ryosukey's

英語学習、ワーホリ留学体験談、面白ネタ、資産形成、おすすめ商品について発信します♪

初めての海外出張あるある diary for English study 5 【 I hate you very much】

This was about a story of my first time to go on a business trip to Basel Watch Fair in Switzerland. what I first think of this country was "Heidi, A GIRL OF THE ALPS."

However,of course I was not supposed to go to ALPS. I didn't have any business there.

I wish I could, but I could not.

 

I had to prepare for the presentation to do because I was the only person who could speak English, so I needed to research for the watch makers which i was gonna meet . Otherwise, they asked  so many questions about japanese market.

Like Why can't we sell good number or how many products we are gonna sell in previous year or somthing ike that. 

 

 My boss told me to go to the exhibiton to find new items and to have conversation with each brand manager who we do business with as a sole agenet in Japanese market.Have you ever heard about "Basel??" If you are familiar with watches, maybe you do.Every new collection of the brand is mainly supposed to be launched at this event. I had been very proud of myself to be chosen as a member to visit there until i knew who was gonna go with me... 

 

The person was a new colleage who joined our company 5 years after me but he was older than me. He did laxuary watch sales in the previous company. He was kind of expert in this feild. What is more, he has been there several times. That was good news for me. I thought I could count on him. 

Totally, we would go with 3 persons including me: 2 from Osaka and 1 from Tokyo.

 

If we go to Basel, we have some options to go there.

Our course was like from Osaka to Amsterdam for trangite and from Amsterdam to Basel.

 

At Amsterdam air port, it happened.

As soon as we arrived there, my colleage was going somewhere to look for something  without saying anything.

"What is he doing??" I thought. Then I said "where are you going?"

he said "I'm looking for smoking area."

"Hey, wait a minute. Say something before you go. You are with me."

He said "I have been here, so I know where I'm going"

"Oh, my God" he was like the kind of person going his way.

So I was very surprised to hear that from him. He was 6 or 7 years older than me.

I was starting to feel so nervous for this business trip.

After the moment, we separated he went to smoking area, I went to the departing gate.

And yet, I was watching him in case he took the wrong way.

My guess was absolutely right!!! He did it. I was feeling kind of satisfuction.

No,offense. I yelled at him and finally he joined me.

 

While on the plane, I didn't like to choose which meal you would like to have for meals.

Because every time I chose two of them, the one i chose was not in stock.

"Why do they keep asking me which one would you prefer?"

Please Just say to me"We are sorry we have only this one, Is that OK for you?"

Oops, sorry for going into a different story.

 

About at 3pm, we arrived at airport in Switzerland.

No sign of English. Every sign or announcement was Germany.

I could not understand what they meant. was I supposed to study Even Germany??

  First of all, we had to make it to our hotel at any cost. Unfortunately, the hotel was not in Switzerland,but it was in German, so we had to catch a train from basel station. I already know that I could not rely on him,my colleague. Thats why I asked as many people as I could on my way. When I get on a bus, I asked a lady which stop to get off.

She was a kind but being drunk.haha I made my choice wrong. 

In arriving at every stop, she tried to stand up, so we thought this was the very station to get off. but it was not. Every time I asked her, she said"No, it isnt." 

It seemed to me that she was making fun of us.

 

After a while, we managed to get to the train station. I already felt exhousted..as you know what happened so far. 

This was the last but very important choice for us to catch which train to catch.

I wanted to ask the informationcenter at station,but it was alreday closed.

Suddenly, He talked to me "Maybe we should get on any train."

the sign showed the name of the station where our hotes was. He  insisted.

He was confident, so I bet him at the last minute.

 

When we got on the train, we both did not have much conversation because of tiredness. we stayed quiet looking at the scenery passing by. About 15 minutes later,

someting bad came to my mind. "Did this train stop even at one station?" No, it didint.

About 30 minutus, the train kept going on somewhere along with us. 

Then I said "We should get off at next station!! We are already getting lost!" 

Yes, we were!  The question was "What the hell where are we right now??"

I was devastated in hell. That was a real "nightmare."

He asked me "Do we need to catch a train back again?"

I said"hell No!" Now,We got another problem to solve. I felt dezzy..

 

We had our luggage without knowing where we were.

The only thing we knew was we were in front of a station somewhere in German.

I found cab drivers waiting for someone to talk to them.

Yep. That was me. I talked to them "Does anybody speak English??" 

they all shaked their head. I heard about most Germany people could speak English.

But That was not true to suburb area. My hope just turned into nothing.

I was about to give up.. A driver came to us and he said to me

" I can speak English"  he seemed to me like an angel, he was an elder though.

We got on a cab and headed for our destination at last. 

Our super long jurney would be finished soon!!! It was just an arriving day for us... 

I was scared of what was waiting for me for next 5days during the Basel exhibiton.

 

In the car, i had to talk about where to go and how much it would cost to our hotel.

I just explained to the driver and i was looking back and talked taked him

" We will be able to go to our hotel without any trouble any more. What a long day,hah??" He had no response. I found him already sleeping.

How could he do that?? He did nothing all the way anything but wrong advice when we caught the train. I wanted to drop a bom on him but i just stayed calm.

After all,  Our driver charged us  €250(about 32,500Yen at that moment).

My boss would kill me when he found out we spent a lot in taking a cab. I felt vomit.

 

Anyway, we finally made it!! 

About 1 hour later, one more colleague from Tokyo just arrived at the hotel at 11pm.

He took a cab from the airport. it took only 1 hour..

On the other hand, It took about 7hours for us to arrive at 10pm. 

the Tokyo colleague asked me" Why did you take so long??"

I explained to him about Everything what happened to us. 

He tapped on my shoulder and said"It's just being Bad day today for you"  

We had so many things to do tomorrow, so we went to bed soon. The day finished.

 

The next morning the one colleague from Osaka, I named him"The trouble",

he got sick. I was like haunted by him. Even if he forget about the business trip in the future, I won't be able to forget about this incident until I die.

 

If you have plan to go on a business trip to overseas, I strongly recommend that you should choose your partner by yourself.  

 

The next year, he wasn't chosen as a member,by the way.