Han Te Conquers the Marshmallow Challenge

I was definitely struggling a bit to get going this morning, but still managed to get another 3 miles in before heading to breakfast. All of the rough water had really done a number on the boardwalk. There was seaweed everywhere. They had started to work on cleaning it up, but they had a long ways to go. Even with the breeze, it was still really muggy out which made for a really hot run.

Han Te had an investor coming to visit today, so all the staff was dressed up and cleaning up around their office. Matthias and I started walking the girls through the Agile workshop that he would be going through later that afternoon. We also got confirmation from IBM security that there wouldn’t be any issues with visiting Beijing, so everything was now in place for us to be able to go.

We returned to our new normal lunch spot for several tofu dishes, the usual sweet sour pork dish, and a pitcher. Since we ate pretty quickly, we took our time getting back to the office. We stopped in one of the local random stores (to which Matthias pointed out was actually more expensive than Carrefour) and also a local flower shop. We considered getting some for the office to add something for while the investor was there, but after talking through it with Katherine, we decided against it in the end. Maria and Katherine also convinced us to take advantage of the sunny day and take a few selfies together.

After lunch, we all piled downstairs to start the workshop for the day. The only problem with it being a nice sunny day was that it was unbearably hot and the A/C wasn’t working on that floor. By the time we were done, we all were dripping wet, and extremely uncomfortable so we decided we’d find a way to do the rest of the presentation upstairs.

The Marshmallow Challenge itself was a lot of fun with the Han Te team. Since Katherine and Zoey hadn’t been through it themselves, so we let them join the groups. The teams themselves came up with some interesting approaches to it. One team had some elaborate braiding that they integrated into the noodles. However, they had no way to hold it up, so it was useless. Katherine was completely into it and had a pretty nice tower build. The only problem was that a very small piece of tape was stuck to the table. It wasn’t making a difference, but Matthias insisted that it had to be removed… Which shifted the rest of the tower a bit, and caused the whole thing to come crashing down. Katherine was really really mad and kept trying to fix it, but the damage had been done. None of the four teams had anything that held up the marshmallow.

Moving upstairs was probably the best decision we made all week because it was truly unbearable. Matthias is definitely a good presenter, which was great to watch. After he got done I reviewed the material for Saturday with Katherine and Zoey. Katherine has definitely been developing a personality… And a bold one at that. When I told her there would be one or two new slides, she said, “Erik your changes are due tomorrow. No options.” It’s been great to see her really take charge and come out of her shell.

When we first met her, we asked what she wanted to do when she graduated. At first, it was, “I want to be a teacher.” Now it’s, “I might want to be a teacher.” I think she’d be great in business (and also a good teacher, but I could see her doing more).

The ride back to the hotel was a little unusual as we saw two accidents — which despite all the crazy driving here seem pretty unusual. When we got back to the hotel, Matthias and I hung out for a bit this evening. We went browsing over at Carrefour and then ended up grabbing some random pork sandwiches from the tunnel. The two of us brought them back up to his room and chatted there for a bit. Fortunately, he and I got back before it started raining! It had been a long week so I called it a bit of an earlier night as I know there are plans for everyone to go out and celebrate my birthday this weekend.