Tales from Greece
This will be a rambling. I havent had time to talk to anyone from home, so i need to detail stuff.
I am currently operating on 4 hours of sleep, which to you may seem like nothing, but this training stuff is ridiculous and getting hammered the night before is not the way to go. But we had to celebrate the last night for our favorite French folks. That might not make any sense to you since i havent even detailed much of this trip...so...rewind.
Training is intense. 400 something participants from all over (US, Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Australia, Singapore...But only the US and Germany stay for the second week) . Never met so many foreigners before...its fun and a little intimidating too for whatever reason. at this point I am definitely all small-talked out. To the point where last night, at our "business professional" dinner, I turned to the girl next to me, apologetically smiled, and said "I'm sorry, but I'm over this small talk thing, so i might be a mute at this meal" - Being that I hate awkward silences, I still said a few things here and there, but i was more or less a wallflower. THen night fell, alcohol was consumed and I wouldnt stop talking.
We're all trained into these tiny conference rooms for training. This first week was our international component so it was all soft skills and getting us acquainted with the firm policies, accounting practices....blah. We're fed breakfast and lunch every day....the same greasy ass food day after day. Im not really complaining, but I think i can feel my arteries clogging. They make potatoes really good around these parts.
Athens itself is a little shady..haha it hink we're all pretty surprised by the grafitti covered walls, rabid dogs, and SHADY ass alleys (like seriously, straight up out of a movie) . But the parts that are cool...are absolutely gorgeous. You know, those moments when you're like "yeah, this is exactly how greece should look like"
The participants from san francisco office are cool. There are 8 of us, four guys, four girls and we hang out as a group...well some of us more than others. We hung out with the french and a few germans all week..there accents are out of this world (well, not really). You know how people's habits rub off well the Europeans here have all these cute little things they say as well as distinct intonations in their words that have totally rubbed off. I hope i kick the habit by the time i get back to the states, wouldnt want to get heckled about it.
anyway, other than that...there are a bunch of tiny details that i can bore you with when i return. This weekend we finally get a bit of free time and i can finally visit the acropolis which i've been itching to do since i got here. We hope to escape to an island on sunday...we'll see. Not santorini though :( No time. They dont let us go away from the weekend... so rude. they're making saturday's dinner mandatory..so obviously we cant leave.
I am currently operating on 4 hours of sleep, which to you may seem like nothing, but this training stuff is ridiculous and getting hammered the night before is not the way to go. But we had to celebrate the last night for our favorite French folks. That might not make any sense to you since i havent even detailed much of this trip...so...rewind.
Training is intense. 400 something participants from all over (US, Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Australia, Singapore...But only the US and Germany stay for the second week) . Never met so many foreigners before...its fun and a little intimidating too for whatever reason. at this point I am definitely all small-talked out. To the point where last night, at our "business professional" dinner, I turned to the girl next to me, apologetically smiled, and said "I'm sorry, but I'm over this small talk thing, so i might be a mute at this meal" - Being that I hate awkward silences, I still said a few things here and there, but i was more or less a wallflower. THen night fell, alcohol was consumed and I wouldnt stop talking.
We're all trained into these tiny conference rooms for training. This first week was our international component so it was all soft skills and getting us acquainted with the firm policies, accounting practices....blah. We're fed breakfast and lunch every day....the same greasy ass food day after day. Im not really complaining, but I think i can feel my arteries clogging. They make potatoes really good around these parts.
Athens itself is a little shady..haha it hink we're all pretty surprised by the grafitti covered walls, rabid dogs, and SHADY ass alleys (like seriously, straight up out of a movie) . But the parts that are cool...are absolutely gorgeous. You know, those moments when you're like "yeah, this is exactly how greece should look like"
The participants from san francisco office are cool. There are 8 of us, four guys, four girls and we hang out as a group...well some of us more than others. We hung out with the french and a few germans all week..there accents are out of this world (well, not really). You know how people's habits rub off well the Europeans here have all these cute little things they say as well as distinct intonations in their words that have totally rubbed off. I hope i kick the habit by the time i get back to the states, wouldnt want to get heckled about it.
anyway, other than that...there are a bunch of tiny details that i can bore you with when i return. This weekend we finally get a bit of free time and i can finally visit the acropolis which i've been itching to do since i got here. We hope to escape to an island on sunday...we'll see. Not santorini though :( No time. They dont let us go away from the weekend... so rude. they're making saturday's dinner mandatory..so obviously we cant leave.