I only have a few minutes to write this, so I’ll be brief: whoever invented the concept of “team-building exercises” should have bamboo shoved under their fingernails for all of eternity. Here’s a sample of this morning’s activities: each table (which in my case consists of me, an Australian guy, and a girl and guy who are both from Singapore) gets a white board and a marker. In the center, we draw a big circle. On one side of the circle, we write things we all have in common (example: we all have siblings, dark hair, that type of thing), and on the other side of the circle, we write down common challenges that we all face as consultants (kill me now). Then, outside of the circle, we write one unique trait about each of us, and the rest of the room has to guess who each trait applies to. For mine, I wrote “has 2 tattoos”. When our orientation leader read that out loud, all 35 people in the room simultaneously called out my name. Um, hello? I thought the whole thing about my having tattoos is that I don’t look like the type of person who would have them. But maybe compared to the other three, I was the only logical choice. Or maybe it’s because I’m the only American. Or maybe, just maybe, I give off way more of a badass vibe than I ever thought I did.

Aside: Jerry, an African-American guy from NYC, pulled me aside at lunch to ask me where my tattoos are. I told him on my back & on my ankle. I think he was disappointed that they’re nowhere obscene. Oh well.

Two other side notes:
1) Kris, or Mickie-G as Dave calls her, got a new job. Hooray for her!! It should be a great opportunity, and getting over a $5K pay raise is never a bad thing.
2) Today is my mom’s birthday. I would write a shout-out for her like I did for my sister, but she never reads this (that one time was apparently a fluke), so I guess it doesn’t matter. Just in case, though: I love you, Mom, and happy birthday. (And I’m not saying how old you are on the Internet, so be happy.)