A lot has happened in the past week and I want to tell you all about it, so please make yourself comfortable and prepare for a long read. I would have liked to tell you some of it earlier, but I haven't been home any of the evenings this week, so I haven't had the time to write.
The talk of the week at the office is our Happen colleague, Katie Crilly, who was dismissed with immediate effect this week. She has been convicted in UK for stealing from her previous employer. It appears she was hired as an accountant in Happen a couple of months ago, while she was still in the process of a 'minor legal case' with her previous employer. Well, it turns out she pocketed just short of a million danish kroner... After that her LinkedIn description seems a bit ironic: "Katie Cryllie, Directing money into all the right places".
The rest of the week I have been working on rather simple tasks again. It is a bit frustrating, as I want to show off and become trusted enough for some interesting assignments. To show off I have definitely been doing my part. This Monday I did a great presentation of my work with the macro I told you about last time. I framed the story really well, had them laughing in the right places and kept it short and exciting enough for them to continue talking about the macro later that day. But the in truth, it was only a minor project and one that I came up with myself, so although I feel like I did well, it still wasn't that big of an accomplishment.
This week we had the whole sales team visiting Amsterdam. They work for Winkle in offices around the world and it was nice to meet them in person. Thursday, I got to know more about how they work and the business model of Winkle from a presentation by Hanneke and our American colleague, Eve.
Like last week, I have been busy in the evenings with Orionis events. I have decided to show up to all of them, because I can and it's fun, even if a little exhausting at times. The Monday event was a pub-crawl to the favorite pubs of the Orionis commisions. The commisions are sub-groups, who manage different assets and events for Orionis. Examples are the Bar commision, the Skûtje commision, the magazine commision... you get the point I'm sure. On the pub-crawl we greeted all of them and spent about fifteen minutes with each. Most of the time it felt like rushing around, but I did get the time to sit down and be convinced to join a few events. Most notably a Skûtje competition in Friesland.
Tuesday the board of Orionis had a meeting and our group decided to show up and disturb them a little. Forty minutes into their meeting we knocked on the door and entered. In an apologetic tone, I told them we had something we wanted to tell them from our hearts, but we were too shy to just say it openly. So instead we arranged for a letter to be sent by special delivery... (theatrical silence) ... "Kukeroo!" Laurens says from outside the door, showing the tip of his wings (!?) and in he comes. He is dressed completely in the dove costume I made for him and is wearing a nice little beak as well. In his mouth he is carrying a big letter. He is performing the role of a "Postduif" (homing pigeon) and he is making everyone laugh. He is a natural at flapping his wings, while singing "Kukeroo" (dutch pigeon sound I suppose) and he even mixes it up with a couple of bird-jokes. The board members are all laughing, flabbergasted at our behavior and when we talk later they reveal that they had no clue there were points to monsters who delivered mail to them by homing pigeons. Anyway, it was great fun to do and they appreciated the sweet words in the letter.
Wednesday I left the office early for yet another Orionis event. This time we went sailing on the small lake, Sloterplas. I had been looking much forward to it and I definitely did enjoy myself, but not before taking things in my own hands... At first when I arrived we were only four and we formed a team. Although I wanted to sail in the Laser Vago, I went with the team decision and started out in the Valk. Now, I am comfortable in any boat, and I am very good at enjoying the weather and just sailing regardless of what crew I am with, but somehow this one girl managed to ruin it for me. It was really odd, and I thought about it a lot later, because I usually find that my personality goes well with everyone and it is usually easy to relate to fellow students. Later this week I took a personality test for work/fun and I think I finally understood what was wrong with the Valk trip. According to the test (and I believe it) my way of interacting with others is highly relating as opposed to controlling. I seek influence directly, when I am comfortable, but more indirectly in ambiguous situations like the one I am in now as a foreigner. The problem with this is, that it will take me quite a while before I communicate what I want myself, because I need to figure out what everyone else wants first (odd, but true). This works with most people, because I don't dominate them, so they will tend to relax and usually ask me what I want, but it turns out this girl couldn't care less about what I wanted. She used to sail competitively in the Valk, so she was able to handle the boat pretty much by herself and that's what she did. I have no idea why she would assume that the rest of us were not interested in steering the boat or the main sail. At one point she even belittled me with her explanation of how to control the push pole after I told her we don't use that kind of thing in Denmark. Well, I'm not going to rant any more about it, but I left her and the boat as soon as I thought it would be socially acceptable (she complained, but I was relieved). Meanwhile I had made a friend of another one on the Valk and we had great fun in the Laser Vago the rest of the day. It's similar in handling to a 29'er, but smaller, less spacious and less stable (strange, but I believe it is because the sword is too little). I think I will have lots of fun in this boat in the weeks to come.
Thursday evening I had dinner a group of eight of my colleagues including Eve and her mother. We had a traditional dutch type of dinner, where you cook for yourself at the table. You get your own tiny pan and then they serve a big plate of small pieces of raw meat. There are also a few vegetables that you can fry a little salat for you to eat raw and some french fries you can take. I think the hygiene of it is quite miserable compared to Danish standards, but I see that often here so I keep that thought to myself and dive in with everyone else (but unlike some I couldn't help being very careful separating tools for raw meat and food that is ready to eat). After the meal we went bowling (nothing of note happened here, especially the score is not relevant to inform you of) and then some of us went to a bar. I enjoyed the evening and I am looking forward to the next time we do something like that. It happens at least once a month and I think it's one of the things that contribute to the 'family-like' feeling of Winkle.
Friday evening I went to a pub-quiz with Orionis, but I was getting tired from a long week, so I left early. On my way home I saw an ambulance team perform CPR in the middle of the street. My first instinct was to move on and let them do their job, along with sending some negative thoughts to the people in the crowd who were watching as if it was some kind of entertainment. But then I decided against it, stepped off my bike and watched the scene. It is the first time I see CPR performed in real life and I thought it might be educational for me in relation to lifeguarding. The facts I picked up were: one person had an accident on a motorbike, he was clearly unconscious and not breathing, he had been moved away from the road and police had sealed off a large area around him. There were two ambulances present and everyone was attending to the unconscious man. Their procedure was a little different from the one I know, because they were somehow able to ventilate him, while doing compressions. I saw them do CPR for at least 10 minutes without giving any shocks, although they were clearly monitoring his heart rate with an ECG. I'm sure this experience is somehow positive for me, because I got to see a lot of things that I might eventually experience myself such as: the desperate friend who had to be restrained by the police to keep him from interfering, the eerie stillness of the body aside from the motion of the stomage up and down in the opposite rhythm of the chest. While watching I felt nothing emotionally myself, not for the patient or even his desperate friend. I don't know why that is exactly, but it gives me good confidence in myself for being able to act utterly professionally if I ever get the chance to rescue someone. When I got home I did spend a little time reflecting on the emotional side of it and concluded that I was feeling 'intense' or 'aware' or something along those lines that is definitely related to elevated levels of adrenaline.
Today I am having a quiet day after a busy week. I hope the guy from yesterday makes it, but I don't think he will. I hope the next week will be as much fun as the past week and I look forward to having my mother visit from Denmark and to the introduction trip of Orionis in the weekend.
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