It got up at 7:15am. My goal was to make the bus at 10 after 8. I got myself together and Auntie Carol made breakfast of strawberries, toast and cheese. I gobbled it down because I didn't want to be late today.
I had tucked the written instructions Auntie Carol had given me in my bag just in case. The bus stop is only across the street and down a tad from the house so it takes no time at all to get to it. I waited for maybe only 5 minutes before it came. It wasn't crowded at all but I knew that the subway would be.
The bus ride to the subway station wasn't long at all, maybe ten minutes at the most. It was at the end of the street that runs along the street Auntie Carol lives on. I followed her instructions and as I descended the stairs the subway pulled up. It was SO crowded. It's not that I didn't know it would be it was the fact that the air conditioning wasn't on that made me crazy. I was sweating SO much in there! I was also worried I wouldn't be able to get off fast enough before the doors closed. That turned out not to be the case at all.
I got off and followed Auntie Carol's instructions which led me out of the subway up into the mall area beneath the building Uncle Donald used to work in. I got here by 8:20 and wasn't due to start till 9am. I passed the Dominion grocery store they had all told me about and I went up and out to the street. Auntie Carol told me that there was a way to get my office through the mall but she said it might be too complicated for me on my first time going there. Once I walked out onto the street I realized that there was a side door I could use so I walked in that way instead of going around the street corner as per Auntie Carol's instructions.
Once inside there I walked past the big security desk and into the bank of elevators. I took the elevator up to the third floor. I walked out of the elevator into and area enclosed by glass doors. Neither of the doors on either side would open. Thinking that it was too early I went back downstairs to explore the mall. I found a post office which allowed me to mail my postcards and letters. I walked around the main level and then checked the directory.
By this point I simply just wanted to know what this job was going to be like so I headed back to the bank of elevators and went upstairs. Back in the enclosed area outside the elevators once again and the doors will still not open. At this point I notice a phone on the wall with papers stuck up beside it. Upon further examination I realize my new manager's name is on the paper with a phone extenstion. Right below his name is my own. I found this quite funny since I had a phone extension but I couldn't get into the office!
I picked up the phone and dialed the number of my manager. He seemed very friendly and was there in 5 seconds to open the door and let me in. He was very nice and quickly showed me around our section of the floor and introduced me to the other people in my area. He introduced me to Lynda a co-worker who kindly showed me how to get into my computer. After that he had to run off as he had some deadlines to meet but promised to meet with me at 10am. Lynda set me up on the computer and showed me how to access the documents that Geoff (my boss) had requested I read in order to debrief myself on my first project that I would be part of.
So I printed out the pages and began reading. I checked my email and already had a line up of messages from my new boss. Since they all use Outlook I had tons of meeting requests too. So I went through and set up all of that and then returned to reading.
At around 11 Geoff came back to collect me for our meeting. He basically gave me the gist of my job. Which sounds great cause I'll get to use all my education skills and my multimedia skills. By the way he talked it sounded like they had a real need for someone with my skills. He told me that this department is one of the best places to work in the Ministry and that I'll work hard but have a lot of fun.
After that Geoff took me on a tour of the floor to introduce me to the people I'll be working with. By this time it was lunch and most of them were gone to lunch. So he introduced me to whom he could and we both went for lunch.
I had brought a sandwich and a pear for lunch so I just went down to the Dominion and bought a chocolate milk to go with it. I ate lunch at my desk and then proceeded to continue reading the stack of paper on this project which was apparently near it's end with the deadline being Friday of next week.
About mid-afternoon I was asked to attend a meeting with the group involved in this project. MAN it was SO long and I was SO tired by that point! I barely made it through. I still didn't even have any understanding of what this project was about so it made it really hard to concentrate.
Once the meeting was over it was almost the end of the day. Julie who is another lady in my division came over to chat. She told me a bit about herself and what she does. She was super nice. She has always been interested in Education herself. We talked a bit about movies too and I told her about the movie we had watched last night called The Chorus and I promised to bring it for her the next day. She told me about Intolerable Cruelty which she said was hilarious and that I had to see so we arranged a trade.
After that I headed downstairs to the subway. I managed to find my way through the mall to it. The subway was no less crowded leaving as it was coming. It really sucked but I was tired and didn't care as much.
When we got to the subway station at Davisville I got off and headed to the bus pullup area. The #28 bus was there but Auntie Carol had told me it had a special route and that if I didn't get off at a certain point I'd have a long walk. Because I'd had such a good day I felt confident I could handle it. So not wanting to wait for the 11 bus I hopped on and kept an eye out for the spot Auntie Carol had told me.
Well I couldn't tell when it was upcoming so I asked a lady who was getting off. She told me it was two or three stops up and then she said something else I didn't quite get. So instead of taking a chance and missing my stop I got off there. By this point in the day the sun was pounding down and the humidity was unreal! The walk was a few blocks longer than I had anticipated.
I was so sweaty by the time I got home. Yuck! When I arrived Auntie Carol had visitors. Her son and his wife were there and I got to meet them. After they left Auntie Carol asked me if it was ok if she took me out for dinner to celebrate my successful first day on the job. She took me to a restaurant on Bayview called Small Talk it was amazing! I was so stuffed after that dinner and I ended up taking some of it home.
By then it was late enough that I ended up going upstairs to shower and then to bed. I knew I'd sleep well this time because the first day jitters were over!
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