ruthdelacruz

travel & lifestyle blog by ruth dela cruz

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In a Japanese Restaurant in Indonesia with Americans, Brazilian, Indians and Mexican

March 20, 2012

I learned new words/phrases last night. But they are not the ones which you can use in daily conversation. I don’t want to share the things and the phrases my team and I learned last night. I would rather that you learn it from the locals than in my blog. 😉

Anyway, we had Japanese food last night. I am not really into Japanese food but this restaurant called Shabu Tei really offers good rolls – however, I am not very impressed with the service.

Want to know the kind of food the restaurant serves? Click Read More..
 

I love the way they served food – most of them look like desserts. We had been eating in so many different restaurants that I have no time to get the name of each dish, or take pictures – it is just so fun to be in company of this great team!

 
Dish for Vegetarian 
No fish. No meat. No shrimp. No chicken.

I learned alot today. Like most of them are used to seeing knife and fork in the dining table – probably because they usually eat steaks in their home country. It was even funnier that the employees in the hospital where we are assigned thought that there is no rice in the US because my partner seldom touches her rice. She is not that a heavy rice eater.

Another funny thing is when our US team members taught our Indian team members how to use chopsticks. I am learning how to use it too.

Cheryl (US) was also surprised when Nitu (India) ordered milkshake. She said that she (Nitu) was having desserts first. We then found out that milkshakes in the US are really heavy drinks with ice cream and is usually served as dessert. In India, same with Philippines, you can order milkshake to go with your meal.

Dealing with people from different geographies make us also know different perspectives. I was just sharing to our translator that Beijing is a surprise to me because I thought it was polluted and dirty. I found the country really safe and clean; but Cheryl (my partner from US) has a different view.

Regarding our assignment, we got to meet the Director of the hospital yesterday and also had a meeting with our contact person to ensure that what we will deliver is the same with their expectations from us.

As soon as we arrived in the hotel, we prepared for the Yoga session with Nitu (India) and decided to have daily session. It is nice to get a little exercise since I am eating a lot in the past days.

After the session (and before heading for dinner), the team met up for the Brainstorming Activity (sort of Homework) that the Harvard University has sent us. It is a recorded discussion and there are three topics that we need to discuss for 45 minutes.

In our team room 😉

First is to create two vegetarian dishes incorporating the local ingredients from our country assignment (5 minutes). Second is to create criteria for the list of fruits provided to us – say citrus vs. non-citrus, color, shape, etc. Vivek (India) suggested a very good criteria – if the fruit can be used as a metaphor. He’s really a smart and creative kid! We were given 10 minutes for this topic.

Then we jumped to something serious. Something which needs IBM smart solutions (30 minutes). I am not sure if I should post the topic here since there might be other CSC participants who might receive the same activity in the future.

Few more minutes..

Anyway, we had a great discussion and I have new learnings. It gives me better view and understanding what happens when you put people from different countries to discuss things, collaborate and share ideas.

Today, I got new learnings. There is so much happening and there is just not enough time to share. But let me share the team picture last night.

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