Geekishgirl — Katarzyna Potocka

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Geekishgirl — Katarzyna Potocka

KoHub — Our First Day

Katarzyna PotockaKatarzyna Potocka

Today we had our first day at KoHub – the co-working space we will be staying for the next two months. We’ve been there already on Saturday, just to check it out. But today was our first real working day. So we planned on leaving our room at 8 am. And by my surprise we didn’t miscalculate that bad 🙂 We managed to leave our cool and mosquito free room at 8:20 am. We decided previous to take a walk to KoHub on the beach, to avoid the bad traffic on the street, even if it would take us probably much longer. So packed, prepared and ready to leave, we made our way with the really heavy backpacks to the beach. About 25 min later we arrived soaking wet at KoHub at 9 am-ish.

Grab your desk at KoHub – first come, first serve

Counting the Vespas in front of KoHub (6) there should be more than enough space for us to work. Yes, definitely, KoHubtwo people working in the common area the rest of the Vespa owners hiding already in the AC-room. After debating for a short time and remembering the spots that we saw on Saturday that were exposed to the sun, we decided on a table near the reception and further to the right. After a while more people started to come in and by 11 am the outside space and also the AC-room were full.

After seeing that for communal lunch they would serve Green Curry, the agreement on sharing the lunch to grab some food in the evening was gone ”by the wind” . So Gerwin signed us both up for communal lunch – 140 Baht per person. Still it is possible to order á la carte and eat with all the rest of the guys during communal lunch.

Main task before lunch time

Before lunch our main task was to get our calendars to synchronize to the correct timezone and checking the balances on our number26 accounts. Then – finally – lunch time. That’s the part where you go out to the communal area, grab your food from the kitchen, sit on a table and network 😉 First lesson I’ve learned: don’t try to wear your black flip flops after you left them lying in the sun for the last couple of hours *outch*. We immediately got to know Johnny (eCommerce), Giorgio (started hacking PS4 as he was 16), Diana (starting with eCommerce) and Noel (the WordPress guy). And btw – the Green Curry was really delicious, but for my taste a little bit too spicy, especially when you have to eat it with an outdoor temperature of 36°C (real feel: 40°C).

The communal lunch will be definitely one of my favourite times of the day — meeting new people and talking about interesting stuff going on in the world.

What to do while digesting lunch?

So the question was how to find the right tasks, that I could manage while trying to digest the Green Curry, fighting the urge to go and hide in a really cool place and not drinking the next 5 Cold Comfort drinks (Coconut Milk, Honey and Banana) – 100 TBH.

Searching for an iPhone 6 case

After lunch I started to search for an iPhone 6 case for Ania, and my decision quickly was made up: http://www.amazon.de/Spigen-Schutzh%C3%BClle-iPhone-CAPSULE-RUGGED/dp/B010MVR76Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1457938993&sr=8-2&keywords=iphone+6+cover+spigen+CAPSULE+RUGGED+ARMOR
Still I have to check with Ania, if she would ever wear something like that – well not she herself but her iPhone 😉

BTW: she wouldn’t — so still searching crash-proof case for my sis

Finding a way to store our expenses

Then I started to try to transfer all of our expenses from notes on my iPhone to a Google Excel Sheet, because believe me or not, Gerwin and I weren’t able to find a reasonable expenses tracking app for our Asia trip. One that I liked – Expenses – unfortunately doesn’t allow you to switch between currencies. How unthoughtful I was to think that it should be able to switch countries on a trip or even during a lifetime — stupid me! The other ones would allow to use multiple currencies but stopped the free trial after 25 entries – which for us was too less to test the app correctly. So we decided to switch to good old excel – how convenient.

Writing my first journal entry for our Asia trip

After transferring the data from notes to Google Excel I decided that it was time for my first journal entry about our Asia trip. So I made my way through some Google history and finally found the journal app I decided on: https://bonjourn.al it was.

Working 8 am to 22 pm …

Because we wanted to have a four day week, to have a three day weekend – do the math if you don’t believe me 🙂 – we decided to work from 8 am until 22 pm using KoHub as our HQ.

But today at about 6 pm my stomach started to growl like a bear on a hunt, so we decided to stay just a little bit longer and then head home and grab something to eat at Papaya’s on our way to the Escape-Cabins. We decided on a Pad Thai for 60 TBH and after a short stop at the minimart we finally made it home – totally sweating wet, covered in mosquito repellent and in different other fluids I don’t really want to mention and exhausted after our first tropical work day. So you can probably imagine how amazing I was feeling after noticing that we do not have electricity nor water. At least the electricity part I should have noticed while trying to find a Cherry Coke for G. while stumbling my way to the fridge in a almost dark minimart *thinking*.

While waiting for some water and electricity coming back I at least had time to get to know the cats from Yuko. There is Tiger, Ocean, her son Moustache and “Meatball”, which is not her name, but an english translation — I just can’t remember her Thai name.

But don’t worry – this short story has a happy ending. After feasting our Pad Thai and sharing a Chang bear, Yuko arrived and she promised she would contact the owner. Long story short – after about 15 minutes we did have water and power – YIPPIE. Bug repellent + sweat — say Good Bye — at least for this day.

Journal turns out to be a blog post

So after writing this journal entry I asked myself if there was any good reason, why I shouldn’t use this journal entry as a blog post for my working abroad section of my geekishgirl blog. And because I couldn’t find any sensible reason … here it is: my first Bonjournal entry, which basically landed on my blog about my first day at KoHub.

Who we met today:

Johnny – e-commerce
Claudia – photographer/video (started studying Psychology & IT)
Giorgio – playing around with PS4
Diana – starting out with e-commerce
Noel – the WordPress guy
Goff – one of the amazing staff people from KoHub

Comments 2
  • Angeli Gette
    Posted on

    Angeli Gette Angeli Gette

    Reply Author

    Hi Katarzyna,

    Just found your blog post after researching about KoHub! So far it sounds great. My husband and i are going to be there next week for 7 days. If you are still there, will come and say hi.

    Cheers for the post.
    Angeli


    • Katarzyna
      Posted on

      Katarzyna Katarzyna

      Reply Author

      Hi Angeli,
      great to hear that there are still new KoHubbers coming in 😉
      We still will be at KoHub when you will arrive next week so it would be great if you would say hi – we can do the communal lunch together at KoHub one day – the food is really good.
      You should also sign up for the corresponding KoHub facebook group, if you haven’t done this already.
      There is also another KoHub post already wip 🙂

      Looking forward meeting you at KoHub.
      Cheers Katarzyna


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