Nespresso - king of service

This morning I had the most amazing experience with Nespresso. My coffee machine that I brought from Sweden has broken down, and can't get any electricity fom the power outlet anymore. So, I called Nespresso Club (which I'm not even a member of) and asked if they could fix it. First of all, the machine is not bought in the Netherlands and they have no access to the Swedish records. Second, I wasn't completely sure when it was bought and what the model was called. The woman in the customer support was so nice and registered and helped me through everything, and they offered free pick-up of the machine (with a replacement machine while it's being repaired). However, I just need to find the receipt for the purchase, which could be quite difficult since I'm stuck here in Holland. But anyway, Nespresso deserves a special recognition for their outstanding customer support! This is a perfect example how going beyond expectations leads to word-of-mouth and a good reputation! Oh God, the marketing book has completely brainwashed me I think...

Kick-off

Last night I fell asleep at 22.00, which I was really happy about this morning when I had to go up at 07.00. It's been a very long day; the kick-off started at 09.00 and I came home around 19.15. First we got introduced to our new branding project for term 3, which we've been told not to disclose through social media. A quite disappointing approach for being a communication programme I think. After the kick-off we had Communication Research. What I like about ICM is that they integrate the courses quite well. The deliverable in Communication Research is related to the project, which is nice - less work!

After that, I had a long break and then Dutch A2 for 2 ½ hours. It was brutal, and the only thing that kept me going was coffee, coffee and more coffee. Tomorrow I have a meeting with (half) the project group, and we're going to try to start on the Research Plan. Uh, it feels like my brain has completely shut off these last weeks, and now I have to get used to the high pace again. It's hard the first few days, but then I get into it. However, I'm starting up slow and tomorrow night I'm going to check out a new lounge bar with some friends over a drink.

Maastricht Tour

This weekend has been really nice, I went down to the south of the Netherlands to visit a friend. He showed me Maastricht which is such a lovely city! I almost, almost, wished that I had moved there instead. On the other hand, if I would have moved there instead I wouldn't have met all the wonderful people here in The Hague. However, I had a really nice time and now I'm ready to take on term 3 of ICM! Tomorrow is the kick-off, and someone from the Grape District is going to speak and present our branding project. I'm looking forward to it!

Some old... wall?

The fanciest bookstore in the Netherlands

The Maas river

Tired!

Today we had a 3 hour workshop in Design Thinking and then we started on our assignment. The assignment is about coming up with a new innovative beer bottle for Heineken, and a slogan for Colgate's whitening toothpaste using different techniques. It was quite fun, but now I'm completely exhausted. After working a few hours on the assignment, we went to the Hebos Chinese New Year Borrel, where you got a beer for 1 euro. However, I was too tired so I left after my first beer. Now I'm going to take a nap so I'm fit for fight when we're going to the Erasmus welcoming party tonight!

There was a gigantic foosball table in school today!

The Hague is beautiful even on a rainy day. This was taken on my way home.

The Swedish Chef

This morning we had the second and last workshop in Project Management. The theme for today was feedback, and I realized when we practiced in groups how hard it is to give and receive feedback in a good way. It is so easy to end up criticising the person, or get in defense mode as the receiver. We decided in our group that we're going to give each other feedback regularly to practice this and to promote a good working atmosphere.

It's amazing how we suddenly don't have anything to do during the days. You're so used to being busy all the time, so you basically don't know what to do on a day when you end at 11.30 and have no homework (yet). I managed to fill up the day pretty good anyway though. I've run some arrends downtown, and yeah, I don't know what else I did really, but all of a sudden it is almost 18.00. We probably need this mini-break though, because tomorrow we get a written assignment that is due on Monday but since almost all in my group are away this weekend (including moi), we're gonna try to finish it in one day. I am so looking forward to tomorrow, because Hebos is arranging an Erasmus Welcome Party for the new exchange students this semester! I just bought a ticket today, it's going to be great!

Oh, also I just need to share the brilliant home decoration my roommate came up with, the Swedish Chef hanging over the stove. How suitable!

The Swedish Chef 

The Swedish Student

Workshop and presentation

What a nice day today has been! In the morning we had a workshop in Project Management, which was very good I think. When we came into the room there was a lot of straws, scissors, and tape on the tables. We each sat with our groups by a table and were told to building the Eiffel Tower. Everyone started working on it immediately, and it was quite stressful at the end when our teacher said that only 5 minutes remained. The most natural reaction to the stress was "Oh fuck it, just tape it on there so we get it done!". We were told later that the lesson to be learned from the exercise was to de-brief the client when you get a project (to ask the right questions in order to get the wanted result). Apparently not one of us did the towers as the teacher wanted it (because we didn't de-brief her). 

After that, we had the presentations in Design Thinking that we prepared yesterday. We had so much fun while making the presentation last night. I came home around 20.00 I think, so we spend a lot of time on it. We decided to make a video with the instrumental version of "Black and Yellow" by Wiz Khalifa. It was a big success, and the teacher liked it! The funniest thing was when we started the presentation and one of my friends in the group was going to present us - and presented herself with the wrong name. Everybody started laughing and it really took the edge off the seriousity of presenting, so we weren't as nervous after that. 

After school I impulsively decided to go with a friend to Rotterdam to shop at Primark. The store was a bit disappointing in size after having seen the one on Oxford Street, London, but I found some things anyway! Now I'm going to unpack my shopping findings and relax the rest of the evening!

My group and our teacher. I guess we got a passing grade for that one!

Our Eiffel Tower

All the contributions

Research report done!

I am in such a good mood today! We're going to hand in the Research Report which has been hovering over me like a dark cloud for a few months. It feels great! We've been working on it all weekend, and now we're finally done. I also have a lecture/workshop in Design Thinking today, and we'll get an assignment that we're going to present tomorrow, so it's going to be a long day. It's good though, I love being busy, it's so boring to have nothing to do. Let's go!

Happy Alice