April 2018

 

I am a month into working at Royal DSM in The Netherlands. The corporate office is in Sittard in the province of Limburg to the south. So I spent the first 4 weeks working from this office getting acclimated and meeting all of my new colleagues.  About a 20 minute drive from the office is the ancient town of Maastricht. I say ancient because it still has a few short round stone towers, built during the rule of the Roman Empire, that line the river.

Unlike when Mike and I came to visit in March, the weather was very pleasant and mostly sunny. The trees were just beginning to kick out blooms and buds and everyone was out on the weekend to enjoy the warm weather.

Maastricht is a very international city with many university students coming from around the world. Eight out of 10 of the conversations I passed as I walked around town were in English, but with very strong accents. English appears to be everyone’s second language, regardless of where they hail from.

Speaking of international, one of the first events with my peer team was a team building event in Genk, Belgium across the border (pronounced henk).  Before I speak of that however, I probably need to speak about how international travel works here in the European Union for those who have yet to visit. Basically, it is just like traveling between states in the US. In other words, you see a sign along the highway that says you are leaving and a sign that says you are entering, and if you miss those, then you may not know until you have looked at Google maps.

When I came out to interview, I had an interview in Sittard and then an interview in Belgium and I had not realized I crossed into another country until Verizon greeted me with a Belgium data plan text. As well, I often fly into Dusseldorf, Germany and then drive into Limburg and, again, no exit/entry needed.

So, for this team building event, we went to Genk. We arrived the afternoon before the event and one of the team had arranged for us to have a bike tour. A 19 KM bike tour. What is that? 12 miles? No big deal right?  And, I am happy to say that I finished it. I am not happy to report that I needed to really concentrate to not fall flat on my face when I got off the bike because my legs were like jell-o. I am so out of shape!

But, it did make me ponder, what executive management was I last a part of that everyone could have made the 19 KM trip. Where it would not have even occurred to the event coordinator to confirm that everyone was up for that? Because come on, it is only 19 KM! The Alacer Gold team could have done it in 2013. And then I would probably have to go back to the PT Freeport Team in Indonesia in 2007.

On the bike tour in Genk, we road to Openluchtmuseum Bokrijk. An open air history museum where historical farm and residence buildings were deconstructed from across Belgium and reconstructed here as a living period piece. There are guides in traditional dress for the time and live demonstrations of how people lived in the area at the turn of the 20th century.

 

It also has Fiets door het water, or Bikes through the water. A bike path that is made in the middle of a lake so you can ride with the water’s edge at eye level. And wonder just how vicious swans can be. I don’t know, but my money would be on the swan.

We then went on to have our team building event the following day and all I can say is, thank you fate for placing me in this non-toxic, positive work environment, with this awesome team of people.

The end of April wrapped up in Seattle and then San Francisco as I traveled with my team to visit the Microsoft and Amazon offices. Mike

and I had our 15th wedding anniversary on April 25th and he flew into San Francisco so we could be together for the evening. Very sweet. It was then home to Arizona to visit with the family for a few days before heading back and waiting for kids to finish school, Mike to finish packing and all of them to head out to The Netherlands to start the next chapter.