So that's how it works

It turns out I didn't have culture shock. Just a really upset tummy, in token of which I'm about to take a sick day. After I show up at work, fill in a price chart, update my newslead file, and print off a bunch of phone numbers and notes so that I can go on making research calls from home. It's very strange, this job, in the sense that for the first time ever, I want to do well. I handed in my first big industry feature yesterday, and it was well-received, which sent me over the moon, quietly-like, because of my upset tummy, but over the moon nonetheless.

I've been feeling under the weather for a little while though, so it's time to stay prone for a day. Especially because the lovely F-word has a student who works at an upmarket chocolate store here, and last night he brought me home a bag of nut-free samples, which if I was any sort of woman I would have eaten already. At the moment I'm just staring at it glumly. Awful.

Oh, and you know how when you get in an elevator, you wonder sometimes if it's within the realm of human possibility to accidentally drop your cellphone into the gap between the lift and the floor? It turns out it is not only possible, but that I did it. I'm going to see if they retrieved my SIM card for me - the phone itself is probably a lost cause after falling five floors to the parking lot level - but I'd say the odds are pretty good I'll switch to just using my work cell number this afternoon, which will shortly be on Facebook, as is our new fixed line, which is much cheaper to call from Canada, but I know how fond some of you are of SMSes.