First Day At Work

Today was my first full day at work and I reeeally enjoyed it! I started at 9:30 only to find that our office locks had been changed, which meant that the whole office went next door to the Terrasse cafe/bar and just sat and drank coffee. Until about 12 o'clock. Today was also the first day of our new International Commercial director, who seems to speak a billion languages...

I was given some brochures to look through and then our team (there are currently five of us in the marketing department) all went for lunch in the main building. Lunch started at about 12:45, we went to one of the staff restaurants and were given huuuge plates of food. Funnily enough, the salad bar didn't get as much attention as I thought it would. At about 2 o'clock (!!) when I thought we would maybe go and do some work, my team decided we were going to sit outside and have another coffee, which was really nice! The sales have just started in France so conversation turned to that. 

The main building. Admittedly nicer looking than mine (as it looks like a housing estate.)

After lunch I had to go to HR to sort a few things out, where my boss introduced me to some people and for some reason instead of saying 'bonjour' I said 'au revoir'. Incredibly awkward. The rest of the day was spent updating Media Packs for all our magazines throughout the world, which are basically PDF documents containing information about advertising rates, circulation and readership figures, which the sales team use to sell advertising space. 

I've ordered something called a Passe Navigo (like an oyster) but it could take up to 3 weeks to come. Because the French are so backwards in some respects, no matter when you buy a monthly travelcard to be loaded onto your Navigo, whether it is on the 1st or the 21st it is only valid until the end of the month, so I needed to go to an agence today on my way home from work to sort out one on the spot, which involved going to an RER station, only to be told that I needed proof of address. My bills are all inclusive with my rent, so I don't have any to prove where I live which is really annoying. On the Metro home from there I had to sit near this horrible baby who felt it necessary to sing, all the way home. In the highest pitch possible. And at one metro station everyone who got on literally looked like they had just seen a dead body or something, whilst one garçon spent the whole journey igniting his lighter and just staring at it. Creeeepy.

Sneaky pic of an RER train, they are double decker. DOUBLE DECKER.

Apart from the mental journey home, I had a pretty good first day, the team are really lovely, and the other English stagiaires who are working in my office are great. 

A bientôt!

Sophie