Expectations

I had meant to write out some expectations prior to departing on my trip. But, true to form, I'm not ready to walk out the door and our cab arrives in an hour. Kristy already called them to postpone the pick-up by 15 minutes. So expectation #1 is that we are going to end up making our cabbie wait.

So here are some top of mind thoughts:

• The client project scope will turn out to be very different than we might think at this point. That's an easy prediction, because I have no idea what to think of it at this stage. I will likely be teaching some MBA skills, which is ironic given my inability to gain acceptance to an MBA program when I applied over a decade ago. Take that, Stanford.
  
• Eating is going to be an adventure. I'm doing my best to harden my stomach, having recently shown more tolerance for Kristy's work stories at dinner. But as a fall-back plan I've packed 30 power bars. Literally 30.
• I will have overpacked but somehow will curse myself for not bringing along enough of something. My goal in packing was to make that something not turn out to be underwear.
• A lot of people will point at me and laugh. This will be pretty awesome because I'm 6'4" and pale, and therefore an easy target. Not sure if it will deflect from or exacerbate the problem given that I'm paired up with a tall German for my project.
• Maya will howl when we leave. Poor baby. But she's in good hands while we're gone.

Maya - not excited about the trip.

Next post will be from China...