I'm back at work as of today. I started my new job and it was your typical first day of work at a new place. Its an established environment so there are already ways of doing things that I have to learn which I didnt have to do when started my previous job. Its kinda sucky though that they didnt have a desk ready for me. I took the job over a month ago so I was kind of expecting that they would have everything ready for my first day. On top of that, this week is the last week for a person in the lab that seems to have been really important. As a result I'm having to learn half of what he is responsible for in his last days here and there is just so much so its going to be a challenge. It will be some time before I dont feel like a useless piece of biomass that asks stupud questions and is in the way.

I've learned not to get too excited about a job on the first day. At previous jobs I was always very excited about my first day and after the day was done I would be overly optomistic. Since I had that attitude about my last job I want to keep a low key expectation level so that I'm not horrified if this one doesnt pan out. I think thats a smart thing to do with any job.

The people at my new job are really nice though and I think that will make a huge difference no matter what. At my last job people didnt talk to eachother very much. Part of the problem was that most everyone in the department was Chinese and they had a propensity to only socialize with eachother in mandarin. I can understand why they would do that but at the same time I always thought it was a bit rude. There are a lot of Franks where I work and they speak French to eachother but if there is a anglophone nearby they tend to translate. Its great for me cause I'll get to practice my French. I dont think that i'll let people know that I speak and understand French just yet. It will give me the opportunity for some great eavesdropping!