my current office : an international twist of kelurahan...

I said to my boss, who's a programme specialist, the first time she introduced me to my new office. "This looks a lot like govermental institution" which kinda wowed her. I didn't know what I was talking about at the moment.

Here, we have units led by programme specialists and then consultant and staff. My official job position is IT Support staff, unspesifically for multipurposes. (HA!) The IT guy who also interviewed me said they had to put that in to avoid "problems" with HQ. OK, as long as I don't have to go fixing some servers or plug something, I'm fine.

My first weeks are so- so, what surprised me so much is how ignorant the people were in the first week. Of course, there were some really friendly folks (thank you guys) and some really really friendly folks who turned out cold after the first talk (I wonder if that is the usual thing here). My friend, also new, said that this office is not nearly as bad as her old office.

During these 3 weeks we've been treated to fancy lunches : Director's farewell (twice, in Diknas and internal), Unesco's birthday, and the DG's visit. Woah... the food were so good! I think I'm getting fat in this office (he he)

I became friends with an international consultant from Korea. She reminds me a lot of my Filipino friend at high school. But she's leaving Unesco in less than one month, so I don't know who I'm going to share the office gossips once she leaves :(.

I still don't dare calling Unesco my office, because it's so unfamiliar to me still, and many of the people seem a little distant most of the time. I tried to make friends but somehow it reminded me of American high schools with their cliques and gangs and that kinda back me off.. Still I feel that I'm in a battle and I haven't won yet.