This morning I came to the office early again to do some private stuff and was promptly summoned by Amling-san to come to his office. It turned out that today would be the last day of seeing him, tomorrow he will fly to Leverkusen, Germany, to do some projects for about 4 weeks and won't be back until I'm gone.
He asked me for a general feedback on what I've been doing so far, impressions, criticism - we had quite an interesting conversation. He gave me the advice to focus on my communicational skills (well, I guess I didn't make too much of an impression on him with not knowing where I will want to work in the future).
And he also offered that, should I ever consider to work for Bayer, I should contact him and he would see what he can do for me!! Brilliant :o)
I'm very impressed by all the Bayer managers I have met so far - almost all of them were very easy-going, easy to talk to, humorous people - a bunch that I wouldn't mind working together with, I guess ;o)
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
July 13, 2007 Not even close to Friday 13th ^_^
*wahahahahaha* Matsuki-san is soooooooo funny!
This morning I had my second day at BPI, Business Process Improvement, and today I met Matsuki-san - he's a small guy with very little chin and a funny way of talking, which in itself is hilarious - but then he also has an incredible way of speaking English, looking up many words in the dictionary and then picking one with a slightly different meaning than what he intends to say! You can understand what he's saying, but if you have ever tried to read a page translated by Google Translator, you will know what I am talking about (*^_^*)
We had a lot of fun, and it was mutual - he had put many gimmicks into his presentation, e.g. a walking envelope that he was very proud of :o)
---------------
By now, I feel quite at home here in the company... I spent the afternoon on 3rd Floor, where Customer Service, Import/Export, Logistics, Procurement, BPI and some more people are all sitting in one big room - and there are very little people left that I haven't met yet. Many of the ladies have gone either to dinner with me or went dancing, and with almost everyone I have a story to share which makes us smile a lot! Toki-san and Naoko-san have put up pictures of our dance night in their cubicles, and today I wrote the kanji for candy (お菓子, okashi) on a small piece of paper and gave it to Kageyama-san who had taught me that kanji the day before - his face lit up, he smiled at me very broadly - and put the piece of paper into a folder where he had already put in my CV! I think people actually like me around here...
Naoko-san (the crazy dancer) later asked me whether I wanted to join the next dinner with everyone from Customer Service. "Sure, when will it be?" "We are doing it on July 27th." "Oh, I don't know if I will be in Osaka, that's my birthday and I was thinking about going to Tokyo to see a big firework festival." "WHAAAAT??? That's your birthday?!! Then you have to come!!! I will ask Ueda-san (the CS manager) if he will pay for you!" :o)
So now, I am officially invited to a dinner with everyone to celebrate my birthday :o) With loads of people I know and like. I am happy *^_^*
This morning I had my second day at BPI, Business Process Improvement, and today I met Matsuki-san - he's a small guy with very little chin and a funny way of talking, which in itself is hilarious - but then he also has an incredible way of speaking English, looking up many words in the dictionary and then picking one with a slightly different meaning than what he intends to say! You can understand what he's saying, but if you have ever tried to read a page translated by Google Translator, you will know what I am talking about (*^_^*)
We had a lot of fun, and it was mutual - he had put many gimmicks into his presentation, e.g. a walking envelope that he was very proud of :o)
---------------
By now, I feel quite at home here in the company... I spent the afternoon on 3rd Floor, where Customer Service, Import/Export, Logistics, Procurement, BPI and some more people are all sitting in one big room - and there are very little people left that I haven't met yet. Many of the ladies have gone either to dinner with me or went dancing, and with almost everyone I have a story to share which makes us smile a lot! Toki-san and Naoko-san have put up pictures of our dance night in their cubicles, and today I wrote the kanji for candy (お菓子, okashi) on a small piece of paper and gave it to Kageyama-san who had taught me that kanji the day before - his face lit up, he smiled at me very broadly - and put the piece of paper into a folder where he had already put in my CV! I think people actually like me around here...
Naoko-san (the crazy dancer) later asked me whether I wanted to join the next dinner with everyone from Customer Service. "Sure, when will it be?" "We are doing it on July 27th." "Oh, I don't know if I will be in Osaka, that's my birthday and I was thinking about going to Tokyo to see a big firework festival." "WHAAAAT??? That's your birthday?!! Then you have to come!!! I will ask Ueda-san (the CS manager) if he will pay for you!" :o)
So now, I am officially invited to a dinner with everyone to celebrate my birthday :o) With loads of people I know and like. I am happy *^_^*
July 7, 2007 Triple 777
Actually I had been planning to go to Kyoto this weekend - today is the triple 777, so that was bound to be a very lucky day! Instead, I decided against doing that - Sascha, a friend I know from highschool, who is now studying in Kyoto, wasn't available this weekend and I was pretty tired from the week. Ever since Eric gave his ok for me using the laptop for private purposes outside of office hours, I have spent around 10 or 11 hours at work each day, starting earlier and leaving late - so at the moment I am not doing much more than being at work, eating and sleeping.
Which is what I spent this Saturday on as well (apart from going to work, of course :oP). When I woke up, I could still remember a very odd dream about Japanese school kids who had a German class and were practicing to say "kaaaaa, kAAaaaaa, kAAAAAAAaaaa". Even while dreaming that I thought that it was very odd - then I woke up and realized that there was a crow sitting in front of my window :o)
The rest of the day I spent with more thinking and with reading - yesterday, before meeting Simon, I had stopped at a big bookstore to buy some English books for the train ride to and from work. Books have a very cool format here, small, handy, fit into every bag - and they sell them with neutral paper wrapped around them so that people won't know what you're reading :o)
Which is what I spent this Saturday on as well (apart from going to work, of course :oP). When I woke up, I could still remember a very odd dream about Japanese school kids who had a German class and were practicing to say "kaaaaa, kAAaaaaa, kAAAAAAAaaaa". Even while dreaming that I thought that it was very odd - then I woke up and realized that there was a crow sitting in front of my window :o)
The rest of the day I spent with more thinking and with reading - yesterday, before meeting Simon, I had stopped at a big bookstore to buy some English books for the train ride to and from work. Books have a very cool format here, small, handy, fit into every bag - and they sell them with neutral paper wrapped around them so that people won't know what you're reading :o)
July 6, 2007 Night out in Osaka
I thought my day had reached its climax when, around lunch time, a big ugly box that sits on top of one of the cupboards, suddenly started making very funny noises :o) First it went "krhcchkerkchkchchr", followed by a nervous "pling plong plang plong", and then the voice of Okada-san, our Human Resource person, announced that there would be a security check in the afternoon.
Umezawa-san had noticed my looks watching the box and she smiled: "Yes, they do make the sound by hand", which was immediately followed by another "pling plong plang plong" - I just had to burst out in laughter imagining Okada-san standing in front of a microphon, creating funny melodies on an ancient xylophon *g*
I really can't imagine why they just wouldn't tell me where the room with that thing is located *mischievous grin*
But near the end of work, Simon sent me an email asking what I'd be up to in the evening, so I decided to stop by in Osaka to meet him. Simon is an intern at Bayer Yakuhin (Health Care), and he was also at my welcome dinner during the second week.
An impressive amount of people crossing a minor road...
HEP Five, an entertainment complex / Shopping Mall
We had quite a fun evening, meeting up in Yodobashi Kamera to do some Tech shopping and laptop looking, spent a while walking around Osaka and then Simon took me to the apartment of a manager friend of his, who is currently on a business trip and left him his keys!
The apartment was amazing, really big for Japanese sizes, very fancy wood furniture, a giant flat screen, designer couches and lamps - and all of that in the center of Umeda, one of the busiest areas of Osaka. Bayer managers from overseas seem to be quite well taken care of over here :o)
Simon and I talked a lot and it made me think very hard on my way home... Simon is 22, has started his own business with 18, is studying event management and came to Japan for a 3-months internship. He has quite a bit of practical experience, plus speaks Japanese fluently because his dad is Japanese. That's probably why his internship is taking a very different course from mine. He is preparing three meetings for around 100 doctors and media people from all over Japan to coach them on new products that Bayer has developed (if I understood correctly). He's organizing those meetings, writing the budgets, traveling to look at the places, taking part in all kinds of sales meetings, designing new incentive systems... Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not complaining about my internship - I am very happy with the intense training I'm receiving and am not entirely sure whether I could handle a task like Simon's, even if it was in English.
But it made me think what I got out of my studies so far. I have been studying my current major for 2 years (well, or 8 months, depending on what you take as major), but I don't really feel like I am using any of the stuff I learned in university. What I am using are presentation skills, IT-skills (which I had before), and more or less common sense - and right now I can't think of anything out of the management majors that I am actively using...
People keep telling me that you rarely use stuff you learned in university, so I am hoping that I picked up a number of skills during studying that I am not entirely aware of...
It's just a little shocking that Simon, who in theory has studied as much as I have, is just so much further than me! Even more reason to add another internship around Xmas! And what I get out off all this thinking is that I want to use my time at SBU more actively, and I want to do a good job - I would like to have Mr. Amling and Eric think by the end of the internship - hey, that investment wasn't wasted on her...
Umezawa-san had noticed my looks watching the box and she smiled: "Yes, they do make the sound by hand", which was immediately followed by another "pling plong plang plong" - I just had to burst out in laughter imagining Okada-san standing in front of a microphon, creating funny melodies on an ancient xylophon *g*
I really can't imagine why they just wouldn't tell me where the room with that thing is located *mischievous grin*
But near the end of work, Simon sent me an email asking what I'd be up to in the evening, so I decided to stop by in Osaka to meet him. Simon is an intern at Bayer Yakuhin (Health Care), and he was also at my welcome dinner during the second week.
An impressive amount of people crossing a minor road...
HEP Five, an entertainment complex / Shopping Mall
We had quite a fun evening, meeting up in Yodobashi Kamera to do some Tech shopping and laptop looking, spent a while walking around Osaka and then Simon took me to the apartment of a manager friend of his, who is currently on a business trip and left him his keys!
The apartment was amazing, really big for Japanese sizes, very fancy wood furniture, a giant flat screen, designer couches and lamps - and all of that in the center of Umeda, one of the busiest areas of Osaka. Bayer managers from overseas seem to be quite well taken care of over here :o)
Simon and I talked a lot and it made me think very hard on my way home... Simon is 22, has started his own business with 18, is studying event management and came to Japan for a 3-months internship. He has quite a bit of practical experience, plus speaks Japanese fluently because his dad is Japanese. That's probably why his internship is taking a very different course from mine. He is preparing three meetings for around 100 doctors and media people from all over Japan to coach them on new products that Bayer has developed (if I understood correctly). He's organizing those meetings, writing the budgets, traveling to look at the places, taking part in all kinds of sales meetings, designing new incentive systems... Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not complaining about my internship - I am very happy with the intense training I'm receiving and am not entirely sure whether I could handle a task like Simon's, even if it was in English.
But it made me think what I got out of my studies so far. I have been studying my current major for 2 years (well, or 8 months, depending on what you take as major), but I don't really feel like I am using any of the stuff I learned in university. What I am using are presentation skills, IT-skills (which I had before), and more or less common sense - and right now I can't think of anything out of the management majors that I am actively using...
People keep telling me that you rarely use stuff you learned in university, so I am hoping that I picked up a number of skills during studying that I am not entirely aware of...
It's just a little shocking that Simon, who in theory has studied as much as I have, is just so much further than me! Even more reason to add another internship around Xmas! And what I get out off all this thinking is that I want to use my time at SBU more actively, and I want to do a good job - I would like to have Mr. Amling and Eric think by the end of the internship - hey, that investment wasn't wasted on her...
Thursday, July 5, 2007
July 5, 2007 Hardcore Training
I must say, I am very impressed with this internship. The only internship I have done so far was in 10th grade when I still wanted to become a biologist, so I worked for 3 weeks in a nature reserve-type of area - and when I write work, I mean actual physical labor: After these three weeks, I was a master at digging holes, cleaning out ponds, constructing children's playgrounds, improving walk ways and running with wheel barrows (Schubkarren). I had loads of fun, but it was hard work.
This time that is very different. It's not that I am not working or that I am staring out of the window all day, but this is way more like a training for me than working. I get insight into almost every department, the people are taken out of their regular responsibilities for 1-4 days to teach me what they do in their everyday work, I can ask millions of questions and the whole event seems to serve the sole purpose of teaching me! I start feeling really bad - I thought I would have to give something back to the company, instead they are paying me pretty well, giving me allocation, frequently inviting me to lunch, taking me on excursions, and all I have to do is to attend the meetings and ask loads of questions! This is great!
I do get assignments from Eric, mostly to prepare presentations about companies, or to do internet research on a specific topic. But I really don't feel like I am working hard.
I developed a new strategy for the end of my teaching sessions. Almost always, they ask me whether I have more questions, and as I already nail them with loads of questions during the presentations, I usually run out of any more to ask in the end - so I started asking people if they had any questions about me! And it turns out that almost everyone is interested in something (I'm not sure whether I have mentioned that yet, but apparently, everyone here has seen and read my CV...!!!), and once they find out that I am more than willing to answer their questions, they open up even more, tell about themselves, offer me their help, and even try very hard to speak English even though they usually never speak it :o) Yesterday, Umezawasan (my colleague) said that she was very surprised at how open people were talking with me, and that Japanese people usually are a lot shyer in talking with foreign people - I guess I must be doing something right then! *beam*
On my way to and from work, I took some pics of Ashiya (where I live) to give you a tiny impression:
So this scenery I get to see every morning :o)
Good night, then!
This time that is very different. It's not that I am not working or that I am staring out of the window all day, but this is way more like a training for me than working. I get insight into almost every department, the people are taken out of their regular responsibilities for 1-4 days to teach me what they do in their everyday work, I can ask millions of questions and the whole event seems to serve the sole purpose of teaching me! I start feeling really bad - I thought I would have to give something back to the company, instead they are paying me pretty well, giving me allocation, frequently inviting me to lunch, taking me on excursions, and all I have to do is to attend the meetings and ask loads of questions! This is great!
I do get assignments from Eric, mostly to prepare presentations about companies, or to do internet research on a specific topic. But I really don't feel like I am working hard.
I developed a new strategy for the end of my teaching sessions. Almost always, they ask me whether I have more questions, and as I already nail them with loads of questions during the presentations, I usually run out of any more to ask in the end - so I started asking people if they had any questions about me! And it turns out that almost everyone is interested in something (I'm not sure whether I have mentioned that yet, but apparently, everyone here has seen and read my CV...!!!), and once they find out that I am more than willing to answer their questions, they open up even more, tell about themselves, offer me their help, and even try very hard to speak English even though they usually never speak it :o) Yesterday, Umezawasan (my colleague) said that she was very surprised at how open people were talking with me, and that Japanese people usually are a lot shyer in talking with foreign people - I guess I must be doing something right then! *beam*
On my way to and from work, I took some pics of Ashiya (where I live) to give you a tiny impression:
So this scenery I get to see every morning :o)
Good night, then!
July 3, 2007 Bug Paradise
I'm exhausted. The more it rains, the warmer it gets. It seems that I can drink the air around me by now. And still there are people telling me, that the "bad" part hasn't even started yet... At least most of the Japanese people around me seem to be affected by the weather as well, so it's not just the whimsical foreigner who's fighting with it.
The river that crosses my way to the train station has grown quite a bit since I first got here, although it's almost entirely covered in plants. With the humid weather, the bugs seem to come to live, and they are quite impressive - I have heard people report about the giant insects of Japan, but now I can see it with my own eyes and I haven't decided yet whether I am fascinated or a bit taken aback - the bats that circle the river at night are more or less normal size, but basically everything else, from butterflies and moths over centipedes (Tausendfuessler), spiders, ticks (Zecken), to bigger animals like crows are huge!
This (see picture), for example, is a mukade, a giant centipede - they bite like hell (I was told) and Amlingsan (SBU's President) has told us stories about how hard they are to kill! You can't step on them, because the shell's too thick. You can't drown them because they know how to swim. If you cut them in half, both parts will crawl their way - they seem to be relatives of cockroaches... His method is to slice them in as many pieces as he can, that seems to stop them... Thank god that this is not my hand!
The past two days, I have been in Procurement, the department that organizes necessary things for other departments. Most of all, I learned a lot of Japanese, as 3/5 of the procurement team didn't really speak English at all - so lots of body language and cross-translation was used. My pile of vocab cards is getting bigger every day.
I had asked Eric to find out whether I could borrow a laptop for private purposes, e.g. checking mail and writing my report. Unfortunately, SBU doesn't loan or rent out notebooks, but we made a deal - I can work on the laptop before or after office hours, if I don't use the internet too obviously for private purposes (most of the "entertainment sites" are blocked anyways). I can live very well with this agreement, so the past couple of days I have spent around 10 hours in the office. So don't get too upset with me if it takes a while to respond to emails as I won't be stopping by the internet cafe every day anymore.
The river that crosses my way to the train station has grown quite a bit since I first got here, although it's almost entirely covered in plants. With the humid weather, the bugs seem to come to live, and they are quite impressive - I have heard people report about the giant insects of Japan, but now I can see it with my own eyes and I haven't decided yet whether I am fascinated or a bit taken aback - the bats that circle the river at night are more or less normal size, but basically everything else, from butterflies and moths over centipedes (Tausendfuessler), spiders, ticks (Zecken), to bigger animals like crows are huge!
This (see picture), for example, is a mukade, a giant centipede - they bite like hell (I was told) and Amlingsan (SBU's President) has told us stories about how hard they are to kill! You can't step on them, because the shell's too thick. You can't drown them because they know how to swim. If you cut them in half, both parts will crawl their way - they seem to be relatives of cockroaches... His method is to slice them in as many pieces as he can, that seems to stop them... Thank god that this is not my hand!
The past two days, I have been in Procurement, the department that organizes necessary things for other departments. Most of all, I learned a lot of Japanese, as 3/5 of the procurement team didn't really speak English at all - so lots of body language and cross-translation was used. My pile of vocab cards is getting bigger every day.
I had asked Eric to find out whether I could borrow a laptop for private purposes, e.g. checking mail and writing my report. Unfortunately, SBU doesn't loan or rent out notebooks, but we made a deal - I can work on the laptop before or after office hours, if I don't use the internet too obviously for private purposes (most of the "entertainment sites" are blocked anyways). I can live very well with this agreement, so the past couple of days I have spent around 10 hours in the office. So don't get too upset with me if it takes a while to respond to emails as I won't be stopping by the internet cafe every day anymore.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
June 28, 2007 I'm getting old! :oP
Wow. It's only been two days that I didn't stop at the internet cafe and I've been flooded by an amazing 68 emails! (Noo, no Spam involved, only about 4 news mails) - thank you very much, guys, I appreciate it a lot that you stay in touch so amazingly!
Recapitulating the past two days will be anything but easy! Loads happened, and almost everything involved vast amounts of FOOD!!! Some years ago, around Thailand, I made a deal with myself that I will try any type of food that other cultures eat on a regular basis - and that I will take the choice of food that I haven't eaten before, if I get the chance! So in the past 48 hours, I guess I tried about 24 new dishes which makes it impossible for me to tell you all about them!
The highlights: Raw fish isn't at all bad; whitish sauce on shrimp doesn't necessarily mean cream sauce (it was a LEMON dressing, totally unexpected taste!); and you should avoid eating the flower deco, they taste like soap...
So all in all, what I am missing about Japanese food is some type of sauces (I kind of had the image of Chinese sweet-and-sour dishes with vegetables when I came over here, but the Japanese usually go for water-soup...), but on the other hand, everyday I try something new totally changes my way of thinking about the way food should/can taste! Especially if you're looking at something, having a specific taste in mind, only to discover that it taste totally different!
Tuesday night, Eric had organized a dinner with 12 people for me, in a fancy restaurant, complete with taking off shoes (and extra bathroom slippers), being seated on cushions (but we were able to cheat, there was a hole under the table just as in the dormitory), and having a Kanpai (a toast/Trinkspruch), Eric officially welcomed me and the other two interns who had come along. Plus I got to know a lot of new people - so now you can enjoy the first pictures taken with my new camera! (To see a larger version of the picture, just click on it!)
The white guy is Ryan from the US, most of the Japanese people work with me.
Umezawasan (O...san), my colleague from the President's Office
The guy next to me is Eric, with his friend Noriko who is learning German - and we will do a language exchange!
That was Tuesday - and on Wednesday, the Ladies from Logistics invited me as well - totally different, great food, very different feeling to the whole thing and seriously not comparable.
They spoke Japanese with me all night long, so I learned lots (there were enough people able to speak English to translate if I had no clue what the conversation was about!). The girl to the left, Kimurasan, is also extremely good at teaching me kanji (Japanese signs) and grammar.
I also finished my week at Logistics & Procurement, at least my time at the conference meeting on the improvement of the distributions network. It was an interesting time, and I met people from Germany and HongKong as well, but I am ready to move on to the next phase - which will be excursions :o) Tomorrow around noon, Yoshikawasan, Uedasan and myself will take the train to Kobe to go to lunch with important people, visit a warehouse, and in the afternoon visit a yacht (!), although I have the feeling that they use the word in a different way than I do...
...So much more I would like to tell and to put down, but I'll let it be enough for tonight - sleep is needed these days :o) Especially to digest *g*
Recapitulating the past two days will be anything but easy! Loads happened, and almost everything involved vast amounts of FOOD!!! Some years ago, around Thailand, I made a deal with myself that I will try any type of food that other cultures eat on a regular basis - and that I will take the choice of food that I haven't eaten before, if I get the chance! So in the past 48 hours, I guess I tried about 24 new dishes which makes it impossible for me to tell you all about them!
The highlights: Raw fish isn't at all bad; whitish sauce on shrimp doesn't necessarily mean cream sauce (it was a LEMON dressing, totally unexpected taste!); and you should avoid eating the flower deco, they taste like soap...
So all in all, what I am missing about Japanese food is some type of sauces (I kind of had the image of Chinese sweet-and-sour dishes with vegetables when I came over here, but the Japanese usually go for water-soup...), but on the other hand, everyday I try something new totally changes my way of thinking about the way food should/can taste! Especially if you're looking at something, having a specific taste in mind, only to discover that it taste totally different!
Tuesday night, Eric had organized a dinner with 12 people for me, in a fancy restaurant, complete with taking off shoes (and extra bathroom slippers), being seated on cushions (but we were able to cheat, there was a hole under the table just as in the dormitory), and having a Kanpai (a toast/Trinkspruch), Eric officially welcomed me and the other two interns who had come along. Plus I got to know a lot of new people - so now you can enjoy the first pictures taken with my new camera! (To see a larger version of the picture, just click on it!)
The white guy is Ryan from the US, most of the Japanese people work with me.
Umezawasan (O...san), my colleague from the President's Office
The guy next to me is Eric, with his friend Noriko who is learning German - and we will do a language exchange!
That was Tuesday - and on Wednesday, the Ladies from Logistics invited me as well - totally different, great food, very different feeling to the whole thing and seriously not comparable.
They spoke Japanese with me all night long, so I learned lots (there were enough people able to speak English to translate if I had no clue what the conversation was about!). The girl to the left, Kimurasan, is also extremely good at teaching me kanji (Japanese signs) and grammar.
I also finished my week at Logistics & Procurement, at least my time at the conference meeting on the improvement of the distributions network. It was an interesting time, and I met people from Germany and HongKong as well, but I am ready to move on to the next phase - which will be excursions :o) Tomorrow around noon, Yoshikawasan, Uedasan and myself will take the train to Kobe to go to lunch with important people, visit a warehouse, and in the afternoon visit a yacht (!), although I have the feeling that they use the word in a different way than I do...
...So much more I would like to tell and to put down, but I'll let it be enough for tonight - sleep is needed these days :o) Especially to digest *g*
Monday, June 25, 2007
June 25, 2007 All these complaints... :o)
Ok, I have received numerous emails telling me that they couldn't keep up with the amount I'm writing - in Salamanca, the people complained about too little info, and now I'm overdoing it... tststs, those people... *g*
And that although I am the one who has reason to complain! Why do I always fall for the one guy who's gay?! grrr, that makes 5. And a half, but I guess the half doesn't complain about me liking him as he recently said I was a man to him anyways (hihi, sorry Mr. youknowwhoImean, that just had to be :oP)
Ok, so I will keep it short - I took part in the first real meeting in my life today *g* "We" were discussing logistical strategies on how to save costs caused by the distribution network - it was pretty interesting to hear a lot about modelization, scenarios, all the details that had to be considered and what not. This was my first day in a new department, but by now I feel pretty secure in my role as intern, everybody knows me already and people are a lot less formal in an international organization than in a traditional one. So we were laughing a lot today :o)
And tomorrow, Eric invited a whole bunch of people (12!) to a Welcome Party for me *beam* It won't be a party, but we'll all go out to dinner together and see, where the night will take us *innocent smirk*
One of my new chefs from this morning told me that "his ladies" from the logistics department wanted to invite me to dinner as well - on Wednesday! So the next two days will be prrrrretty busy!! Maybe I'll give you a break from reading :oP
Ok, short enough? Sooo much more to tell you, but I'll just save that for the days when the dreaded routine kicks in and every day will be the same :o) (Geez, am I smiley today!! I guess I'm tired LOL)
OK, letting you go now! Muuacc to those who deserve it ;o)
And that although I am the one who has reason to complain! Why do I always fall for the one guy who's gay?! grrr, that makes 5. And a half, but I guess the half doesn't complain about me liking him as he recently said I was a man to him anyways (hihi, sorry Mr. youknowwhoImean, that just had to be :oP)
Ok, so I will keep it short - I took part in the first real meeting in my life today *g* "We" were discussing logistical strategies on how to save costs caused by the distribution network - it was pretty interesting to hear a lot about modelization, scenarios, all the details that had to be considered and what not. This was my first day in a new department, but by now I feel pretty secure in my role as intern, everybody knows me already and people are a lot less formal in an international organization than in a traditional one. So we were laughing a lot today :o)
And tomorrow, Eric invited a whole bunch of people (12!) to a Welcome Party for me *beam* It won't be a party, but we'll all go out to dinner together and see, where the night will take us *innocent smirk*
One of my new chefs from this morning told me that "his ladies" from the logistics department wanted to invite me to dinner as well - on Wednesday! So the next two days will be prrrrretty busy!! Maybe I'll give you a break from reading :oP
Ok, short enough? Sooo much more to tell you, but I'll just save that for the days when the dreaded routine kicks in and every day will be the same :o) (Geez, am I smiley today!! I guess I'm tired LOL)
OK, letting you go now! Muuacc to those who deserve it ;o)
Sunday, June 24, 2007
June 22, 2007 TGIF
Today I feel much better. I haven't slept too much, but I'm doing more or less interesting stuff at work that keeps me busy and entertained, and Eric and our other female colleague (whose name I still can't memorize... O...-san) are a lot of fun working with. I mentioned that I'm thinking about going to Osaka this weekend, and immediately I had an email from Eric listing interesting stuff to see and a map from O...-san.
The weather is quite stormy today and it seems like an entire ocean pours down on the soil of Amagasaki - fortunately, Arima-san lent me an umbrella! I've been talking so much about the rain season, but as I don't really like walking with an umbrella, I didn't bother bringing or buying one - until I realized this morning that it probably wouldn't be the best of ideas to get to the office totally soaked...
I met the last missing member of senior staff today, the one I will work with next week, in Procurement & Logistics. And he told me that we will be going on an excursion to see an SBU warehouse on Friday! I'm not sure whether I've mentioned it, but I will go on another excursion to see the production facilities in Ehime, a couple of hours West from here - Eric and I will take off the afternoon before, have dinner with the production manager, and the next day, we will visit the facilities! On our way there, we'll cross the world's formerly largest suspension bridge (Haengebruecke) by train - that's bound to be interesting! In general, I'm very happy what SBU (well, Eric) came up with to occupy me these coming weeks! In total, I will spend about 2 weeks in the President's office (where I was these past 3 days), almost 2 weeks in Procurement & Logistics, a week in Marketing, a week in Business Development, one day in Finance, and I'll be seeing a bunch of other sections which I don't remember at the moment. So lots to learn =)
My plan to eat at my desk today failed because the president of SBU, Mr. Amling, asked me whether I wanted to join him and Eric for lunch - and I didn't want to tell him no :o) This way, I also got to know the canteen, or shokudou.
I'm not quite sure whether I like Amling-san. He's very nice and friendly, but very matter-of-fact and he conducted half a job interview with me. Especially about that gap in my CV (Lebenslauf) between mechanical engineering and CBS... But it seems that in the end he was more or less satisfied. I don't know whether he was the one who picked me as an intern, but he definitely knew my CV very well...
Food-wise, I had curry (curry sauce with veggies, meat) and rice for lunch, and a kind of Frikadelle (meatball) for dinner - the meat and veggies almost always taste good, but I'm already getting sick of eating rice... it just tastes like nothing without salt, onions or garlic! In general, I don't think that Japanese people ever use garlic (Knoblauch) in their meals... *sniff*
Oh, and O...san introduced me to "smoked cheese" today! It's quite perverse actually, a tiny cheese ball in the shape of a sausage ("mini winnie") and tastes like a sausage as well! I don't think that'll become one of my favourites =)
The weather is quite stormy today and it seems like an entire ocean pours down on the soil of Amagasaki - fortunately, Arima-san lent me an umbrella! I've been talking so much about the rain season, but as I don't really like walking with an umbrella, I didn't bother bringing or buying one - until I realized this morning that it probably wouldn't be the best of ideas to get to the office totally soaked...
I met the last missing member of senior staff today, the one I will work with next week, in Procurement & Logistics. And he told me that we will be going on an excursion to see an SBU warehouse on Friday! I'm not sure whether I've mentioned it, but I will go on another excursion to see the production facilities in Ehime, a couple of hours West from here - Eric and I will take off the afternoon before, have dinner with the production manager, and the next day, we will visit the facilities! On our way there, we'll cross the world's formerly largest suspension bridge (Haengebruecke) by train - that's bound to be interesting! In general, I'm very happy what SBU (well, Eric) came up with to occupy me these coming weeks! In total, I will spend about 2 weeks in the President's office (where I was these past 3 days), almost 2 weeks in Procurement & Logistics, a week in Marketing, a week in Business Development, one day in Finance, and I'll be seeing a bunch of other sections which I don't remember at the moment. So lots to learn =)
My plan to eat at my desk today failed because the president of SBU, Mr. Amling, asked me whether I wanted to join him and Eric for lunch - and I didn't want to tell him no :o) This way, I also got to know the canteen, or shokudou.
I'm not quite sure whether I like Amling-san. He's very nice and friendly, but very matter-of-fact and he conducted half a job interview with me. Especially about that gap in my CV (Lebenslauf) between mechanical engineering and CBS... But it seems that in the end he was more or less satisfied. I don't know whether he was the one who picked me as an intern, but he definitely knew my CV very well...
Food-wise, I had curry (curry sauce with veggies, meat) and rice for lunch, and a kind of Frikadelle (meatball) for dinner - the meat and veggies almost always taste good, but I'm already getting sick of eating rice... it just tastes like nothing without salt, onions or garlic! In general, I don't think that Japanese people ever use garlic (Knoblauch) in their meals... *sniff*
Oh, and O...san introduced me to "smoked cheese" today! It's quite perverse actually, a tiny cheese ball in the shape of a sausage ("mini winnie") and tastes like a sausage as well! I don't think that'll become one of my favourites =)
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