so far so good!

so far the job is going really well... three days in, but still. I have two guys that report to me and I really lucked out with them... my supervisor Andrea hired them in the past 4-5 months and they are already fantastic: good attitudes, smart and self-motivated....those are the 3 things that I have decided are imperative to a new hire, and both guys have all 3. So I feel very fortunate.

I'm also fortunate because my supervisor seems awesome. She's low-key but hard working, she's supportive, she's smart, she values my opinion... so far things are good!

My office has about 50 people and there is one English person and me, so definitely no other Americans. What's funny is, people will ask, "so where are you from?" and I'll respond, "well I'm from the U.S...." and they're like "well duh, we meant what state". hahah I didn't want to assume they knew I was American, especially since all of the Canadian questions I got last weekend. But then my colleague Xikan said that he always asks if people are Canadian because he doesn't want to offend the Canadians by asking if they're American. HA! So I was right. I guess it's offensive to be considered American.... quite funny.

So anyway then my answer to "where are you from?" is "well I grew up in Pennsylvania, it's a state in the East" and they are like "yeah I know where Pennsylvania is, what part of Pennsylvania?" Meanwhile, they've never been to the US in some cases, they just know all about the geography of our country I guess. At one point I said, "wow that's impressive, I'm pretty sure there are some Americans that don't know where Pennsylvania is." and my colleague goes, "well you can say it, not me...but I was thinking it." HAHAHAHA. wow. So eventhough people are joking a bit about the US, they're also very interested in our culture as well and they are really, really nice to me so far. I really can't complain at all.

The folks on my team and I are going to have a blast trying to figure out what we are saying. I was explaining my work background to the guys and said something like "I was responsible for all of it, soup to nuts." And one of them goes, "wait. did you just say 'soup to nuts'?" and i'm like, oh yeah i guess i did. and i don't know where it came from and really it does sound ridiculous now that i think about it!

then i went to borrow some scotch tape from my neighbor and said "hey i'm going to steal some of your tape." and he goes "no, sticky tape." me: "wait, what?" him: "not tape. sticky tape." me: "um ok....then what is just tape?" him: "ummmm dunno but not this. this is sticky tape." HAHAHAHA we were cracking up. there are so many examples of these that I'll have to try to remember when i get home from work every day; these little miscommunications really are a fun part of the day.

what else? dawn came home for the weekend but she takes off again tomorrow for a week. She's a traveling fool. She and I have had fun catching up over the weekend, and she has helped me run some errands that really require the use of a car.

i am finally getting set up with a blackberry this week, so those of you who have been asking for my number--i should have one soon. I also am going to try to get Skype and other chat programs up at work, so i can hit you guys up during my lunch break and/or can talk to peeps in the industry. I definitely would like to stay connected with people in the media world back in the US to be sure that i'm not missing out on new stuff... I'm a little worried that I will fall behind if I become only in sync with the local industry. Anyway, so that's a plan for this week as well.

otherwise, things are good! The commute is on the long-ish side, but Dawn thinks i'm being high-maintenance, I guess it's not long for here, haha. But it's about an hour or so, and I am hoping Brian and I can move a little closer to the city so we can cut that down a bit.

BTW, Brian just told me that all pets passed the blood titre test today! So that means the next step is having our relocation specialist fill out import forms and reserve their space at the quarantine station here in Melbourne. It also means that we can solidify Brian and the pets' flight date. yay!

i hope all is well on the homefront. :-)