More Stuff and Nonsense

And that's a wrap!

It's been a rather amazing two weeks. Hard to beleive the time has passed so very quickly. It seems like just the other day I walked into my room here at Villas, and thought, "I'm really in a totally foreign country. It's gonna be a LONG two weeks!" But the time positively flew by. Now I'm packed, ready to head out tomorrow. The driver is supposed to meet us at 4:30, to head to the airport.

This morning, we all staggered to breakfast slowly, after a late night with people from work. It was rather bittersweet for Michelle and I, as it was the last time we'd enjoy fresh pineapple, mango, etc, at least on this trip. We all piled into the van for the last ride to the office.

At the office, we sat with people for a final eval/answer session. It felt really odd, realizing tomorrow we'll be on the plane headed home, and Monday, we'll be back in the Denver office. Michelle and I had completed our proposal for the office yesterday, so it needed only to be printed out for the meeting.

We decided to order McDonalds for lunch, because everyone kept telling us how much better McDonalds is down here. Um, no. They do deliver McD down here, so we asked the office assistant to order for us. She ordered around 11:30... Looking at the clock, it got to be 12... 12:30... 1... At that point, we mentioned something to Julianna, the office assistant, who told us Victor had actually driven to the local McD to pick up the food, since they were so slow! I've never seen anyone fall on McDonald's hamburgers like starving wolves before! Pretty amazing stuff. We were so hungry by the time the food got there, we had utter silence for about 5 minutes while we inhaled everything. Food wasn't noticeably different from any cheeseburger I've ever had in the States.

Because lunch got there so late, sitting with anyone in the afternoon was severely curtailed. We got stuff together for the meeting, and then wandered around the office, taking pictures of people. It was funny, most everyone accepted having their pictures taken, once we assured them we'd let them see the picture, so we could do re-takes, if necessary. :) We got some great shots, and had a great time laughing with people in the process. We also got smiles from people who don't usually smile, which felt like a huge accomplishment!

We had the conference call with the director of the Costa Rican office, with Victor and Hazel. We gave Danna (the director) a run-down of the people we'd sat with since she'd left last week. We found out the person we'd had such difficulty with isn't going to be with APL much longer; that person will be replaced with one of the new hires that will start training next week. It was rather an uncomfortable situation, to realize what we'd said directly impacted this person's continued employment. That was leavened, however, knowing the management in Costa Rica was aware of the problems with this person, and the individual was already riding the ragged edge. I think getting someone new is a good decision for the team; everyone else on the team is fabulous!

At the tail end of the call, Danna asked for suggestions; that was our cue for our "memo" style list of suggestions. The suggestions all seemed to be accepted well by the management staff; some of the things they already do, some they're going to implement. It was a HUGE relief to know it was over and done with, and it felt good to have our judgement and suggestions seriously considered.

After that, it was a quick slide into the end of the day. The NAM Customer Service team, the ones we've sat with, with Victor as spokesperson, presented Michelle and I with certificates of recognitions. Victor read them out loud to everyone, and then handed them to us. It was really neat, everyone signed them, most with little notes. It was a most excellent warm fuzzy feeling.

After work, we headed up above the city, to a restaurant famous for its view of the city. We had traditional Costa Rican food for our last night here; seems fitting, as we started our trip with Costa Rican food. The restaurant also has "typical" or traditional Costa Rican dance. It shares a lot with Mexican folk dancing, and was really neat to watch; however the whooping and whistling and shrilling that accompanies it is rather disconcerting! I didn't feel any lack of howler monkeys on this trip, after hearing the sounds coming from the dancers!!! They also do an "audience participation" dance, where they drag audience members into dancing, for what is essentially a kind of musical chairs. One guy doesn't have a partner, but a broom. Everyone else waltzes, then circles, around him, until he manages to pass it off to another guy. It was pretty funny. Victor didn't warn us at all, so we had NO idea. They pulled Michelle, Monique and I in. We laughed, and had a good time. No, there are no pictures, because Michelle and I were the only two with cameras, and no one thought to grab them when we got pulled in to dance.

Then it was back to the hotel, where we made a mad dash to the pool, and on to the hot tub. We had a good time, hanging out together for one last time, 'though the hot tub wasn't really hot, more a warm tub, so we all eventually headed in quickly, with no lingering goodbyes, to warm up.

Now I'm showered, and packed, and ready to go. Tomorrow morning is going to be horribly, painfully early, but it'll end with being home! I'll post pictures in the next few days; not sure it'll happen tomorrow!

posted by Serena @ 10:58 PM