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| View from the conference hotel in Berkeley- that's San Fran in the distance! |
Thankfully
this final week in the States has been so busy and non-stop that I haven’t had
a chance to think about how much I miss being at home, being in Singapore with
Nick or being in Reno with the Van Dellen family. It could have been a real
struggle otherwise!
Having arrived back in San Francisco
in time to get back to the apartment for around 11pm, Monday kicked off with an
exam (yes, really) and then flew through to Friday.
I had to move from the apartment to
a new hotel in Berkeley, which was about 20 minutes away on Monday night. This
was where we spent the rest of the week locked in yet another conference room –
although this one was big enough for around 80 people and had a slightly less
tense atmosphere as there was no risk of an exam or test pitch at the end of
it. On the downside, the company insists on everyone sharing hotel rooms, so it
meant that there was very little quiet time for the whole week – even in the
safety of the hotel room, there was a stranger to make friends with and work
around.
Once in the conference hotel there
was drinks and dinner every night, full days of conference from 8:30-5:30 every
day (including a certain amount of working over lunch and breakfast) and a
number of team activities on top of all that too.
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| Sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge |
We spent evenings drinking on the
balcony of the hotel bar, watching the sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge in
the distance before heading out for evenings either eating in student style
bars, bowling in the City and sampling beers from a local brewery.
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| Dinner one of the nights of the conference |
Having survived the full week,
waking up on the final Friday, the entire sales team were making the most of a
lie in following the big all-company party, ahead of their long weekends (none
of them had to work on the Friday). Sadly, I had to relocate myself just one
more time to a hotel nearer the office as I would be staying one night longer
than most of the sales team to finish off the cramped training sessions (the
training normally runs for a week and a half, so the team did their best to make
up for any missed sessions on this very hung-over final Friday).
I made it through – just! I was
supposed to have one more pitch to make it through, but luckily some clients
arrived in town unexpectedly, saving me from a hangover pitch attempt with a
two hour, fairly intensive meeting instead. Lunch with my friend on the
marketing team Sam followed this up, and then it was pretty much the end of the
day. I bid farewell to my fellow newbies with drinks and dinner near the hotel,
and by 9pm I was in pyjamas, watching TV and luxuriating in the fact that I no
longer had to share a room with a stranger.
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| Farewell breakfast - that's three pancakes bigger than my head, with eggs, bacon and syrup on the side! |
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