Technology Consulting in the Global Community

Just a quick note to say Bariloche was awesome, and we leave for Santiago tomorrow.  This past week has flown by!  We’ve been saying goodbye to everyone.  The Alvarez had us over for dinner one last time, and this time we got some pictures.  Then yesterday the office had breakfast (a cake and a lemon-merengue pie!) and dinner after work.  I’ve been feeling spoiled.  And also a little panicked! I didn’t bring nearly enough presents from home to give everyone, so I’m making origami.  And I’m not packed.  Aaah!  I’m afraid all my seuveniers won’t fit in my luggage, or that I’ll forget to do something important. before we leave.

It’s so sad saying good-bye.  It’s cliche, but even though I really just wanted to go home earler, now that it’s time to go I want to stay.  *sigh*  I’m going to miss everyone here.

This may be my last post until I get home, but I’ll type up everything that happens.  I’m just not sure if I’ll have a good internet access point in Santiago.  So… bye ’till August 10^th!

Wow it’s been a while.  Sorry ‘bout that.  I’ll try to fill in what happened in chronological order.  This may make separate sections rather disjoint, so try to bear with me.

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Last weekend we didn’t end up going with Techo Para Chile, nor did we go to the Barquito.  It was La Casona Verde’s two-year anniversary so we went there instead.  There were some creepy guys hitting on us at first – apparently the this-creepy-guy-is-getting-too-close dance is international; I noticed Mapi doing it at the same time I was, so we went elsewhere.  La Casona Verde’s popular with college students because it’s cheep and they know lots of other people who go there, but it’s really not my kind of place, nor Mapi’s.  Nor Mingi’s.  We all agreed we never want to go there again.

Instead of doing stuff with Techo Para Chile we went to Niebla – a little town about 15 minutes away and very near the coast.  We met up with Mapi, Claudia and Melissa there. It was a beautiful sunny day, we ate at a nice restaurant with a beautiful view, saw a large Spanish fort with a light-house, and generally had an awesome time.  I found out after coming back that the sand there is magnetic!  (Mingi bought a vial of it).  If you ever come to Valdivia, definitely visit Niebla – its beautiful with lots of coast along the sound.

Every single city we’ve been to so far (except Santiago, maybe) has had a “costanera”, which is the coast line by downtown, and is usually where local hand-crafts (artesanía) can be found.  There are also usually restaurants and a thin strip (barely more than the beach itself) of park and/or benches.  By beach I mean the edge of a lake, river, or the ocean – just generally the largest body of water near downtown.  It’s a good place to start if you’re visiting any city here.

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I just wrote my first Excel macro!  In fact, I just taught myself how to create and edit macros. I’m so proud of myself!  ^_^

So our Excel database of companies, etc, kept making neighboring cells link to the same page as one containing a link.  It made the whole page into a land-mine.  You had to be careful where you clicked, because completely blank cells would open up a web browser or blank email.  It got really irritating.  Now, we’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of cells, with an almost completely random distribution in the sheet.  So, I wrote a macro that removes hyperlinks from all selected cells!  ^_^  I know, pretty simple, but still, considering I only had a vague idea before that macros allow programming in Excell, I’m pretty happy.

 

Work’s just had a sudden surge again.  Well, at least for me.  Mingi’s now cloistered at home.  The doctor said (surprisingly) that she doesn’t have bronchitis, but she’s still pretty sick and he sent her home for two days.  I’m really hoping she feels better soon – being sick sucks, and she really doesn’t want to be stuck at home.

Yesterday it really rained.  And I mean really.  By the time we’d walked two blocks we were soaked through.  Let me tell you, jeans are not the smartest thing to wear in Valdivia.  Nor are tennis shoes.  You need good rubber boots, thick water-proof coats and pants.  Or better yet a car.  Forget umbrellas, they’re useless.  Jeans just soak up the water and keep it.  An hour after we got back from lunch we were still soaked, so Ivón sent us home. 

Everyone in the office has been taking good care of us, asking if we’re ok, giving us suggestions on how to deal with Valdivia’s weather, etc.  Louis and Abel have driven us home several times.  Ivón took us to the doctor when we went (at Don Eugenio’s request).  It’s just obvious that they all are worried about us.    

 

Anyways, today I had a meeting with Don Eugenio where we talked about the survey results and the database.  I brought him up to speed and showed him what we have so far.  He noticed all the gaps and inconsistencies between Mingi and my parts, and we talked about what was most important to fix.  He’s also set up a meeting with a high-ranking guy in a large local company for Thursday.  Thursday!  I’ve got two days to figure out what to ask him, what info we want, how to approach him, to iron my blouse and work up the courage, etc.  Hopefully Mingi will be better by then, this is a lot more terrifying than I had thought it would be.

We’ve also got to get cracking on the business plan.  I’ve got another meeting with Don Eugenio for 3pm today to talk about that.  I think he forgot that’s during my lunch time, and I didn’t remind him.  We’ve got a lot of work to get done in a very short time, and he’s a busy man.  I really want this to turn out well, I really want us to have something good by the end of these 10 weeks, and we have less than 4 weeks left.  Gah!  it’s scary.

I feel invigorated though – I feel like I’m finally getting back on track and doing good stuff again.  After sitting on my butt for several days, that’s good.  It really helps that Don Eugenio has the time to meet with us again.

 

If you ever come to Chile, get a package of Donuts.  They’re not what we think of as donuts, they’re little crispy cookies covered in chocolate, but shaped like donuts.  And they’re addictive.  I particularly recommend the milk chocolate kind.  Mmmm donuts.

 

OMG headbutts to the chest!  At the World cup!  That was phenomenal.  The world cup’s best player in his very last game ever, the game for the title – for first place!  And he randomly headbutts a member of the opposing team.  Go look it up, it was amazing.  And really sad.

 

This month there’s a play almost every day.  I saw two this weekend.  One really good one, one really bad one.  So it balances out.  ^_^

Hey all.  There’s really nothing to report right now.  I sat on my bum watching TV at home for the past few days, and now I’m back at work.  I’m not completely healed, but I’m feeling better.  Mingi sounds like she’s getting sick though.  I really hope it’s just a cold and I haven’t passed on the Bronchitis.  *sigh*.  Needless to say we’re staying here in Valdivia this weekend.

Catching up on work is proving to be not that hard.  Mingi has basically finished the competitor research and we have to wait on Paola for the analysis of the encuesta data.  Mingi and Don Eugenio have started designing the cashflow of the company, but we’re waiting on Don Eugenio for that too.  And for his input on the Business Plan so far.  *sigh* back to the same old trying to find something we can do.  It’s kind of good though, because I still don’t feel up to thinking that much.  ^_^;;

7-3-06

Mapi, Mingi and I caught a bus Friday night and stayed at Ellenhous (in Puerto Varas) that night.  It’s quite the building – originally it was two separate houses, and one of them (I think) put up soldiers for a while?  I didn’t quite catch.  In any case, there’s an old forge inside the courtyard between the two original houses.  They use it to cook food now *heh*.  The two houses were joined together, making a labyrinth.  No room is square or rectangular.  They’ve all got odd joints, sloping roofs, hidden cubbies, or at least a sky-light cut in half by a wall.  It’s really fun!  We spent some of the next morning just exploring.

We met Li Li (from Taiwan) because originally she was the only other person staying there.  She’s pretty interesting: she saved up money for two years and then quit her job and now she’s spending a year traveling!  I’m amazed.  She’s also really nice.  She gave us each a small packet of ginger tea (which is spicy).  She joined the crew, as it were, for Saturday’s adventures.

Saturday we had quite a scare – we were going to meet Sarah at the bus station, but she never showed.  Mapi had introduced us to Sarah, another vetirinary student from the DC area, earlier that week.  She’s only here till this Thursday, but we invited her to come with us this weekend, because she’s fabulous. ^_^  But she doesn’t have a cell phone, the people at her house said she’d left on-time, and none of the bus companies we checked with had her listed as a passenger.  There was pretty much nothing else we could do.  As we were panicked and wondering what to do, she called us.  Turns out the bus she took to “Puerto Varas” really dumps you at a toll booth in the middle of no-where.  She caught another (local) bus from there and ended up in Puerto Montt. 

After catching a local bus to P. Montt, looking everywhere for Sarah, and losing each other in the bus station, all five of us headed over to a local restaurant for some food.  Every time I’ve ordered half-chicken with french-fries here it’s been fantastic, and this was no exception.  Since Sarah speaks very little Spanish, and Li Li speaks English better as well, that was the language of choice for basically the entire weekend.

Part way through our meal an elderly gentleman came into the restaurant to ask for change or some left-over food.  This isn’t the first time it’s happened, but it’s the first time I had the where-withal to offer to buy him something.   All five of us pitched in to buy him a half-chicken meal as well. 

We were all done with lunch and waiting for the bill when the man started choking.  Another diner did the Heimlich maneuver on him several times, first with the man seated (which scared me) and finally with him standing up.  Everyone in the restaurant was looking on, and a couple other people came to hover round.  After a few Heimlich maneuvers the man spit up some blood and, when asked to, started breathing again.  Turns out a chicken bone got stuck in his throat.  The Chilean EMS was called and he was taken outside to get some fresh air and water.  I was scared and wondering what I could do or if I could help.  One of us commented that it must be so disappointing for him – finally to get a good meal and then to choke on it.  Mapi rushed one of the waitresses to get a bag so he could take the rest of the chicken (almost all of it was left) with him.  EMS was taking care of him when we left, and he was breathing on his own just fine.

Through the whole thing I was sitting there warring with myself.  Part of me thought “You’ve taken first aid classes!  You know how to do the Heimlich maneuver better than this guy!  Why aren’t you helping?  Part of me was thinking “Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh, I hope he’s ok”, and part was thinking (guiltily) “I’m so glad they’re dealing with this and not me”.  The part that says “there’s already too many people hovering around, I’d just get in the way” won out, but it was still quite a traumatizing experience.  We were all quite shaken up by it.

 

We wandered around and went shopping after that, saw the cathedral.  A wooden cathedral with a metal roof.  Quite beautiful.  It would be more beautiful if the rain weren’t pouring down.  And I mean pouring!  Umbrellas were useless because of the wind, and because there was so much standing water on the roads and sidewalks – despite the fact we were right next to the freeking ocean!  It didn’t matter that my coat was rain-proof – almost nothing was dry by the time we got back that day.  It was fantastic!  We laughed so much at the sheer craziness of the weather.  We sang in the rain.  We ran through the downpours, and we skipped down a yellow-tiled side-walk.  ^_^

It seems like we’re all writing about rain.  *hehe*  Maybe TCinGC should include something in the brochures about “exotic rains!” ^_^  It doesn’t always rain here, and it’s quite beautiful, even when it does.  The rain was just phenomenal.

 

The next day dawned bright and clear – no rain.  That was exactly what we’d been hoping for – a day we could go sight seeing and hiking in.  It took me until breakfast to decide, sadly, that I just wasn’t up for it.  My shoes were soaking, I was coughing a lot, stuffed up, etc.  I’d been somewhat sick since Thursday, and tromping around in the rain and cold hadn’t helped.  It’s probably a good thing I went home early, because that night I had a mild fever.  Mingi and Mapi still got to go hiking in park Petrohue though, which is good.  Li Li left to go to Pucón, but we have her email address and we’ll definitely keep in contact.  Sarah also had to come back early (homework) so we had a nice long chat on the bus about books, tv shows, etc.  It’s nice to have another (self-proclaimed) geek to talk to!  ^_^

We meet such amazing people here!  I don’t know if it’s just the conditions we’re under, the adventures we get ourselves into, or just the type of people who like to travel, but we’ve become such close friends so fast, it’s pretty crazy.

 

I’ve got so little done at work today.  I just couldn’t concentrate.  I think it’s more I’m using my sickness as an excuse than anything.  I mean, I’m still sniffling, but I can think just fine. 

Right now Mingi’s doing competitor analysis.  Don Eugenio has her latest update of the business plan.  I’ve been emailing out the survey to everyone.  Today I dealt with all the emails that got bounced back as “broken” or “mailbox full”, etc.  …That’s really it. 

Oh!  Luis and Abel invited us to dinner or wine or something at Abel’s house this weekend.  ^_^  

Tomorrow for 4^th of July (I can’t believe tomorrow’s the 4^th of July) Mingi and I are planning to bring a pie or something to work.  We want to share our traditions with our co-workers who have done so much for us (not that the 4^th of July really has that many traditions around it).  I’d like to bring all sorts of red-white-and-blue stuff and throw a real party of some sort, but Mingi and I have been feeling the emptiness of our pockets more strongly recently, and it’s not like that stuff is easy to come by here.  If I can find some sparklers I’ll be ecstatic.  Or a BBQ to use tomorrow. 

 

7-4-06 Bronchitis
Today I was coughing pretty badly.  That’s the only symptom left from my sickness.  Ivón came over and said Don Eugenio had asked her to take me to the employee’s doctor’s office (on campus).  I didn’t want to go – it’s just a cold, what could the doctor do?  The doctor was very nice, asked me a few questions, looked in my hears and listened to my lungs, and told me that I have Bronchitis.  He gave me a list of 4 different medicines I have to take, and told me I have to stay home for three days.  This is annoying.  I feel like such a bum, and I also feel bad that I didn’t go to the doctor earlier, rather than expose so many people.  I really hope I didn’t pass this on.  I’m going home now, expect no updates for a while.  Direct all questions and comments to Mingi.

I had the odd experience of feeling abnormally tall this weekend.  The shower head in the room Mapi, Mingi and I shared in Chiloe this weekend was even with my nose.  There were only about 4 or 5 inches between my head and the ceiling.  Neither Mapi nor Mingi had any problem with this, and it made me realize I’m rather tall here.  I mean, there are definitely people taller (Don Eugenio is over 6 foot, and his son is something like 6 foot 6), but I’m above average.  I’ve found myself hunching and slouching more often because of it. 

Chiloe is quite different from the rest of Chile.  It’s an island south of Valdivia, so big it’s got two cities almost as big as Valdivia on it, and several smaller (inhabited) islands around it.  I didn’t feel like I was on an island when I was there.  I mean, we took a ferry to get there, but we rarely saw the ocean on our bus ride to Castro.  The ferry ride was fantastic, especially on the way back.  On the way back we took the boat at night, and the stars were amazingly bright.  It feels really amazing to be on a small-ish boat with the wind in your face, stars above, dark water below, and the cities looking like stars on the land.  I just had to sing!  ^_^

The local houses looked quite different from Chile though – brightly colored, shingled with shingles of different sizes and shapes, some of them even on stilts.  The really big stilts (a story or so high) were only right on the beach, but even in the middle of the island a lot of houses were raised up a half foot or so.  Usually I tend to think of bright colors in warm climates, but it rains the entire year in Chiloe and the houses are turquoise, pink, yellow, maroon, etc.

I’ll upload some pictures and send them out as soon as I can.  Ofoto has decided to hate Mingi and me, so it’ll be a while. 

The views were amazing, as were the beaches (albeit cold).  I particularly liked visiting the old Spanish fort in Ancud.  It’s basically a wall with the original cannons and cliff on the other side.  It has a great view though, since there’s cliff on the other side of the wall which was in three directions – sea in almost every direction.  ^_^  There were also jotas (like vultures) flying not two arms-lengths away.  Those are big birds – I’d say the wing span was three feet!
 

Work-wise things are going really fast.  We’ve finished calling companies and now we’re sending them a survey we’ve written up.  Don Eugenio has decided we’re not going fast enough, I think, so he’s split us up.  Mingi is working on the business plan while I work with Andres and sending out the surveys.  It’s kind of boring work, but I have a clear idea of what I’m doing and why.  That makes it a lot better.  I’m kind of sad that the calling’s done though.  It was comforting to know exactly what I was doing for the rest of the week, and it was really nice to work with Paula.  Only Andres came in this week (there’s only one fax machine), and this is the only day he’s coming in this week.  Paula is an anthropology student with a very good fashion sense.  It was nice working with her.  I think they liked us too, because when we asked if they’d like to eat lunch with us this Thursday they said yes immediately.  ^_^

Don Eugenio also assigned Paola, a thesis student here, to compile our survey data, from the calls, with the survey data that’ll be coming in from the on-line encuesta.  Sorry, survey.  No matter what I learn from this trip, I’ll never forget the Spanish word for survey.  ^_^

That’s another thing.  As we tell people here, we know “Castellano”, but we’re learning “Chileno”.  The word “Español” actually refers to the version of Spanish spoken in Spain.  “Castellano” refers to what we call “Spanish”.

Sorry for the slowness of posts, but we don’t really have time to write at work now.  We’ve got so much to do!  And between cooking and taking a bit of time for ourselves once work is over, time just flies by.  That’s not really an excuse, but I’m going to pretend it is….

Working here has taught me several lessons, including; how to delegate (better), how to focus despite my tedious and uncertain work, how to request help from co-workers in an office setting who are neither my subordinates nor my supervisor, the importance of reviewing and checking my work before sending it on, etc.  Besides Andres and Paula (the two sudents who helped us call companies), we now depend on Javier and Javier – a worker and a thesis student working under him – to upload and fix the survey and database with responses, on Ivón (the secretary), and on Paola.  That means that whenever I make a decision or realize I need something done I have to think about who else I depend on to get it done and their timelines.  Paola, for example, only works in the morning.  This is getting to be a much bigger project.  It’s nice to not be working on our own anymore though. 
The language barrier is somewhat frustrating.  Particularly since I feel I should understand things better than I do.  I have to ask people to repeat things almost every time, just because they talk too fast for me to be able to process it.  It’s particularly annoying when I understand an entire sentence except for one specialized word (such as “base datos” instead of database) and the person, at my expression of confusion, explains the entire rest of the sentence except that one word.  This has happened a couple times.  Almost everyone here is very nice about it and doesn’t seem to mind.  They have fun teaching us “modismos” (slang) too, so it’s all good.  Well, except for a few people like Cristián Salazar (the econ professor) who make me feel stupid and annoying if I ask for clarification.  But they’re few and far between.

Here’s a few photos to tide you over until ofoto stops hating me so much.

Walking home for lunch today I was looking down, talking to Mingi behind me when suddenly my head hurt like anything and I had the echo of a loud “bang!” in my ears.  Our next-door neighbors like to leave their window open and it’s just the right height to run into if you’re not paying attention.  I’m definitely going to have a bruise on my forehead.  Soon after that I took a short nap, and I don’t know if it’s because of that or the wallop on the head that I’m feeling kind of spacey.  I don’t think I hit myself hard enough to do serious injury, but I’m not positive.  That’s kind of worrisome.  As is the fact that my computer screen has been on the blitz for a while.  Little lines and dots appear all over the screen occasionally.  Particularly when it’s thinking really hard.  It’s not specific to any one program, so it’s either a hardware problem or the memory is corrupted.  Maybe the screen buffer.  I dunno.  The closest IBM salesperson is hours away in Puerto Montt, and when I tried to call their help line it was busy.  *sigh*  Ah well, it’s not really getting in my way.

 

One of Mapi’s friends told her about “Techo Para Chile”, which is kind of like Habitat for Humanity.  They build houses, teach children and adults, provide micro loans, etc.  We were going to volunteer with them this weekend.  We went to their office and met them, learned about what they did.  All quite nice people.  But they didn’t call us the next day, and even when Mapi called them we still didn’t end up going.  Hopefully the next week.

Don Eugenio invited Mingi and me to dinner with his family, so after we went to the Techo Para Chile office we left Mapi and went there.  It was at a club belonging to the housing development where he lives.  When we got there I was quite surprised – the houses look like brand new houses you’d find in any rich U.S. walled community.  Houses here are fine, but most of them haven’t been painted in a while, etc.  There’s also some absolutely beautiful murals/graffiti in many places and less-artistic graffiti all over the place as well.  Not where Don Eugenio lives.  It’s at the top of a hill and it has a great view of Isla Teja (where we live and work), downtown, and one of the rivers.  His wife Angelica was very nice, but we didn’t really connect.  We did hit it off with his son, Eugenio the younger, and his girlfriend Cari.  They’re about my age and Cari is also a musician.  After eating dinner, which consists of a series of small things like sandwiches and shish-kebobs (tasty), Cari and Eugenio the younger went with Mingi and I to a local “pub” (as they’re called here).  It was fascinating hearing about their travels and talking about religion and politics with them.  ^_^ very intelligent people.

 

If you come to southern Chile in fall or winter (May, June, etc.) don’t worry too much about what your shirts look like.  You’ll be wearing jackets and vests over top of them all the time so it won’t really matter.  It’s kind of cold outside and almost as cold inside.  The only exception to this rule, I’ve discovered, is if you go to a dance bar.  ^_^  Mingi, Mapi, some friends of hers, and I went to what I would call a salsa bar last Saturday night.  Music from Juan Louis Guerra and Albita (music I grew up on) mixed in with more modern stuff.  All in Spanish though.  Most radios here play a real mix, including lots of songs I recognize from the US.  So you’ll have Coldplay followed by La Oreja de Van Gogh.  It’s fun.  ^_^

The dance bar was pretty empty when we got there, but it was jam packed by the time we left at 5am.  In Chile parties usually start at 1am.  It’s quite the adjustment.

 

The job is just whipping by now.  Paula and Andres, thesis students, are working with us now.  We look up companies on the internet and they call them, then we put the info from those companies into a database.  It’s tough to keep up with them – they work in the public relations department usually, so they’re good at this calling thing.  Then we have to fit in meetings, reading studies, writing the survey we’re sending out, and all sorts of other things into the day.  It’s just going really fast.  Well, but fast.  I now know the area codes for several cities in Chile from memory.  I’m also learning how to organize data and time a heck of a lot better.  That and how to prioritize things so I’m making use of the resources available to me, but not abusing them.  It’s a lot tougher than I thought.

 

I’m not feeling spacey anymore, so I don’t think there’s any lasting damage.  To anything other than my ego, that is.  ^_^;;

Last night Mapi, Kelly and Romina came over for dinner and sharing of the photos we took on our trip to Pucón.  Dinner was fabulous – yet another culinary experiment turned out a success.  All Mingi’s doing.  Salmon here is pretty cheep – $2/lb if you get a filet, $1.5/lb if you get the entire fish.  ^_^  This makes me happy.  Mapi brought two Spanish dishes.  I didn’t catch the name of one – toast rubbed with garlic and tomato with a slice of some sort of meat on top.  The other was a Spanish Tortilla – more like an omelet with potatoes than what we typically think of as tortillas, but really tasty.  The whole dinner was a success, and it was so much fun to look through the pictures we took in Pucón.  ^_^

When we got to work today we updated Don Eugenio as to where we are, what we’re doing.  The next step here is to start calling up local companies to put together a contact list and to learn about what IT needs are in the region.  I’m somewhat afraid of phones when I’m talking in English, so this is intimidating.  It’s a good skill to have though – to be able to cold-call people and get information in a business setting.  We also have a book or two’s worth of reading to do of studies on Chilean IT & economy. 

At the end of the meeting he invited us to dinner with his family this Friday!  I wanted to say “yes” immediately, but we had previous plans with Mapi that we thought might get in the way, so we had to think about it.  There’s a meeting on Friday for a group similar to Habitat for Humanity to orient people for doing volunteer work this weekend.  Fortunately the meeting is before the dinner, so we’re hoping we can do both.  I’m looking forward to going out and seeing what the needs are here and helping out.  It sounds like we’ll be helping a family move into a house that the volunteer organization just built with them.  ^_^  We’ll tell you how it goes.

Holy crud, I just noticed my posts are huge!  Sorry about that… I’ll post the rest of my back-logged writing and then I’ll keep my posts short, promise!

 It’s nice to read the rest of your blogs.  I hope your sunburns heal well, Marshal Island Guys!  And your bug bites “Meleemistress” (btw – I love the name of your blog).

We’re just doing low-level research right now.  We’re literally working our way through every single company listed in every sector in the region of Chile from Temuco to Puerto Montt and recording the name, address, phone number, tax ID, # of employees, everything we can.  The problem is that we can’t find a website that lists the companies geographically.  Blargh – as Mingi said, I feel like a computer.  I really should pop open Eclipse and write some sort of program to do the search for us.  I don’t remember enough programming for that to be efficient though.  *sigh* I’m glad the website we’ve been looking through has kicked us off – we’re limited on how many searches we can make per day. 

The initial stages of the job were really eye-opening.  I learned what a business plan is, how it’s generally laid out, what the company we’re designing will do, how the University functions, high-level stuff about the local economy, etc.  We wrote an outline for the business plan, the vision, the mission, and several other sections.  We brainstormed where else the company could go or alternatives to making a company.  We wrote a timeline for ourselves and defined the work we would do.  We met our co-workers and made friends.  It was stressful, yes, but it was interesting.  I learned a lot.  This is just boring and driving me nuts!  I feel like I’m doing useless work.  If I knew for certain how we would be using this information it wouldn’t bother me so much.  *sigh* 

We need a break.  Maybe we can research the local economy better?  Figure out who the competition is – no, that’s more of the same.  We’ve already done all we can on the survey we’re going to give the potential customers until Don Eugenio gets back to us.  We’ve considered options on how to approach clients… *sigh* there’s nothing to do right now except this stupid never-ending research.

 

6:21 –  After our 3pm meeting with Don Eugenio, I feel a lot better about this.  I actually have a general idea of what information we’re looking for, and he confirmed that we’re on the right track.  That really makes this a lot less irritating.  It’s started to irritate me some again since that since the email addresses for these companies are near-impossible to find, but that’s ok, I’ll survive.  That’s a sign of a good manager – you go into their office frustrated and hating work, and you come back out happy and ready to get cracking.  ^_^

Oh, wait!  I could look for the contact people’s name as well as for the company!  Maybe I’ll be able to find an email that way!  ^_^  Oh good.

Well, work’s almost over anyways, but now I’ve got my work ethic back.

Let’s see if I can call my sister’s Cell for free using skype… Nope.  Guess the “call free within the US till the end of the year!” thing doesn’t apply if you’re calling from Chile.