St. Charles, IL
I am in the middle of 2 weeks of consultant training at St. Charles, IL, about 45 minutes outside of Chicago. There are 240 of us in my course here at the Q Center, all from various offices of my company all over the world. In fact, Americans are a noticeable minority in this crowd of mostly Europeans. I feel like I'm back in college: full-buffet dining halls, classes which will never be useful in real life, a training center laid out exactly like a campus, parties every night, dorm buildings complete with lounges, and a room that looks like this:
Except, unlike college, classes are from 7:45 am until 9:00 or 9:30 pm some nights. Major suckage.
A word regarding the foreigners. For many of them, this is their first trip to the US, and this is what they see:
Except, unlike college, classes are from 7:45 am until 9:00 or 9:30 pm some nights. Major suckage.
A word regarding the foreigners. For many of them, this is their first trip to the US, and this is what they see:
- Every meal is a full buffet with enough food (American, Italian, Mexican, Mediterranean, and a million desserts) to feed an army, plus fruits, hors d'oeuvres, cookies, and drinks throughout the day.
- The first after-class group activity was a trip to the outlet mall.
- The second after-class group activity was a night out at the Cadillac Ranch, a bar/club that looks exactly what it sounds like.
- Fat
- Materialistic
- A bunch of cowboys
posted by IndoSaram | 10:24 PM
4 Comments:
So you're essentially stating that the impression foreigners are getting isn't that far off from reality...
I can't wait to partake in this consulting rite-of-passage! Welcome back to NYC, where reality obliterates perception (thank goodness).
Well... The impression they are getting is the stereotypical view that foreigners have of America. This clearly is an egregious generalization of the country and one that the training organizers should be trying to dispel rather than promote, as they are so thoughtlessly doing.
That is one of the things I love about NYC; no matter how much the media (both national and international) try to glamorize it, the city maintains a hard, "real" edge that doesn't stand for any BS.
"Obliterate" is an awesome verb, by the way. :)
That totally looks like a dorm room. How weird! As much as we say "oh, back in our Cornell days.." I doubt I'd actually want to go back to dorm-life.
Though, having my own room and space is better than what I have now, I think.
I'm from St. Charles, IL and I never knew that the Q Center was there. Maybe they had a big buffet laid out for you to be generous. American's may be fat, but we're kind and we're happy. If you don't like it, don't eat it.
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