Final Week in Lublin

It was shaping up to be a very busy week, and we knew it would go by fast. 

Monday

Monday was a busy day.  First meeting at 8am with our client to review the next iteration of our deliverable.  Another big milestone for our team, and again we received favorable feedback.  So we had validation that we were on the right track, and now just needed to complete the final details of the deliverable, and develop and then present our final presentation on Thursday.

Monday afternoon we had the opportunity to meet Mayor Krzysztof Zuk.  What a cool experience!  

 

Calixto (Mexico) was spokesperson from the other City team, 

 

and Simon (Canada) was spokesperson from my team.  

They both did an excellent job representing our teams and providing the details around our projects.

At left is a picture of the old Lublin Castle that hangs in the Mayor's office.

 

 The team mingling with the Mayor Zuk.

The City Teams on the steps of Lublin City Hall

 After the meeting with the Mayor we retired to the hotel to do a little more work on the deliverable and begin putting together the Executive Summary for Thursday's presentation.

Monday night brought a new dinner place, Sielsko Anielsko.  This place had been recommended by the hotel staff, and we finally got around to trying it.

Interesting decorations

and painting on the wall. Most of us had skipped lunch this day so we were very hungry.

 The waitress brought complementary bread to our table.  And before she returned for our order, most of the bread was gone. The spread was like what we had on the very first night in Warsaw... its basically pork fat.  Combined with pickles on the bread is very good!!

Teammate Samuel (Singapore) and I shared a starter of spinach and feta cheese stuffed dumplings. (we didn’t know the bread was coming before we ordered this and our meals).

Patricio (Argentina) ordered the biggest bowl of dumplings any of us had ever seen.   Though challenged by the waitress to finish the dumplings for 5% off the meal, Pato was not able to finish.  Not even with help from the others.

 My entree was chicken with mushroom gravy and potatoes. 

This turned out to be one of our favorite restaurants, just a darn shame we discovered it only on the second to last night… but then again for our diets (already terribly damaged from 28 days straight of eating great food) we were probably better off for it.

{Will, I am sorry I had to miss your recognition event for the All-District Youth Chorus with the School Board Monday night.  You are quite the accomplished singer and violinist already at the age of 10; It has been fun watching you develop over the years and I am proud of you!!  See you soon!!}

Tuesday

I started the day with a walk in the park. Not sure why I haven't been doing this the last 28 days:).   I took a few more pictures in the park and even met the peacocks we had heard about.

Lunch was at our favorite buffet place close to the office.  I think there is an unspoken rule in Poland that if you put less on your plate, you must order desert. 

So just in case I ordered desert too. (come on there are only a few days left) 

After lunch we all needed a walk so part of my team and I went on a mission to find the photo shop our local guide, Jerzey recommended.  I had proposed the idea to the larger team to take the team photo from day 1, frame it, and have each of us sign the border around the picture and include in our client’s gift bags.  The idea was well received, and as with most ideas, the idea generator becomes the owner to bring it to life. 

We found the photo shop and we were able to communicate with the shop owner the idea.  This poor shop owner, she was probably wondering who are all these foreigners and what are they doing in my shop?  Teammate Alex (China) offered to assist with the cropping and sizing of the picture. The challenge was going to be the frames and borders; not a big selection at this tiny shop.  

 I committed to returning later in the day before the shop closing at 6pm to retrieve the one sample and was promised that I could pick up the rest tomorrow.   For now it was back to work.

Below are the pictures of the BusinessLink offices where the three of the IBM teams worked:

 

 When I returned to the photo shop just before 6pm, I learned the store’s driver had gotten ill and the earliest they could get more frames was after the scheduled time for the presentation. So I knew I had signed up to continue the treasure hunt for frames and borders the next day. For now it was rush rush back to hotel for the Team meeting.

Tuesday night we had dinner at one of the team favorites, the Irish Pub. 

{Hey look Ethan, I saw this picture on the wall.  I know you are just starting the season with your baseball teams and I am missing being there with you. I will be home in time for your season opener double header!! See you soon!}

I ordered salmon with spinach and fried potatoes.

Wednesday

Getting down to the wire now, we can measure our time remaining here in hours now.  Wednesday was heads down day making the finishing touches on the deliverable and getting our Executive Summary presentation ready for Thursday.  We had heard at the Team meeting Tuesday that representatives from each of the local Media would be at the final presentation meeting… no added pressure there.

On Wednesday I was also able to complete the treasure hunt, and find the borders and frames for the pictures at a photo shop not too far from the Hotel.  The plan was to collect the team autographs at the media briefing in the morning.

We worked late on Wednesday, but still made it in time to enjoy a Turkish Bath before a late dinner.  No new stories to tell from this Turkish Bath, though we joked that for our last one tomorrow we might need to “do it like the locals do”.

Dinner was at Trybunalska, a team favorite I'm sure you know by now; in fact the part of the team that chose this dinner destination for this evening had missed the late memo today that our client had invited us to a whole team dinner here on Thursday night to send us off.  It’s never a bad thing when you have to eat at a great restaurant two nights in a row.  That also gave me motivation this evening to try a new beer, The Golden Monk, and...

...order something I had been thinking about all trip but hadn’t yet tried…. Tartar;

Tartar is raw (yes completely uncooked) ground beef with a raw egg on top.   (State of DE Team, try ordering that at Hammer’s at one of our team dinners).

The verdict, very good, I would order again.

Thursday - Our final day and the Final Presentation:

My team began the day early continuing the rehearsing of our presentation.   

With the added pressure of having the media present, we wanted to make sure we represented our City clients well, and had the message developed accurately and honed precisely.  

After 28 days in Poland, so much good food and so many fun activities, it had all come down to this final 30 minute presentation. We divided the presentation into the following parts: 

Alex (China) - Team intro and Project Timeline
Me (US) - Business Objectives and Observations
Amit (India) - Open Data Case Study
Samuel (Singapore) - Perform Mgmt Case Study
Angela (US) - Recommendations
Simon (Canada) Road-map and Next Steps

My entire team represented each part well!  Our client was very happy with the presentation.

And now there was just two things left to do, take lots of team pictures, and go have dinner!


 

The Team dinner was planned for 7:00pm, and it was now just around 400pm.  So after changing at the hotel, the team assembled at our favorite Irish Pub for one final toast.

There was just enough time for one last Turkish Bath before the Team dinner.  A group of us quickly headed back to the hotel for one last go of it.  Somewhere, through all the steam, there may be evidence of a group of us "doing it like the locals do it". (you had to read earlier posts to understand)

But now its on to our final team dinner, and celebration of our time here in Lublin, and all that we accomplished.

The dinner featured 4 courses: soup, appetizer, main entree, and desert.

 This was my best attempt at getting a shot of the table.  You can see with all teams and client representatives, there were almost as many at dinner as the final presentation.  It was a fun party!

Pictured at right are client representative Sylwia (City of Lublin DSIS), Teammate Latika (India), and in back row Anna (IBM Poland CSC).

Pictured at left are client representative Arek  (also team interpreter), and Teammate Amit (India).

This is the pork and ginger chilli soup, very delicious.

Braised beef cheeks with mushrooms and potatoes.






Though I didn't capture a picture of the desert, I assure you it was splendid!

There were several toasts throughout the evening. A night we all wished would not end.