Oct 3rd: First day on the job~

Woke up this morning and gave myself plenty of time to prepare for work. I didn't want to arrive unprepared! I gotta say I think I did a mighty fine job presenting myself, kinda disappointed that I never took a selfie or anything. A wasted opportunity if you ask me! I decided to wear my old grey blazer with black pants and a plain black shirt, but I think that it did well to highlight my elephant tie. The one that mom and dad got for me while they were in Greece. Needless to say, I looked fly as hell 😎. Shawn picked me up, which was very kind of him. Seems like a friendly fellow. The drive to work was uneventful, nothing much to really note. Other than I will NEVER be driving in this city. I don't have the heart for it. From what I can tell there are no rules of the road, only themes. So people might generally only go one way down a road... but sometimes someone will just go against the flow cuz it is more convenient. On top of that, no one pays attention to the lanes. They are just lines in the ground with no further meaning. Often you will see an absolute MASS of tuk-tuks, cars, and motorcycles all just piled up with no space between them. It's tough to describe with words, and I dont think I will be able to take any photos really highlighting it. Just take my word, this aint the best city to drive in.

Anyways, got to the office and things started out weird. First there was trouble getting in, apparently the paperwork for me to be authorized into the consulate wasnt finished or something. So the security guards at the front werent sure if I should be able to go past the checkpoint. Eventually that was settled but things really didnt improve from there. I met a few of the folks who will be working with me at the CAA space. Shawn also showed me the coffee machine. All things considered it was kinda weird, the office was very abandoned. Likely because a lot of people had taken the Friday off so they could turn two days off into five. Worked on some paperwork and looked over my emails. I also had to send my furloghed notification to both Shawn and Gwen a few times, because I was trying to figure out what was up with it. Turns out... I am actually out of work! There isnt anything that can be done, so I will just have to stay at home until the shut down is over. I am jumping the gun a little bit, I didnt figure that out until I had gotten home.

Honestly for a first day of work it was very tame. Just signing some forms and talking to HR a bit. Shawn did take me around to meet all of the teams that I will be supervising. That's still really blowing my mind. I am going from being a doer to not just a manager, but a manager manager. I believe I will have like four people reporting to me, and each of them is supervising a team of three-four people. Its kinda nerve wracking, but hopefully I get used to it quickly. The teams all seem like they are doing well though, and likely wont be needing much intervention from my end. In fact the phone team who does most of the tech support in the office is number one not only in the region, but in the entire world! Now that is an exciting development. I will need to be sure to keep those guys happy.

So far everyone I met has been very friendly and kind. I took a brief lunch break to try the food in the cafeteria, and it was pretty dang good! I would say worth the price I paid for it. Then I went back to my desk and kinda realized that there was nothing to do. I didnt have access to any of the systems, and couldnt even request access because the forms werent working right. Shawn had told me a few times that I could leave whenever I was ready, seeing as he thought I was very jet lagged. I decided I was done for the day. There was nothing to do and I was just sitting around like a bump on a log. OH! Forgot to mention it but I did run into my social sponsor, Edith. She is very nice and chatted with me a bit trying to make sure I was adjusting well. Or at least had a plan for how to eat.

Before I left the office I made sure to visit CASA, this is the shop at the embassy where you can get special american goods. In particular I wanted to get alcohol. After the pain in the rear journey here I wanted to have something to drink. Turns out buying stuff from this store is really easy! It just costs 50$ a year, and you pay for everything you buy at the end of the month with a check. So I am chilling. I got vodka, whiskey, and fireball. Just because I didnt know when I would be able to come back. Then I called a ride back through the driving team at the consulate.

When I got home the jet lag actually did hit me and I took a nice long nap. Probably wasnt exactly wise to do that... But what can ya do? Anyways, after that I just spent the evening adjusting to my new digs eventually went to bed.

I dont have any photos from this day on account of not being allowed to really have my phone in my office, and also I didnt think to take any when I was around the consulate.

That really covers all of day one. Oh! I ran into Willy while I was there and we chatted a bit. Uhhh, and I did get a call from my manager in the evening to confirm that yes, I am not allowed to work for the foreseeable future. This is going to mark a very interesting welcome to the department. Hired during a freeze, and started work furloughed. Almost poetic in a way.