Monday, July 30, 2012

First day at work

Monday. The day every working person dreads.


I have to say that Sunday wasn't any better. I could barely get up to my room and slide down under the covers, and all of a sudden my eyes were wide open. That Little Red Riding Hood image from Two Stupid Dogs comes to mind.





That's right. I couldn't sleep until it was past two in the morning, and I even tried stretching out, getting some fresh air, counting stars and what not. As you can imagine, the seven o'clock alarm made me feel even worse.


Truth be told, the curry from the night before had its part in this whole story as well, which just proves that jet lag is harder to overcome than anticipated. I was told it actually kicks in a couple of weeks later in fact, when all the excitement swells down.


I digress.


It's a good thing that my host is also my boss, so I got a ride to work this morning. The tour of the kitchen ended up with a spilt coffee with milk and me surrounded by three co-workers who were squeaking about the fourth one's engagement.


I managed to run after a while and got some reading to do. Two files, around 250 pages each. Old claims. Old claims whose names I can barely pronounce. They were (and still are - and probably will be for the next couple of days) interesting though, and they gave me (and are still to give me) an insight into what I will actually be doing.


Even though it was quite a quiet morning, everyone in the office seemed busy with something. That didn't stop them from laughing and wishing each other good morning and asking about the weekend and so on. It felt really nice, unlike the usual morning bitchiness I'm used to.


So many of my co-workers would drop by my desk, ask me how I was and how I spent the weekend, and offered assistance with anything I was interested in or wondered about. I was shown to my desk and boy, was there something to see. I got a Mac Book Pro, and there was an additional monitor already attached to it. The map was already on the wall, the computer had my user account, even my Entourage account had a signature in it!


My desk at work


Sweet, sweet, and once again - sweet!


I started reading through the files, taking notes, looking the locations up on the map, comparing it to language maps, checking out the pronunciation of certain sounds, looked up stuff on the Internet... I'm sure it's all easy going now, but once I dig into it, it'll be much more intense.


After an issue with the server was sorted, it was time for my induction. It took around five hours and it involved everything from e-mailing, bank accounts, phones, frequent flyer numbers, cataloguing, pay checks, cartography, servers, paper clips, mugs, hot chocolate, the alarm system and God knows what not.


Nevertheless, everyone was super friendly (I just can't come to my senses yet), asking me how I felt, whether I was scared to come over, what I thought about the office, whether I need any help and come over any time if you need anything. Gotta love it!


I got my key, my mobile phone, my paperwork and a lot more stuff to take back home. During the break I took a stroll around the block (because I was too crazy and hungry to go get lunch), and - of course - what I hear when I get out of the office but three ladies speaking Croatian. Tadammm!


CBD
The view from in front of my office


Even though my working hours are 08.30 to 17.00 (with a one hour break for lunch), I felt like it lasted 175.89 hours. Maybe it was the amount of information, maybe it was the fatigue, but the time sure as hell didn't go as fast as it could've. I had another coffee (and this time I didn't spill it all over), and sooner than I could turn around, it was time to go home.


We got home, prepared dinner (cous cous with tuna and various vegetables, and a capsicum-lettuce-green beans-carrot salad) and watched an episode of Breaking Bad. It was still the beginning of the episode when we all started yawning one after the other, so we finished it (and we were working on it quite hard), took off and went to bed.


Therefore, good night!

4 comments:

  1. Čitam tvoj blog jako dugo i nekako sam iz prikrajka pratila svu ovu priču, mada se ne znamo. :-)
    Drago mi je da si uspio i da je sve dobro. Ja toliko dugo pokušavam otići odavde i ne uspijeva mi, pa se, s vremena na vrijeme, osjećam strašno obeshrabreno. Ovakve priče me zbilja oraspolože. Želim ti sve najbolje! U slučaju da ti počne nedostajati ono što si ostavio, sjeti se zašto si otišao.
    Puno pozdrava! G.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Opa, baš mi je drago!

      Da, treba biti uporan. Ja sam nakon ovog svega skontao da sam stvarno imao sreće. I stvarno sam sve više svjestan toga...

      Sretno!

      Delete
  2. Just keep 'em coming. Uzivam citajuci. :D

    ReplyDelete

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