The Reason I'm Here

Work. I suppose I shouldn't complain because work is what got me a trip to a place I wouldn't visit on my own. And if the first 2 days are any indication, it won't be bad at all. At least it doesn't involve walking across any streets. We left our hotel at 7 pm on Monday evening to head to the office. We told our driver that we needed to go to the MetLife office. After an extremely terrifying drive through rush hour traffic, we pull up to the building. But the minute we pulled up, I knew it wasn't right. The office had moved recently and I had seen pictures. This was not the new building. Our driver was really nice and talked to one of our co-workers here to get the correct address. After an additional 20 minute, not as scary drive, we pull up to the building and Shruti and Ashish are waiting for us. We check in with security and go up to meet the team. By the looks on their faces, it was obvious they all knew we went to the wrong building first.


It was great meeting everyone on the team. There were a couple of guys that I had worked with when they were in Iowa in January and it was nice to see them again. I had been talking to several people over email, sametime and the phone for a couple of months and it was great to put a face with the name. Now the trick is going to be matching the right face with the right name. We had a map with everyone's names and where they were sitting. The problem is that they don't sit in the same seats each day. But like I said, I'm a smart girl. I'm sure I'll have the names down soon.


The first day was a bit stressful. By the time we got back to the hotel, all we wanted to do was finish up a bit of work, get breakfast and go to bed. After trying unsuccessfully for 20 minutes to get our computers and systems working, we got the giggles. I'm pretty sure I started it, surprise surprise, but Shelly jumped right in. I don't think there is anyone in the room next to me but if there is, I should probably apologize.

Since we were awake, we decided to get breakfast. Problem was they didn't start serving for another 20 minutes. After looking out the window and not seeing anyone on the streets, we thought that would be a good time to do a little exploring. There wouldn't be people everywhere or cars to run us over. From the time it took us to get from the 3rd floor to the lobby, it had started pouring rain and was very windy. It was about that time that we decided we would just hang out in the lobby for 20 minutes. We were hoping that the rain would help cool down the temperature. Definitely not the case. It just made it more humid. White girl fro is starting to make an appearance...