A week at work…

I have been in Amsterdam for over a month now – which is crazy because the time has just flown – but nonetheless, I thought I’d offer a slight insight and share two excerpts of what I got up to last week at work.

Now I arrived at my internship with no preconceptions over what I’d be doing, which with hindsight might seem a little foolish, but I just had no time to really pay it much attention.

Work has, however, been awesome!

I began last week by spending time in The Hague; attending a Parliamentary Seminar my employer had organised to discuss the situation in East Congo. This was great for me because I got to go inside the Parliament, I got to listen to passionate debates and then interview the speakers. 

This was a pretty intense day – it seems that public transport hates me regardless of the country – I missed the train with my colleagues and so I had to go it alone. This meant I arrived in The Hague with no clue how to find the Parliament – thankfully, my epic sense for democracy led me in the right direction! 

I felt so lucky to be trusted so readily in my position to attend such events and have so many new experiences. On the train back I even saw genuine windmills in the countryside!

Something which was really exciting at work, and had been talked about since I arrived was the outing – it was an office trip that no one knew anything about.  As a newbie to the family I approached the outing with a mixture of excitement and utter dread.

And as the most inflexible person alive (probably) my fears were realised when we turned up outside a yoga hall. Instantly a ripple of dissent went through the crowds, there were grumbles about bad backs and stiff limbs. But the more mature to the outings were not so easily fooled – me, who believed that when everyone said the weather would be 35 degrees, that it would be 35 degrees – well I was gearing up and channelling my inner zen. 

Speaking of Dutch weather – I am slowly learning how it operates: it is unpredictable and generally annoying. So it makes sense that after a week of sunshine that on the day of the outing it is torrential. Typical. 
But no, instead of yoga we were all boarding a boat and leaving Amsterdam.
  

So finally, after much suspicion and wild guesswork the wait was over – we were told where we were going – Pampus! Pampus is an island fort that was once part of the Defence Line of Amsterdam, a system designed to defend the city by means of flooding. Pampus, an island the size of a football pitch – but also a UNESCO World Heritage site – was interesting…

A hidden island off Amsterdam that I would never have otherwise seen.

(The weather lies in this photo – there was definite rain!)

After lunch and a tour of the island we hopped back onto the boat, sadly the wind and the rain had picked up in true Dutch style and even the most noble of us who tried to withstand the bad weather were forced to retreat inside. The original afternoon activity of rounders on the beach was abandoned due to the poor weather and thus a contingency plan of finding the nearest bar was put into action. Let me just say it was a long, but good day – I definitely got to know my colleagues better!

My weeks at work seem to always be full of surprises; I am tested, I learn and I have fun. I think these next 5 months are going to be very enjoyable.  

Florence