These days are starting to blur together, which is why it's so important that I just take a few hours to sit down and catch up with my life. I wish I had a tape recorder in my head that could record all my super clever and witty thoughts when I have them so I don't have to think so hard to remember what I want to write when I actually have a chance to sit at the computer.
Monday began with a wake-up call from my parents around 6:30am - which in hindsight I realize wasn't the best time to tell them to call me. Yes, it's a nice wake-up call as opposed to the way-too-cheerful Thai receptionists, but I never remember all the things I want to tell them when their voices are literally the first thing I hear when I wake up. Yet, that's really the only time that I know for sure that I will be in my room to chat, so I guess it works out. Again, I got ready and headed down to the gym (third day in a row!) and worked out on the tredmill. I'm not used to running on those things anymore and it's so awkward when you can't control your own running speed. At the same time though, I've definitely been building up my stamina, so that's a plus. I feel like everyone always says your 20's are when you're in the best shape of your life, but doesn't mean that shape can't get better or that it can't hang around longer. I really enjoy starting my days off with the gym - it's a great energizer and really gets my mind going in the morning. Now if only I could so willingly get out of bed in the states...
The reason why all 40-something of us from all over the Asia region are here in Bangkok is for a Project Management in Development training and certification course. Lucky for me and a small handful of my peers, I already took the course and got certified during the second week of my internship back at NHQ. That means, no studying for me! But, the advantage we have of having our delegates and their local staffs and NHQ staff all together in the same place is that we're working on developing our field projects according to this PMD model, and we can all use the same language, tools, ideas, and concepts when programming. Throughout the training course, we have the opportunity to work in small groups according to our specific projects with the field delegates and their staffs. It's an incredibly unique chance for us to all meet and work together to be on the same page. Oftentimes, there's so much disconnect between NHQ and the field, what with emotionless emails and brief Skype conversations, and this meeting is a great way for us to bridge that gap.
Unfortunately for me, I haven't really met any of the delegates or their staffs and had no idea what to expect. I think it's so interesting to see how personalities come across through email and text as compared to in real life. It's very hard to gauge personalities through text. There were definitely a lot of surprises for me when meeting the delegates, but they're all pretty cool and quirky in their own very unique ways. I'm beginning to see that there really is no substitution for a face-to-face real life conversation, no matter how much technology progresses in the future. Body language, changing tones, emotional aptitude - everything you miss when you don't have that tangible interaction.
In any case, so the PMD Pro Conference began on Monday morning, and since I didn't have to really "take" the course, and because I'm not specified to support any particular country, but rather the region as a whole, I got to hop around among the tables and get a little taste of all the different projects within various countries and see how they fit into this project management framework. I spent most of my time Monday (when I wasn't running around the hotel talking to their own management team) working with Kendall and the Vietnam team for a community disaster preparedness project. In underdeveloped regions of the world, it's so important to establish a plan to prepare for disasters in order to minimize the amount of potential damage that could be inflicted, especially when the community itself isn't strong and self-sustainable. Some of the ways that we help these communities prepare for disasters is by implementing Early Warning Systems (EWS) to alert the public that a potential natural disaster is approaching, and how they can stay safe. Depending on how technologically advanced the societies are, this could be as simple as having a mass text to those who are in the danger zone, or as complicated as a house-to-house branched network of personal alerts. The project management tool can be applied to this project by helping to better organize it from the initial planning phases, all the way into ending the project.
We all had lunch in the hotel dining room, and since there are so many people, I had a 3rd grade-like moment after I picked out my food for where to sit. I ended up having a great conversation with Kendall and Huong (part of the ARC staff in Vietnam) which I'm pretty sure I wrote about in yesterday's post. After the training was done for the day, I went out to dinner with a really fun but random bunch. The original plan was that me, Sonia (who works at NHQ with me) and Maureen (the facilitator for the training) were going to go shopping and then get dinner, but as always, things change. Maureen invited Christine (our delegate based in Kuala Lumpur, more on her later), but then bailed herself out, and we ended up meeting up with Ramsey (delegate based in Beijing) and Sajid (delegate based in Dhaka) in the hotel lobby. Rather than go to a restaurant, the five of us decided to go try to find a night market for some local street food.
We ended up not too far from the hotel, just a short cab ride and then walking bridge away. The street was lined on both sides by different vendors making food in their little carts, so we split up, ordered food from various places, then returned to our table and waited for them to bring it to us. I thought this was so unique, the way different vendors would try to solicit you for your business, even handing menus to you on top of someone else's, but then laughing and joking - even though you knew they were pretty serious. The overall atmosphere was so chilled out and relaxed, with dim lighting and the perfect amount of background noise to allow for conversation, but still remind you that you're in a city. The street vendors brought us our food, which we all ended up sharing. Two dishes I loved - chicken satay (a million times better than any chicken satay I've ever had) and a spicy mango papaya salad.
This dinner was definitely one of the many highlights of my trip, especially because I hardly knew anyone I was going with - which is what made it so fun! The majority of people on this trip are somewhere in their 40s, with a few above and below, and like I said earlier, I'm definitely the youngest. The closest person to me in age is about 6 years older, but he wasn't there. In any case, it was so much fun to be able to finally interact with these delegates who I spend a good amount of time Skyping with and emailing, and getting a chance to see their personalities at work in real life was such a treat. They're all so quirky and unique, especially Christine. She's one of those people who just takes life for what it is, enjoys every moment, and is always joking around and laughing. Like so many of the other delegates and staff members, she has traveled the world and has the best stories. For example, when she was staying in Cape Town a few years ago, she invited her sister (who is apparently the complete opposite of her - married, has kids, etc.) to come out and visit. They were planning and planning...when about a week before the trip, her sister tells her that she doesn't have a passport.
What I really enjoyed about this outing was that we didn't talk about work - we actually got to know one another, asked questions, and actually listened. Another example is with Ramsey - from his emails and the way he was described, I thought he would be this big tall beefy guy with a no-nonsense attitude and the biggest stick up his butt. Yet, he's one of the coolest people here. Once you get to bond with your co-workers on a more personal level, you realize that sometimes something they said might come across strangely or too abrupt, but maybe they're just weird and they like to get straight to the point. Ramsey's our longest out-of-NHQ delegate, having now spent 25 years out in the field. He started out as an intern, and now he's running projects and is the delegate known to be "conquering the world" in terms of his coverage zones. Hmmm.... :)
Sajid and Sonia were also fun to talk to, because although we're all Indian, we come from different parts but can still relate to each other on our own brown level. It's nice being able to let off a little steam after spending so long cooped up in a conference room (okay, fine - spacious hotel ballroom) and get to know people. During my last year of college, and especially in the last semester, I made it a point to only really spend time with and hang out with people that I cognizantly chose to - which is the same principle I'm bringing here. When you're excited about something and you willingly want to have dinner with people, I feel like you enjoy yourself a million times better than if you force yourself into a situation you don't want to be in. Lucky for me, everyone at the training is so interesting that I don't even know where to start with who I want to get to know better. I don't know if that made sense - it probably sounded really obvious, but trust me when I say it's not so black and white. Our meal ended up being only $3-4 per person, which was incredible, considering how much food we got.
On our way out of the little market, we stopped at a sticky rice and mango stall. Although I love mango, I wasn't a fan of the sticky rice with coconut concoction, mostly because I may or may not be allergic to coconut. So while everyone was at the stand, I was a few feet away scrolling through the pictures on my camera, and not realizing I was in the middle of the street. Before I knew what was happening, I heard a loud car horn and looked up to see headlighs blind my vision. I felt a tug and in a second was pulled to the nearest table to me, which was full of what seemed like high school aged boys, and out of harm's way. A little whiplashed, I was still trying to figure out what was happening as I made my way back to the group, still near the boys' table, but definitely out of the street. It took me a minute to realize one of the guy's had pulled me out of the street and just saved my life. As I was standing there, trying to piece together what just happened and how I didn't realize I was in the middle of the street, these sweet little boys pushed their fresh plate of sticky rice towards me and gave me a fork, smiling and encouraging me to try a piece. Seeing as how they just saved my life and all, if I died from the coconut, I'd REALLY have meant to have died that night. (Clearly, I did not.) The guys were really sweet, we had a limited conversation with lots of smiling and nodding, but apparently all of them go to school and one was a pharmacist. Once again, I was thanking my lucky stars for having survived an experience I probably shouldn't have.
We made it back to the hotel and before I got to my room, I ran into Maya in the hallway who was on her way to get dinner, and who doesn't like second dinner? We went down the street to Cheer's again, which is becoming one of my favorite places.There weren't any strange prostitutes or negotiations going on that night, or that I noticed anyway. Maya was pretty stressed with not only having to help organize this whole thing with me and deal with everyone's changing check-in and check-out dates, but she also had to participate in the training and work on her project, while absorbing all the processes to pass the exam. I think Maya and I have very similar personalities, and from this late dinner, I saw more and more of that come out. We can both be over-the-top perfectionists, but also carefree and fun-loving when the right opportunity presents itself (and once we're done dotting our i's and crossing our t's, of course). We were able to destress a bit then head back to the hotel, where I completely passed out for the night. Until tomorrow...
Monday began with a wake-up call from my parents around 6:30am - which in hindsight I realize wasn't the best time to tell them to call me. Yes, it's a nice wake-up call as opposed to the way-too-cheerful Thai receptionists, but I never remember all the things I want to tell them when their voices are literally the first thing I hear when I wake up. Yet, that's really the only time that I know for sure that I will be in my room to chat, so I guess it works out. Again, I got ready and headed down to the gym (third day in a row!) and worked out on the tredmill. I'm not used to running on those things anymore and it's so awkward when you can't control your own running speed. At the same time though, I've definitely been building up my stamina, so that's a plus. I feel like everyone always says your 20's are when you're in the best shape of your life, but doesn't mean that shape can't get better or that it can't hang around longer. I really enjoy starting my days off with the gym - it's a great energizer and really gets my mind going in the morning. Now if only I could so willingly get out of bed in the states...
The reason why all 40-something of us from all over the Asia region are here in Bangkok is for a Project Management in Development training and certification course. Lucky for me and a small handful of my peers, I already took the course and got certified during the second week of my internship back at NHQ. That means, no studying for me! But, the advantage we have of having our delegates and their local staffs and NHQ staff all together in the same place is that we're working on developing our field projects according to this PMD model, and we can all use the same language, tools, ideas, and concepts when programming. Throughout the training course, we have the opportunity to work in small groups according to our specific projects with the field delegates and their staffs. It's an incredibly unique chance for us to all meet and work together to be on the same page. Oftentimes, there's so much disconnect between NHQ and the field, what with emotionless emails and brief Skype conversations, and this meeting is a great way for us to bridge that gap.
Unfortunately for me, I haven't really met any of the delegates or their staffs and had no idea what to expect. I think it's so interesting to see how personalities come across through email and text as compared to in real life. It's very hard to gauge personalities through text. There were definitely a lot of surprises for me when meeting the delegates, but they're all pretty cool and quirky in their own very unique ways. I'm beginning to see that there really is no substitution for a face-to-face real life conversation, no matter how much technology progresses in the future. Body language, changing tones, emotional aptitude - everything you miss when you don't have that tangible interaction.
In any case, so the PMD Pro Conference began on Monday morning, and since I didn't have to really "take" the course, and because I'm not specified to support any particular country, but rather the region as a whole, I got to hop around among the tables and get a little taste of all the different projects within various countries and see how they fit into this project management framework. I spent most of my time Monday (when I wasn't running around the hotel talking to their own management team) working with Kendall and the Vietnam team for a community disaster preparedness project. In underdeveloped regions of the world, it's so important to establish a plan to prepare for disasters in order to minimize the amount of potential damage that could be inflicted, especially when the community itself isn't strong and self-sustainable. Some of the ways that we help these communities prepare for disasters is by implementing Early Warning Systems (EWS) to alert the public that a potential natural disaster is approaching, and how they can stay safe. Depending on how technologically advanced the societies are, this could be as simple as having a mass text to those who are in the danger zone, or as complicated as a house-to-house branched network of personal alerts. The project management tool can be applied to this project by helping to better organize it from the initial planning phases, all the way into ending the project.
We all had lunch in the hotel dining room, and since there are so many people, I had a 3rd grade-like moment after I picked out my food for where to sit. I ended up having a great conversation with Kendall and Huong (part of the ARC staff in Vietnam) which I'm pretty sure I wrote about in yesterday's post. After the training was done for the day, I went out to dinner with a really fun but random bunch. The original plan was that me, Sonia (who works at NHQ with me) and Maureen (the facilitator for the training) were going to go shopping and then get dinner, but as always, things change. Maureen invited Christine (our delegate based in Kuala Lumpur, more on her later), but then bailed herself out, and we ended up meeting up with Ramsey (delegate based in Beijing) and Sajid (delegate based in Dhaka) in the hotel lobby. Rather than go to a restaurant, the five of us decided to go try to find a night market for some local street food.
We ended up not too far from the hotel, just a short cab ride and then walking bridge away. The street was lined on both sides by different vendors making food in their little carts, so we split up, ordered food from various places, then returned to our table and waited for them to bring it to us. I thought this was so unique, the way different vendors would try to solicit you for your business, even handing menus to you on top of someone else's, but then laughing and joking - even though you knew they were pretty serious. The overall atmosphere was so chilled out and relaxed, with dim lighting and the perfect amount of background noise to allow for conversation, but still remind you that you're in a city. The street vendors brought us our food, which we all ended up sharing. Two dishes I loved - chicken satay (a million times better than any chicken satay I've ever had) and a spicy mango papaya salad.
This dinner was definitely one of the many highlights of my trip, especially because I hardly knew anyone I was going with - which is what made it so fun! The majority of people on this trip are somewhere in their 40s, with a few above and below, and like I said earlier, I'm definitely the youngest. The closest person to me in age is about 6 years older, but he wasn't there. In any case, it was so much fun to be able to finally interact with these delegates who I spend a good amount of time Skyping with and emailing, and getting a chance to see their personalities at work in real life was such a treat. They're all so quirky and unique, especially Christine. She's one of those people who just takes life for what it is, enjoys every moment, and is always joking around and laughing. Like so many of the other delegates and staff members, she has traveled the world and has the best stories. For example, when she was staying in Cape Town a few years ago, she invited her sister (who is apparently the complete opposite of her - married, has kids, etc.) to come out and visit. They were planning and planning...when about a week before the trip, her sister tells her that she doesn't have a passport.
What I really enjoyed about this outing was that we didn't talk about work - we actually got to know one another, asked questions, and actually listened. Another example is with Ramsey - from his emails and the way he was described, I thought he would be this big tall beefy guy with a no-nonsense attitude and the biggest stick up his butt. Yet, he's one of the coolest people here. Once you get to bond with your co-workers on a more personal level, you realize that sometimes something they said might come across strangely or too abrupt, but maybe they're just weird and they like to get straight to the point. Ramsey's our longest out-of-NHQ delegate, having now spent 25 years out in the field. He started out as an intern, and now he's running projects and is the delegate known to be "conquering the world" in terms of his coverage zones. Hmmm.... :)
Sajid and Sonia were also fun to talk to, because although we're all Indian, we come from different parts but can still relate to each other on our own brown level. It's nice being able to let off a little steam after spending so long cooped up in a conference room (okay, fine - spacious hotel ballroom) and get to know people. During my last year of college, and especially in the last semester, I made it a point to only really spend time with and hang out with people that I cognizantly chose to - which is the same principle I'm bringing here. When you're excited about something and you willingly want to have dinner with people, I feel like you enjoy yourself a million times better than if you force yourself into a situation you don't want to be in. Lucky for me, everyone at the training is so interesting that I don't even know where to start with who I want to get to know better. I don't know if that made sense - it probably sounded really obvious, but trust me when I say it's not so black and white. Our meal ended up being only $3-4 per person, which was incredible, considering how much food we got.
On our way out of the little market, we stopped at a sticky rice and mango stall. Although I love mango, I wasn't a fan of the sticky rice with coconut concoction, mostly because I may or may not be allergic to coconut. So while everyone was at the stand, I was a few feet away scrolling through the pictures on my camera, and not realizing I was in the middle of the street. Before I knew what was happening, I heard a loud car horn and looked up to see headlighs blind my vision. I felt a tug and in a second was pulled to the nearest table to me, which was full of what seemed like high school aged boys, and out of harm's way. A little whiplashed, I was still trying to figure out what was happening as I made my way back to the group, still near the boys' table, but definitely out of the street. It took me a minute to realize one of the guy's had pulled me out of the street and just saved my life. As I was standing there, trying to piece together what just happened and how I didn't realize I was in the middle of the street, these sweet little boys pushed their fresh plate of sticky rice towards me and gave me a fork, smiling and encouraging me to try a piece. Seeing as how they just saved my life and all, if I died from the coconut, I'd REALLY have meant to have died that night. (Clearly, I did not.) The guys were really sweet, we had a limited conversation with lots of smiling and nodding, but apparently all of them go to school and one was a pharmacist. Once again, I was thanking my lucky stars for having survived an experience I probably shouldn't have.
We made it back to the hotel and before I got to my room, I ran into Maya in the hallway who was on her way to get dinner, and who doesn't like second dinner? We went down the street to Cheer's again, which is becoming one of my favorite places.There weren't any strange prostitutes or negotiations going on that night, or that I noticed anyway. Maya was pretty stressed with not only having to help organize this whole thing with me and deal with everyone's changing check-in and check-out dates, but she also had to participate in the training and work on her project, while absorbing all the processes to pass the exam. I think Maya and I have very similar personalities, and from this late dinner, I saw more and more of that come out. We can both be over-the-top perfectionists, but also carefree and fun-loving when the right opportunity presents itself (and once we're done dotting our i's and crossing our t's, of course). We were able to destress a bit then head back to the hotel, where I completely passed out for the night. Until tomorrow...
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