The breakfast at the inn where we were staying was the same everyday. Unlike the hotels i used to stay at in other countries, where we got buffet breakfast with a variety of choices, what we had here for breakfast was limited, with just cereal, bread, muffins, fruits and one or two choices of cooked dishes.
贝 and i used to go to Starbucks for breakfast every Friday and i often ordered bagel. I'd have to pay for the Philadelphia cream cheese.
Yet when i was at Reading, i almost had it everyday. Now if i ever go to Starbucks again, i'd definitely skip this.
This was a Monday and the first day of our two-week workshop. This was also the first day we met the two external consultants. Since Microsoft is an American corporation, we had expected the consultants here to be very good and professionals when it comes to this system. We thought we would be able to learn a thing or two from them.
Unfortunately, we were rather disappointed by one of them. He didn't seem to know the system very well. He couldn't answer a lot of our questions. As for the other one, who's more experienced, was totally snobbish and apparently look down on us. He didn't wanna listen to anything we said, or even when he did listen, he would reject or rebut our suggestions. We are not sure if it was because we are Asian and female, or was it his personality.
Of course, big boss did not know about all these. We had two tracks of the workshops carried out concurrently. He was in the one that was participated by the weak consultant, and i was in the same track too. My poor subordinate was left to handle the other track by herself, facing that snobbish consultant who had no respect for her at all. It was a few days after that i got to know about her unhappiness due to being looked down upon. She said he would cut her off mid-way, or even just ignored her when she voiced her opinion. I couldn't help her out as i was involved in the other session.
Anyway, nothing exciting for day 7. After work, we didn't join the colleagues out for dinner. We were tired and decided to just have fruits for dinner back in our hotel rooms.
Day 8
The workshop went on in disorganised manner.
For dinner, we went to Texas Roadhouse nearby the office for steak.
There is a bucket of peanuts on each table, which we could munch before the meals were served. The peanuts were very nice and different from the ones we get here.
Then freshly baked rolls were served.
For the beverages, i ordered a glass of my favourite cocktail, Margarita.
Next up was salad.
And finally, the main course, steak with mushroom and American fries.
I ordered it done in medium-well, but it came up just medium i think, as the steak was still very red.
Overall the meal was good. We went back to the hotel very full.
