Back with the UN

I have had the most exciting first several working days in the HQ here. Before the excitement worn off, Imust jot down this experience to future reference on people’s good will.

I had my doubts before coming here. There are rumors about how difficult the job in the HQ could be… The truth is yet to be found, while I completely not prepared for the warmness and friendly treatment I have received in the first week here.

Don’t get me wrong. My office is no kindergarden - though there is a guy who offered unlimited supply of gummybears and I had some after he fixed my email problem. What intrigued me most is the wonderful diversity of UN staff and the working atmosphere here.

Again nobody raised a single eyebrow to my arrival, most of the staff work here are foreigners too. My boss sent out an email introducing me to all office staff on my first day, so it felt like everybody has already known me when I was walking around the office. Some people came up introducing themselves, and some others talked about their own experience of arrival and offered tips for newcomers. If New York is an international city with people in different color and ethics, the UN office is more than twice as diversified as the New York city. I felt so at home here as I have no problem to blend into this international crowd.

The most exciting time is to pick tools - namely laptop, desktop and PDA. I was offered with all options available on market - a lot of cool stuff! Tony made some recommendations based on the website listing, then he took me went around the office asking for people’s opinion about their machines (obviously geeks are serious about picking their computer models, hence people use all sorts of machine here). We even stopped the department head to ask for having a look at his PDA, and he did give it to me and shared his user experience! After all, this is an IT department, and I guess technical people don’t have much bureaucracy built in their bones.

I could go on talking about the technical lectures I received these days and how grateful I am to the selflessness sharing from my colleagues… but that’s beyond the limit of this public blog. I come to New York for this job, and so far I thought this is the best decision I made in years - I must write this down so I could look back at it in 1 year’s time. : )

Love to the UN office and my kind colleagues.

Strangers in Metropolis

Hyeon-Ju told me New York is especially easy to its strangers, we found it’s international by all means. No one even raised a single eyebrow to our rather ponderous arrival - we brought 5 huge suitcases and 4 carry-on bags. I kind of expected to see the “Newcomers HUH?” look in some people’s eyes but surely New Yorkers have seen it all and we are no difference to other 4 million foreigners who came to here not long ago. (for people who love statistics: there are almost 20million people in this city, and about 20 percent are foreigners - which means foreign born rather than anything else, as 17 percent of New Yorkers are black, and 7 percent are Asians.)

The city is stunning. We came in the season that all trees are changing color from yellowish green to flamboyant red, and many streets are paved by a layer of fallen leaves. My favorite time of the day is to walk through Central Park in the morning on way to office, where I see the city’s richest autumn colors in the trees, young kids running in the morning with their dogs, squirrels and pigeons come by friendly with people. It’s wonderful to see the nature so vividly fresh and alive in the center of metropolis.

Brian, my new colleague, said when a person arrives Manhattan, he or she will soon realize that there is no reason to leave this place for the rest of one’s life. I can’t fully agree but I start to see what he meant now. Despite the fact that Manhattan is very crowdy and the tension of life here, for instance it’s very hard to find a seat in any of the cafe in my neighborhood given any time of the day, the city’s charisma is irresistible to new comers. Among many things I fell in love with Chrysler Building next to my office. I love seeing it after finished a day’s work and got out the office, as its beauty is distinctive at night. For me it is a poetic icon of this legendary city.

I have left Beijing but I am not missing it - leaving it is the most resolute decision I’ve ever made. I am awed by New York but this is early time in our relationship as we knew little about each other. Everyday I walked by a lot of New Yorkers on street, I noticed that though in different colors and outfits, they all seem confident and having a somewhat cynical look in their eyes. The same look are in the eyes of children here, as I heard New York kids are precocious. I am hoping to understand a bit more about the people and culture of this city in days to come, and someday, when the city has become part of me, I will know that I have become part of the city.