Day 8 – Made it on the front page of the newspaper

By bogaert
The other day the press was present at the official opening ceremony. Today we got the newspaper; we made it up to the top of the front page with an article describing what we are doing as IBM with the CSC project in Xiamen. Not sure about the details, but anyway it is looking very nice!

Refraining a bit from experimenting with food, in particular at breakfast (such as pig floss bread, rice soup, noodles) and returning to the safer option of just having some fresh fruits allowed my digestive system to get some rest. In the morning I kept reading the notes I took during the client meetings over and over again, trying to get some structure into it, and seeking for an approach on how we could move forward. The scope is quite wide, with questions in different directions. With a bit of shuffling them around in my head I had the impressions we can group them together into a few categories, in particular sales issues and HR related issues. Amit and Megan joined and we worked together on an approach for a next meeting. We drafted the ideas, but time flied to fast that we had to rush for a sandwich before the team meeting. The exchange of the first week experience among teams was very useful, in particular to hear the issues the other teams are facing gave me a better understanding on the root causes beneath.
#ibmcsc china
Newspaper

IBM CSC project on the front of the newspaper
After the team meeting we quickly agreed on the weekend program. We planned to go on Saturday going to the village of Quanzhou, We asked our interns to hire a bus and to negotiate a lower rate. They did a great job! I needed some clothes and had to fix this before having a joined dinner. So, I asked Leonore to write down the name, address, and driving directions of a local shopping down in mandarin on a piece of paper. Mukund and Sabarinath joined the ride with a taxi. We crossed the village of Xiamen and picked up quickly the stuff we needed. We jumped back into another taxi and I gave the driver the instructions given by the hotel. For some reason the driver didn't get it, either he couldn't read or didn't know where the hotel was. The nearest point to the hotel that came into my mind was the island Gu Lang Yu. I just mentioned 'Gu Lang Yu ferry' and he started to smile; he kept talking to us in Mandarin, and joined the crowded traffic. I started driving in the right direction, which made me confident he got it. Back at the hotel I dropped my stuff into the room and joined the dinner we offered as a team to our inters, in particular two of them having their birthday! A bit exhausted dropped into my bed, so many things to do before having our next meeting on Monday. Being with IBM, we will find a way to get this done.