The two days of meetings...
What can i say? Atex is a British company, and the sales team here is straight out of a Family Guy parody of an English pooftah.
Meetings can be productive planning sessions, meetings can be great brainstorming colloquiums, meetings can even be enjoyable time-wasting events. This meeting was none of those things. This was the sales-pitch-black-hole-time-suck-acrimonious mother of all meetings. It was scheduled for two days, and it felt like a lifetime. If meetings were rock concerts this was that one where the rolling stones hired the hell's angels for security and everyone died. If meetings were football this was the Superbowl for the arena football league.
Every rule of a good meeting was broken. The presenters did not have their files ready and projector set up so the first three hours were spent looking for adapters and changing laptops for the right files (as if the files were chained inside each hard drive and never allowed to leave that computer). Everyone in attendance had a laptop out and was typing and doing other things throughout the meeting. People came and went and halfway through the first day it was revealed that most of the people there didn't need to be there until the second day.
I spent most of the time on my Xoom, dicking around, and would occasionally pop my head up to ask some inane technical question that was very unhelpful to the process. As Arunas said best, "let's say you go to buy a car and spend all your your time there, checking the engine, comparing gear ratios, and generally attempting to be an automotive engineer, even though you are, in fact, an accountant. The salesman comes out and you ask him, "what is the oxygen mixing mechanism, and how does the ignition work?" and he says, "are you an automotive engineer?", "no.", "then all you need to do, is sit in the car, and imagine driving it for the next 5 years. If you are comfortable with that, buy the car, if you are not, don't."" Words to live by.
All that being said the product was extremely comprehensive and really offered a lot of support and streamlining of the editorial process for both print and web with communication between the two.
Near the end of the first day-long-meeting I am introduced to Maria, the GROW participant here in Warsaw. She works for marketing, and is dragged into the meeting room by her boss during one of our infrequent breaks.
Maria Urso
Maria works in New York normally, in marketing. We found a spot to chat in the office after the second meeting had finally wrapped up, and compared notes on our experiences in our respective locations. We came to the conclusion that we both felt like we had accomplished very little "work" compared to our usual productivity back in our home offices. However, this made perfect sense since a lot of our time was spent on the social "ambassador" activities of the program, and the staff we were added to was already full so we were, in effect, extra people. The projects I had worked on were supplemental to the daily production int he office, and likewise for maria who had launched a new title for Warsaw.
Drinking at the beach + Arunas has to catch a flight
Maria tells me that her and a few people from the office and around town will be going out to a bar after work for a few drinks, and invites me to come along. I am in. I also go and check on Arunas and Rolandas to see if they are already headed to the airport or not. Rolandas has gone off to meet with the head of the Warsaw stock exchange, but Arunas is still hanging around the office, killing time until his flight. He agrees to come with us.
There is still some time before everyone there gets out of work for the day so Arunas and I head out into the city to find a beer while we wait. After a few unsuccessful attempts we find a place that accepts credit card, we assume...because it has all major credit card logos on it's front door, and sit down for one beer.
After one beer each and an in-depth discussion of social mores in the Baltic region i try and pay with my credit card. The server glances at the bar where there are piles of card scanning machines and says, "no, we can't take credit cards". We are shocked. "Well I guess we will have to go to a cash machine. Whee is the closest one?" I respond. The server looks at the bartender. He grabs a card scanner and takes my card. I guess they did take credit card.
We head back to the office and find Maria and some friends standing outside waiting for us. We decide to walk to the bar called "the beach" that is not that far away and the walk takes us through a park.
We Start Drinking
I dive right in to whiskey but everyone else starts with beer. It is still very hard for me to get drunk at sea level so i am not really trying, just enjoying the conversation. The conversation begins to disintegrate as everyone loosens up. Arunas tells us of his time as the president of the "communist youth" during the soviet era, and his current disillusionment and political apathy.
Eventually the time comes and Arunas catches a cab to the airport, and I am with just the new people i have met today.
The Girl who Loves Snowboarding
I find myself deeply wrapped in conversation with one of the Warsaw folks. She tells me that she tried snowboarding a few years ago and loved it. We have a discussion of snow and fun, and how she taught some snowboarding lessons there, but on hills that we would not consider worthy of sliding down.
Most importantly she can speak my musical language.
I cannot remember her name, so i will refer to her as "the obscure punk reference chick" or "OPR chick" for short. Like many of the people i have met in this region their image of the U.S. is painted by New York. But for this one, it was painted by the No Use For A Name song "Fairytale of New York". Good choice.
Maria Notices that the End is Near
I hadn't even begun to contemplate how close to the end of my time in Lithuania I was, but that night Maria seemed to be completely open to the knowledge that she would be leaving the people who had been her closest friends for almost 3 months. The tears begin to flow. She has two weeks left and every day is going to be like this for her. The fact that the end is near is still not real for me.
Waking up in Warsaw...again + Maria has a hangover
The next morning i wake up early, for some reason, and get my grub on at the amazing continental breakfast buffet in the hotel. It is my first day alone here, and until Maria gets off work I have no direction.
So I eat breakfast from 9-11, it was delicious and i will not apologize for it.
What to do in Warsaw...when everyone else has a hangover + A sidewalk zoo + Sad bears
Nothing to do in Warsaw until your friend sobers up and can entertain you again? No problem. Just head on down to your friendly neighborhood depressing-excuse-for-a-zoo, zoo.
I wander the city and try and get lost. But with no success.
Maria has Recovered + Seeing Old-Town
Maria met me and the beginning of the "royal route" where there are many palaces and historic buildings...however none of them are real since Warsaw was destroyed in WWII and the entire city was rebuilt to match its former self in the 1960's.
It is amazing non-the-less.
At the end of it all, we say goodbye and she gets me a cab back to my hotel.
On the way to the cab we pass a parade of bicyclist, rollerbladers, and general merry-makers in costumes and on anything that rolls. Just like Boulder-Denver. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Meetings can be productive planning sessions, meetings can be great brainstorming colloquiums, meetings can even be enjoyable time-wasting events. This meeting was none of those things. This was the sales-pitch-black-hole-time-suck-acrimonious mother of all meetings. It was scheduled for two days, and it felt like a lifetime. If meetings were rock concerts this was that one where the rolling stones hired the hell's angels for security and everyone died. If meetings were football this was the Superbowl for the arena football league.
Every rule of a good meeting was broken. The presenters did not have their files ready and projector set up so the first three hours were spent looking for adapters and changing laptops for the right files (as if the files were chained inside each hard drive and never allowed to leave that computer). Everyone in attendance had a laptop out and was typing and doing other things throughout the meeting. People came and went and halfway through the first day it was revealed that most of the people there didn't need to be there until the second day.
I spent most of the time on my Xoom, dicking around, and would occasionally pop my head up to ask some inane technical question that was very unhelpful to the process. As Arunas said best, "let's say you go to buy a car and spend all your your time there, checking the engine, comparing gear ratios, and generally attempting to be an automotive engineer, even though you are, in fact, an accountant. The salesman comes out and you ask him, "what is the oxygen mixing mechanism, and how does the ignition work?" and he says, "are you an automotive engineer?", "no.", "then all you need to do, is sit in the car, and imagine driving it for the next 5 years. If you are comfortable with that, buy the car, if you are not, don't."" Words to live by.
All that being said the product was extremely comprehensive and really offered a lot of support and streamlining of the editorial process for both print and web with communication between the two.
Near the end of the first day-long-meeting I am introduced to Maria, the GROW participant here in Warsaw. She works for marketing, and is dragged into the meeting room by her boss during one of our infrequent breaks.
 |
| Maria at a desk that isn't hers |
Maria works in New York normally, in marketing. We found a spot to chat in the office after the second meeting had finally wrapped up, and compared notes on our experiences in our respective locations. We came to the conclusion that we both felt like we had accomplished very little "work" compared to our usual productivity back in our home offices. However, this made perfect sense since a lot of our time was spent on the social "ambassador" activities of the program, and the staff we were added to was already full so we were, in effect, extra people. The projects I had worked on were supplemental to the daily production int he office, and likewise for maria who had launched a new title for Warsaw.
Drinking at the beach + Arunas has to catch a flight
Maria tells me that her and a few people from the office and around town will be going out to a bar after work for a few drinks, and invites me to come along. I am in. I also go and check on Arunas and Rolandas to see if they are already headed to the airport or not. Rolandas has gone off to meet with the head of the Warsaw stock exchange, but Arunas is still hanging around the office, killing time until his flight. He agrees to come with us.
There is still some time before everyone there gets out of work for the day so Arunas and I head out into the city to find a beer while we wait. After a few unsuccessful attempts we find a place that accepts credit card, we assume...because it has all major credit card logos on it's front door, and sit down for one beer.
After one beer each and an in-depth discussion of social mores in the Baltic region i try and pay with my credit card. The server glances at the bar where there are piles of card scanning machines and says, "no, we can't take credit cards". We are shocked. "Well I guess we will have to go to a cash machine. Whee is the closest one?" I respond. The server looks at the bartender. He grabs a card scanner and takes my card. I guess they did take credit card.
We head back to the office and find Maria and some friends standing outside waiting for us. We decide to walk to the bar called "the beach" that is not that far away and the walk takes us through a park.
We Start Drinking
I dive right in to whiskey but everyone else starts with beer. It is still very hard for me to get drunk at sea level so i am not really trying, just enjoying the conversation. The conversation begins to disintegrate as everyone loosens up. Arunas tells us of his time as the president of the "communist youth" during the soviet era, and his current disillusionment and political apathy.
Eventually the time comes and Arunas catches a cab to the airport, and I am with just the new people i have met today.
The Girl who Loves Snowboarding
I find myself deeply wrapped in conversation with one of the Warsaw folks. She tells me that she tried snowboarding a few years ago and loved it. We have a discussion of snow and fun, and how she taught some snowboarding lessons there, but on hills that we would not consider worthy of sliding down.
Most importantly she can speak my musical language.
I cannot remember her name, so i will refer to her as "the obscure punk reference chick" or "OPR chick" for short. Like many of the people i have met in this region their image of the U.S. is painted by New York. But for this one, it was painted by the No Use For A Name song "Fairytale of New York". Good choice.
Maria Notices that the End is Near
I hadn't even begun to contemplate how close to the end of my time in Lithuania I was, but that night Maria seemed to be completely open to the knowledge that she would be leaving the people who had been her closest friends for almost 3 months. The tears begin to flow. She has two weeks left and every day is going to be like this for her. The fact that the end is near is still not real for me.
Waking up in Warsaw...again + Maria has a hangover
The next morning i wake up early, for some reason, and get my grub on at the amazing continental breakfast buffet in the hotel. It is my first day alone here, and until Maria gets off work I have no direction.
So I eat breakfast from 9-11, it was delicious and i will not apologize for it.
What to do in Warsaw...when everyone else has a hangover + A sidewalk zoo + Sad bears
I wander the city and try and get lost. But with no success.
Maria has Recovered + Seeing Old-Town
Maria met me and the beginning of the "royal route" where there are many palaces and historic buildings...however none of them are real since Warsaw was destroyed in WWII and the entire city was rebuilt to match its former self in the 1960's.
It is amazing non-the-less.
At the end of it all, we say goodbye and she gets me a cab back to my hotel.
