The First Day... when you can screw up almost anything and have it be okay

Not that I screwed anything up. It's just nice knowing that you can get away with a lot in the beginning. Takes the pressure off. Today was fine.... My boss (let's call her U) gave me a ride to work just before 8 am. The building is waaaaaaaaay across town. It's actually over a canal, the new Danube and the old river itself. Our office is on the top floor of a skyscraper, so the view is awesome! Tomorrow I'll have to bring my camera and take a photo of the landscape. You can see right into downtown and past it to the foothills of the Alps.

[UN Complex is on the left, my building is the tetris-shaped one on the right]

Everyone seems really nice. A lot of people are going on leave for the summer, so they are happy to have an extra person to help out! The other intern won't be here until June 14, so the office we'll share is very quiet. I have a big desk and a business email account. They even gave me a cell phone as long as I promised not to call the USA with it! Awesome!!! So far I have just used it to call U when I got lost walking home today. 

I got to attend meetings from 10:00 - 1:00.. at the office with my section, then with the Ambassador and DCM before the meeting and then at the UN. They were about the budget... this is a preliminary meeting before the Board of Governors meets next week. They wanted to have consensus among the "like minded" countries before introducing the next 77. Unfortunately, that may not happen. I LOVED getting to hear the Ambassadors from all the countries disagree with each other so amiably. It went on for an hour and a half. Then we went to lunch in the UN cafeteria... the food there must be subsidized because it is cheap! So thank you, fellow tax payers, for the phone, housing, and cheap lunch.

I get another badge to get into the UN without going through the metal detector... this is the big time! These people are serious about security. Even to get into the building I work in, you have to have a special chip to get through a turnstile. You go through multiple metal bombproof doors. Then you have to swipe a card and enter a code on a keypad that has constantly changing numbers. Then you have to have to take off your glasses and have a retina scan (not really). There are parts of my office where you can't take cell phones. Cubby holes hang outside those doors for that exact purpose.

Anyway, today was great until I got lost coming home. It was cold and rainy today... my toes were frozen! It took an hour and a half to get home. The compound had never looked so appealing. Maybe it's good I got lost.