1st test - the meeting

so, after nearly 2 months of working as an account manager, today was the first real test: the meeting with my biggest client.

my boss being on holiday, my line manager came with me, but he'd warned me: he was just there to 'look pretty'. i'd be the one doing all the work, seen as it was my client. which was good, of course, but i was a bit worried they'd ask me about something i didn't know, or that i'd say something wrong. also, while we knew what we needed to discuss, there was no set agenda, so it was probably going to be a be a bit all over the place.

in the end, though, it all went fine. there were a couple of times when i was unsure i was saying the right kind of things (for example when our interlocutor threw us for a loop with a strange proposal) and others when i got a bit ahead of myself, but generally, it went all right. actually, from our perspective, it was better than all right: we'd kind of anticipated that, what with the current economic situation and all, they'd announce their budget had been cut by half or something like that, but not at all. actually, they were going to add more people to the list of participants! great news for us.

on the way back from the meeting, we talked about it a bit, and my line manager basically said that i was good to go on my own next time. and when i thanked him for his support, he pointed out he really hadn't done anything at all. as he'd said, he'd just 'looked pretty'. while that was not entirely true, it was nice of him to say so.

the love drinks

after the work pot-luck we had to celebrate nothing special - just a nice 'end of year' get-together' - i was due to join one of my friends' drinks. it had some weird name such as 'love guru drinks' or something, where H promised to give amazing advice for people to find love THAT NIGHT, but he was really just taking the piss in response to something that had been posted the previous week. he'd asked me to come, fearing it'd be a disaster and noone would show, so i went.

he'd forgotten what time the drinks were supposed to start, so he was half an hour late and showed up just as i was leaving the bar. that was funny.i'd decided that i'd only stay an hour, what with there only being a bus an hour, but when the time came to leave, i was having such a good time that i stayed. the small crowd that we were was just lots of really interesting people. although H's 'love advice' was pretty useless to me ('G, meet Super M' was all i got out of it) i don't think i'd enjoyed myself so much at one of these events in a very long time. it was really nice.

urban/rural dress

seen as i now work for a school where i'm not allowed to wear jeans, but that it's not quite as constricting as Japan in terms of what i can't wear, and that's i've become a little more feminine in my choice of clothes... well, it's just funny, cos in central Geneva, while i know i attract some male attention, i otherwise go by unbothered. but the minute i leave central Geneva, i'm very aware of the way i've dressed. and walking through my town to get the bus,... let's not even go there. i imagine it's a bit like the difference between walking through Boston and somewhere in the middle of the deep south in the States. nevertheless, now that i have found my feminine side, i'm loath to give it up.

Geneva's too small...

Geneva's great, but for some things, it really is too small. especially when it comes to everyone knowing the same people. if we take the example of 3 friends, Ava, Bryce and Claire, it goes something like this:

Ava really liked Bryce, who didn't like Ava in that way. then Bryce started dating Dana.
then Ava liked Eric, who started going out with Flora. then Bryce and Dana broke up, as did Eric and Flora, and Dana started dating Eric.
fast forward a bit, all those people had long ago broken up and had also dated other people. then Claire started dating Eric and, a few months later, Bryce started dating Flora.

like i said, it's a very small world, and sometimes, it feels like you're back in high school...

Fête de la Musique

as i explained in a previous post 2 years ago, this is one of the greatest French exports of all time. and whereas it only takes place on the one day in France, Geneva has made a whole weekend of it, ie about 48 hours of free music all over town. 500 concerts!

in past years, i've generally gone with friends and thus ended up listening to lots of stuff, although obviously not always what interested me. last night was a prime example of getting not a lot out of it with a group of about 10 people who couldn't make up their minds as to what to listen to. so today, i went solo. and it was great!

i started with an hour of classical music, which brought goosebumps to my skin and tears to my eyes. after that, it was mostly jazz, with a short interruption to listen to my opera singer friend at the opera house. the jazz was really great. considering half the people playing at this festival do this in their free time (play music, i mean), the quality was excellent! now i can't wait for next week's free open-air jazz festival, which takes place just 10-mns walk from my office.

the 4 musketeers

it had been a long time since we'd met up, just the four of us. the beginning of February, i think. and there we were, having dinner at the little Asian place in town. it was nice. the musketeers reunited.

the mystery man

not a mystery at all, in fact. an old friend, whom i hadn't heard from in over a year and a half. out of the blue, i got this message on my phone ten days ago, basically saying it had been a while and that if i was interested, he was going to this movie thing on such and such date (tonight). but he spoke so fast when he left his number that i had to listen to the message 4 times to take it down. and then, when i tried it, it didn't work, cos there was one too many digits. so i tried emailing him, but that obviously didn't work either, as i haven't heard back from him since. it's all a bit silly, really, cos i'd have been up for going to this thing and catching up, but i decided long ago that i was done making efforts for everyone else, so until he contacts me again, i guess we're back to not seeing each other for a long while yet.

apricots

i bought apricots the other day. apparently, it had been years, cos the minute i ate one, i was transported back to our old house. i could just picture myself in the cool dining room, hiding from the heat that permeated the rest of the house.

dinner with the girls

i thought it'd be a good idea to invite just the girls round for dinner. unfortunately, not everyone could come, so we ended up being just 3, but that was great. among other things, a lot less cooking for me! but, really, it was nice to just sit on the terrace (in glorious weather) and chat. some of it was light, some, towards the end, a lot more serious. but in the end, it was exactly what i'd wanted.

opera

i decided to celebrate my new contract by getting myself a ticket to the opera: Il Trovatore. what spurred this was that it was Verdi, and for some reason, i was convinced i'd never seen a Verdi opera before. i only remembered after buying the ticket that i'd seen Aida many years ago. no big deal, i'd heard it was good. and it was - once the first part was over. it was a bit confusing with 'flashbacks' and time changes that weren't immediately obvious to people who hadn't bought the programme (me) and thus had no clue what the story was about - i'd thought i'd check out the storyline on the net, but i'd had too much work in the end.

in the second act, though, the singing was really good. despite my friend's assurances (she was one of the chorus), i didn't recognise a single piece of music, but again, no big deal. what was more unfortunate, however, was the very grey set. i realise the story takes place during the Italian civil war and that it's a tragedy, but it was a tad depressing. i mean, La Bohème is a pretty depressing opera, but when i'd seen it, the set was amazing, which had made it all very enjoyable.

need an office space

after a month of mainly needing a computer to do the new job, i found myself dealing with loads of paperwork this week. loads. so much so that, still having no place of my own to work at, i took up half the teacher's room (one computer and 2 desks). this is far from ideal, not only because that means other teachers can't use the space, but also because what i'm dealing with is supposedly not for everyone's eyes. not that they look or care, but there you go. also, it at times makes it difficult for me to realise how long i've been working for, as i also use the same space for anything to do with teaching.

anyway, i was talking to my boss on Friday and he mentioned he was most probably going to give me another client to deal with. no real surprise there, as he's been mentioning it about every week since i started and really wants to get rid of it (in terms of he doesn't want to deal with it). but as he said it, i saw my chance to mention that i was really going to need a place to work. his pet ideas came up very quickly (working from home and at an office at one of our client's buildings), and while it can work for some things, i really can't carry around all the files back and forth and they really need to be available to him and my immediate colleagues. i didn't mention that, as one of the team will be leaving in 2 weeks, i could probably take her desk. apparently, he likes to think he's come up with ideas himself, so me suggesting it shortly before her departure will surely do the trick - especially if i then work at said desk when she's not around, which i'll really have to do this week if i want to get anything done.

work ups and downs

last week i was really pleased: i'd already worked out one of my clients would probably like to know what was going on with the lessons, so i'd emailed everyone to get the correct info and had just got the last reply when my boss emailed me to ask if i could find out and let the client know. there was a bit of gloating inside... then, on Friday, having nothing to do, i took the opportunity to ask my line manager about some tables i was supposed to produce 'at some point'. i thought i might as well get a head start. so when my boss asked me to start making them yesterday afternoon, i could only say i was already on it. he looked impressed and i felt like i was getting the hang of things.

as it turns out, i was the last person to leave yesterday evening. i wanted to make sure the email i'd been asked to write went out that day and there were various other things to deal with that i didn't want to leave till today. and i'd taken care of the various documents i'd been given. or so i thought, until i was 5 minutes away from home, when i realised i didn't remember dealing with the last documents. what i could remember was throwing out a bunch of papers. they'd been together. damn! i wondered what the chances of me making such a mistake were, but then, what else could i have done with them? i rushed home to pick up the car keys and was back at the school in no time. as i arrived, the cleaning staff were just leaving. and my papers were, indeed, in the bin they'd just emptied. all i can say is i'm glad i went back for them! it probably wouldn't have been the end of the world, but they were reasonably important.

work outing

today was our work outing. in all my years of working, it's only the 3rd one that's ever been offered, and the 2nd one i participated in. at 8.45 this morning, about 45 of us boarded a bus bound for a day of fun in the nearby canton (county).

we started by visiting some amazing caves. i've seen quite a few caves around the world, and they were certainly very nice. lots of stalactites, stalagmites and cute ponds. it was very nice. our guide was great, and we found out at the end that he was 86 years old! he'd been doing this since he retired 21 years ago... i could have spent another couple of hours in the minerals rooms - i love minerals - but unfortunately, we had a tight schedule and we were already late for lunch. after that, we got to see some bears, wolves and bisons in a nature park, before heading for a fort that had been built just before WWII in case the Germans decided to invade Switzerland. quite fitting, seen as it's D Day. it lasted about 2 hours and was very interesting (this time, our guide was a retired colonel). in fact, the whole day was loads of fun.

it was great to see people outside of work. we got to know more about each other and ask those questions that are perhaps not so easily asked in a professional environment. i mean, it's a bit awkward to go and ask my line manager what he studied at uni, for example. some people had also brought their kids, one of which especially, a little girl, took quite a liking to me. she was great. really. suddenly she was just holding my hand and basically didn't leave my side for the next 2 hours. very sweet. at some point, her mother got worried and explained that she sometimes did that. but i really didn't mind. it was actually really nice.

people should know how they're doing

last week, N., my line manager, asked me to check the oral level of 2 prospective students. so off i went all the way across town for personal interviews. N. had given me precise instructions as to what he wanted to know, so on the way back, i thought long and hard about it. the prospectives were not, actually, the same level (one was, let's face it, a native speaker who had no need for lessons whatsoever), but they could, possibly, be put together if the company really insisted on a 'group' lesson. so i went to N. and explained everything in detail and concluded that, while not ideal, they wouldn't die if they didn't get private lessons. in my old school, they wouldn't even have had a choice. but N. surprised me by saying that, their objectives and needs being completely different, he couldn't possibly suggest that. it'd have to be private lessons or nothing, especially as one didn't really need any (and that's what he'd recommend). i was impressed.

the other day, we sorted out a few details about this. when we were done, i told him that i thought he was doing a great job and explained why, from the point of view of a teacher. i just felt i had to, cos people should be told when they're doing well. even if he is my boss.

moderate 'bise'

the 'bise' is the local wind we have. when it blows, it's generally cold and tempestuous. last week, it started blowing a bit, and for the weekend, they kept saying 'moderate bise today', but there was nothing moderate about it! it was very, very strong. so much so that there were loads of waves on the lake, with lots of foam on each peak. it was quite a sight. gorgeous. and the water was clear blue - it looked like we were on some island. i wished i had my camera on me...