for most ordinary Americans, this age is the age when they can get a driver's license, which is of great significance, so they will celebrate it grandly.
However, it was the end of 1943 when Josie was 16 years old. At that time, the situation between him and Margot was still a little awkward, so there was no big deal. The two just celebrated in private, and then spent the entire day being affectionate.
The second one is 18 years old, which is the legal age of majority in the United States and is also very important.
Especially now that Josie's status has changed. The relationship between him and Margot has also changed from a behavior of following a rich woman at the beginning to a relationship between an outstanding young Austrian rich man and a young American widow.
A beautiful love story.
As for the third coming-of-age ceremony, it is the legal drinking age of 21 - but the legal drinking age of 21 was in the 1970s, and now the drinking age in the United States is also 18.
Therefore, this third rite of passage does not exist in this era.
"Okay, our baby has grown up, not fat, muma!" Josie smiled and took a sip on the face of the fat boy in her hand.
This made the baby very unhappy and started howling immediately.
"Look at you, you like to use children as toys and make them cry when you have nothing to do. How can you be such a father!" Seeing this, Margot became angry and immediately put down what she was doing and snatched it from Josie's hand.
The child coaxed.
Qiao Xi smiled bitterly at this, saying that children are not meant to be played with when they are born, and if they are not played when they are young, they will not be cute when they grow up.
Thinking of this, Josie couldn't help but turn her eyes to Carol in the other cradle.
It turned out that this little girl was much smarter than her brother. When she saw Qiao Xi's eyes, she started howling, which confused Qiao Xi.
I haven't even hugged you yet, and I'm already being rejected?
Now it was better, Margot was very angry after making the two babies cry. She immediately coaxed the children and drove Josie, an unreliable father, out of the house.
"Oh, you are the best behaved. Children are so annoying!" Qiao Xi in the yard muttered to herself while petting a few big dogs that came close to her.