valerie's first day in her new job

so, the original game plan for my first day was that I would meet my new boss at the office around noon on monday, which was perfect for an uber-planner like me.  sean and I woke up early, went for a walk to find some coffee and breakfast (no luck on the coffee, but we did find this awesome fried bread as a breakfast pastry), came back to the hotel and I had a message waiting for me.  unfortunately, my boss had fallen ill, and so she could not make the trip to beijing that week, but virginia, the office manager, was going to meet me at the hotel at 130pm.  now, I wasn't entirely clear on what the game plan would be once she arrived, so I had all of my stuff pulled together and I dressed in a slightly casual (read:  jeans) but somewhat professional (read:  button down shirt and heels) outfit to meet her in the lobby.  sean came down with me and we ordered some tea, figuring that when virginia arrived, sean would say hello and then politely excuse himself to go run an errand and she and I would talk for a bit and then we'd make plans for me to come to the office for my orientation on tuesday.  turns out, I read the situation a bit incorrectly and when virginia arrived, she was there to escort me to the office so I would know the way (never mind that I had made sean walk with me on sunday to see how long it would take to get from the hotel down the street to the office, and yes, I timed it to make sure I knew when I should leave the next morning).  I tried to create a diversion to give myself a chance to run up to the room and change into "office-appropriate" attire (jeans are fine when you've been working at starcom chicago for 9 years and everyone there knows you'll bring your wardrobe a-game when it counts, but not so good on your first day at a new job) and get the correct walking shoes (flip-flops), but I did a poor job at that, so I was off with virginia before I even knew it.  sean tells me later that night that he felt bad for me because he could see the panic on my face, but at that point, it was too late to do anything.

as I alluded to in my facebook status, I decided it would be an awesome introduction to me if I chose to wipe out on the sidewalk as virginia walked me to the office for my first day.  allow me to set the stage a bit...no, I had not been drinking.  and no, I was not ignoring where I was going - in fact, I was concentrating harder on walking than I probably have since I was two years old.  the thing is, the sidewalks here in beijing along the main street where we are staying are all torn up.  they aren't just one solid slab of concrete, but instead a collection of individual tiles - probably just over a square foot each and laid side by side - about 16 wide or so.  in preparation for the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the people’s republic in june, there are citywide improvement projects, including repairing sidewalks, that are underway.  thus, a great number of these tiles are broken in pieces right now in the midst of repair, so it makes for pretty treacherous walking conditions.  it certainly didn't help that I was in heels as opposed to the flip flops I would normally wear to trek to the office.  anyway, I'm walking along talking to virginia and all of a sudden, I lose my footing and feel my body start to do this slow motion crumple thing - it wasn't like a hard core trip and wipe out kind of scenario - more of a “bedknobs and broomsticks, miss price has been shot down by the germans and now all the armor from the small town museum that had been marching under the tragoona-macoides-tracorum-sades-di spell is slowly melting to the ground”-type situation.  the next thing I knew, I was all fours on the sidewalk.  and sweet virginia, she didn't even crack a smile.  I wish she would have roared with laughter or collapsed in a fit of giggles, but instead, she apologized profusely as though it were her fault that my ass can't walk in three-inch heels down a sidewalk.  to be fair, it wasn't the most stable surface, but still - not the most graceful way to make a first impression, was it?

having recovered from that (I tried to explain to virginia that it really wasn't that big of a deal...I even attempted to tell the story of the time I wiped out down the cement stairs at flatwater, but I'm not sure it translated all that well), I arrived at the office and began to be introduced to various people.  I had worked so hard at preparing at least a "ni hao" when I met my coworkers for the first time, but for some reason, nerves set in and when they were all kind enough to say "hello" to me in english, I just reverted back to that instead of forcing myself to try my limited and likely very poor mandarin pronunciation.  key minor panic attack number one.

once I'd gotten a quick tour of the office, I moved to get set up in my temporary space - I'm in a cube sitting with my coworkers, which is awesome because I am inundated with the mandarin language, but tough because even though I am nestled within their group, I don't know enough of the language yet to even converse casually.  to their credit, the beijing office was totally prepared for me - I had a computer (I wanted to do a little happy dance when I saw it - it's up to date, compact and doesn't sound like it has gerbils running in wheels when I turn it on), a starcom beijing email address, a lotus notes password and access to the shared drive.  as I was getting myself acclimated to the system, the deputy general manager of the office took the time to come over and introduce herself to me.  I had read that when someone in china presents you with their business card, you are supposed to accept it, look over it thoughtfully and perhaps even make a comment or two about what you've read on it.  now, I don't know if that's legit advice, but regardless, I didn't do any of that.  instead, when she introduced herself in perfect english and handed me her card, I just nodded over and over again and said "nice to meet you" and "thank you" about a million times.  idiot.  key minor panic attack number two.

at this point, I am now sweating profusely and totally grateful that I will likely have no need to raise my arms above my head at any point in the afternoon.  thankfully, rob, the director whose position I will be partially inheriting, and who, to my incredible relief, is from new zealand and speaks perfect english, returned from lunch at that point and whisked me away to his office for an introductory chat and an early orientation to my new client.  coming out of that, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend the rest of my day reading documents at my computer, thus being spared any other panic attacks.  day one complete.  not a total failure, but certainly not what I would call a rousing success.  I guess there's always a day two, right?