If I only had a brain...

I'm having a ho-hum sort of a day. I meandered my day through work - managed to accomplish quite a bit but with very little sense of the usual urgency that still clings to me (it's hard to put Farmers behind me). This environment really lends itself to it being OK if you have a meanderish day. So...I wandered through my day and finished sorting through my half of the ICCA Yearbook cases. I met with the director first thing thing morning and he looked at the memo that Victoria and I have been working on and advised that he will be submitting it for publication as a reference document for the Rome conference later this month - with Victoria and I as the authors! It's so weird because (again back to Farmers) my hard work at my last job never seemed to be recognized. I could bust my butt to get something right and it would be something else, or in the interim they would have changed their minds. I always felt like what I did was crap and I couldn't get it right. I've been here one week and the director is so impressed with the work that we're doing that he's putting our names on it and the judge is telling me that before I leave be sure to draft a letter of recommendation for him to sign for me. Honestly, I've only ever had Farmers to compare my work to. To be somewhere else where I'm a lowly intern but they still seem to respect that I have a brain, is really nice. A refreshing change. I must admit, I've had no exposure to the bureaucracy of the organization - we're pretty isolated in our little research tower there. I want to go to the Transport Working Group in October, so perhaps I will observe some of it then. Who knows?

I have realized that I need to start putting up some of the things I really love about Vienna too - instead of just listing what I miss about America (we all have our days!) For the record - I do love some little things - like Vollkskornbrot (did I spell that right?), grocery carts that don't just go forwards & back but side to side as well, the public transportation system, how darn lovely everything is, the proximity to culture (opera, theatre, symphony, museums). I'm starting to find my comfort level. I still feel like my day is spent in a line between the UN and my apartment. I will need to work on improving that. I could have gone to the opera with the gang tonight, but I've seen Carmen and didn't feel like seeing it again. I'm going with them on Wednesday, then one day this week Victoria and Vanessa are coming over for dinner (or that's the plan anyway).