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April 2008 - by Victor-Andreas Marz
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| Konichiva & Hola! I'm hoping that you are well! It's been roughly eight months since the last newsletter and I finally found a minute to tell you what I've been up to since then. It's been an exciting time with quite a bit of most interesting travel, including a visit to Japan, Argentina and Brazil. This is probably the longest newsletter which I've written so far with over 150 pictures. Here it comes... |
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At the end of November, last year, I participated in our third regional Asia-Pacific SAP Business Consulting Boot Camp. The knowledge and experience exchange based training was held in the beautiful city of Kamakura, located around 50km south-south-west of Tokyo. The place itself is known as the old de-facto capital of Japan which was ruled by the Samurai. Fortunately enough I was also able to squeeze out some extra leave to explore Tokyo for a few days as well as work with and meet my SAP colleagues in the city's office.
The boot camp provided me with a great chance to meet many of my international colleagues. Finally, I was able to put a face against so many names, previously only known to me from telephone conferences and e-mail communication. We were roughly a group of 40 people coming together from various countries, incl. China, Malyasia, India, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, and Australia. The three-day conference included an intense program, not leaving much time to sleep - but in retro-perspective absolutely worthwhile. We exchanged our project experience and tools that we had developed over time. On the third day, most of us (the ones that didn't have to leave just yet) went out to explore the 'City of the Samurai', visiting temples, shrines, and the famous Great Buddha of Kotokuin in Kamakura. A culinary highlight of the three days was the visit to a Shabu-Shabu serving restaurant (boiled sliced beef and vegetables, dipped in delicious sauces), and the selection of hot and cold Sake and Shoju.
While I was in Tokyo, I was very well taken care of by Terada-san, a colleague from the local Value Engineering team (Thanks to you once more!). I can't tell you how lost you feel the first few days, even doing the simplest things like trying to withdraw some cash (you need to find a machine that accepts international banking cards!), ordering food (few restaurants have an English menu), or using the sub-way (there are over 400 stations in the Tokyo area alone). However what a great experience it was - everything is so clean, well-behaved and extraordinary polite, and on top of that they have great food. Funnily enough, I learned from Terada-san that the traditional "Wiener Schnitzel" (pork meat baked in crumbled bread) was imported into the Japanese cuisine around 100 years ago and you can now order it under the name of "Katsu-don".
One of the personal highlights was the opportunity to catch-up with Makiko. As high-school exchange students in Colorado, USA, we spent an entire school year together in 1999. However unfortunately we haven't had any contact since then. Whenever I tried to reach out I was blocked by my inability to speak Japanese with her parents, hopelessly trying to leave a message. Again, Terada-san helped out and "re-connected" us. It was a real thrill to see her again after such a long time!
Last but not least, I must say that no Japan trip is completed without a visit to a Karaoke bar. Admitting, that I would have never expected so much fun, I'm reaching out to you and tell you: You MUST go when you get the chance! All in all the visit to Japan was a fantastic experience, one of the highlights of 2007.
Shortly after returning back to Australia, I went up to Sydney to celebrate my 26th Birthday. Over 25 friends came to visit, including Matt and Christoph, two of my closest friends from Melbourne, who made the special effort to fly up with me. In between Japan and my birthday, we also celebrated our traditional SAP Christmas party both in Melbourne and Sydney. Here are the pictures:
Starting the New Year, I changed my role, from Business Consultant to Value Engineer, in the process changing from Consulting to the Sales department. It's an exciting new role, supporting our local Account Executives in their endavour to maximise sales by illustrating the value SAP has to offer to our clients and prospects. A few weeks later, in the beginning of March all of SAP Australia and New Zealand (around 500 people) travelled to Kingscliff, just an hour south of Brisbane, situated along the Tweed Coast of Northern New South Wales. The annual Kick-off event was absolutely fantastic with great food, parties, and of course a lot of work around strategic alignment and positioning for this year.
After the event, Christoph and I went down to Byron Bay to spend the weekend. Byron is a huge party town, having an immense back-packer attraction and hosting many festivals and concerts each year.
Following the Kick-Off Event, in early March, Matt, Jamie, and I travelled for vacation to South America. In a bit over two weeks we visited Argentina (Buenos Aires), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) and Uruguay (Colonia del Sacramento). I'm already convinced that this is gonna be the highlight of 2008. When we arrived after a long 20+hours flight the taxi driver put it quite nicely: "There are three things that are most impressive in Argentina: The ladies, the food, and Maradona". On top of that I also loved the Tango Dance and nocturnal life-style. The diversity and beauty of people was astonishing. So much proudness, love for life, and energy - I've never seen anything like it. Dinner would typically be after 11pm and would go on till 2am. The night clubs wouldn't open their dance floors before 3am during the week and the strength of only one drink could catapult you into space. WOW! A small steak would have at least 500grams of meat and if you are a real man, then you order the 1000g piece of Lomo beef. Such tenderness, most intense taste and preparation of the meat in Argentina - it's like eating a dream. Despite numerous warnings and shocking stories, there was not a single moment where I felt insecure or endangered in Buenos Aires. It felt to be a very safe place with a great culture.
Arriving in Rio de Janeiro, the safety warnings of friends and guidebooks were much more warranted. Having hundreds of police men patrolling the Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon Beach, you felt quite intimidated. You had to be especially carful at night when police patrols would reduce their numbers to a bare minimum. I must admit, it took my 2-3 days to get used being careful and less outgoing. Nevertheless Rio is worthwhile visiting at least once in your life. It's quite amazing to walk into a Samba Bar, with seats and tables everywhere, but nobody sitting. Everybody's dancing while having food, smoking, drinking, and listening to and singing along with a 10-men live band. The contrast of rich and poor was much more visible in Brazil than in Argentina and you could feel it everywhere you went. All in all Rio was much more of a Beach-type holiday, very relaxing and less intense when it comes to dancing through the night with night clubs already closing at 4am.
After Rio we returned back to Buenos Aires and went for a side trip to Uruguay. Really not seeing more than a fairly touristy Colonia del Sacramento, and being there for only 8hours I don't really have an opinion on this country. Suffice it to say, that it felt a lot like Argentina, but much more relaxed and laid-back.
Around the beginning of Octobre'07 I was asked if I wanted to write about my experiences as a young professional for my University's student magazine, branded Ampersand. I decided positively and have been writing a series of articles under the banner "Live Your Dreams". Hidden behind my personal motto is a mini-series of guides on how to prepare the optimal career start for the young graduate. Here you can find the first few articles out of the series.
Before I will say "hasta luego" to you, here's some more random photo shots:
So that's the summary of the past eight months. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the reading. Looking forward to hearing from you and meeting you whenever the opportunity arises. Take good care, stay safe and healthy, have fun everyday and enjoy the day. Feel free to leave your feedback in my new Guestbook. Live your
dreams, |
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Victor-Andreas März
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| © 2008 by Victor-Andreas Marz. All rights reserved. |
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