Thursday, February 20, 2014

YAY - Hotel Day

The CSC program is amazing, but isn't without it's challenges.  Not only are you placed in a foreign country, but your coworkers are all people you have never met, do not speak your native tongue as a first language (though everyone in our group all speak it almost as if it was) AND have their own unique cultures different from your own AND we all come from different backgrounds within IBM AND to top it off we are all doing work that is completely outside our normal course of work within IBM.  I am not quite sure how you could be stretched in more directions than you are with this program, I guess that is why it is so successful and so loved by everyone who is chosen.  Most days are just amazing; they are fun, exciting and challenging in so many good ways.  BUT....then the culture shock or home sickness sets in and without realizing it you start to feel frustrated, maybe helpless, maybe angry, maybe sad, but definitely tired and out of sorts.  It hits you with no warning and if not careful can cause you to react in ways you may regret later, because you are no longer feeling totally rationale! Well, I had started to feel that way Wednesday, but thankfully did not have any need to worry about reacting in a way I would regret.  But, I was very excited to work from the hotel on Thursday where there was surely no new experience heading our way.  It would only be the me, Kazu and Eduardo holed up in our hotel away from new experiences and just working on our project without interruption.  Don't get me wrong, I love all of the new experiences and the activities and excitement happening every day and night, but after 7 days in a row I needed a break with some private time.  Wednesday in the hotel was such an effective day, in fact I had one great idea that will help Kazu with his project and I was able to get a lot of my presentation done for tomorrow.  I still have a lot of data to sort through and type up, but I have a lot for the client to absorb tomorrow, so I feel it was a great day.  I will get a good nights sleep tonight, we will present an excellent package to our client tomorrow and feel good about heading on to Shimla for the weekend!

Here you can see me with my tired eyes working in the hotel today:


1 comment:

  1. Cathy -- this is AWESOME! I had lost the link but Mike gave it to me earlier today..... your posts are amazing and I'm thrilled to hear all about your experiences! keep it up!

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