day 2. 1803

came back quite late yesterday and was too 'seh' to blog anything down.
tues. 1803

woke up quite early and finally met up with Frits, the guy whom my dad's been dealing with. he look like zidane somehow with his shaved head. We went over to his office and he showed us around, after that we sat down for meeting with his boss and him. meeting was quite lengthy but certainly an eye opener for me.. seeing how the dutch do things and communicate with clients, i'm impressed with the way they manages their business. we went out for lunch at this local cafe by the port then head back to office again for more meeting.. went back to the hotel for a rest before heading out for dinner..

negotiation meetings at times are tiring because u have to think alot and becareful with words and at times you really have to be tactful. when in a negotiation, u'll have to start thinking of the next move or rather start to read the opponent's mind when you're doing the talking. everything have to react to suit the mood. u cannot be pai seh to say something to protect your own interest or neither to deny all offers to suit yourself. its a skill to balance i guess. just sitting there seeing the facts and figures alone kinda 'wow' me already. Euros been strong recently whereas the dollars been dropping, this situation gave asian who are in transaction with european countries a big headache when their doing business backhome with the greenback. imagine when just 0.01 cents of difference could multiply up to a few digit figures.

dinner was at this really nice italian restaurant where i got to know more nice people. together with the boss Arben I got to know Giovanni, the owner of the restaurant and Ergyn, a young architect that's 5 yrs older than me.. the dinner was really good and it was pure european style of dinning. Arben was generous to offer us the best wine in the place and expensive conag after our meal. i thought it was the end of the day, but we went on for another drink back at the city.

i hop on to Ergyn's car. he drove me around and finally went to news cafe at the square, drink again!. got to know him alittle better and realised that he's a young promising architect. guess wat? he's doing town planning now.. he's only a few months into business and start receving many projects on hand, africa, south america, holland etc. only 27, own a busines with his brother. he's from Kosovo originally, hearing his life story, i think he's quite a respectable young guy. he gave me his namecard and told me to contact when i'm nearby.. after talking to him, i realise that dutch architecture has a unique sense of her own.. no wonder most of the famous architects in the world are dutch, they also have very good skills of building dam and water system.

though it feels kind of weird going out with older people and talking all about business and making money, yes and i was damn bored at times. but 'bo bian'.. this was an eye opener for me and really, the world is big, can't finish earning money. i learnt many valuable lesson today.. hope it will be a good help for me in future.