Settling In

I'll find a picture later to go along with this. I'm writing from my industrial partner's office where I have a desk. This is my second week here, and my second week of being a full time student, whatever that currently means. Not to belabor a point, but communication with Cambridge has been poor to abysmal. Go figure.

My industrial partner is much better. They expected me, they got me a desk and a phone and an email and an access card. I get invited to meetings and had a number of 'Meet and Greets' arranged for me by the group administrator.

Still, I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing here other than learning and absorbing knowledge and information about their business and holdings that will hopefully all condense down into the fundamentals of my PhD thesis.

Still, it's like I have entered another world and this in itself takes some getting used to.

For starters, all of the men here wear suits. Every day. They tend to take their jackets off while sitting at their desks but every last man is suited. The women are a more diverse breed. Some wear suits and some don't. I have a feeling that the more senior female staff members tend to wear suits, but this doesn't always seem to be the case in either direction.

I only have one suit, and I can't wear it every day so I've been doing my best to 'dress up' though I feel like I'm not doing a very good job. I just don't have the wardrobe for it. And now that I'm a student, I don't have much of a budget to fix it either. Oh well.

Here's another thing. Most of the women are thin. Maybe I'm too used to spending my time in East London, but these fragile waifs wandering about in their suits (or not suits) make me feel slightly ill at east. Oh, and most people are white as well, though I have met the occasional minority, they are most certainly a minority here.

And of course there is just the waft of money in the air. I'm sure everyone here is on a very good salary by my standards and probably by industry standards. I bet some of them are on incredibly good salaries. More than I would ever have hoped to achieve. It's not that anyone does anything to throw this in your face, it's just this overwhelming sense of it. That's a bit strange to get used to as well.

These are the things that vaguely startle me. On the positive side, this office is incredibly friendly. For as 'business' as everyone is, they really are quite warm and welcoming which is nice. And the company seems to provide nice perks. Nothing outrageous, but enough small things to just generally make a pleasing working environment.

Oh, and the office chairs are like super top end. I spent a good portion of today messing with the 20 chair adjustments I could make. Although I need a footrest thing because my legs are short, my chair is so so so comfortable. Now if only I could take one of these puppies home.

Because things haven't really taken off yet, I feel more like I'm slowly easing into my new position rather than being thrown in head first. This is probably something I should be happy about, but it makes me nervous as I keep wondering just when the shit is going to hit the fan and things are going to be expected of me. Like I'm going to get caught with my pants down or something. I prefer to be prepared and to know what's coming. Just now, I feel like I don't know very much- so that makes me uneasy.

I do know though, that the canteen has a lovely sushi pack for £3.50 every day. For now, that will have to appease.