My Bridget Jones moment

First of all, my FTP was down, therefore my site has been inactive for a while. Expect new posts regularly now!!!

Xmas was nice, I visited my parents and just relaxed in front of the fire place. The Friday before Xmas, I traditionally have many drinks to attend. Work, AIESEC and usally a friend, in this case an Atma board member, all threw a party on that day.

I managed to get drunk with my colleagues in a bar, close to work, within 2 hours. We even requested tacky Dutch songs and sang along very loudly which drove other customers out of the bar. Then I dragged myself to the AIESEC drinks, where I was still a bit drunk, made a fool out of myself and pretty much insulted several people. Then after few hours, I had my hang-over already so I had to go home and sleep.

All in all, a very succesfull night ;-).
New Years resolution and note to self:
Stay sober at next year's party and behave well!!!

A week before Xmas

have not done much blogging lately for the reason that I do not have much to talk about. Ì work, shop and party in weekends and that is basically it. It sounds rather boring, but I am perfectly happy with my life.

Some nice to knows:
- As I was waiting for the elevator in my building, I girl came up to me and I said to her "hey Lanchanie" and turned again. Then I started to realize what had just happened: I saw a girl that I have not seen for 1,5 years in my corridor! We were both in awe by the strangeness of the whole situation. Now she actually lives across the hall from me, together with a girl that I met in Mexico, how random is life sometimes??
- Since it is x-mas time, many people return home, including my good friend Scott (a.k.a. Douglas). He left me a message on Facebook stating that he is coming back to the Netherlands for a week, cannot wait to see him!
-I am still thinking if I should go for a short ski trip during xmas, have to decide soon!!
-Workwise everything is very interesting since the whole acquisition is now really kicking in. Every day there are other issues, solutions, problems, policies etc. Very exciting times!
- I attended an Ernst & Young gala party yesterday. It was very formal and exclusive, but interesting. I feel more Dutch everyday.

Since it has been a while I am starting to miss all my international friends actually. I hope everyone is doing well.

All the best, enjoy your xmas!

The week before Xmas

I have not done much blogging lately for the reason that I do not have much to talk about. Ì work, shop and party in weekends and that is basically it. It sounds rather boring, but I am perfectly happy with my life.

Some nice to knows:
- As I was waiting for the elevator in my building, I girl came up to me and I said to her "hey Lanchanie" and turned again. Then I started to realize what had just happened: I saw a girl that I have not seen for 1,5 years in my corridor! We were both in awe by the strangeness of the whole situation. Now she actually lives across the hall from me, together with a girl that I met in Mexico, how random is life sometimes??
- Since it is x-mas time, many people return home, including my good friend Scott (a.k.a. Douglas). He left me a message on Facebook stating that he is coming back to the Netherlands for a week, cannot wait to see him!
-I am still thinking if I should go for a short ski trip during xmas, have to decide soon!!
-Workwise everything is very interesting since the whole acquisition is now really kicking in. Every day there are other issues, solutions, problems, policies etc. Very exciting times!
- I attended an Ernst & Young gala party yesterday. It was very formal and exclusive, but interesting. I feel more Dutch everyday.

Since it has been a while I am starting to miss all my international friends actually. I hope everyone is doing well.

All the best, enjoy your xmas!

Dutchies and leadership

Today’s training about compliance made me think about the Dutch and leadership. I believe leadership is a state of mind, it is hard to define and more about character than skills. Great leaders need skills but skilled people are not always leaders. We are a country with only 16 million people. We believe we can win the Football European Championship despite having to play Italy and France in the first round. We believe the Dutch educational system is the best in the world, despite that none of our universities end up in the top 10. We also believe we produce many great leaders, but do we?

India has Ghandi. South Africa has Mandela. England has Diana. France has Napoleon.
Which great leaders did we produce?

Dutch are socialists and let’s face it mediocre. We do not like people standing out of the crowd. Acting normal is strange enough (as the local saying goes). It is a difficult environment to excel in.

My traineeship is built around leadership development principles. We read Covey for homework. I am fascinated by remarks my colleagues make. I see leadership hidden inside them. But I am not sure they can resist the pitfalls of being mediocre. If we fail, there are x million Chinese or x million Indians just waiting to take over.

I do not know what my conclusion is or what it should be. I guess this story will be continued.