day one of work
Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Monday, August 1, 2011
The little things in life: I got to work without a problem at all!!!! I'm so incredibly proud of myself for this. I left an extra hour early just to be sure (based on my previous experience) but it was not needed at all! Fortunately it was a nice day so I just found a bench to sit on which was perfectly fine. Ok, so I exaggerated that a bit - but my only problem this morning was trying to buy a ticket when the machine didn't have an English option... A lady was kind to help me though.
The office is very nice and I got to meet Thomas in person too (I had only seen him on skype). There were only two other people in the office because everyone is on vacation right now or going to be soon. I've learned that the month of August has practically no Parisians and all tourists.
I didn't need to bring my computer to work because I have my own desk and computer to work on, but - oh my gosh - a french keyboard is like nothing I've ever seen before. You have to shift to use numbers, insert a period, m is where l is, a is where q is, z is where w is, a comma is the number 4, ... it goes on. I got a little used to it, but it definitely made me feel very slow to accomplish things because I could only type so fast.
Ms. McCarty went over with me what I can anticipate to do during my internship and what tasks I will be doing. I'm basically working on various prep work for the International Astronautical Congress IAC2011 to be held in Cape Town in September. It sounds cooler and cooler the more I learn about events going on during the congress and what not.
I went to lunch today with Ms. McCarty and two other ladies in the office. We ate at the ESA canteen. Not as good as the one in the Netherlands, but still nothing to complain about! Though, they had really good brownies (which of course I couldn't say no to), and in turn, I did not finish all of my food that I had gotten. When the lady took my plate away, she had asked if something was wrong with it, as I didn't eat a bunch of it. It was like being scolded by your parents for not finishing your plate before leaving the table! I thought I had eaten plenty and I truly only wanted to eat more of the brownie of course.
After work, I decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower because it is just up the road from where the office is located. I'm not going to lie, but I am not very knowledgable on particular French history. The tower is 986 feet tall, 1,063 including the radio antennae, and was designed by an engineer for the entrance of the world fair in 1889. It is currently the second tallest structure in France. I decided to not ascend mostly because the line was very long and I figured it is an activity I can save for another day.
Coming home, I could not get the key to unlock the door. It's a bit ridiculous just how much I struggle with keys. I finally made it inside after about 25 minutes... For the rest of the night I worked on some other things I need to do.
The office is very nice and I got to meet Thomas in person too (I had only seen him on skype). There were only two other people in the office because everyone is on vacation right now or going to be soon. I've learned that the month of August has practically no Parisians and all tourists.
I didn't need to bring my computer to work because I have my own desk and computer to work on, but - oh my gosh - a french keyboard is like nothing I've ever seen before. You have to shift to use numbers, insert a period, m is where l is, a is where q is, z is where w is, a comma is the number 4, ... it goes on. I got a little used to it, but it definitely made me feel very slow to accomplish things because I could only type so fast.
Ms. McCarty went over with me what I can anticipate to do during my internship and what tasks I will be doing. I'm basically working on various prep work for the International Astronautical Congress IAC2011 to be held in Cape Town in September. It sounds cooler and cooler the more I learn about events going on during the congress and what not.
I went to lunch today with Ms. McCarty and two other ladies in the office. We ate at the ESA canteen. Not as good as the one in the Netherlands, but still nothing to complain about! Though, they had really good brownies (which of course I couldn't say no to), and in turn, I did not finish all of my food that I had gotten. When the lady took my plate away, she had asked if something was wrong with it, as I didn't eat a bunch of it. It was like being scolded by your parents for not finishing your plate before leaving the table! I thought I had eaten plenty and I truly only wanted to eat more of the brownie of course.
After work, I decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower because it is just up the road from where the office is located. I'm not going to lie, but I am not very knowledgable on particular French history. The tower is 986 feet tall, 1,063 including the radio antennae, and was designed by an engineer for the entrance of the world fair in 1889. It is currently the second tallest structure in France. I decided to not ascend mostly because the line was very long and I figured it is an activity I can save for another day.
Coming home, I could not get the key to unlock the door. It's a bit ridiculous just how much I struggle with keys. I finally made it inside after about 25 minutes... For the rest of the night I worked on some other things I need to do.