About Me
- Tess
- Frenglish with uncontrollable laughter and a serious case of talkativeness
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Mickey and the knight
E!Sharp moves to the US
Speaking of the Ambassador, I thought my parents would be the ones introducing me to him (a quick 2 and a half minute hello how are you, done). But believe it or not earlier on this week before the end of my shift I get an email from his secretary asking me to come up to his office! Now this is the end of the day right...my hair is disheveled, I've kicked off my high heels under my desk, my shirt is half tucked in. I go into this huge panic zoom where I'm whisking around my work colleagues asking for a brush, pins and the basics of any kind of makeup so I can actually look semi presentable. Up I go to level 3 (the big boss's level) and literally you open the door and it's like you've stepped into the plaza hotel. Everything is white and marble, with fountains and plants (all that was needed was some blue birds and perhaps so classical music). I'm welcomed in the office where the big man himself has taken 20 minutes of his precious time to what? To chat with me! I was thrilled to pieces as you can imagine.
Canadian Thanksgiving
Party in the USA
Nie Hao
On Churchill's Turf
I've started work! Interning at the British Embassy wasn't as intimdating, nore freakishly complicated as I thought it would be. Everyone here is very nice and welcomed me instantly inspite of my considerably young age (yes 22 is considered 6 years old in an establishment such as this one). I'm based in this department called Corporate Services (I know, huh? what?) - basically it's the dept. that runs the whole building (from accommdation to health insurance to conference organising etc.). It's a pretty sweet way of starting because after two weeks I've gotten the low down of how exactly a place such as this works. I'm going to be rotating in different depts (after next week I'll start in the Global Affairs Dept where I'll be moving onto more current issues, my favourite in particular being climate change).
So, so far so good. I get my own security badge and access code, I've made friends with the security guards who smile at the little girl who bikes to work everyday whilst everyone else arrives in rolls royces and audis. FYI bike has been a huge success for getting to work (it only takes 20 minutes and I go through this gorgeous park as well).
I leave you with a little anecdote which believe it or not wikipedia will explain better than me: "Outside the British ambassador's residence stands a statue of Winston Churchill. One of the statue's feet is inside the marked embassy grounds; the other is within the District of Columbia. This symbolizes Churchill's Anglo-American parentage (his father was British, his mother American) and his status as an honorary citizen of the United States". Pretty cool bit of trivia there for you.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Le bilan de la semaine
So lots of museums, cultural sightings and the like this week. You will note the vertigoesque escalators in the American History Museum as well as statues of girls holding flowers (which look like broccoli) and yes the original ruby slippers for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. You really never know what you're going to find here. Spent the remainder of the week room decorating as well which has been great fun. I now have a considerable collection of photos adorning my many walls. The weather has been ridiculously hot though I shouldn't be complaining I guess. Still the only summerlike clothes I brought with me were my sports t-shirts (which I am sure as you can imagine are very sexy indeed).
Randomly I also met up with old friends from my Erasmus exchange in Paris 2 years ago. Turns out the majority of them are working in DC...the world is shockingly small...in a very good way. I have managed nevertheless to preserve my precious English accent (or trying to at least). Resistance has been difficult though I admit. I start work tomorrow which is exciting (I get my own security badge and everything so I have to act like I'm important....which I am sure won't be too hard to do). Have also started Chinese lessons (why you ask?), well it's always been something I've wanted to do and why not. My internship hours finish late afternoon so why not use the time wisely I say.
So a pretty good first week - have become cultured, met up with friends, managed to keep english accent, got a bike and managed to preserve my anger when realising that galaxy bars are called Dove bars here (I know wtf right? that's a soap brand hello).
Thing left to do:
- go to the theatre
-go to my first jazz concert
- experience thanksgiving
- play basketball with Obama
- learn black slang (if that is a politically correct term)
- learn to swing dance (not the indecent kind)