Work, Work, Work

This has been a BUSY week! This is the 3rd week out of the 4 week assignment so all of the groups have been super busy preparing the final recommendations and final presentations for next week. We will have a presentation of our recommendations with Director Richard and the STARBOOKS team on Monday and then final presentations and closing ceremony with IBM and the Department of Science and Tech (DOST) Secretary on Wednesday. On Tuesday of this week, we went to the IBM office for a mid assignment review with the IBM General Manager which went well but on the way home we were stuck in major Manila traffic and it took us 2 hours to move 8 miles. We got back to the hotel around 9 and ordered pizza to the hotel for a big pizza party with some surprisingly good pizza (it was called Yellow Cab pizza but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in New York!). On Wednesday night, the ladies of our team decided to have a ‘girls night’ in the hotel with some food, drinks, matching shirts and face masks. It was a fun time to spend with the group of 8 of us and we had lots of laughs together. On Thursday in the office, I started to appreciate the napping culture of the workplace here. Usually after lunch time, we see some lights out in the offices and some ‘quiet time’ for the employees. I could definitely use that every once in a while!

Part of the recommendations to the STARBOOKS team are related to IT infrastructure and ensuring they have a scalable system to support further growth. Now, neither Dmitry, Malwina or I are IT Architects (read: before I left for this assignment, I had to google search what a web server is)…SO this in itself has been a challenge and a major learning opportunity. Luckily, we have learned a LOT and have been so grateful for the local IBMers and fellow CSC team members who have stepped up and offered some incredible support. And have been very patient in explaining everything. Now I am happy to say that I understand most of the discussions around IT infrastructure. However, when the discussion turns to programming and coding then I feel like I am in a room with people speaking another language. Oh well…a little bit at a time I guess 😀

Apart from work this week, we managed to do a lot of strolling around the mall in the evening (it’s nice to have so many nearby but I’m also going to be ok with taking a break from malls when I get back home). It really is a social activity here, and you will see many groups of friends and families wandering around the malls all the time. Much of this has to do with the heat here…it’s much more pleasant to get out of the street/house/office and into a place with AC!

Tomorrow is Saturday and we have a community service event planned with IBM and Taguig City University which is a state-run university near DOST. Each of the CSC members is responsible for leading a group of 30 students (mix of senior high school and university age) in a lecture and activity on a specific topic. I will fill you in more after the event. Apart from that activity, I’m sure we will be enjoying the last full weekend of the assignment, in and around Manila. Time is flying! Happy weekend to everyone!

DOST office life: