First Day on the Job

Today was the first day on the job in Paris. I felt like a kid going to the first day of school - excited, a little nervous and full of energy (I slept well last night). I woke bright and early, had a light but nutritious petite dejuener (breakfast) and walked the 15 minutes to work.

Thank God I had been to the office so many times before because I knew the routine. I got my badge and walked through two buildings and up to the 5th floor where I found my new assistant, Kelly, waiting for me. It was 8 AM and no one was in the office, so we took some time to discuss how we would work together.

Kelly was nervous at first. She thought her English wouldn't be good enough so I laid a little of my French on her. That's all it took to convince her that she spoke good English and my French needs work. She had everything (cell phone, badge, mail and desk stuff) ready for me except my laptop. She was relieved to learn that I had my U.S. laptop with me, but she had everyone working to get me one. I went use my new Blackberry and I realized the keyboard is not standard American (better known as QWERT (look at the top row of letters on your keyboard and you'll figure out what that means). So everyone starts scrambling to find me a QWERT laptop. Finally it arrives and wouldn't you know it -- EVERYTHING is in French. C'est la vie.

We did have a "coffee" meet and greet around 9 AM. It was nice to say hello to all the HR people. I've known them for quite some time so it was nice. They all raved about the area our apartment is in. A couple of them live there and I have dinner invites lining up.

I had a meeting and lunch with my boss to discuss my old and new objectives. It was nice to have an on-site cafeteria that serves 3 different main courses. By the way... you can get beer and wine there. When we finished JSB, my boss, introduced me to the company president. I had met him a few times before, he joked with me about the challenges I'll face in Italy. Not a bad place to have challenges.

At the end of the day I packed up my new stuff and my old stuff and rode the metro back to the hotel (it was raining). Thank God it is Friday.