Day 4 (Re-Enter: Royal Dutch Shell)

After a less than fortunate meeting with Hagemeyer, we started our day with our heads held high. We got on the bus hoping to make a successful deal today. It was a long bus ride, the traffic today was unusually slow. I was really hoping that we wouldn’t get stuck in traffic and be late for the day’s 13h00 meeting. Luckily for us, the green lights seemed to love us and we were able to follow through to the meeting; we even arrived half an hour early.

So there we were at the building. It looked especially tall today and we were both nervous upon entering. This was our final chance to seal the deal. So we walked in and were greeted by what seemed to be the same woman: “Welkom”. She remembered us and brought us straight to the room. Upon entering we greeted everyone and sat at our seats. As if sensing or testing our nerves, they took an uncharacteristically long time to get to the point. (Well at least according to our research, the Dutch are pretty direct and dont like to waste time.) Exactly 36 minutes into the meeting, they told us what we were waiting for all day. “Wij aanvaarden uw transactie” Basically they had thought about and decided to accept our deal. We were extremely glad and breathed each breathed a huge sigh of relief. The corporate manager even invited us to “Koningsdag” with him. Koningsdag is also known as “King’s Day”; it is a holiday held on the 27th of April, but since it falls on a Sunday this year, it will be held on the Sunday. Overjoyed with the great news, we immediately shook everyone’s hands.

After the meeting, it was already, 16h00 and we were really hungry after waiting patiently for the a response. So, we decided to celebrate that night. Although we didn’t succeed in both of our deals, one contract was definitely worth the trip. We decided to explore the city to see what kind of foods we could find. We looked around and immediately spotted the following items that we knew we wanted to try: Limburgse Vlaai, Patat, Bitterballen, and a premature Hollandse Nieuwe Haring. We decide to hold out on the Haring, as the actual herring season doesn’t start until May, so we wanted to come as close as possible to the actual date. What we finally decided on was the Patat; it is fries topped with a variety of toppings including peanut saté sauce, mayo, onions, and ketchup. It’s kind of like our poutine. We both decided to get the Patat Oorlog where “Oorlog” literally means war. It was very good, and definitely a new (or old) spin on our everyday poutines. Though, I will say I still prefer poutines better. After exploring the city and stuffing our bellies, we decided to call it a day, and prepare for more touring of the city tomorrow and King’s day festivities.