Sawubona (Zulu: Greetings)!

I hope everyone is having a great summer thus far – whether you are in school or not!  It has been a crazy month – end of my first year of school, 3 weeks in South Africa, starting my internship at Medtronic – and I am still slowly getting my ‘working legs’ underneath me.    There is no ‘good’ way to tell all of the stories and recount some of the more memorable moments, so I’ll embrace an old consulting adage for this email …  ‘How do you are eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.”

 

Minneapolis – I’ve come home-ish!

For those of you who haven’t followed my amazingly entertaining Facebook activity, I’m back in Minneapolis for the summer (till August 23rd).   I was here briefly in May to get some logistical items ironed out before jetting off to South Africa for 3 weeks.  A big sorry to those of you who wanted to get together, it truly was a lightning fast trip with almost no free time.

  • Apartment – I am living in Downtown Minnie, (13000 Yale Place) in apartment 434.  When I checked in the lady suggested I proactively mention that I am staying on the “Penthouse Level,” so if someone comes and visits they shouldn’t look for the fourth floor button.  I simultaneously had three thoughts: 1) Awesome!  Penthouse! 2) Wait, what a Penthouse on the fourth floor? 3) How dumb does this lady think my friends are?  “Oh my god! Nick said the fourth floor but all I see is 1, 2, and P???  Maybe if I hit 2 twice it will go to the fourth floor!
  • Vehicle – My dad in either an act of wonderful generosity or cruel and unusual torture is letting me use one of his trucks for the summer.  So, I am taking a tumble from the period sweet rentals to the dirtiest truck left in operational existence.  When he gave me the keys [and I think he was hiding a smirk], he carefully passed along some help instructions/observations:

o   “Don’t worry, I cleaned up the car for you” – in Fargo-ian speak translated as taking a semi-dry handkerchief and  whipping the interior windshield.

o    “If it doesn’t start or the security light comes on, just sit for a while and try again, it will eventually work.” – which, I interpret as the worst security system ever, but it does offer me a regular opportunity to practice meditation.

o   “Don’t EVER use the electric cigarette lighters “ – turns out this was a big one, shorts the whole vehicle.   Also, turns out that you are never too old to want to disobey your parents when they speak in absolutes J

o   “You will notice an erratic ding-ing sound, that is just the broken fuel pump, you’ll get use to it” – ‘you’ll get use to it…’ is maybe the grossest underestimate of the situation ever.  Driving a truck 4 hours from Fargo to Minneapolis with a bell chiming ever 4-12 seconds almost drove me (and the car over the edge).

 

Here is my address, feel free to send cards, cookies, love, whatever..

1300 Yale Place #434 |  Minneapolis, MN  |  55403

 

South Africa … 1 Million Managers… 1 Million Malls…1 Million Memories (or not, I just wanted an alliteration)  

 

1 Million Managers – For those of you who are scratching your head wondering about this whole South Africa thing … refer to previous emails for details.  But in short, I was working with an organization called African Management Initiative (AMI), who is focused on improving management education in Africa through online resources, eLearning, etc.    I wrote a brief blog post – link – if you are craving more info.

 

On a whole, the trip was pretty good.  It was sort of like consulting on crack.  Note, when I say crack – I am not referencing that the consulting work was WAY crazy-hard/intense/etc.  Instead, I am referencing the fact that for the first time ever, I had to spend almost EVERY waking moment with three people, but particularly my other XY-chromosome’d colleague.  When I say every waking moment, I mean… outside of showering and the times I would lock myself in the bathroom and cry (<-jokes…there was no lock on the bathroom door) I didn’t get time alone until day 10 of the trip when everyone went to the movies and I just sat on my bed and enjoyed silence J!

 

We got do participate in some wonderful experiences that I wasn’t able to do when I went to the World Cup in South Africa (2010):

  • Safari – Which, was awesome!  I don’t care if anyone thinks they are too cool for safaris, anytime you see a bad-ass elephant rip a tree out of the ground to eat it… you are inspired.
  • Lion Park – Got to visit a lion park and pet a lion cub, which was AMAZING (Pause for ethical acknowledgement, I get that petting drug-stupefied animals is not good and by paying to do it I am supporting the continued practice, which is bad… that being said, I GOT TO PET A FREAKING LION CUB!).  We also got to pet a full-grown Cheetah named Eddie… actual conversation:

 

Trainer – You can pet him here, behind his head, with long easy strokes.  You can tell he likes it he is purring.

Nick – Awesome!

[Nick petting Cheetah, purring]

[Cheetah stops purring]

Nick – Uh… sir… what does it mean when he stops purring?!

 

  • Tours – We got tours of downtown Johannesburg, including a trip to a traditional Zulu market, which was amazing.  When we told people at the place we were working about it several people responded with the following remarks – “I’ve never been there!” or “I haven’t been there in 15 years…”   We also toured the Alex Township, which was a less-touristy version of Soweto (famous black township where Mandela lived).  It was fascinating to see how people live, and the stark contrast between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.
  • Cape Town – LOW LIGHT – I returned to Cape Town with one objective, to go to the top of Table Mountain since I wasn’t able to in 2010 due to weather.  That being said, it was the WORST weather ever, and I wasn’t able to (again).  When I say worst weather ever, it literally hailed one day, to which a clerk at the coffee shop we sought shelter said, “I haven’t seen hail in like 20 years…”

 

Oh..  as for the 1 Million Malls reference… it was a quick acknowledgement of Johannesburg’s crazy indoor-only culture.  Everyone lives in gated communities, travels only by vehicle (typically, personal cars), and spends all of their leisure time in malls… which, come to think of it is a lot like MN 😛

 

Medtronic –

I started my internship yesterday; which was awesome.  I think, but I’m not sure, my title is: Global Upstream Product Marketing for Neuromodulation Deep Brain Stimulation.  Please don’t ask what that means, I am not really sure…  I had some movie-esque-Nick Kroshus moments:

  • Start with a Pop! – After my morning training & orientation, I joined a meeting at 11:30.  As I was introduced to the team members, saying hello – I reached to shake a gentleman’s hand sitting across the table.  As I leaned in, I accidentally knocked an entire bottle of Diet Pepsi (<- product placement ) all over the woman’s laptop.  It is tough to articulate the horror/klutz-y/stupidity/etc. I felt in that moment…
  • Exotic Travel – I get to keep traveling!  As I was talking to the undergrad intern working in my area, she shared that they want her to go to China for a couple weeks.  So when my manager mentioned that she wanted me to take a trip as well, I was incredibly excited until she said she wanted me to go to Seattle…

 

Overall, it has been a great day and half – and I am sure I’ll have a number of updates to share in the coming weeks!

 

Lastly, I am working on my brother’s best man speech for this Friday.  For those of you who have memorized my calendar, you’ll note that this is the second year in a row that I am a best man on June 14th – last year, I was Jack’s best man in Puerto Rico; and this year for my brother.  That being said, I’d like to keep this June 14th streak alive… so anyone considering getting married next June 14 (it’s a Saturday! ) let me know if you need a best man.

 

All of my love!  Stay warm (or cool) and I hope to hear from you!

 

Nick

 

PS.  Feel free to pass along some quotes I can use in my best man speech … still in drafting mode!