First day on the job

Whenever I have something important to do, there’s this ball that seem to find a way into my stomach. Exams, meetings, you name it, the ball is there. 8th of January 2001 was no exception.

After a cold shower (I’ll have to get back to that later) and quick breakfast in the lonely company of the dog (still can’t remember its name), I set out toward the bus stop. I had scouted the way the day before. It was freezing cold. Bus ride to the city centre took about 20mn. Once there, I walked to the main entrance of the plant where I was supposed to check in at 8am. Of course I was early, half an hour early to be exact. 30 more minutes for the ball to grow bigger. I don’t really remember what I did to kill time. I think I walked to the train station nearby and read some newspapers. When I got back, the entrance desk was open. I introduced myself in my shaky German and the lady told me to go some place I didn’t understand. Luckily, somebody else was going to the same building so I followed him. It was actually some kind of welcome meeting. All the interns that were starting on that day were there. There was about 30 of us. We were given a quick presentation of the plant, told that a “Stammtisch” was organized every Thursday at Salü (whatever that meant) and then each of us received our personalized documents. A map showing you the way to the building where you work. A contract (including confidentiality clause) to sign. The lunch card and a temporary pass to get into the plant (later replaced with a card that had my pic on it and a symbol that showed which part of the factory I could access).

It took me about 15mn to get to my building. I had to walk through a park, which I thought would probably be nicer in the spring… The plant was like a little city, with streets, red/green lights. Once I got to my office, I was welcomed by my boss (JM). He introduced me to the colleagues that weren’t there when I had visited in November. He then gave me a tour of the translation department. It occupied the whole second floor of the building. Each country (Italy, England, France, Spain and Sweden) had at least one big office or many smaller ones all set on the main corridor. JM introduced me to everyone. 2 people stood out: Debs, the English intern and Albert, a young Spanish translator. They both invited me to join them for lunch later in the week. Then I met the big boss of the department, a small, large and friendly man who turned out to be my neighbour in Vorsfelde and in fact a good friend of the family where I was living. It was quite a painful experience to have to greet all these people as I was really struggling with my German, the stress not helping at all. I felt stupid and intimidated and going back to the French office was a relief.

I was given my first assignment, a list of tools used in VW workshops that needed to be translated into French. Don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I know close to nothing about mechanics. Thank God, the dictionary closet was right next to my desk…
At lunch time, I followed my new colleagues to the restaurant located on the same floor but at the other side of the building. Took actually 10mn to walk there. Learned how to charge my card. The restaurant was huge. I think there was room for close to 300 hundred people to eat there. Reading the menu was yet another challenge, so I went for the easy solution: steak and fries (or “Pommes” as they call it there). I then spent the afternoon working on my tool list and left at 15h30. I walked all the way back to the city center and then took the bus home.

Overall, the first impression wasn’t too bad. The colleagues were friendly, I had met some people my age, office was nice. But speaking German fluently, that was going to be a problem. The ball in my stomach was all too happy about it…