It was my last hoorah with the CEE Team.  To end the year we headed to good old downtown Unterschleissheim to play pool, have some drinks, blow off some Rhythm of the Business Steam and watch Bayern Munich win finally 4-0!  Good times!  Why is it when you are too solber you are horrible at pool but once you have just a beer or two you become fabulous!  The a couple days after our BMO (Business Marketing Operations Group) party we had the whole CEE headquarters party.  It was a great little place at Middle Ring in downtown Munich.  Great food, great conversation and fun dancing to end the night.  It was an amazing ride for 3 years, I will truly miss the people, the culture, the countries and the experience.  Some prictures of great friends for life below. 

So I participated in one of the best team building activities ever with my team.  We went to the BMW safety driving school in the pouring rain last Friday.  What an experience!  As much as I have a thrill for speed, it truly taught me how we drive way too fast as a society!  The great thing as everyone knows Greg says I already have 2 strikes against me- 1 being a women and 2 being Asian but to my surprise I did quite well in the driving school activities.  You wouldn’t even believe in the final times solemn race, I placed 3^rd behind Claus (does race driving in Porsches) and Marin (my Croatian buddy).  Not bad out of 10 people.  We learned how to steer and brake properly, no more smooth braking-SLAM ON THAT BRAKE!  Did you also know our US teachers are wrong it isn’t 10 & 2 to hold the steering wheel but 9 & 3!  The most fun was we took off the DTC and drove 45km/h in a circle in the pouring rain, was quite scary but learning how to over steer and under steer… Here are a few of the pictures from the day, if you can do it- I would highly recommend it.  They also have an off road school with the X5-how fun that would be!  I will miss my CEE Server Team extremely, amazing good drivers!

I get more amazed by this company every year.  A couple of weeks ago I had the great opportunity to join some of my Western Europe High Potential colleagues for a training in a three day training in Amsterdam.  The amazing accomplishments, stories and insights from these 90 people was a fabulous experience.  To also have Microsoft invest so much into us helps me feel proud that the company truly understands its asset is its people.  I would be more than pleased to work for any of the people I interacted with over the three days.  In these three days we focused on bring out our voices as leaders and what is critical in empowering our people and teams to be great!  So many of the things you know but when you get caught up in the execution and everyday hustle and bustle you forget!  I truly enjoyed our trainer, Martinuzzi, Bruna.  If you have never engaged with her, you definitely should.  Her energy was contagious and her insights into your soul quite perceptive.  I love my learning circle!  You are probably thinking what is a learning circle…  It is a great program in which you have 5-6 of your peers question you through a challenge your facing until you come up with the right solution to solve it.  You are not supposed to give advice but in the end a little advice is shared and with the years of experience in different parts of the business it is great to get a fresh mind to help you overcome blockers you are giving yourself.   It is unbelievable in the short amount of time how much trust you build and how much you can share with strong amazing people.  My guys are great and we will meet again in February in Barcelona, one of the most fabulous cities in Europe!  After the training, my husband joined me for a nice relaxing weekend in Amsterdam.  I do suggest coming in the summer not winter- it was really cold!  A few pictures of the festivities…