On sunday night rick stopped by. i worked on my scrapbook and he watched 'shaun of the dead' on tv. he's a bit depressed becuase his grandmother is very sick and its not looking good for her. i let him hang out for the night since i knew he was so upset. i made some good headway on my scrapbook, about half done. i really need to finish it before i leave :) i packed one more box to send back to CA. i think that should do it!
On monday after work i went to the grocery store to get the last things to make it through the week. yogurt. granola. bread. and apples. and cherry pie. i can make it now. caught up on paying bills, restarted my cell phone and car insurance, etc. caught up on emails and my facebook. i also worked in writing all of my thank you/goodbye cards. i have about 30 or 40 cards to write to i'm doing a few each night. no one writes cards anymore. like real handwritten cards. its a nice personal touch i think. so much better than just sending out a blanket email. i've attached my business card to each card. so in addition to giving everyone nice handwritten notes i'm also using this a marketing tool. i bought fun colored paper clips to attach the business card to the note. it looks fun. i hope my handwriting is legible.
on tuesday i had two very important meetings. the first meeting was with Arnold Steenbakker, who is the head of onshore geotech for all of the fugro offices around the world. i saw him in the lunchroom, so i emailed him and said "hey.. i saw you in the lunchroom. you came to my project site in ventura over the summer (the VCMC CDSM). i'm here in leidschendam working for a.v. seters in FIBV.... etc." or something along those lines. so a little later my phone rang, which really startled me becuase no one ever calls me. i didnt even know how to answer the phone! i was flustered. here in NL its common for the person picking up the phone to identify themselves first, NOT the caller. so instead of saying "hello?", you say your name. anyways, it was arnold's personal secretary calling to set up a meeting with me. she asked when i was available. i play it cool. can't seem too available. so i say well i'm out in the field wednesday or thursday, so tuesday would be best. she says tuesday at 1PM, i say how about 2PM? ok perfect.
so i head up a few minutes before 2PM on tuesday. i made sure to wear more dressy clothes today and my nice gold earrings. i even polished my shoes and made sure my nails were trimmed very neatly. you can only get up to the 5th floor, then you have to be buzzed in to get to the 6th floor. it is really really nice up there. the carpet is a nice blue color and very bright and clean. there are windows everywhere so its quite bright up there. its a nice sunny day today. the walls are lined autographed symphony posters from all over the world. its quiet.
i waited for a few minutes. i can hear arnold on the telephone. i'm not nervous actually. i should be. well no i shouldnt be. yes, i should be. how many 25yr old staff engineer nobodys get to come in and have 20 minutes of uninterrupted one-on-one time with the head of onshore geotech on a beautiful sunny day? not too many i bet. his secretary lets me know he's ready for me to come in. i come around the corner and i can tell he's trying to recognize me from ventura. he shakes my hand and says, oh yes, now i remember you. he's quite tall (of course), but i'm wearing heels today so i'm feeling adequate next to him. his hair is salt and pepper with a matching moustache. he's relaxed and welcoming, but he's business at the same time. i try to emulate his demeanor. his office is quite large and on a corner so two full sides of his office are windows. the view is unimpeded. the sunshine floods the office. there is a conference table on one side, a sitting area in another area, and then a big black desk towards the wall. we take a seat adjacent to each other in the sitting area. muted orange leather chairs with metallic accents.
we talk about my experience in netherlands and some differences in the working conditions. he worked for fluor in irvine for nearly 5 years. he thought that people tended to work very hard out of fear for losing thier jobs (its much more difficult to 'sack' people in NL). i agreed, but added that americans also tend to be very competitive.....with themselves and others. subtly and overtly. a society built on capitalism, the premise that competition results in the best product available to the consumer. that competition drives people to work harder, for longer hours, feel ashamed for taking vacation or getting sick. anyways, we talked about skating outside, my paris trip, which somehow he knew i went to paris. i remember maybe telling mark pehlig about it, but otherwise i'm not sure how he could have known. i told him my overall thoughts about the exchange program and we also discussed the CA financial crisis. he thanked me for my initiative for contacting him. overall the conversation was very relaxed, not too serious, but no jokes really. i got a sense of his personality. i shook his hand and i left the 6th floor oasis back down to the doldrums of the 3rd floor. hahaha hardly.. but its quite a distinct separation around here. most folks in my group say they've never been up on the 6th floor. there is some hype for sure. when i returned to my office, i sent an email to arnold and also henriette (his secretary) to thank him for taking the time to meet with me.
later on tuesday, i had a meeting wih maarten P. and adriaan, kind of an exit interview. we talked about all the things i did here in NL, and how i felt about my time here etc. we also discussed what they thought about me and my performance here. overall they felt that the exchange was successful, that they were able to gain some knowledge from me about processes or procedures that can be tweaked, they enjoyed learning about the ventura office, and overall they thought i fit into the team really well. they appreciated my initiative to participate in everything and said i was always enthusiastic about my projects and tasks. i was thankful to have been exposed to so many different types of projects in the office and field, and that i was able to learn some new programs and work alongside some of the brightest engineers in the profession right now. the more i travel along my career the more i understand how important people connections are. i could have been a brilliant plaxis magician, but if i hadn't helped make paper hats at the sinterklaas party, i don't think my time here would have been so fruitful.
tuesday after work i went to my very last spinning class. a very sad day. my spinning instructor and i matched! we both had on black bike shorts and a red nike tshirt. see, its meant to be! patricia was in the class too. todays class was killer! but, he played beyonce's 'put a ring on it' song and i just had to laugh. after class i talked to him and told him i was leaving back to the US. he just said 'ok! bye!'. how anticlimactic!
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How are you now?
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