#CSCbul1

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CSC Bulgaria 1 team members

I'd like to introduce my CSC Bulgaria 1 team members with photos😊 One of my personal goal of CSC was to take "best shot" of each member and I took more than 2600 photos in total. I'm so thankful to the team who helped me and encouraged me a lot. I wish I could have more vocabulary in English to express my feeling!! I will continue studying English till a reunion in Tokyo 2020!

Janani from US🇺🇸 (and from India🇮🇳)

She is the mother of CSC Bul1 team❤️ She is always energetic and cares about other members. She started to call me "Japanese doll" (It's a compliment!!) and everyone followed it...😃 She helped me for rehearsal of workshop and she came to our office to join our final presentation. Thank  you Janani for your kindness, lovely smile and warmth❤️

Neha from India🇮🇳 She is my shopping friend🛍 It was always fun to hang out with her!! She really values her family and prepared a lot of gift for them... So sweet😊 She's good at introducing Indian culture such as music, dance and food😉 I'm now very interested in India🇮🇳 Thank you for wonderful moment❤️ "Where's Neha?😃"

Naveen from India🇮🇳 He is one of my rakia friend🤗🥃 (Rakia is Bulgarian strong spirit) He always encouraged me to speak more and to be confident. He could know my condition just a glance at my face😂 I'll never forget your warm and kind word at the breakfast of the final presentation day. Thank you for your kindness and your generosity🤗

Ricardo from Brazil🇧🇷 He is always calm and smart... and very creative designer😊 I was so impressed by your work seeing your presentation on the closing event. I wanted to learn design from you if we had more time🎨 He is good at joking and I took them seriously many times😂 Thank you for your kindness and smile🤗

Gilberto from Brazil🇧🇷 He is the most generous member in CSC Bul1 team!! He is always smiling and listening to others... I'm sure he stayed for the longest time in the Hilton restaurant for breakfast 🍴 Thank you for sharing Brazilian dance, music and alcohol (cachaça), and being always kind💃🕺

Caro from Argentina🇦🇷 "My favorite!!" I hear your voice even now...  She loves to communicate with people and is considerate of people around her. She never stops talking😄Caro encouraged me every time and made me cry again and again!! I love you so much❤️

Alex from US🇺🇸 He is the youngest in our team... and is the No.1 coolest party guy!!😆 He was always seeking a chance to go to bar and playing with Snapchat 😄 On the other hand, he is so skilled technical consultant to help other CSC team! Great job on your work. It was fun to hang out with you to try new restaurants🍴Thank you for the great moment🍻

Josephine from NewZealand 🇳🇿 She is expert in marketing 😊 She helped our team a lot to develop marketing plan and to prepare for the workshop which we had with customer. She is so energetic and never know to be tired!! It was amazing🤣 I love your openness and an attitude of positiveness toward everything😊❤️ Cute kiwi girl🥝🐨💕

Tao from China🇨🇳 Tao is always calm and steady🙂 He listen to people very well and is willing to learn new culture. He is good at self management... I was so surprised that he started going gym from the second day in Sofia🚴🏻 I must follow your example!! Thank you for always helping me a lot. We must see very soon in Japan🤗

Amit from India🇮🇳 He is expert in marketing and lead our team for first two weeks😊 He is so trusted by our customer since he sounded very convincing and very logical. It was great honor for me to work with him. He is also our teacher of Indian dance😃 When we meet next time, I have to learn dance from him💃 Thank you for the great moment. I was so lucky to be the same team with you😆

Jason from China🇨🇳 He is so energetic and has a lot of ideas in various perspectives. He surprised our customer again and again with his new ideas. I know how much effort and time he spent for the project... He is so passionate guy!! He loves meat and tried different types of meatball and "slowly cooked pork" as much as he could😂 I gain weight  because I followed him for every lunch😱 It was a lot of fun to spend one month with you. Thanks a lot😊

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Final Presentation

On Nov 9th, we gave the final presentation to our customer.

Jason and I introduced our proposal about CIE plan. Most of CIE members attended to listen our presentation. All the 4 week work such as interview with CIE team, schools, stakeholders and discussion is assembled into this presentation.

Group photo with CIE team

In the middle of the assignment, our team member Amit had to leave Sofia to take care of his family in India with unexpected reason. It was so unfortunate that we couldn't finish this assignment together. Amit is an expert in marketing and has strong leadership. He was trusted by our customer. But of course his family is the most important. Hope everything is going well.

After Amit left, Jason and I discussed a lot everyday even after dinner and prepared for the final presentation. Amit also helped us from India and joined our final presentation via Zoom. Thank you Amit!!

Amit on Zoom!!

Jason is very creative and has a lot of ideas which I can't come up with. He encouraged me everyday. Jason, I'm sure that you worked the most in CSC Bul1 team!! I'm so proud of you and I'm happy to work with you. Very confident presentation

I hope our work helps CIE and education in Bulgaria. I came here to give them a consultation but I've learned so many things from CIE team. I've been always so impressed by your dedication to the education. Thank you everyone for welcoming us with smile everyday. I was so happy and comfortable in CIE office!

With Iva, CEO of Centre for Inclusive Education

With Dimitar and Eli from CIE

After the presentation. I was so relieved!!

In front of the office:)

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School Interviews

We’ve done a lot of interviews with school principals and teachers in Sofia and cities outside Sofia. Even in Japan, you can’t have this experience. Our team definitely traveled the most among 4 CSC Bulgaria 1 team :)

Our main goal of visiting school is to know what are the real needs and thoughts of principals and teachers in Bulgaria. All schools we visited have been working with Centre for Inclusive Education. We tried to understand what they do and think in their daily job to give good classes to kids, to take care of kids with special educational needs, to manage a school, and have good relationships with parents. We learned a lot. I’m sure that these activities will help us to develop our deliverables.

I’d like to thank you to school principals and teachers who spend time for as and answering a lot of questions. Also, I’m really thankful to Dimitar from CIE who coordinated and supported all interviews.

In Teteven

In Teteven

In Bategrad

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Already half passed

Almost two weeks have passed since I came to Bulgaria. It means already the first half passed.

Bulgaria became one of my favorite place. I’m already feeling sad about that we only have two weeks here.

Actually, I was so nervous at the first few days here. I thought my heart would break off. This is the first time for me to be in the environment without Japanese. Even when I lived in France, I had some Japanese friends. This is a big difference for me. I applied CSC because not only I wanted to make an impact on the world and to work with people from all over the world, but also I wanted to change my biggest weakness. It is that I am not that outgoing and that I can not step forward because of fear of failure. I regret over and over again because of my character.

When I arrived at Sofia, I was totally overwhelmed by other members. They are energetic and became friends so quickly. I couldn’t keep up with the conversation. I couldn’t say less than half of what I was thinking although I took English lessons everyday before coming. I thought I shouldn’t have come here.

On the kick-off day, I was so nervous and my mind went black while introduction! I totally forgot what I wanted say the most (I wanted say I was so excited to be in this project because I have strong passion about education). I was so depressed.

After the kick-off, Caro, IBM member from Argentina came to me and said “I’m really proud of you.” I couldn’t help tearing up for joy. Other members came to me one after another and . I’ll never forget this moment. Thank you so much everyone.

A week had passed, I started to be able to say what I wanted to say. In the second week, I’m still not a good speaker, but I’m trying to keep up because I want to be helpful for others, I want to know about my customer and Bulgaria, and I want to become good friends with everyone.

CSC is special experience for everyone. I again realized that I should make the most of this once in a life-time experience and bring back to Japan!

ブルガリアに来て2週間。つまり、もう折り返しの時が来てしまいました。

ブルガリアは大好きな場所になり、もうあと半分なんだと思うとすでに寂しくなります。こう思えるのも、ここで出会った人たちのおかげです。

実は、到着から数日間は、自分の心が折れて1ヶ月もたないんじゃないかと不安で仕方ありませんでした。日本語が全く話せない環境になるのは人生初めて。こちらに来て日本人には一人も会っていないし、留学した時でさえすぐに会って話せる日本人の友達がいたのでこれは大きな違いです。 CSCは、もちろん人の役に立ちたいとか、世界中の人と働いてみたいという気持ちで応募したのですが、それ以外に自分に決定的に足りないものをなんとかしたいという気持ちがありました。それは、人見知りで怖がりなところと、いつも一歩前に踏み出せないことです。（そうでもないよと突っ込まれそうですが。笑）何度となくそれで後悔してきて、実を言うと今でも留学は私にとって苦い経験なのです。

とにかく、ブルガリアに到着してみたらみんなの勢いに飲まれました。みんなよくしゃべるしあっという間に仲良くなっていきます。焦ります。気軽な会話についていけません。あんなに毎日英会話やってたはずなのに、言いたいことは半分も言えなくて、あーほんと全然ダメだって思いました。来るべきじゃなかったのかもしれないって。

とどめにキックオフの自己紹介では、いちばん言いたかった台詞が緊張のあまりに飛んでしまい(教育への強い思いがあるからこのプロジェクトに入れたことが本当に嬉しいと言いたかったのです)、真っ白に。なんとか取り繕ったものの気分は最悪でした。

そんなとき、アルゼンチン人のCaroが声をかけてくれました。みんなの前��堂々と話して、Shioriを誇りに思うよって。嬉しくてほっとして、涙が出ました。だめじゃないって。そしたらみんなが駆け寄って来てくれて次々に声をかけてくれました。本当にあの時のことは一生忘れないと思います。本当にありがとう。

1週間経って、少し自分の意見が言えるようになって、2週間経って、今でも英語は下手くそだけど、それでもとにかく役に立ちたいし、お客様のこともブルガリアのことももっと知りたいし、みんなと仲良くなりたくてがんばっています。最初の半分はみんなに助けてもらうばっかりだったので、後半はもっと貢献したいです。

みんなそれぞれいろんな思いを持ってCSCに来てると思います。一度しかできないこの経験、最後までしっかりやり遂げて日本に持ち帰りたいと思います。

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Rila seven lakes

Weekend excursion to Rila seven lakes.

Amazing view and beautiful blue color of water at 2500m elevation. I’m sure I couldn't make it without your help. Thank you everyone.

週末日帰りでリラ7つの��へ。こんな青色があるんだ…っていうぐらい濃い空と湖の青色。いちばん高い湖は標高2500m！登山の経験ほぼゼロの私にとっては人生いちばん高いところでした。朝から貧血気味な上にどんくさい私をいっぱい助けてくれたチームのみんな、本当にありがとう。

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We are all in Sofia now!

After the long flight from each countries, finally we got together in Sofia yesterday! I got overwhelmed by energy of members( in good meaning)!

Today, we did a neighborhood tour around hotel in the morning. We stay here for 31 days. Thank you Angel from PIXERA Global to take us and giving us important information for the living!

After lunch, we did some team building activities. We got three questions and presented to the team. “1. Three moments/events that tell something about you.” “2. Where or how you feel home.” “3. Three personal/professional goals for CSC.” Great to listen to members what changed and inspired them, what they loves, and their goals!

長い長いフライトの後、ようやく昨日チーム全員がソフィアに到着しました！数名ロストバゲッジなどあったものの、とにかく無事に到着してよかったです。長旅の後とは思えないほど元気いっぱいのメンバーに圧倒されつつのスタートです。

今日は午前中、ホテル周辺を歩いて散策しました。31日間滞在する場所です。PIXERA GlobalのAngelに案内してもらいました。日々暮らしていく上での重要情報（両替所やランドリー、スーパー、それに美味しいレストラン）を教えてもらって感謝です。

午後はチームビルディングのアクティビティが用意されていました。「自分にとって代表的な出来事や瞬間を3つ」「自分の居心地がいいと感じる場所や状態」「個人的/ビジネス面でのCSCのゴールそれぞれ3つ」の質問が与えられ、全員の前で発表していきます（ちょっと緊張）。それぞれの発表中��笑いが絶えない素敵な時間になりました。

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Bulgarian cuisine!

Have you ever tried Bulgarian cuisine? I couldn’t imagine it other than yogurt.

There is only one Bulgarian restaurant near Tokyo station, called Sofia. As you may know, Sofia is the capital name of Bulgaria, where I will stay. https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1302/A130202/13040138/

I went to “Sofia” with my colleague, Miho-san. She is so curious about new things and culture. Thanks Miho-san!

Shopska Salata and Moussaka

Shopska salata looks like caesar salad. It’s very simple chopped vegetable salad but what makes difference is Bulgarian white cheese on top! This salty cheese is called “Sirene” and is verrrrry tasty.

The left one is Musaka. Musaka is originally from Middle East, but is popular in Bulgaria as well. It’s not heavy as it looks because the top layer is made from yogurt. You can taste rich flavor of meet, potatoes and fresh yogurt!

Kavarma

Kavarma is the most recommended dish by my colleague on this day. This is tomato based Bulgarian pork and vegetables stew. It really goes with Bulgarian wine! 

Now I’m a big fan of Bulgarian cuisine! As you can see in the picture below, yogurt is used for so many dishes! I believe that yogurt for Bulgarian is like soy for Japanese. We can’t talk about Japanese cuisine without soy... soy sauce, soy milk, tofu(soy bean curd) and miso(fermented soy bean paste)!!

I can’t wait eating real local food in Sofia. It’s 1.5 months to go!

ブルガリア料理って食べたことありますか？私はヨーグルト以外、全く想像がつきませんでした。 でも調べてみると東京にもブルガリアレストランが1軒だけ！店名はSofia、ブルガリアの首都であり私が滞在するところです。 というわけで同僚のみほさんと行ってまいりました。いつも新しいもの・ことに興味津々なみほさんに感謝です。 レストランはこちら　 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1302/A130202/13040138/

ショプスカサラダ・ムサカ

ショプスカサラダ（右。食べかけ・・・）は見た目はシーザーサラダ。でも食べてみると全然違います！お野菜にチーズが乗ってるだけのシンプルなものですが、このチーズが味がとっても濃くて美味しいのです。シレーヌというチーズだそうですが初めて食べました。 左はムサカです。ムサカは中東料理で、ギリシャでも有名ですよね。ブルガリアでもよく食べられるそうです。見た目はラザニアみたいで重そうなのですが、上に乗ってるのがチーズじゃなくてフレッシュヨーグルトなので爽やかにおいしいです。下はポテトとひき肉の炒め物みたいな感じ���

カヴァルマ

この日みほさんの一押しだったのはカヴァルマです。トマトベースの肉野菜煮込みなのですが、上に温泉卵が乗ってておいしい〜！これがブルガリアワインにとっても合います！（危険な予感）

ブルガリア料理、すっかりファンになってしまいました。下の看板を見ると分かるように、とにかくヨーグルトがよく使われています。ブルガリア人にとってのヨーグルトって日本人にとっての大豆ぐらい欠かせないものかな？と思いました。醤油に豆乳、豆腐に味噌・・・日本料理は大豆なしでは語れませんもんね。 現地で本場ブルガリア料理を食べる日が待ち遠しいです。残り1ヶ月半です！

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What is CSC?

CSC stands for “Corporate Service Corps”. CSC is a pro bono program run by IBM since 2008. Each team consists of 10-15 members who are from different countries and have different skills and backgrounds. CSC participants get together from all over the world to solve high-priority issues such as education, health and economic development in emerging markets. Please see also CSC site for more detail. https://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/corporateservicecorps/

Many CSC alumni told me that it was a life changing experience or a highlight in their career. I had been strongly interested in CSC since I entered IBM because it has always been my dream to work with people from other countries. My strong passion is coming from my background; There were many returnee students and foreign students in my high school, I graduated a university of foreign languages, I studied in France for a year, and I work in a global company, IBM. My experience of volunteering in education of Japanese language for kids has also motivated me to apply for CSC.
 My goal of CSC is to contribute to a local client, to build a great team and relationships which last even after the assignment, and to learn new things and broaden my world. 
 I’d like to make clients happier by transforming their way of thinking, taking advantage of my skill and knowledge, and to give them new ideas through application of new technologies.

I know it is challenging for me, but I will dedicate my efforts to this program and take full of advantage of it because it will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
 I will write about my experience of CSC in this blog. Hope it encourages someone who wishes to start a new thing or who wants to connect with people in the world. 
 
 CSCについて少しご紹介したいと思います。CSCは”Corporate Service Corps”の略で、IBMが2008年から実施している社会貢献のプログラムです。各国から集まった様々なバックグラウンドを持つIBM社員が10〜15名でチームを組み、途上国(IBMではEmerging Marketsという呼び方をしています）における教育や経済発展、ヘルスケアといった重要課題についてコンサルテーションを行います。現地への派遣期間は1ヶ月ですが、その前に準備期間が3ヶ月、帰って来てからの完了期間が1ヶ月で計5ヶ月間活動します。詳しくは、CSCの公式サイトをご覧ください。https://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/jp-ja/initiatives/corporate_service_corp/

私の周りにもCSCの卒業生が何名かいらっしゃいますが、���生観が変わる経験だったとか、IBMキャリアにおけるハイライトだったと皆さんおっしゃいます。世界中の人と仕事がしてみたいと思っていた私は、IBMに入社した頃からCSCに強い憧れを持っていました。これは帰国子女や外国人が多くいた高校や外国語大学での学生生活、1年間のフランス留学、そしてグローバル企業であるIBMで働いているという自身の体験から来ていると思います。そして学生時代、外国人の子ども向けに日本語教育のボランティアをやっていたことも一つの動機です。 ここだけ聞くととてもグローバル人材のように聞こえるかもしれませんが、未だに海外からゲストが来て話す機会があったりするととても緊張するんですよ・・・（笑）ただ、特にフランス滞在時にいろんな経験をしたので、文化的な許容度は高めかもしれません。その辺はまた機会があれば。

私のCSCでの目標は、今まで培って来た経験やスキルを活かして現地のお客様に貢献すること、派遣終了後も一生関係が続くような素晴らしいチームを築くこと、そして新しいことを積極的に学び自分の視野を広げることです。

何よりお客様が今までできなかったような新しいことに取り組めることでハッピーになれるお手伝いをできたらと思っています。

コンサルでもなく、営業でもない自分にどのぐらいのことができるかは未知数ですし、恐らくこれからたくさん苦しむと思います。でも一生に一回しかできないこの経験に情熱を注いで、めいっぱい楽しもうと思っています。

CSCでの経験をこれからこのブログに書いていきます。新しいことを始めたいけど迷っている方や世界中の人と繋がってみたいけど勇気が出ない方の背中を少しでも押せれば幸いです。 ちなみに英語版を書いてから日本語版を書いているのですが、日本語版は本音多めで行こうと思っています（笑）よろしくお願いします。

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Happy Food in Bulgaria!

Food can be sometimes a problem if you stay in other countries for a long time, but I  really enjoyed food in Bulgaria. Everyday my customer Dimitar took us to new restaurants for lunch (our office was located at the center of the city) and our twelve CSC members hang out for dinner together as much as possible. I now realized it was so valuable time because we could not just try new food but we could also learn cultures of 8 countries at the same time through food. If you travel abroad, it’s still not easy to have this experience. I tried many Bulgarian local and other ethnic foods and loved them. Let me introduce some today!

Bulgarian local foods

① My favorite Bulgarian food “Kyufte(meatball)” !! Especially these two restaurants serve very good meatball. Q-FTETARIA Thirsty Dragon

② Kavarma : tomato based pork stew in cray pot. It’s one of the most Bulgarian traditional food.

③I don’t remember name… It’s like tomato based cold salad with eggplant:)

④Chicken soup: This is very tasty! I tried several chicken soup in different restaurants!

⑤Musaka : I tried it in Tokyo as well!! In restaurant in Sofia, it was served with yogurt:)

⑥Bulgarian pastries were also very good. I’m sure Japanese people will like them!

Ethnic foods in Sofia

In Sofia, you can try many ethnic foods as well. Especially they have many good Middle East restaurants.

①Kebab It’s my another favorite dish!! I tried at least three different kebab restaurants😆

②Syrian barbecues

③Turkish stew? with rice

④Moroccan couscous

⑤Israeli dishes

⑥Japanese ramen noodles! It was unexpected that I could eat authentic Japanese ramen with Asahi beer!

Bulgarian Yogurt

The most question I was asked from Japanese friend and colleagues after coming back to Japan was “Was Bulgarian yogurt good?”😆 You know Bulgaria is so famous for yogurt in Japan! Of course I answered “Yes!” and I should add “ Now I can’t live without yogurt anymore!” I ate it everyday and it seems that I become half Bulgarian😋

Drink in Bulgaria

① and ②: I should mention my heaviest thing in my luggage…(I payed 70 Euros because of overweight 😂) It’s RAKIA. Rakia(ракия) is Bulgarian (and other Balkan countries) alcohol. It’s made of fruit like grape, apricot, peach… etc. Be careful. It’s very good but it’s like 40 degrees!(Look, the bottles in the photo are empty😱)

③Bulgarian coca-cola(кока-кола)

④Bulgarian beer is good!! I don’t have picture but Bulgarian wine is also very good.

Now are you interested more in Bulgaria? You must plan for next vacation!

Bulgarian grill show in Plovdiv

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IBM Corporate Service Corps Bulgaria 1 team Closing Event

This is the final of final... The closing event of CSC Bulgaria1 was held on Nov 10th. All customers, IBM executives and all CSC members got together to close this assignment. 

The first and the last time to listen to other 4 team presentations. It was great to know how teams worked to solve issues for 4 weeks. Everyone was very confident and gave great presentations.

Green Sofia team

BEAT team

Air BG team

Our CIE team was the last turn of 4 teams. Iva, Dimitar and Dobrin joined us to listen to our presentation. 

Jason attracted people and made them laugh with wonderful presentation skill!!

I was nervous but my feeling totally different from the kick-off day. I'm still not confident but could handle with myself to look confident. While I was talking, I saw my CSC members and CIE team was encouraging me.  Thanks everyone!!!

After 3 months of the pre-work and the assignment in Sofia, our CSC journey is approaching to the end. I'll continue this blog for a while because there are a lot of things to record.

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IBM Design Thinking Workshop

IBM Design Thinking is a methodology to develop a user journey by understanding who are the users and what are their real needs. We held a Design Thinking Workshop with our client to develop marketing plan.

I spent almost a whole week to prepare for the workshop. IBM Design Thinking is well designed and you can find good toolkit for workshop on intranet, but it takes time to being facilitator since you need to completely understand how to manage workshop as a facilitator.

I gathered information in IBM as much as possible and asked to my colleague in Japan to share his knowledge. My CSC team members also helped me for rehearsal. I could be ready for the workshop thanks to you guys!!

The workshop went well! We had 15 people including a school teacher and principals. Everyone was very participative and created a lot of ideas. It was hard to manage time because every discussion became very hot. The entire wall of CIE office was covered with hundreds of stickies!!! Thank you everyone for spending a whole day and creating so many ideas.

After the workshop, some people came to me and told it was very useful. I'm so glad to hear that!

IBM Design Thinking is not only process or workshop methodology but also a way of working and culture of team working. Hope that this workshop helps CIE and that they will be able to have a workshop themselves next time.

IBM Design Thinking とは誰がユーザーで、ユーザーが何を求めているのかを理解することで顧客体験を可視化し、営業活動やマーケティング活動の計画を立てる一連のプロセスです。お客様のマーケティングプラン作成のため、お客様を巻き込んでDesign Thinking ワークショップを行いました。

インタビューの合間に、一週間かけて準備をしました。IBM Design Thinking は体系化されており社内のイントラネットにファシリテー��ー向けのツールキットも用意されているのですが、ファシリテーターとして中身をきっちり理解するには時間がかかります。日本にいるメンバーにも情報をもらったり、CSCのチームメンバーにも夜遅くまでリハーサルに付き合ってもらってなんとか当日を迎えることができました。練習に練習を重ねたら、あとは自信を持って明るく1日乗り切るのみ！

ワークショップは大成功。お客様に加え、お客様が招待してくださった現役の校長先生や先生を含めて15名。みなさん積極的に参加してくださって、新しいアイデアが次々出ました。ディスカッションが毎回盛り上がりすぎて時間管理が大変でしたが、終わってみればお客様のオフィスの壁一面がポストイットだらけに！みなさん写真を撮ってましたよ。貴重な一日を費やして参加してくださり本当にありがとうございました。

ワークショップのあと、有用だったとか、いい経験になったと何名かの方に声をかけていただきとても嬉しかったです。

IBM Design Thinkingは単なるプロセスやワークショップの方法論ではなく、働き方やチームワークの文化そのものを体現する機会だと思います。この文化が根付き、次回はお客様自身でワークショップを実施されることを願っています(^^)

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Visited IBM Bulgaria office in Business Park

IBM Bulgaria has three offices in Sofia. Janani, Naveen and I visited Finance Center in Business Park last week.

Bulgaria is becoming one of the emerging market because of the large variety of spoken languages. Many people can multiple languages... I want to see some Japanese speaking Bulgarians:)

There were about 30 IBMers who are thinking to apply CSC. We got a lot of questions about CSC projects, application, things to do before applications, and impression about Bulgaria. It was great time to see local IBMers and talking about my experience. It reminded me of the time of my applications and two year waiting time after being accepted. 

We also met a IBMer who has just been accepted as 2018-2019 CSC member among participants. Congratulations! He is the first CSC selected in IBM Bulgaria!! I hope his journey will be a great one and many IBMer will follow him.

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Vitosha Mountain!!

Every morning, I see the VItosha mountain from the window of hotel. After the very cold week, it has beautifully snowcapped.

Vitosha mountain reminds me of Yatsugatake, which is a beautiful mountain in Yamanashi, Japan.

After taking two ski lifts, the view was totally different from city of Sofia! It’s like the world of “Frozen”!!

Let it go~

Jump!! Photo by Jason

Hot soup, hot chocolate, and rakia (Bulgarian strong riquor) at the hut... I didn’t want to go out!!

Center of Sofia from the lift.

After descending the mountain. It was freeeeezing, but wonderful moment with team:)

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Community Service Event

CSC gives a great opportunity to get to know with people who are trying to make world better in Bulgaria.

Last Saturday, we got a chance to join a whole day brainstorming session hosted by Reach for Change. Reach for Change is a global non-profit that improves the lives of children and youth by empowering and developing social entrepreneurs with innovative ideas. Reach for Change works with social entrepreneurs after a rigorous selection process, and then develops them through accelerators and incubators.

We had 4 “Power Brainstorming” with different organizations.

1. Geograf BG

2. Vratsa Software Community Association (VSC) + Inveitix Ltd.

3. Listen Up Foundation & TotalK Ltd.

4. LoveGuide

For each session, we had only one hour. In this short time, we needed to understand about  the organizations and their challenges, and to give some new ideas from an objective perspectives. Jason and I used a lot of stickies and flip charts for the discussion. It’s our style :) Marketing knowledge which we learned from Amit was very useful. It’s easy to explain and customers.

Through this session, I was impressed by people I met who are trying to resolve the issues around children and youth. 

It was not just a brainstorm session to give some new ideas to the organization, but also I learned a lot about Bulgaria and the world.  Thank you for giving such a great opportunity. 

IBM team and Yuri from Reach for Change

With members from organizations

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Beautiful Ancient City, Plovdiv

The beautiful, second biggest city in Bulgaria, Plovdiv- we visited as one-day tour on the next day of the 5 hour hiking!

The city of Plovdiv was ranked 6th amongst the oldest living cities in the world. I was so fascinated by the beauty of the architecture and the atmosphere of the city. If you visit Bulgaria, you should definitely include Plovdiv in your itinerary!!

Regional Ethnographic Museum

Lovely color... It is like a house in a fairy-tale:)

The Ancient Roman Theatre. It was the first time for me to see this typical outside theatre！

Together… We are the best team!!

 ブルガリア第二の都市、プロウディフ。5時間のハイキングの翌日に全身筋肉痛の体を引きずって行ってきましたよ！（笑）

プロウディフは世界で6番目に古い都市だそうです。美しい建築物に、街の雰囲気。すっかり魅了されてしまいました。ブルガリア人に聞いてもプロウディフはいちばんお勧めだと言っていたので、ブルガリアに旅行の際は絶対外せない場所です。この赤い屋根、東欧っぽいですよね。

その魅力を少しだけご紹介しますね。2日ぐらいかけて回りたかったな〜。

民族博物館

可愛い美術館とおうち。童話の中から出てきたみたいですよね。

街中で見つけたTogetherのモニュメント。2人具合が悪くて不参加だったのがとても残念ですが、ベストチームです！！

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Bulgarian cooking class!

I took a cooking class of Bulgarian cuisine!

Our teacher Bobby is very busy person and hold many classes everyday. We were very lucky!

Yogurt plays a starring role in Bulgarian cuisine. Everything we made was delicious and went well with Bulgarian wine!

Now I can cook them in Japan:)