First Day of Work
As most of you know, me and "sweat" are like passionate lovers that are always doing it...so you can imagine that after putting on like a gallon of CLINICAL strength secret this morning in preparation for my nerves on the first day of work, i walk into an office that is seriously, the hottest place on the face of the earth. I almost died. And I'm wearing the perfect combination of button down shirt with short sleeve sweater over it so that if i DO sweat, then the sweat marks are hidden but lets face it people...this was unmanageable!!!! COME ON!! i mean this is an office with about 200 computers, how could they possibly keep it that hot!
well that was my big event of the morning. Train ride was fairly easy and the amount of cute boys made it all that much more exciting. My office mates are, well, office mates. One bright eyed red head and another skinny tall looking olive skin frenchy who seems to share my sentiment of him. he's very quiet and we dont say much. you have to YANK information from him so mostly i spoke with the red head.
It was a FEAT to keep my eyes open as the jet lag dared to enter my body during the morning...I had three cups of steaming cappucino but nothing worked, i was falling asleep on the job, thankfully the bosslady left the office for a long time. what i find interesting is that the red head and myself are apparently at the same level of jobs but on thursday I'm moving to an office which will house just myself and the bosslady. I dont know if that is a female/male thing. cause then the two boys will be left in an office with one other dude apparently....so midday i was told i was not even supposed to be on the premisis as i had not yet had my "physical exam" which essentially meant I could not "legally" work. A few people came in and from what i gathered, i could NOT get hurt. I was too tired to even get up so I didnt think that would be an issue.
Then came lunch....thank GOD, i was STARVING...i needed food. I was handed a lunch ticket which would provide free lunch until i got some card. i had HIGHLY anticipated what lunch would be like in France....i heard there were no sandwiches at all. and pretty much for the last 8 years I have been eating "sandwiches" everyday for lunch....So we enter the lunch/cafeteria/restuarant and here are my findings:
plates of jamon
plates of cheese
pizza
a rotisseri with chicken (on and off bone)
some main courses (veggie, rice looking thing, potatoes and green beans
tomatoes
green cucumber salad type thing
TONS of desserts
some odds and ends
i got the boneless chicken
what resembled zuccini
some tomatoes
and green cucumber thing
at the check out i was asked if i wanted "coffee".
i just said Yes cause i didnt want to feel left out of whatever that meant
the bread situation is plentiful, you are offered bread everywhere, before and after you go through check out. i think its a freebee.
so it took me about 20 minutes to find bosslady and crew, but i did. after you drop your tray in the belt thingy and think you are walking out, you are not, you walk right into an almost FORCED coffee shop, standing room only with fresh cappuccino. that explained the coffee situation. but i did notice that i was the only one who added sugar to mine. im not quite ready for the strength of straight shots of espresso.
ohhh that reminds me of one thing that happened early in the AM. actually right when i arrived and bosslady took me to get coffee which was simply a coffee vending machine. we were met there by about 4 other guys and after all the coffee was dished out, it was the most AWKWARD silence on earth. even bosslady didn't seem to possess the skills with an icebreaker...i was silent simply because I had no idea who was english speaking and I didnt want anyone to know i couldnt speak french. i assume this embarrasment will last for some time...i have yet to hear about my french lessons although i am cc'd on a email to the lady who will teach me....where is SHE!!! damn her.
i NEEEEED lessons
Pic: Micro kitchen, room enough only for my beloved peanut butter. ps, im running low so feel free to hit costco and send more...
anyway, the end of the day brought upon two cuties who came to the office, one who heavy eye contact was made. in the midst of conversation, i heard red head tell him i was from nyc and i heard him sound intrigued!!! he also later helped me realize that the bus had, in fact, stopped to let us all out at the train station and i should get off. i was seriously lost. the driver did NOT stop at the same place as pick up. He then waited outside the bus and told me to follow the others to the station. Since he wasnt going, I am assuming he lives in Versaille. Or near it. Of course I cannot remember his name.
The one difficult thing today was figuring out the time. I had this premeditated french ready to ask people the time but two challenges occured:
1. instead of asking what time it is, my nerves forced me to ask what the weather is like...lol
2. even if i got the time, how could i get anyone to say it slow enough for me to translate properly.
I made the red head repeat something after lunch which i finally understood to mean "how did you like lunch" but he kept asking about the canteen, i didnt even get that. so i told him it was "nice".
i love letting people laugh at my french. its so cute.
I'M LIANG!!!
that will only make sense to people who worked at my last job and new this cute little chinese fellow who said the funniest things ever in his learning english phase. kept us all laughing all day all nite and even now.
finally and not to go unnoticed. i dont think that my workday will ever be the same. i assure you people of the United states, the "french" at my job are workaholics. I was told that due to the ties to the US, they often stay very late and roll in late as well.
but goodbye are the days when 5pm seemed like the end of life. my only help is that the last shuttle back to paris is 7:30pm and i BARELY made that tonight.
but i think this job will be great. i am very excited about being part of something big and signifigant*
*due to the nature of the blog and blogging in general, i simply cannot disclose details about the job, but lets just say its in the healthcare field.
side notes day three:
-there is no soft toilet paper in paris, prepare to chaffe
-there is no winter in paris, prepare to sweat
-when/if it does ever snow, apparently paris goes into complete panic, the city literally shuts down, i think there are maybe two snowplows TOTAL in the entire city, so im told anyway.
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Tuesday, December 4, 2007
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11:36 AM
