ENG - 1st month's report

Hi All,

It's been a month and a half since i was in Geneva when i wrote this below summary on the way to Lubjlana via train (13 hrs trip) to Mojca's wedding. Now it is high time to "publish" it:)
I tried not to write a novel at once and structure it.

- Settling in:
the 1st month was quite tough on this side, as my flat was unfurnished. Literally nothing. No lamps even, just wires hanging from the ceiling and stuff, and it is not easy to get a handyman in GVA, they simply do not come, even when they promised. So I had a few weeks of darkness, and furniturelessness, but now it is ok. My cat arrived also in mid August, so it is really our new homeJ
I live right in the city center, fantastic location, really, 2 mins from the lake, can reach any part of the city with public transport in 15 mins, and in the evening can simply walk home from parties as they are in my area.

- Work
I changed location, job scale (now I am also Central Europe North and CE South, and also shifted on the strategic side – not just short term planning and exploitation, but mid-term planning), team (now we are half CES and half Polish) and category (moving from Baby Care to Fabric Care. The brand I am working on is Bonux, a “cheap” detergent – which is very good, because the brand strategy is targeting the low income consumers with the power of humor, so fits me much better than the boring “side-by-side, wow, look how clean, blabla”. My job is to make funny advertising:) We get along well with my boss and colleagues. Generally I am satisfied with this position, I can learn a lot. There is also a lot of business trip on the way, because part of the Fabric Care is in Bruxelles, and I have to go often to Poland and CES countries too.

- City
GVA is quite small, 200.000 inhabitants (but maybe 5 times more works here and commute) It is very quiet compared to Bp, but very nice. I have to get used to the fact, that there are 3 party places, we can either go to A B or C if we want to dance, but there are a lot of small bars where you can sit and chat. I go running on the lake-side, which is beautiful:) Public transport is reliable and well developed, I didn’t bring my car, I will only use the buses and trams, it is easier and quicker. An other positive side of GVA is its location: few hours from Milano, the seaside, Barcelona, right at the mountains…and it is the center of EasyJet, so cheap flight everywhere.

- People
In the first weeks I did not have much time to socialize, but now I am getting up to speed.
I have here Hungarian friends from university/AIESEC who also relocated here. This is a great luck, I like them a lot, and we make programs together + they take care of my cat when I am on business trip.
colleagues. I know some ppl from trainings and just started attending P&G parties, so my pool of colleague-friends is increasing (which is not very hard, as we are over 2000 P&Gers here)
Best news is that Mar, a Spanish friend from a training got relocated too, who is really cool. She arrived beginning September and by chance she lives very close to me. We got along very well back than too, and now we hang out a lot together.
other expats. There is a great community webpage for expats, bit like facebook, but the aim is info-sharing and event management. I went to some of the events they promoted and met great ppl (e.g. a nuclear physics professor who came here to CERN to speed up particlesJ, lot of UN ppl in interesting positions etc) they also promote sporting and cultural events, which is a great opportunity to meet ppl outside P&G
swiss: I must say I was lucky with this one, because I have a swiss colleague who brought me (and some other colleagues) in to his friends’ circle, and we went hiking together for a weekend trip (was great, 1st time rock climbing in my life, sleeping in a small house on the top of the mountain, really perfect weekend). They were really nice ppl all of them. I actually already know more swiss than I got to know in 1 year in Wien.

Freetime
I am doing lots of sports here, go to a gym, running, hiking – all together very healthy. I am now starting to do more socializing & networking, so in fact all this together with the business trips make up a full schedule.
I will start my French classes soon, twice a week in the mornings. I am so happy I was so passionate about French in high-school! I couldn’t use it in the past 6-7 years at all, but I still understand everything and can express myself (of course the vocabulary faded a lot), but the teacher said that my grammar is still great, I am at strong advanced level still, and I just need refreshment, and can make the DELF exam after one course.

This is all for now. Come & see & write!!