Waking up to stupid rain again kind of put me in a not-so-bright mood, especially since my umbrella was completely busted. I refused to buy another one, and insisted on using the broken one. After everyone begins opening their umbrellas though, I see everyone has the same pathetic looking pieces of junk.
After getting to work, my group finishes up the project scope document and begins to feel a lot better about the project. We just needed to be able to sort out, think through, and analyze the information we got. We send it out with some questions critical to begin our research. Instead of watching Gmail all day, we begin to research the different areas of the health industry, biotechnology, histopathology, biotherapies, etc.etc.etc. I find out that every other American was having horrible headaches, which we found out was probably because of the weather fronts moving through. Apparently, the pressure changes are much more severe here, which affect human barometers like me much worse...
After meeting with our advisors to discuss details concerning the project, we realize the incredible scope of the situation. This is not a simple project that will be completed in the six weeks we are here; it is a project that will take years to complete. A 60 million USD project, financed by a 30 million USD grant from the European Union, this project will be an incredible challenge trying to create the overall business model for an institution centered around innovation and effective collaboration.
The following is just a ramble I wrote one night after working on our project...again, just my mind throwing up on paper without me looking for grammar, flow, etc. Since I cannot talk about the project directly for confidential reasons, I just decide to ramble on about the effect of the project.
Innovation, not just imagination, invention, creativeness, or design, but to visualize improvement and inspire advancement is the greatest way to progress the world. We can simply improve upon what we have, incrementally or in leaps, over time, but true innovation is what changes eras.
We are working towards innovation, influencing the health care system of not only the city or country, but also lives. Taking an industry that is in shambles and inspiring innovation in a culture will be the most challenging task ever, but we are probably the only ones who could do it. We are young and this project will affect us more than the people in charge. We are objective, viewing the system, work ethic, and culture from the outside and can identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (sorry for the SWOT reference) more easily.
While we are not trying to create a solution, we are simply creating a foundation for inspiring change. They came to us for help in laying the groundwork, to get started, and they will take over to enact the change. The single greatest accomplishment would be to know that we helped them take the first step to creating not only a world-renowned institution, but to actually help a city and country in desperate need, and helping the world by showcasing the incredible talents of Pecs and Hungary while bringing the world to them.
Simply laying the foundation, identifying the key components that will help the institution become successful in the long run, will take this full year. Probably establishing phases that will be carried out over the next few years will be the best bet at this point, and identifying just simply how to go about completing the project will help the client a lot. We are creating the business model and effective forms of collaboration for this company. This institution is our canvas, a very large canvas, and we will just be taking it one step at a time. They proposed a center to receive the grant, now we are the ones to design it.
After researching, someone recommended a great sandwich place in the mall, so we decide to head there. It turned out to be another Aranycipo like the one right by our apartments. I get a typical sandwich and an amazing chocolate and coconut covered cake block. While heading out, I decide to stop at the watch emporium type of place, pick out a cheap watch with a perfect size face that fits my tiny wrists. It was just too difficult not knowing what the time was during the day, especially since we had random schedules. I did not want to carry my cell phone around just for checking the time and needed a watch for professional events anyways.
Before heading back to the computer lab, I wander around the building right next door, because I heard there was a shop that sold sweaters, shirts, hats, pens, etc with the University of Pecs on them. After wandering around the whole building and only finding a small bookstore (that sold only books) that was closed for the summer, I head back to the computer lab and research, research, research…
Even though many people would hate it, I absolutely love researching and learning about new areas. This is probably why I want to go into consulting sometime, because it is constant learning. I fear the thought of getting into a job that I can’t expand my knowledge or experience. Now I am learning a ton about the health industry and understand more about the world. It is just difficult because we are still researching just general topics in the industry without knowing what to focus on.
I leave to go to the grocery store to buy snacks for my room, since I cannot go without snacking throughout the day. I buy a ton of snacks consisting of chocolate cereal, chocolate wafers, chocolate filled cupcakes, bars of chocolate, and bagel chips. I cause a commotion while checking out, because I did not know that you have to put the basket at the entrance to the checkout lines and the checkout lady could not explain what I was supposed to do in English. Everyone had to pass my basket back and I am for some reason saying sorry in Japanese. I also forget to buy a bag, since the stores do not supply plastic bags to carry your items in, and instead try to fit everything into my backpack. This was obviously not working and everyone was waiting for me to exit the line, so I just grab everything and walk over to the wall to fit as much in as I could. I am left carrying my water bottle and the bag of bagel chips home in the pouring rain.
Everyone that I went to the store with (and met up with accidentally in the store) decided to sneak onto the bus, but I just decide to walk back to the apartments and save the money and risk. Of course I am met with pounding rain and torrential winds that further break my umbrella, which I thought couldn’t be broken more. So finally after getting back, I just relax and try to fix Laura’s computer since she was still the only one not getting internet. I am still impressed with how much I am learning in my MIS classes, but I still could not figure out the problem.
I give up and decide to go back to my room to Skype with my friend Erin and write/upload pictures. Laura then wakes up and we decide to hit up Flekken 1 (not to be mistaken for Flekken 2 right across the street), which is the controversial restaurant right next to our apartments. It is controversial in the sense that some people absolutely hate it and some actually love it. I still don’t know what the difference between the two is though.
After realizing they were not closed, we walk in and take a seat in the very typical looking low-class type of restaurant. We are handed menus the size of novels that contain not a word of English. After sorting through everything, I come across the word bacon in one of the dish descriptions, and decide to just go with that. Laura meanwhile just picks a random number and orders that. After worrying about what we possibly could have ordered, we just sit and wait until our food is brought out.
Laura’s dish was pretty much small bits of overcooked meat on top of potatoes. My dish was two cuts of overcooked pork (which I am used to…sorry mom, had to tease you) with a ton of onions, peppers, and potatoes on top in a paprika-based sauce. Mine was all right, nothing good/nothing bad, but Laura’s was hardly the case. I eat most of mine, just because it is food. Considering it was only $4 per dish, it is not really worth complaining, but we will probably not be going back. It is important for anybody who comes here to experience, but I would recommend taking a dictionary to at least know what you are ordering…even though others have said it doesn’t help at all.
After paying the bill, we head straight over to the bakery to buy some half-priced breads and Danishes to get the greasy tastes out of our mouths. After getting back, I fall asleep as Laura is working on my computer (I can’t wait until she gets her internet figured out) around 7:00 pm. A friend wakes me up later to help plan a trip to Rome, but I refuse in my sleep to walk outside into the rain and cold. Even though I would only have to walk to the next room, apparently I was being really over dramatic and wouldn’t leave.
I wake up at 12 midnight, 4 am, 6 am, and finally to my alarm at 7:30 am. Even though I kept waking up, I always fell right back asleep and felt so much better in the morning because of it.
This was also the first day I did not take a picture, mainly because of working and sleeping all day because of the rain...sorry.
The First Day of Official Work
Surprisingly, I woke up the next morning not being sore at all. There was just a little bit of stiffness in my hips, probably from walking uphill for so long along all the rocks and such, but I was feeling marvelous.
We all get into the computer lab of the college of business, waiting to here the projects we have been placed on. Jumping right into it, our advisors start naming off teams that will have to meet with the client within the next couple hours.
I am called off to be working on a health innovation centre with one other American student and two Hungarian students. Our meeting was originally scheduled at 10:30, but got moved up to 10:00. He says that we had better leave now to go meet our client at the medical college. My group meets together and the Hungarian students tell us that the medical school is clear on the other side of the city, so we run out of the building and get on our way. We introduce ourselves on the way and begin talking about the project and coming up with a strategy as to how we were going to be asking questions, even though no one knew what the company did or anything about the project.
No one was joking when they said we were going clear cross the city. We walk directly past our apartments for about another ten minutes, and arrive at the school. We wait outside with the other team who had to interview their client at the medical school and find out they simply took the bus…oh well.
We are summoned by our advisor to head up to the conference room and that we would be meeting with the dean of the college of medicine to discuss the project. We sit and wait because he is running late, so we decide to invite the other team in since they were also meeting with the dean for a project that was related to ours. We figured that instead of splitting the time to combine and work off each other’s questions.
The dean arrives, and after introductions, begins to talk. Like most Hungarians, he speaks very softly with a strong accent, so it was extremely difficult to understand him, especially since we had no idea what the company was before going in there and a lot of medical jargon with long technical words were being thrown around. Fortunately, he had some sense of what he thought the problems were and tried to address it with the teams.
It seemed as though the other team was working on creating a business model to encourage creating relationships between the company and the outside. Our project had to deal more with creating a marketing plan for the innovation center, in how to find companies internationally that our products and services could best be utilized, how to find funding, and how to channel the local knowledge and skills. I actually felt more comfortable with the other group’s assignment, because when I was asking critical questions about the current situation, I was not getting clear answers at all. At some points a little light bulb would go off and I felt like I would understand the objectives more clearly, but then I would suddenly fall back into the shadow of having no idea what was going on at all. Unfortunately, no one else in my group understood anything of what was said either. And since we were rushed at the very end in addressing our part of the project, we were not able to get the desired amount of information before the client had to leave.
My group decides to head to lunch and discuss anything that we actually did understand about the project. We head to the mall, where I get a gyro with chili sauce and baklava. Who would know that probably the most popular fast food here are gyros...but I guess I just never realized how close Greece is from here. The other American student and I sit down, waiting for the Hungarian students who were still waiting in line; however, we think they could not find us and decided to sit elsewhere, because they never showed up. After finishing, we finally find them sitting on the other side of the food court, because they really could not find us. So we decide to meet back up at the computer lab to discuss the project in a half hour to give us time to shop and them time to finish eating. I end up buying an umbrella, as much as I hate them, because it started to rain harder.
We just have a quick meeting with our American advisor, which we find out that the health innovation centre we were actually working with is a network of companies in the health industry that are trying to create a parent managing company. We research a little bit from the minor website they had, but it helped a little bit. Now I actually understood that it was more of a consortium and not a company with definite products and services. We also find out that the main building has not even been built yet and that the company was mostly an idea at this point.
After messing with the research and stupid Hungarian keyboards, where random letters are all switched around, I started to get a headache (could also be my wisdom teeth coming in). We decide to head home, first hitting the bookstore we pass every day to look around. I love foreign bookstores because I wish I could read the books. We find a whole bunch of books on Pecs, but since a lot of construction and renovation has occurred within the last year, many of the books’ pictures seemed a little outdated. As we are getting back to the apartment, a strong gust of wind comes and completely shatters the umbrella in like five different places, of course...so now I refuse to buy any other umbrellas.
I sleep for a few hours, wake up with a headache still, and just decide to write since everyone else was sleeping. I get dinner at the Italian place right by our apartments; not realizing what I ordered was a clam dish. Since Laura like my dish better, I was happy to switch, as I hate clams. So instead, I enjoy a wonderful gnocchi dish. Since you tip the waiter/waitress personally, I keep trying to remember which person was waiting on us. This time however, I tipped the wrong person (and a lot of course), so I felt a little bad afterwards.
I just end up relaxing with everyone outside, watching the videos I recorded from our adventure to the TV Tower the day before with everyone else, and listen to Marcel (a Hungarian student) playing the guitar and sing amazingly. It made me so jealous.
We all get into the computer lab of the college of business, waiting to here the projects we have been placed on. Jumping right into it, our advisors start naming off teams that will have to meet with the client within the next couple hours.
I am called off to be working on a health innovation centre with one other American student and two Hungarian students. Our meeting was originally scheduled at 10:30, but got moved up to 10:00. He says that we had better leave now to go meet our client at the medical college. My group meets together and the Hungarian students tell us that the medical school is clear on the other side of the city, so we run out of the building and get on our way. We introduce ourselves on the way and begin talking about the project and coming up with a strategy as to how we were going to be asking questions, even though no one knew what the company did or anything about the project.
No one was joking when they said we were going clear cross the city. We walk directly past our apartments for about another ten minutes, and arrive at the school. We wait outside with the other team who had to interview their client at the medical school and find out they simply took the bus…oh well.
We are summoned by our advisor to head up to the conference room and that we would be meeting with the dean of the college of medicine to discuss the project. We sit and wait because he is running late, so we decide to invite the other team in since they were also meeting with the dean for a project that was related to ours. We figured that instead of splitting the time to combine and work off each other’s questions.
The dean arrives, and after introductions, begins to talk. Like most Hungarians, he speaks very softly with a strong accent, so it was extremely difficult to understand him, especially since we had no idea what the company was before going in there and a lot of medical jargon with long technical words were being thrown around. Fortunately, he had some sense of what he thought the problems were and tried to address it with the teams.
It seemed as though the other team was working on creating a business model to encourage creating relationships between the company and the outside. Our project had to deal more with creating a marketing plan for the innovation center, in how to find companies internationally that our products and services could best be utilized, how to find funding, and how to channel the local knowledge and skills. I actually felt more comfortable with the other group’s assignment, because when I was asking critical questions about the current situation, I was not getting clear answers at all. At some points a little light bulb would go off and I felt like I would understand the objectives more clearly, but then I would suddenly fall back into the shadow of having no idea what was going on at all. Unfortunately, no one else in my group understood anything of what was said either. And since we were rushed at the very end in addressing our part of the project, we were not able to get the desired amount of information before the client had to leave.
We just have a quick meeting with our American advisor, which we find out that the health innovation centre we were actually working with is a network of companies in the health industry that are trying to create a parent managing company. We research a little bit from the minor website they had, but it helped a little bit. Now I actually understood that it was more of a consortium and not a company with definite products and services. We also find out that the main building has not even been built yet and that the company was mostly an idea at this point.
I sleep for a few hours, wake up with a headache still, and just decide to write since everyone else was sleeping. I get dinner at the Italian place right by our apartments; not realizing what I ordered was a clam dish. Since Laura like my dish better, I was happy to switch, as I hate clams. So instead, I enjoy a wonderful gnocchi dish. Since you tip the waiter/waitress personally, I keep trying to remember which person was waiting on us. This time however, I tipped the wrong person (and a lot of course), so I felt a little bad afterwards.
I just end up relaxing with everyone outside, watching the videos I recorded from our adventure to the TV Tower the day before with everyone else, and listen to Marcel (a Hungarian student) playing the guitar and sing amazingly. It made me so jealous.
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