O&T: Finished

It's just after midnight on Saturday (Friday Night) and I have come back to the hotel. After another long day of orientation and training that ended at 630, we went out for dinner at 645 - just enough time to bring stuff back to the room and go to the bathroom. We went to a restaurant down in Georgetown that was really nice. One of the staff people - the President I think - brought her husband with her to dinner. He was born in Russia and works now as a translator. We talked about the Russian language, ..and vodka. After dinner, which was great, a few of us stayed at the place and went downstairs to the bar. The Russian guy and myself had a few vodkas and he talked to me about the finer qualities and differences between vodkas. Not that I would consider myself an expert in vodka now, but I do know some of the key words to through out when I want to BS my way around the subject.

As I mentioned, this was the end of training. Three of the people in our group of 7 are gone as of tomorrow morning - 1 back home for a few days before heading to Mali, and two others back home while they await their visas for Angola. Of the remaining four of us, 2 will be leaving Sunday after visiting Mount Vernon - which I have found out is where George Washington lived or something.

I will be leaving on Thursday, but have meetings scheduled on Monday and Tuesday, and a few minor details, conference calls, ect on Wednesday (I think). Tomorrow I plan on sleeping in to ATLEAST 830. Strange how that is considered sleeping in now. Fortunately I don't have 9 hours of meetings and conferences to sit through tomorrow. I plan on getting breakfast, relaxing, and then going to the gym that has a partnership with the hotel. After that, I may go explore the city some. While I don't know exactly where yet, I know that tomorrow I will be somewhere by 845 to get a seat to watch the UFC match going on at night.

The computer that I got today is actually quite good. Its a Core 2 Duo, 2 gigs of ram, running XP, and weighs probably 5 to 6 pounds. I haven't looked to see what type of video card is on it but I assume it's an integrated 64 or 128 chip. At the moment I can't even install a simple program like Skype or iTunes on it because I don't have administrator privileges. Apparently we can get them (the password) if we call. Why someone would set it up that way is beyond me, but I assume its related to if someone steals the laptop abroad.

As I mentioned on the first day I got here, I really think it is worth mentioning the absolutely impressive dedication that the CDC/MBAEC staff shows to the work they do. It's an amazing thing to see, and I hope I can find a way to replicate some of their passion in my own work.

In the following week I plan on seeing some of the free museums in the city, meeting Obama, studying Russian, and googling the research plants I'll be dealing with so I know what exactly a micro bioflange geophysical research facility does. It should be a good and relaxing week before I start my year of world travel and work stuff. I'm looking forward to filling the remaining 11 empty spots in my passport and getting new pages put in it.

Also, yes mom, I really have taken care of the embassy stuff.

Night

Wow. What a night it has been. We went out for an alumni meet and greet with food and drinks and such. Last time I saw the bar tab it was around 500 dollar and that was probably two hours before we left.

The night was interesting in that there are a few alumni who worked for the state department and a few who talked about joining the agency. The work that we do is certainly appealing to a multitude of agencies and organizations.

It's time to go off for desertish food or whatever we are doing.

Mike.

a slow death

I am sitting in a one hour session that could drive a normal person insane. We all have no idea what the guy is talking about. Oh god is it terrible.

DC in winter

The city is shut down with this much snow...

Cows with names make more milk...

Science has reached a new high as a study has concluded that by naming cows they yield 3.4% more milk. I wonder if they can apply the same naming techniques to make my steak taste 3.4% better.

Story Here

Day 2 - I write waaay too much.

I’m writing this in a starbucks in Dupont Circle with no internet connection – I plan to upload this when I return to the hotel. There are wifi connections that I can see, but they are not connecting. Particularly frustrating is the wifi connection called ‘freedupontwireless’. Quite a disappointment.

After a painstakingly long day of speakers and talks from 9-5 we were finally allowed to break for the day. I went up to my room to pass out and take a nap as I haven’t been able to sleep well still. …Apparently this starbucks closes at 11, which is in 5 minutes and I am being told I need to leave. Time to go back to the hotel…

So I went back to the hotel, it’s only a quick walk back there. It’s a nice walk right now through DC which is on a normal day a very nice city. Tonight though, due to the ice storm/snow that has come through here (although far less than the 10-15” cincy is getting) the city looks exceptionally nice. I got back to the hotel and figured I would be able to sit at the bar/restaurant for a while and get into some Russian studying. I had just had my coffee and was in the mood to beat myself up with the language. Unfortunately the place was also closed and I had nowhere else to go but back to my room. Considering that an uncomfortable bed is no place to study Russian (although it may have been a good way to actually get some sleep on the bed) I got online instead. After being disappointed by the wifi, I got online via my jail broken iphone since the wifi at the hotel sucks to try to download 24 from the night before. While the download manager initially said 15 minutes, it’s now been about an hour and I have just over 75% of the file. While I’ve been waiting for the download to complete I’ve been surfing the internet and listen to my roommate talk about a handful of things related to his MBA program and his uncle (I think) who apparently did some work in Africa. He spoke for a while about all of the off the book and unofficial things his uncle did to get things done. I’m completely okay with doing what is necessary, but it’s obvious that he is putting a lot of emphasis on these experiences for the planning of his own project as he has quite often mentioned comments about determining the real power structure of getting things done and talked about how he assumes that things will need to be done in the same manner while he is there. Perhaps he is right, but it seems that it’s the only thing he’s considering right now.

As for slightly more important things, one of the people who came in and spoke today was the boss of the person who will be my boss in Kiev. He presented for about an hour on the project that I will be working on, the history of the organization, and the future. After listening, asking questions, and talking, I feel both excited and terrified about the work I’ll be doing. Excited because I can clearly see how I can (and will) have an impact, and terrified because of the ridiculous amount of responsibility and expectations that have been placed on my shoulders. As these 14 science labs that employ former USSR weapons researchers prepare to become independent entities that must rely on their own business moxie and skills to survive, I will be one of the last people they see from the host organization. I’ll be offering them (and providing if they accept) my skills and evaluation as to how they should prepare to go forward as independent facilities that must rely on their technology and processes to operate. Some of them will refuse and manage on their own, some will refuse and fail, some will accept my help and succeed, and perhaps some will take my help and I’ll send them belly-up.

The other person who came in to talk to us today was pretty incredible in the fact that he has clearly done anything and everything, and knows everyone. Even more impressive was how extremely down to earth and quite personable the man was. He totally came off as someone you could meet on the bus and have a quick conversation with and not have any idea that he has done work in probably half the countries in the world and is a foremost expert in his field. His name was Lelei LeLaulu (yeah Matt, I know what you are thinking). Info at the link.

(24 finally finished downloading, but for some reason I’m being told that the password to extract the file is incorrect [ it’s not!] and I can’t seem to watch it. I just can’t win at all.)

It’s just shy of 12:30 but I’m not tired. I’m enjoying some time off relaxing and listening to music, and may even go get my DS for a little bit.

I found out today that my stay here in DC is going to be pushed back a day. Apparently there is a lot of work/talking that the CRDF wants me to do both Monday AND Tuesday of next week. Because of this, I will be leaving now on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. This is all fine with me. Their office is over in Arlington, so it’s possible that I will be moving over there at some point to reduce my commute. This is all still in the works. All I know is that I would prefer to stay here through atleast Sunday night because I am fairly sure I’ll find a better place to watch the superbowl at in downtown DC than in Arlington. If nothing else, I’m not sure if the TV in my hotel will be any better in Arlington since I have a nice 37” Samsung LCD here.

Besides all of the stuff I’ve already mentioned, I am totally loving DC. I enjoyed the city when I was here a few months ago for the National Black MBA conference, but as I meet more and more people who are connected I am finding more and more reasons to like the city. It seems like if you stay here long enough working you will, by default, begin to be integrated into the political machine that is DC. I find the entire process quite fascinating and would like to be involved in it at some point.

I’ve written (according to Microsoft) over 1100 words here, so I’m going to stop now.

Laptop

So I found out today that I will be provided with a laptop for my travels. A dell laptop that may or may not be the most dependable thing in the world.

End of the day

So as I am about to go to sleep - rather early and around 1145 - I can say that after spending a day with all of the CDC people that they really enjoy the work that they do. If they don't - they hide it incredibly well.

A little more ok the group. We have 4 guys and 3 girls. About 50 people applied but that was with each school limited to the number of people they could even let apply to the org, so I know it was more than that. We have three white guys, but one has lived in brazil for a while and even managed to marry a Brazilian girl. The other guy is Indian. The girls are more eclectic - one white, one black, and one Bulgarian. And while she is white in the sense if the word, she wasn't born here. She is a citizen though.

It's also become fairly clear that this opportunity is a launchpad for whatever I choose later on in life.

Day 1

Okay, so it's been quite a long day already. The beds in our hotel are the Tempur-Pedic type beds that 'adjust' to your body and some other fancy stuff. Their infomercial also shows them dropping a bowling ball on the bed while simultaneously not spilling s glass of wine. I've discovered that the secret to this technology is that the bed manages to be as hard as a rock while absorbing all types of shocks. Perhaps if I weighed more the bed would 'conform' to my body, but for now, its a rather hard surface. What I'm trying to say here is that I slept like crap - waking up at 12, 2:30, 3:40, and lastly around 6 when I gave up trying to sleep anymore.

Before that though, the night I got here was pretty good. I met the guy that I am rooming with while I am in DC, and two of the other MBAEC volunteers. I have to say that I feel completely out of place and have no idea how in the hell I ended up a part of this organization, or how I was selected. There other people I am in the company of:

• A Thunderbird grad with previous work experience working with SME's in Europe and NGO's in DC
• A former 3M employee who worked as an investment banker
• An NYU grad who worked as the vice president of technology for Goldman Sachs who has a second masters from Cornell
• A woman who has worked with the World Bank, a venture firm that specializes in grassroots businesses, a consultant for George Washington University, and was a member of the Peace Corps
• Another T-Bird grad who has worked in Afghanistan, as a legislative intern here in DC, and as an assistant to a US Congressman
• A University of Chicago MBA grad who worked as a consultant and with an engineering startup because of his engineering BA

I met all of these people in the last day and really feel like I have no business being put into the same category as them.

I also found out more about the project I will be working on. It also turns out that Moldova is not on my list of countries anymore, but Uzbekistan is. I will actually be working with 14 different scientific organizations/offices. Among them:

• A molecular structure research center
• Center of Geodynamic research and seismic monitoring geology institute
• Regional experimental center for applied microbiology and bacteriophage research (whatever that is)
• Institute of chemical sciences
• Regional experimental center for thin film research
• Surface modification and characterization research center
• Kavetsky institute of experimental pathology
• Center of Laser technologies of Uzbekistan (fricken lazers!)
• Scientific and technology center of structure imaging: Heat physics department

All of these offices (and the ones I've not mentioned) are going to be losing access to their grant money in the next year. It is my job to offer to help them prepare themselves for finding their own funding through the processess and technology that they have access to. It is assumed that only a few will accept this help, and from there I will focus my efforts on the ones that would like them. Apparently this is only supposed to take about 6 months, and after that I have another project to work on while I am over there. After that project concludes I will start working with the STEP program of the CRFD. STEP stands for Science & Technology Entrpreneuer Program - which works to create innovating science-business communities. I'll work to "Engage with business and industry/Bring innovations into the marketplace/Build strategic partnerships with national and international corporations" I'll be doing this through organizing and leading workshops to teach about ....stuff.

We finished up our day of speakers and stuff at 5 today, and have dinner scheduled for 7 at Buca Di Peppo. Basically eat until you throw up and eat some more since they keep bringing more. I have a feeling I'll probably come home and pass out when we get home tonight. We will have breakfast at 8 again tomorrow and have more people come to speak to us. Some of the people coming in are rock stars of the world they work in and are seriously connected. I'm too lazy to get the list to list them.

We need to meet for dinner in 40 minutes and I am going to try to take care of some other stuff before dinner. I also need to send out some emails before the night is over.

Also, you know you are in DC when the password for the wifi at the hotel is "obama"

1/3/09

Got to the library around 1030/11ish and stayed there until around 430 working on learning the Russian alphabet. I feel like I made a lot of progress today. I need to keep up with it so my mind starts to associate the new letters with their sounds faster. I am starting to be able to recognize letters and know fairly quick what they are, but there is a lot of room for improvement. On top of that, I have no idea how the sounds/words are actually pronounced - only how I think they are supposed to sound. Hopefully I'll get that fixed soon.

Post 1

Just to get something in this space