Sep 19 2009

Russia-I Love My IT Pros

So our CEE Headquarter Sever Team headed to Russia this week. The team has a lot of changes the pervious IT Pro Lead moved to Dubai to run IT Pro for Microsot Middle East Africa. The teams BG Lead (manager) is moving to Slovakia to run the Microsoft Marketing Organization, so there was a lot of discussions on where the startegy would go in this fiscal year. My acting lead Anton is doing an amazing job and I am so pleased with teh plans and how well the team is working together and driving a great strategy without a manager. We are also launching a Women in Technology Microsoft Chapter and exeternal user group. The team took us to great dinners after very long days, and yes we did have some vodka. You will love the picture of Csaba with the after taste of Horseradish Vodka. I had to head to the Windows Client BG Leads offsite in Milan, Italy-so I missed the great site seeing tour across Moscow. You’ll see some great pictures-wish I was there. The poor team, some how I got a free upgrade to a suit and my team-plus my boss just got single rooms…

Let me give you some interesting facts around Moscow. Moscow is the capital of Russian Federation. The city area is about 30 km in diameter and the population reaches to almost 10 million people. To be able to find the right building on any street, it’s useful to know that in Moscow house numbering starts from the center. Also, the odd-number houses are located to the left, and the even-number houses – to the right. So, if you’re looking for Tverskaya st., #2, for example, it will be located very close to the Kremlin (which is the most central place in Moscow), on your right-hand side (if you turn your back to the Kremlin). The main historical core of Moscow is Kremlin (a fortress – on photo), which is located in the core of the city. Tverskaya street, which is the main avenue of the city, starts from the Kremlin and heads north to become Leningradskoye Shosse, which leads directly to St. Petersburg (750km).Moscow has a radial structure, and the Garden Ring road defines the center of the city. A smaller Boulevard Ring defines the city’s downtown. In august 21, 1991, there was a small revolution set in Moscow. The government was changed and there had been tanks for several days in the centrum of Moscow. At this time the Soviet Union was over, but it was a strange time for some period. Also a little earlier there were the first democratic mayor elections in Moscow. 1991 was the beginning of the Democracy, people were excited, waiting for changes, but it turned out to be hard process. Good times till my next trip in November.

Sep 19 2009

MGX-I drank the punch

So I noticed I forgot to blog about MGX- Microsoft Global Exachange. This is the one week a year that 17,000 Microsoft employees from around the world get together to understand the strategies for the new fiscal year. This is my 7th MGX and I can’t believe every year I get re-energized and chanting I LOVE THIS COMPANY! Amazing Products, Amazing People, Amazing Research and Amazing impact in helping people around the world- makes me so proud to work for this company. It is also great to catch up with co-workers you haven’t seen for months- some for years. I am amazed at our MACH ( Microsoft Academic College Hires), could you image what it would feel like starting Microsoft right out of college and then being in the Atlanta Dome and seeing flags from all over the world and people chanting I LOVE THIS COMPANY with Steve Ballmer runing around the dome. Its pretty cool. Here are a couple pictures from the week.

Sep 6 2009

Weekend in London

Well, we just got back from a long weekend in London and we want to share with you our latest adventures. On the right you will see some pictures from our romps through London. The first day we landed late and had dinner at this strange Pub called the Churchill Arms where we met my old boss and her husband but the pub was a Thai restaurant. The next day we did a lot of walking must have been 12km, we went to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, changing of the guard, St. James in the Field Cathedral, St. James park, Buckingham Palace, National Gallery and dinner at a Belgium Restaurant and met our friends’ boyfriend-Mike at a quirky little Pub in Notting Hill Neighborhood to listen to music.

The third day it rained a lot so we spent most of the time using the underground. The second picture is the millennium bridge that we took to the Tate Museum. This bridge was over budget and did not open on its target date of 2000, it cost 10 million pounds to build! We headed to the Tate Museum and saw a play at the Shakespeare Globe and had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant called Neil’s Yard. The play was really cool, it is the top picture and it was open air and no roof. The bad thing is it rained the whole time and the people standing in front of the stage got soaked. Greg was smart and saw an area on the far right side of the stage where we had a good view and stayed dry. My favorite part was our futbal game Chelsea versus Burnley. The crazy thing is no beer drinking in your seats, only in the food area. If that was the case in Germany no one would be at the futbal games.

Greg’s favorite part of the trip was our ride on the London Eye. The next 2 pictures. Our friend in Munich, Steve Murphy help build it. He told us that when they opened they did a big commemoration to breast cancer and he had to tied huge pink ribbons on top of each pod. The view was amazing and it takes 30 minutes to go all the way around. There is a cute kids 4D movie you watch before the trip-Greg liked the pictures of us in the funny glasses, we’ll spare you from viewing.