My first business trip with my new company. This is supposed to be a team building trip with my team as well as the vendor and then a series of meetings are lined up as a form of introduction to the way things work in Netherlands.
I was due to take the plane on 25th March, 11.30pm flight, am taking KLM and will reach Schiphol Airport on 26th March at around 7am. The flight is about 14 hours and I thought I could spend my time on the plane watching movies but guess what? The in-flight entertainment system was spoilt...and only in the business class. So i have to spend my time playing with my puzzle book and trying to sleep.
Finally reached the airport and waited for my boss's flight. His flight was delayed for 2 hours and I was practically doing nothing in the airport for over 3 hours. Walked around and had some food at Burger King. I had some nuggets and a coke and that costs me Euro6. My goodness.
One of my colleague came and picked us up from te airport and we travelled to the hotel where we are going to have our team building. It's the Hilton Hotel. http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/index.jhtml;jsessionid=5SS4OO0QEPGJ4CSGBIU222QKIYFC3UUC?ctyhocn=SPLSOHI
The hotel seems nice on the website cos' it's summer time then but when i was there, there is no green grass, even the golf course is brown in colour. Checked into the Hotel and had lunch at the hotel. Ther service there is really really slow.
After that, we decided to drive to Amsterdam. The roads there are like stone roads and my poor shoes spoilt just after one day of walking there.
I saw the largest bicycle carpark ever there and it's like 2 storey high. The roads are pretty inaccessible and cycling is definitely better.
Bought some sourvenirs and stopped by a pub for some beer. Ventured into the "red light district" of Amsterdam but it's only 4plus in the afternoon so the curtains are all drawn.
Don't go into a "coffee shop" in Amsterdam as it's a place where people smoke port etc. Drinking joints are called cafes.
Went around some churches and some streets along the river. Some of the houses there are crooked and slanted to one side. Interesting.
27th March - Start the morning with breakfast and got to know some new faces. Finally met my team as well as my vendor's team from USA and Netherlands. Definitely good to put a face behind the voice. I was the only asian and chinese girl there. My current boss is a female but will soon be replaced by a male one and I will be the only female in my team. Meals were organised in the hotel and it was quite an enjoyable time.
28th March - 2nd and last day of team building. Had more work to do today as we had discussions on the way we are working now and how to improve on things. However, it lasted only half a day and we left for Noordwijk in the afternoon.
The hotel in Noordwijk was near the beach and it was a really nice hotel. We had mexican food around the place and after dinner, we walked around the beach. It was very very windy and freezing but really nice. www.hotelsvanoranje.com
29th March - My first day at Sassenheim office. Hmm...there is no common office area where we had in Singapore or China. Everyone has a room of their own. Cool,isn't it? Went for several meetings today and trying to get to know more people in the office as well. Left office about 5pm and went back to the shopping area near my Hotel for some shopping. The shops closed at 6pm. Bought some more sourvenirs and cheese too.
That evening, my future boss brought us all to his hometown for dinner. We had indian food at a restaurant and it was quite nice.
30th March - More meetings today and had a major problem with China while I was there. This evening my colleague who lives in Amsterdam has volunteered to bring us for a canal cruise followed by dinner.
The canal cruise was interesting. Went past the science centre, some nice bridges, maritime museum etc. Went for a beer before our dinner with 2 more colleagues. Then we drive to the new part of Amsterdam and had dinner at a restaurant called Blok 4. The menu was all in Dutch. When we finally finished dinner, it was almost 11pm. We were then arguing whether to go for some drinks. Finally decided to do so. We drove back to Amsterdam to a place near New Church Street. Had a drink for me and a couple for my other colleagues and eventually went back to office to pick up my colleague's car before heading back to the Hotel. By the time, i washed up and got ready for bed, it's like 2am.
31st March - Last day in Netherlands. So far didn't really see much tulips blooming as it's still very cold. About 8deg celsius and not many windmills too. Had a meeting early in the morning and then back to office. Brought my luggage to the office as I will be leaving office for the airport.
Left office about 5.30pm to go to airport. Walked around the airport for a while, had dinner at Delifrance and then my boss and colleague left. My boss is scheduled to fly back tomorrow. I can't get any flight for the next day so I had to take this early flight. My colleagues keep asking me to extend my stay or come early next time.
Was at the lounge area where there were drinks and food available and i nearly missed my flight. I think I was like the last one to go on board. Thank God, there's inflight entertainment this time. I nearly don't have it as someone was sitting at my seat when I was there. And his seat's inflight entertainment system was down.
Finally back to Singapore on 1st April. It was a good trip in all.
