This is THE best story I have to tell since we've arrived. I'm so excited I had to write a post about it NOW!
As I've mentioned, I'm the only woman to work in the Starcom Riyadh office. We have a couple sister agencies here, Spark and Zenith. There is one other woman that works at Spark, which is located right next to our physical office. I'll call her R.
Even though I technically work for Starcom right now, I have the opportunity to float across agencies depending on needs. This morning I get an email from R, asking me if I can join a client meeting with her today to introduce them to Snapchat. The client is L'Azurde. It's the only Saudi luxury jewelry maker. I'm happy to oblige! I tell her to swing by when she's ready to leave.
Since I don't have enough time to eat breakfast in the mornings I bring my smoothie with me. I carry it in this Michigan cup that I've had since the 2015 football season, specifically the Ohio State game. It was the only game J and I made it to and I was 24 weeks pregnant for the Gents. I almost threw these cups away in the fury of packing for Riyadh. Then I thought, these may come in handy. And they do as they're now my smoothie cups.
I have this cup sitting on my desk when R comes to get me for the meeting. She sees my cup and says "You went to U-M?! Me, too!" She's Saudi. Has lived here her entire life. Her Dad is a neurologist and spent some of his career practicing and teaching at the University of Michigan. She visited there once, fell in love, applied and got in. She had a brief internship in Boston after graduation, then came back to KSA to work at Starcom, Mediavest, and now Spark. And she's lovely. I learned so much from her today and am really looking forward to working together.
Isn't that wild?! The two women that work for Publicis agencies in Riyadh BOTH went to the University Michigan!!! I'm so proud. π¦γ½οΈππΌππΌ
Everyday day I feel so blessed for our experience here so far and it just keeps getting better.