A Day in the Office

I've now made it past the one week mark here overall, and have put in three days in the office, so I figured I could throw together an update. A few general observations first:

Their keyboards are different! I hadn't even thought about the possibility of this being different, but the " is where our @ is, which screws me up big time when I'm typing e-mail addresses, the sign for the pound (not #, but the currency) is where our # symbol is - which, by the way, over here, is a 'hash'.

The British sense of propriety is vastly different from the Americans. Being an international firm, some of the software we use is the same. However, in the US, when you open the software, it gives you tips like, "Did you know you can access the super-duper menu using Ctrl+S?" Here, the tip today was, "Thieves broke in and stole the toilets from a police station. A spokesman said, 'We have nothing to go on.'" I almost burst out laughing when I read that.

I think the real national British food is sandwiches. Since I've come over, it seems like I've had a sandwich for lunch every day. Not only that, they have no fear of putting just about anything whatsoever on a piece of bread and making a sandwich out of it. While I haven't experimented a lot, I've had tomato & egg, chicken & bacon, brie, crayfish & rocket, chicken & coleslaw (which was actually pretty good), and prawn & mayo. However, you could take just about any food which will stay between two pieces of bread, and somewhere, I am sure, you could buy that as a sandwich.

Despite the differences, the Brits are still people, just like everyone else, and the people in my office are genuinely nice and helpful. While my days have been largely consumed with administrative stuff, I look forward to getting to know them all better. So, cheers to all, and good night.