My first real business travel led me to the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. One month spent in this crazy city made it to my top 10 life experiences so far and I decided to let you know why through these short stories that I named "The Indonesian Tales".
One of my tasks in Jakarta was to contact embassies for professional networking purposes and the first one that I contacted, obviously, was the embassy of my home country. I googled up the contact information and wrote a kind of stupid e-mail asking about expat activities and community of Slovaks in Indonesia. For my surprise, I actually did received a response. And not only that but also the invitation to meet the ambassador in person.
Meeting was scheduled on one Tuesday afternoon at the embassy itself. The day came; I selected carefully what to wear and went through all the rules of etiquette that I could remember from my college times when I took a class on social behavior. I must say I felt pretty important when the company driver, Tommy, stopped in the black BMW limo in front of the embassy. However, the best was yet to come.
I was received by a local lady offering me tea right after entering the main door. In a short while the ambassador himself appeared and led me to a small meeting room. "Welcome to Slovakia!", he said with a smile and I felt relaxed. He was a tall man in his fifties (I hope he won't read this cause I am terrible guessing the age :D). I had no idea how to behave and I tried to stick to my classy "general approach" behavior that many people refer to as cold. But then, out of a sudden the ambassador asked me a question of the day: "Would you like to get a shot of a Slovakian pear spirit?"
If you would like to imagine my face at that moment, don't even dare to try. I guess all the rules of etiquette were gone in that moment and I appeared to be drinking with the ambassador at 3pm on a working day. That afternoon meeting finished with the offer of a another shot and the invitation to attend Slovak national day in Jakarta this coming September.
One of my tasks in Jakarta was to contact embassies for professional networking purposes and the first one that I contacted, obviously, was the embassy of my home country. I googled up the contact information and wrote a kind of stupid e-mail asking about expat activities and community of Slovaks in Indonesia. For my surprise, I actually did received a response. And not only that but also the invitation to meet the ambassador in person.
Meeting was scheduled on one Tuesday afternoon at the embassy itself. The day came; I selected carefully what to wear and went through all the rules of etiquette that I could remember from my college times when I took a class on social behavior. I must say I felt pretty important when the company driver, Tommy, stopped in the black BMW limo in front of the embassy. However, the best was yet to come.
I was received by a local lady offering me tea right after entering the main door. In a short while the ambassador himself appeared and led me to a small meeting room. "Welcome to Slovakia!", he said with a smile and I felt relaxed. He was a tall man in his fifties (I hope he won't read this cause I am terrible guessing the age :D). I had no idea how to behave and I tried to stick to my classy "general approach" behavior that many people refer to as cold. But then, out of a sudden the ambassador asked me a question of the day: "Would you like to get a shot of a Slovakian pear spirit?"
If you would like to imagine my face at that moment, don't even dare to try. I guess all the rules of etiquette were gone in that moment and I appeared to be drinking with the ambassador at 3pm on a working day. That afternoon meeting finished with the offer of a another shot and the invitation to attend Slovak national day in Jakarta this coming September.
It felt good to be 'in Slovakia' for a little while on that day and I hope I can make it in September because I have a feeling that the ambassador has more aces on his hand than that bottle of Slovakian pear spirit ;) Well, now I know why they say "home sweet home" ...
