Cocktail Parties and Book Launches

Ummm? Where am I? I don't even know where to start. My first week of work......let's just say there were cocktail parties, some drinking, missed ferries, late night dinners and a lot of brain stimulation.

My workmates are amazing. We all sit at one table, it's completely open and super casual. My first two days were relatively normal and routine - lots of Revit, ironing out glitches in a new computer, finding my way around a new model, figuring out the good coffee spots in the neighbourhood.....you know.

Day Three is when things got interesting. We went to Vancouver for a cocktail party to celebrate a book they just published. Ummmm....yeah!!!??

Oh...but....oh right. Cocktail parties - so not my scene. I spent hours trying to figure out what to wear, agonizing about not knowing anyone and dreaded the scene of standing in a corner alone, trying not to look too awkward.

 (Going into the party. Take a deep breath....)

Nope. It was not like that at all.

First I had all my new workmates to get to know. And I already know two girls in the Vancouver office*, I introduced myself to a guy who I worked with on the hospital project and of course met a bunch of people in the Vancouver office.

It was so fun.

The next day was "A Day of Making" in the Vancouver office. Everyone gets together and designs/makes/creates something. This year we had to do a 2 minute presentation on social sustainability. I had only found out about this on Wednesday afternoon so I was really flying blind. I tried not to panic.

But lucky for me it was supposed to be really loose. They didn't want to give us tons of parameters. People came up with so many places, ideas and different approaches. It was really interesting, inspiring and fun.

I chose to present a building that I fell in love with a couple years ago. I actually learned a lot even though I working on my own. When will I have another chance to sit around for a couple hours and figure out why I like this building so much?! 

Most people had computers to work with, but I didn't have mine so I got crafty. I sat at a table for 3-4 hours and put some stuff together.

I don't have a photo of my final product, but this gives you an idea of what we were doing and how the day was structured.

I approach public speaking like it's no big deal. Then I get sweaty and shaky when the times comes to actually do it. I start off pretty confident then halfway through I feel like I throw my notes out the window and ramble through.

I had someone tell me they thought I did well. Yesss! 

My new boss was emailing me last week about all this stuff so I knew ahead of time. I was totally dreading everything. Think about it - it's your first week and you have to attend a cocktail party and do a presentation to a bunch of people you don't know. But I realize now that it was a good way to start. I got to know my workmates on a social level, now we can actually get to work next week. For real.
 

*This is an entire blog post for another day.