The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing.

Today was my first day of work in the Geneva office. I consider it successful for the following reasons:

- I made it to the office on time. Here’s a picture of my new office:

- I looked presentable and had showered twice since my flight (twice was probably necessary).
- I logged in to my computer and checked email (see unsuccessful reasons below).
- I didn’t start smoking (stay tuned for further posts to see if I actually do start, just to fit in)
- The office manager I’m working with is the nicest lady who has ever lived. And hilarious. She is super excited to go to the Britney Spears concert next month (she’s almost 40), and has the Britney CD playing in her car. She even came with me to the Office Cantonal de la Population which is a horrible government office where you take a number, get in line, and finally get to the counter only for them to give you another number so you can wait in the next waiting area, to get my paperwork with me this afternoon. This fact alone proves that she is the nicest lady who has ever lived. She and John can compete for the nicest person of humanity award.
- I still have a job to go to tomorrow.
- There is no denying that Switzerland is beautiful. I took this picture yesterday on my flight in:

Some reasons today could be considered unsuccessful:

- My inbox is called “posteingang”. Seriously. Everything else is set to English, but inbox apparently doesn’t translate from German. Check out my facebook home page too:

- I am terrified to answer my office phone since I don’t know the proper office greeting. I know how to say “hello” and the name of my company, but I don’t know the formal office way of putting it all together. I also didn’t set my voicemail greeting for the same reason. I’ll have to ask office manager Britney tomorrow.
- Speaking of phones and German, I got an iPhone from work today. I do consider it successful that I entered in the SIM password myself, however I think it is overall not a success since my voicemail greeting is something in German that I don’t understand, and I can’t figure out how to change it. I also have several German texts on the phone that I don’t understand. Hope they aren’t anything important.
- I met a lady who is an office building neighbor, and she leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, like most people here do. I was caught off guard, almost kissed her on her lips, and then stopped at only two kisses until she corrected me that it’s supposed to be three times.
- I looked for apartments with my helpful apartment hunter girl today, and I found a temporary, one-month apartment. Honestly, the apartments here suck. They are small, old – like 60’s old, not cool charmy old - , and the ones I’ve looked at are not in the best areas. The area might have something to do with my budget and there aren’t any really bad areas in Geneva, but the apartment style is going to be something to get used to. I’ve never seen a House Hunters International in Geneva, and I know why. But, since I’m not going for ratings on this blog, I’m going to do my own little blog House Hunters game in the next few weeks and post some pictures.
- The “z” and “y” are transposed on the keyboards here along with all of the symbols and the return key. All day I’ve been typing “zou$” instead of you / the enter key.
I figure since things could have gone much worse and all of my non-successes can be fixed, I’m going to stay positive and take my wins where I can.
Tomorrow I’m taking the train to Zurich just for the day to meet with a manager there about an engagement I’m taking over from him. I already have my ticket, so I’m ready to go. I went for the day last time John and I were here, so I’m not too nervous. Still, you can’t get too cocky around here. I’m going to keep the quote from above in mind since I feel like embarrassing things always happen when you least expect it. They can sneak up on you.

*kiss* *kiss* *kiss*

P.S. Jenn and Whit, this is for zou:
These crisps were at the London airport and made me laugh. They were also talking about the Notting Hill Festival. Yesterday… all my troubles seemed so far away… :)