Now thats what I call Qatar 44: Cultured Europeans

To my readers..

I hope this entry finds you well, I am only 4 days from being back in the UK and I CANT WAIT!!!im so excited!!

I been pretty darn busy since my last entry, and where I left last time was with the big game against Canada. Well we won it 3-1, and it was a hard fought victory against a team that we should have beaten alot more convincingly! I started off as a subsitute and came on with a third of the first half to play in a left midfield postion, I did very little and hardly affected the game. So i started the second half as a sub again, however a third into the second half, I was brought on as it was 1-1 and was told to go in attack to form a 3-4-3 formation as apposed to our usual 4-4-2, I was on the left side of the 3 in attack, however this formation allowed me to have more time on the ball and give me more passing options, I got involved in the game so much so that I won a penatly, I was asked to take it but at 1-1 and we had already missed a penalty I politley declined, the person who did take it missed though, and missed a sitter of a rebound, nevertheless we continued to pound away and my performance generated rave reviews, and really boosted my confidence as well as my reputation within the company. Its weird but like doing well in something completely un-releated to work really does have a profound effect on my work life, such as people being nicer, friendly, more accomadating. I have always said the 3 key ways to be populour is, to be physically strong(people always love someone to protect them from harm, hench people are always populour), good looking (people who are good looking always have friends around them as people like to feel attractive and so hang around people who are good looking trying to boast their own confidence, when ironcially i think it works the other way. in that people are going to compare the two people and will actually make them look worse!) and finally the most obvious reason why people are populour, Money!(everyone loves rich people, goes with two above, in that they feel their part of the power,goodlooks, and wealth if they associate with people of that nature) The above 3 causes for popularity are more applicable to school or uni, however it can also be applied to work. And using that reasoning, I feel that for me I need to understand this is the way people are and with that u handle work or uni life, in that you need to be aware of why people tend to be nicer to other people than others, and learn to accept it.

Theres some beef going on between some of my friends whom are living together, and its a clash of personalities where some of them dont know who they really are, people say when you travel you learn who u are, or when your at uni you learn who u are, the thing is u never stop learning who u r, i agree u learn more about yourself, and your likes and dislikes alot more when your traveling or at uni. You learn at uni what kinda people you can live with, tolerate with, wot kinda friends are really your type of friends, and i dont think its no conincidience that the people who are having the clash are American. Purely because they dont travel as much as Europeans, they dont experience other cultures or what they like and dont like except in a American context, as a European im aware of many other european countries customs and attitudes which vary vastly and because of imigration within europe, people are aware of the customs and attitudes of manya african and asian countries regardless of their own origins. You ask Americans if they have the same global understanding and i can gurantee that they would be no where near as aware of other cultures...This means that for large multinational companies like Bechtel, they will have problems with some of the american staff abroad whoc cant adjust with people from other cultures....

Saying that though, I went last weekend to a managers house for dinner who was American . And I felt like a old man, it was the arch-typical dinner that you would see in the movies except having a brown face on the dinner table as well as the black face(brown in this instance) serving the food. some people may think too much colour in the room, however i was completetly accepted by all and it was a really good experience and I had a really good time. I found out that Sake is like japanese alchol(rice wine or something) and accidently had some in a sauce in the starters. But the food at the dinner was like WOW, i mean there were clams and mussles for starters, and then roast beef and lamb and jacket potatoes with sour cream, it was really good, one of the best meals i had in a long time and i dont eat red meat! some wicked desert that I didnt know what it was, however i was wondering if somethin containted alchol but was burned off does that still make it have alchol?I need to find out for sure however I was thinkin it wouldnt be as alcohol is flamable so if you burn it then it disappears right? or is that wishful thinkin?

Aneway back to the dinner, it was jus a really good night, got to know alot of people alot better, and learnt about this place in Bangkok called the Banana hotel, and I was informed its basically a whore house that has been serving the expat community since the 70's, and just made me laugh so much, because I know exactly the type of people who would go and it turns out they are there right now!! Also found out some unexpected people are regulars, and its a shame that Bangkok has sucha bad reputation yet its one of the greatest cities in the world, for its diversity and the fact that KFC is halal there...

Aneway i got to go but take care and expect to hear from me soon!!