Blog about visiting and working in the United States of America, by Harry Snel

This blog is about my adventures as a Dutch intern at BitWise Solutions in Carmel, Indiana in the period from April 12 till June 27 2010. I will be shortly writing about my experiences, my work and my findings. Not sure if I will set a goal every week, but of course my goal in the end is that I can say that this has been a great and pleasurable time. Most of all, I want to say that I have learned a lot and that I have made some new friends along the way. Mister Ron Brumbarger is going to help me with that, and I am more than confident that he will do what it takes to accomplish that goal. Ron is a great man, very professional and more over, someone I can learn a lot from. I would like to thank him for giving me this opportunity. Furthermore, this blog will mostly be about my time at the office, not about my private time. Nobody is interested in me having chicken wing number seven-hundred-fifty-eight at a KFC. I will mention some of my private time spending, but only if it is actually something interesting. Also, I am not going to reflect my opinion about certain subjects, so that makes the story sometimes a little short and brief.


Monday, April 12, 2010
This was the day that my dad left. We did a road trip together from Albuquerque to Indianapolis and today he was flying back to the Netherlands. In the morning we went to BitWise, because my dad wanted to see where I was going to work for the upcoming three months. We had a short tour and after that, we drove off to the Indy Speedway. We did a little tour at the museum. Then, we had to go to the airport and my dad left. I went home to my hotel and did some groceries shopping.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010
My first day at the office. I got my desk ready and set up, so I could go to work. I got an email account and got the keys to the building. Ron invented a plan called dunk-a-Harry, which is basically a way to make sure that I will experience as much possible about business life in the U.S. I did some chit-chatting with my new colleagues and of course learned how the coffee machine works. Then I had my first meeting about Bright Automotive which was very interesting. Bright Automotive is an Electric car company in Anderson and the meeting was great. This day went fast, due to the fact that it was a total new experience to me of course and I had to prepare a lot of things.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010
I had a meeting at 9:00 AM with Michael Haffey, who is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Brown and Brown Insurance. He had an idea about creating a vault with all kinds of brand logo’s and to put them on social network websites like Facebook. This was a great meeting and I learned a lot from it. After this meeting I got on my computer and did some things I still needed to do, like answering emails that came from the Netherlands and doing some small stuff.

Thursday, April 15, 2010
This was the day of the meetings. It started in the morning with an internal meeting about ASK. Goal of the meeting was to get ideas for the application of ASK. This meeting was actually my first real internal American meeting I have had. It was very nice to experience this. It was more informal than I am used to, so that is a great thing. After this meeting I had a conference call which was interesting. After lunch I had a meeting with Aaron from RewardSnap and how to implement ASK into it. It was a great meeting and unfortunately nothing came out, but the meeting was too brief to come up with a implementation or idea right away. As Ron quoted:”This is one of those things that suddenly comes up in your head when you are taking a shower”. So, we agreed to take at least two showers a day. After this meeting I went to Ron and told him about an idea I had. The idea is that, between and next to my regular activities, I am going to write a sort of business plan on how to set up an actual company in the U.S. as a (Dutch) foreigner. Ron liked the idea and so I went to my computer and planned in some meetings and started to set up the blueprint for it. I want the report to be finished by the end of June, and whether I am actually going to execute it is a second thing. That depends of course on how difficult it will be. The biggest obstacle I will face is probably the visa side of it. It is not easy to get one, so that chapter needs a lot of time and work. After work I went with Curt, a colleague, to a tea party downtown Indianapolis. This was very interesting. Tea parties originate back to December 16, 1773. The story goes that after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. So, the party was a protest against the Government spending from the last couple of years. Basically, a lot of angry people protesting. This event was very unique to experience as a 22 year old Dutch guy, so that was great.

Friday, April 16, 2010
Last day of my first week. I arrived at BitWise at 7:45 AM and Ron and I went to Arsenal New Tech High. At this school there is an initiative called Techpoint, which assists Indiana’s at-risk youth to develop the 21st century skills needed to become successful. It provides every child with a Macbook and instead of having the teacher write something on the whiteboard, the children are driven to act on their own and to cooperate with each other. We went into classrooms and saw that the rooms were actually looking like a real business environment. This was great to see and to experience. After the High School Ron and I went to Brightpoint. Brightpoint is the number one distributor of cell phones and we had a meeting with the CIO of Brightpoint, who is a friendly man. The first thing he did was showing us around in the enormous warehouse Brightpoint has. This was an amazing tour. After the tour we went to his office and spoke about opportunities and business ideas. We left at 11:45 AM and went to BitWise again. After lunch I spend time writing my blog and did some writing on my business report. I left earlier than usual, because I wanted to visit a Gym. All the American food is delicious and great, but I do not want to be obliged buying an additional seat in the airplane on my way back in June.

Monday, April 19, 2010
Today started with a sales meeting at BitWise Solutions. Great to be a part of, because I now know a bit more about current and future clients and what the leads are for BitWise. After this meeting I had another meeting with my great colleague Alex. Subject of this meeting was to get a little insight on how to start a company in the U.S. as a Dutch citizen. Bottom line was that it will take a lot of work and time to know exactly what to do. A visa is a key thing, but there are ways to do it different. For instance by cooperating with a U.S. citizen. But I do now have at least some basic knowledge about where to go and how to get there. We also talked about funding and how that is being managed in the U.S. This was a great meeting and I would like to thank Alex for his time. So far, all my colleagues have been extremely kind and helpful to me. I just want to say how much I appreciate this. After lunch I did a little research on my project and worked on my blog again to get it posted on a public website. I also bought a cell phone yesterday, so I had to program some numbers into it. After this I went home and I was able to say that I had my first Monday as an intern in the United States.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Today was a day of meetings and talking. It started off with Bright Automotive. Bright Automotive is a company specialized in decarbonizing transportation. It was a very nice meeting and after the meeting we even got a chance to see the vehicles that Bright is working on. Nice thing to experience and to see. After this meeting we went to the office for an amazing forty minutes, just enough to set up my laptop I was not going to use for another five hours, and left to have lunch with David Steele. David is a very nice man with a lot of knowledge. It was a terrific lunch and a lot of thoughts were shared. The lunch lasted a bit longer than expected, so after the lunch we had to rush to the hospital where we had a meeting with Sue Finkam. We spoke to her and exchanged some ideas. Arriving at the office at three PM, I had planned a meeting to talk about ASK. This meeting went well and we set up some guidelines for the upcoming week to make the collaboration work to its finest.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Today was a great day that started off with a internal meeting about the move of BitWise by the end of May. It was a pleasurable meeting and we laughed a lot. Now everything is clear about the whole move and the dates involved. So, this was a meeting that took away some of the insecurities. After this meeting we had a meeting about ASK and Thijs gave a demo about ASK. After lunch I started working and reading up on visa. A lot of information, but now I know what I am up to and how hard it will be to establish a company here in the United States. It is possible and thankfully I have still two months to work on it, but it will not be easy. Furthermore I planned in a meeting about future plans of ASK for tomorrow morning. So, hopefully something comes out that can set a guideline for the future.

Thursday, April 22, 2010
First thing of the day was a meeting with Dan Schweibold, who is a great guy that is going to market the ASK product in the field of public safety. We set some guidelines and I now know where to go and what to do with it. I do have a marketing background, which could be very useful in this case. After this meeting I was working on some ideas that could help Dan and I was also finding some additional things for the website. After lunch Thijs and I discussed a few things about the visit of the Dutch CEO of ASK at the end of May. We had to set up some guidelines and when I came to the office again, I asked if we could set up a meeting with Ron as well, just to have a schedule available when the CEO is coming. This night I went to the Young Professionals event downtown Carmel. It was very nice to experience it and I learned a lot from it. It was also very useful for my network, which is growing and growing and growing. Great of course, but I have a lot of names that I need to remember.

Friday, April 23, 2010
Today I had a chance to take a look at the new office building BitWise Solutions is going to be in. It looks very nice and it seems like a great place to move to. After this I had a meeting with Michael to exchange a couple of ideas and I got to reflect my opinion about the new logo’s. It is pretty exciting to help Dan and Michael with marketing for the ASK product. I like marketing a lot, so this is a great opportunity. I had lunch today with Thijs and Justin and it was more like a meeting than it was a real lunch. I met with a lot of interesting people and it was great. After lunch I started to work on my every other week school report. It is a lot of work, but not very hard, so I managed it. Weather has also changed, but it could not be this sunny forever. Pity that weekend just started and that it will be raining all through.

Monday, April 26, 2010
Today started with the weekly sales meeting. Great to see and watch and to learn from. After this I worked on things that were lying around like email and work I promised to do. At 1 PM we went to Indianapolis fruit. A very nice meeting from which I have learned a lot. After this meeting I got my car back, which was over at the dealer for (free) maintenance, and drove off to Starbucks for lunch, which I skipped because I didn’t had a car. So, today my lunch was a Cinnamon Latte. Not too bad, because last Saturday I had dinner at the Golden Corral, so I was still stuffed from that “experience”. After my “lunch” I went back to the office and got together with Michael to discuss about InDistrict and what we got so far for the website. And with that, the end of the day was there already.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010
I first started with doing some things for Michael. Furthermore, I am now in charge of handling the visit of Hans, who is the Dutch CEO of Almende. He is going to visit BitWise to have a look at what the company is all about and how ASK is implemented right now. Furthermore, he has to speak to Thijs of course. So, the upcoming weeks will partially be about how to get out as much as possible in a tight time schedule. Hans is only staying 2 days, so that makes it not easier. I made a list about what he could do and he approved, so now it is up to me to guide the whole process. So, I am basically doing the same again, because I did it once already, when Ron had his visit to the Netherlands.
After this I did some research and after dinner we had BitWise Ventures. This was a great event with a lot of interesting people. I learned a lot from this meeting. A thing I already knew and I now actually see is that networking is important. Of course you must have some knowledge, but meeting the right people is also very important and often very fun.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Middle of the week already. Time flies when you are having fun I guess. Today was a very nice day, that started by me doing some work on the BitWise Ventures event from last night. I thought it was a good idea to send out a thank you note to all the attendees. After this I reflected some logos that were made for the InDistrict product. The InDistrict website should air at the end of this week, so we are facing a deadline. After lunch we had a meeting with Ontario systems. Very nice meeting with the purpose to introduce ASK to Ontario and Ontario showed a new application. Very interesting and also very informative. It was a long meeting though, but we had to use our time, because there was a lot to discuss. It was my first meeting where computers outnumbered the people. Great to see that technology has become such an important factor in a meeting. Our beamer projected someone’s computer screen, who was 70 miles away from us. Technology is great.

Thursday, April 29, 2010
Today started with just some regular work and in the second half of the day we had a last minute demo about ASK. We had an incredible lunch, a breaded tenderloin sandwich, and after the lunch we went back to the office. At 3 PM I had to go to the new office to be there when everyone came to check it out. The new office looks great. After that I got back to the current office and did some work on the InDistrict website again. And with that, the end of the Thursday came.

Friday, April 30, 2010
Last day of the week and Dutch Queens Day! But since there are like 3.6 Dutch people living in Indianapolis, I just went to work and the day started with some regular stuff. We left for a lunch downtown Indy at 10:30. We had lunch at Weber Grill, which was great and delicious. It was a business lunch, so hopefully something roles out of the lunch. When we got back we had a meeting about an investment. Great for me to learn about investments and I got some homework to read through which we are going to discuss on Monday. I left earlier than usual, because Thijs and I decided that we could not let Queens day go by us without having a Heineken.

Monday, May 3, 2010
I woke up this morning with a clogged left ear. Unfortunately it did not change during the day, so I was half deaf, which is very annoying to say the least. I ended the day with a head ache because of that. I did some research today and we had our first Q2 Ideation meeting during lunch. A lot of ideas were deliberated and talked through. In the afternoon I focused on setting up an agenda for Hans Abbink, who is visiting Indianapolis at the end of May. I also did some small work. Furthermore, I was not fully in place because of my ear, because you here a buzz the whole day, which then lead to a head ache. I think this was my least best day so far.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Today was the day that I spent half driving around to find a doctor. But, I finally got my ears rinsed, so I can hear again. It was pretty expensive, but my Dutch insurance covers it. I think that in human history, the amount I spend today is probably the most that anyone has ever spent on water. But, as I said, I can hear again, so that is a good thing. When I got back at the office I had lunch and started working on a kind of strategy on what kind of company would be best to start here in the United States. I also did thing for InDistrict and worked out some other things that needed to be done. We also had a meeting where Thijs explained to the sales people at BitWise how to give a demo about ASK. I video-taped it all so that everyone can review it and learn it again. I have learned a lot about ASK and how to give a demo, so maybe I could ask if I may do it too sometime in the future.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010
What a nice feeling to wake up and able to hear again properly. I went to the office and started had a meeting with a colleague about an assignment for me. After this meeting we gave a demo about ASK to a man who is very well connected and can open a lot of doors for ASK and the InDistrict product. After this meeting I worked on the InDistrict website. Reviewed some content and tried to get some pictures, but the log on codes for BitWise were with someone who was not present today at the office. Furthermore, I tried to work on some ideas I have about starting a business in the United States. My goal is for the next few weeks to get in contact with as many young entrepreneurs as possible who are willing to share their experiences with me. I can learn a lot already from Dan Schweibold, who is just as old as I am.

Thursday, May 6, 2010
Today started with an internal financial meeting. Great opportunity for me to learn something about financials of a company. I had financial accounting and management accounting in school, so I saw a lot of familiar terms. I like to deal with numbers, however, it has to be related to a company. I do not like the mathematics, but management accounting is something that I am very interested in. Furthermore I made a schedule for a man who is coming in next week from Digital Gateway. It was not so hard, since I have already made a couple of these schedules now. Today was also the day of watching at Thijs al the time. Thijs gave a presentation about how to give a demo about ASK. My idea was to video-tape it all, because it would save some writing down. But, I had to edit a lot, because we laughed a lot. But, it worked out at the end. After this day I went to a great place where they did live salsa dancing. I had a great time and it was definitely worth it to be totally exhausted on Friday.

Friday, May 07, 2010
Today I had some school stuff to do which resulted in me being busy for that half of the day. Furthermore I had a conversation with Thijs about ASK. Really interesting to do that and I have learned more from Thijs about ASK than I did in my time at ASK Rotterdam. Furthermore I worked on the InDistrict website again. At least, the screenshot’s had to be made, but the logo still was not ready. Today was not my most productive day, but I was really tired. In the evening I had my first sliders. Pretty special, especially in the morning after. But, worth it though.

Monday, May 10, 2010
First day of the week and it started with the weekly sales meeting. Always a great thing to watch and learn from. After that there was a quick meeting about the InDistrict product. The desktop needed to be changed, because a lot of things on it did not look good. Logo needed to be changed and the overall template could use some work too. Furthermore I worked on a couple of things for school and I had to make up the schedule for a visit from Digital Gateway. The schedule that I made last week had to be adjusted. This day I spend a lot of time behind my laptop and in the evening I spend time pulling cable in the new office space. It was fun to do and I had a great time with my colleagues who were there.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Today I started working on looking for different SIP providers for the InDistrict product. So, I had to look up a lot of information and narrow it down to make it easier. I also needed to do some school stuff. Furthermore, this Tuesday was not that diverse.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010
This Wednesday was a day that consisted of meetings. The Digital Gateway guys came in and we had a general meeting in the morning about what BitWise is all about and also what Digital Gateway is all about. Furthermore, Thijs gave another ASK demo. It was a very interesting meeting from which I have learned a lot. During and after lunch we discussed a Letter of Understanding which was something I have learned a lot from. To see it being actual used is something totally different than to make it in school. After this we had a meeting with the Superbowl vice president of marketing. Very interesting and fun. After this meeting I had some emails to catch up to, since 2:30PM was the first time that I opened my laptop for today. Furthermore, I worked on some sorting out which I still had to do.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
I woke up at 2AM and did not fell asleep again because I was sick. But, I did not want call in sick, so I went to BitWise anyway. Up till lunch I had it rough. I felt bad and was actually thinking about going home. But, after a great lunch, I got back up on my feet and started feeling better. I did some research on VISA and on SIP providers and furthermore, I tried to find out how to sell a car. I had some trouble with printing too, but thankfully a great colleague helped out and now everything is working again. Furthermore, I helped with some stuff that was lying around in the office and that was the end of my day.

Friday, May 14, 2010
Today started with a breakfast meeting at Le Peep. Great place and they serve delicious breakfast. The meeting was about how to let me stay in the States. There are plenty of opportunities, but it involves a lot of paperwork. We are going to have a serious look at it in the upcoming few weeks. After that I went to the office and started with a little folding. Yes, folding. Letters are going out concerning the move, so that everyone knows that BitWise is moving. But, they had to be folded into envelopes. At lunch we were not finished yet, but there was no rush. After lunch we did some cabling in the new office. After that I went back to the office and started folding again. After that I did some small stuff and then weekend stepped in.

Monday, May 17, 2010
Sales meeting was the day kick-off as usual. Very interesting again and great to see that everyone is putting his heart into his or her work. After this I had some meetings about where I should be heading towards if I could stay here. We had several conversations about a VISA already, but I have to make myself irreplaceable. So, I have to make a planning about where I will end up if I could stay here. So, I started talking to a new intern, Josh, who is working on a new partnership for BitWise. Very interesting guy to talk to and to deal with. Very friendly and nice to talk to. I learned a lot from him and we can work something out. So, that is now my new “mission”. Furthermore I worked on a couple of small things that were lying around.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Today started off with a meeting with the Communications Director of Zionville together with Dan Schweibold. It was a great meeting that went very well. Lot of opportunities there. After that, Dan and I had lunch at a great Mexican place. I came in the office at 2 PM and did some schoolwork. Furthermore, I worked on a couple of things to get my focus straight. I also worked on a couple of things for Hans’s visit, who is coming in tomorrow night. So, time is running out now to make any adjustments and that actually feels like a good thing, because it becomes a take it or leave it thing now.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The move is coming up and everybody is already running around with boxes and stuff, so today started off with checking what I could do. But, there is not much that I can. I do not have a lot of stuff to move, an advantage of being here not that long yet. Furthermore, I worked on some stuff lying around, like sorting VISA stuff out again. I also had to do some work on figuring out what my personal costs will be if I can stay here. Like housing, gas expenses and much more. Since Hans Abbink is arriving tonight, I had to make sure that now everything was alright with his schedule. Thijs and I are pretty excited that another Dutch person is coming in. European invasion at BitWise part one.

Thursday, May 20, 2010
Today was all about the visit of Hans. We started with a lot of meetings. First he had an introduction to the whole team and we had some updates about the move. After that, he had a meeting with Ron. We had a great lunch and when we got back to the office, Hans had a lot of meetings again. I was not part of all of the meetings, because I had some other stuff to do. At the end of the day, we had dinner at a great place with delicious food.

Friday, May 21, 2010
Last day of Hans’s visit. Another day with a lot of meetings. Very interesting and we ate at Brugge. A great place in Broad Ripple, which serves European/Belgian food. At the end of the day we started packing a bit for the move on Monday. So, working in total chaos was part of this Friday.

Monday, May 24, 2010
Today was moving day. I was at Enterprise around 7.30 AM and got my first big truck ride. I had to drive the thing the entire day and we moved offices in a time that no one thought was possible. After this we had fun with a couple of colleagues. Furthermore, we did not had a lot of time to work anymore, everyone was decorating his office and putting their stuff into place.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The day after the move. Everyone had to get a bit acquainted to his/her new office, but it worked out at the end. I started off with a meeting with a person who is very interested in the ASK product. This meeting went very smoothly. The man we had the meeting with is very well connected in the emergency preparedness field. So, a huge opportunity for ASK to set foot into the U.S. market. After this meeting I worked on a couple of things, for instance the InDistrict desktop which is not complete yet. We are still waiting on the logo, which supposed to be finished by now. I am on it though, so it should work out fine. In the evening Thijs and I rebuild a bicycle. It was a sweaty job, but it got done. At least, that is what we thought……

Wednesday, May 26, 2010
This morning I got into the office and saw Thijs walking up with his bicycle. Yes, walking. Of course, something broke off and he had to walk half way. We but a new derailleur in the evening and fixed it, so now he is able to ride the bike again. Furthermore, today I had some small jobs lying around. Some things concerning the InDistrict product again and the marketing slicks concerning that product. In the afternoon, Ron and I went to Taylor University. We had a meeting about entrepreneurship without borders. Since I am Dutch, I could advise the party there about whether it would be feasible to send out a “mission” to the Netherlands. I think it is a good idea, because the spirit of entrepreneurship is missing in a lot of fields in the Netherlands. Furthermore, we spoke about the Ukraine and a similar mission. However, the Netherlands is a great country to do a first try-out. Because the U.S. is more similar to the Netherlands regarding culture, food, language etcetera.



Thursday, May 27, 2010
We started off today with a meeting about the Salesforce platform that we are trying to implement ASK on. It was a great meeting and there were a lot of ideas that could be very interesting in the future. Furthermore, I worked on some things for school today which still had to be done. It was not a really interesting day today.

Friday, May 28, 2010
Last day before Memorial day weekend. We had a lot of email conversations today about the race and how to get there and more logistics. Furthermore, we had an ideation meeting for the Q2 ideation contest. This meeting was very fruitful and we got a lot further than we hoped that we could be. Furthermore, I had a meeting to start my VISA application. This was necessary, not matter what happens, because it is a time-consuming thing that you could not start too soon with. Thankfully I get all the help I need, so that is a very good thing which enables me to focus on that with more confidence.

Monday, May 31, 2010
Memorial day

Tuesday, June 1, 2010
First day of my last month in the U.S. (for now). I worked on getting SIP connection today from Mettel for the InDistrict product. It was a huge email conversation, but we are getting there. I also are getting more used to my new office. It is very nice now and I try to keep it as clean as possible.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Today I worked on a couple of things that were already in the running, like the Mettel case again. Furthermore, I tried to schedule a lot of meetings, however, everyone is busy as usual, so it is not that easy to do such a thing. But it worked out in the end of course. I also put together the official Marketing slicks for the InDistrict product. It turned out to be a very great slick, even though I was not that experienced with publisher, but it turned out great and everyone agreed on it. In the evening, I went to Champps. I never knew that Wednesday evening was so packed there, but it surprised me when I saw it. It is a great place to be and the weather was nice too. I had a great time.

Thursday, June 3, 2010
Today started off with the ideation meeting for Q2. We came to a couple of conclusions and I have to come up with a pricing model for our idea. After the meeting I started working on that. It was not that hard, so I got it together within a couple of minutes. I also had to do some basic stuff for a colleague. I also had another meeting about my VISA application. It seems that you have to contact the local DOL first, before you can actually work on the whole thing. So, this is on my agenda for the next few days.

Friday, June 4, 2010
I had to work on some school stuff today, but that was not what my mind was set on. For lunch we went to Bubs burger. Bubs serves the Big Ugly. That is a one pound burger. If you finish it, you will get your picture up on the wall. So, in the morning I did not eat a lot and last night I did not either. And I took it down in an impressive six minutes. After this lunch we went back to the office and I started working again on some school stuff.

Monday, June 7, 2010
Three more weeks to come. Time definitely goes fast when you are having fun. Today started with the sales meeting, which was like it always is. After that I did a couple of things for school. Since the end of the internship is near, I have to hand in a lot of papers in order to get my grades.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Today I started by calling my grandma because it is her birthday today. She turned 86 today. Wonderful age. After this I started working on stuff to prepare the lunch meeting I have this afternoon. The lunch meeting went great with the results that we needed. Also, during lunch I thought of a couple of ideas to use with the ASK product. So, in the afternoon I started working on these ideas and see if they are feasible or not.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The beautiful weather is not stopping, thankfully, so I wake up every morning with a big smile on my face, because the sun is till shining. I went to work and we started with the financial meeting. Great to see again, it was my second one, and to see how the company is doing currently. After this I had a meeting to fill out some paperwork concerning my VISA. There is a lot to fill out, but most of the stuff has to be done by the employer, because I do not have any of the data necessary. In the afternoon I worked on the ASK ideas again.

Thursday, June 10, 2010
Today I worked on a couple of things. One of that was to check whether the paperwork for my VISA was alright. Furthermore, I worked on some small stuff again and had the chance to really get a hang of things concerning my ASK ideas. So, this was a fruitful day.

Friday, June 11, 2010
I started today by spending, or wasting, a lot of time in traffic. The 465 is still not really a quick route to take, but on the other hand, 86th is also not an option in the morning. But I got at the office still in time. I worked on some school stuff today as well as the ASK ideas again. Furthermore, I tried to work on a recommendation letter for me personally to the department of labor. It is hard to write something about yourself that is almost only positive. But it got done, thanks to a lot of help from Thijs. Thijs has already done this before, so it was good to have him around. The day ended with the occasional email chain with funny crap.

Monday, June 14, 2010
Today I woke up and was not feeling too well. I went to work and got very sick. Since I had been lying in the sun all Sunday, I probably had sun poisoning. So, I went back home and got back into bed.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010
I was sick all day and lied in bed the whole day.


Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Today was a great day. I worked on a lot of things and got a lot of things done too. It was a very productive day with a couple of meetings which went great.

Thursday, June 17, 2010
I worked on some school stuff today and we also worked on the VISA application which needed to be filled out. A lot of data was needed and so we had to come up with a lot of data. At the end, we were ready to send the whole thing out. Just a couple of signatures away from the stamp.

Friday, June 18, 2010
Today was a good day. I did a lot of school stuff and because my school thought that this was my final day of my internship, I had to convince them that I was not able to finish everything today. Luckely, they did understand that, so that was great. Furthermore, I worked on some additional things that I still had lying around.

Monday, June 21, 2010
My final week started with a great day. I was already looking at the end of the week, because I needed to have a lot of things done before the end of this week. Today I made a pretty good start with that. So, that was great.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Another day with a lot of work that needed to be done.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Today was a day that had a lot of meetings and talking into it. VISA stuff that still needed to be done, school things and some work. But, it was a productive day at the end.

Thursday, June 24, 2010
Today I took a day off, because I wanted to pack. At lunch we went shooting with colleagues, which was quite an experience for a Dutch guy. After shooting we watched the world cup match between the Netherlands and Cameroon.

Friday, June 25, 2010
My last day…..
My mind was already half in the Netherlands, because everything is ready to go now. I said goodbye to a lot of people today, which was not easy to do to say the least. But, there might be a chance that I will be back, so that is a great thing. At night, we had dinner with the biggest part of the team, that was great.

Afterword
I want to thank everyone at BitWise Solutions to make my time worthwhile. Leaving would be not so hard if I did not had such a great time here. I have made a lot of new friends and I have learned a lot from my time in Indianapolis. Special thanks go to Ron Brumbarger, which has been a great friend and someone who has really given me a chance to be a part of the whole American business lifestyle. I have learned so much from him and this is not the end, that is for sure…….