Monday and Tuesday are for the global team to do internal discussion and preparation for the workshop. The actual workshop is on Wednesday and Thursday. There will be around 20+ participants from all around Europe.
I was asked to do an one-hour presentation on how Asia is using the system. The purpose is to give the Europeans some confidence and assurance that the system can work well in our company. That was actually the main reason for having me here - as a living advertisement.
I had an "old friend" joined me today. She flew in from UK and was the lady who went to USA with us back in year 2009. She even brought me gift from UK!
I have not seen her for more than two years, and she kept saying that i look very good now even though i have put on some weight since then. I told her that she had seen me at my worst year and now i actually am considering to lose a few KGs. She told me not to, as i look just nice now. But then, of course i will not heed an advice of a Westerner, for all Asians look thin to them.
Anyway, with her arrival, at lease now i am not the only lady in the workshop. However, i am still the only Asian and that itself does pose some problems. For instance, i did find myself not getting their jokes or conversation sometimes because they would talk about European things that i am not familiar with. This seems to be less of a problem when I was with the Americans. I guess we are still more in tune with the American culture than the European, or at least i am.
They have actually arranged to gather for drinks and dinner at 7pm today but i did not join them. I thought i was gonna have a teleconference with someone from Canada tonight but then the person changed the date. I could have then gone to join them but decided not to. I figured that rather than sitting there listening to conversation that i may not fully understand, i might as well have a good rest in my room.
Oh, and about Sunday - i did not visit the city. After i settled down in the hotel room, i made myself a Horlicks drinks (thank God that i did bring a few packets of 3-in-1 with me!) and then slept for a few hours. Then at around 3pm+, i went to walk around the area near the hotel, looking for a supermarket or grocery store to get something for dinner. Too bad that i forgot i am in Europe and the shops here do not open on Sunday.
So after walking down a few streets of closed shops, i returned to my hotel room empty stomach and without any food either. In the end, i resort to room service.
Then yesterday, i had room service for dinner again. Then this evening i went to the nearby supermarket to grab some food, as i am rather sick of room service already.
Ok, the thing is that I do not feel like going to a restaurant and dine on my own. I do feel somewhat uncomfortable here because there aren't many Asians around here. So far, i have only seen two - one was a hotel guest and the other was an Asian lady i saw at the supermarket just now, probably someone staying around the neighbourhood (as she looked like a local). Hence i did kinda stand out as being different. Even though the people here will just mind their own business, i did get some glances and stares (especially babies and kids - they will just stare at me, probably because i look so different from the others, with the black hair, small eyes, flat nose...)
Anyway, perhaps there will be a group dinner tomorrow. If so, then it means i will finally get some good decent dinner.
Labels: travel
