Going Dutch...

One "big difference" between the Orange tree and the Watermelons field is that here in the field I'll probably learn more Dutch then on the tree.
The percentage of people from out of Netherlands is not lower then the one on the tree, but here most of them are Indians and many of them has learned to speak Dutch, so often the conversations are in Dutch...
Why?
I mean why have so many Indians learned to speak Dutch? Why here there is this wider tendency of speaking Dutch?

On the tree sometime it happened that two persons from different countries started talking in a common language for the two of them, like often an Italian ex-colleague of mine speaking in Spanish with an other Spanish colleague. But not so often a non Dutch was speaking in Dutch with a Dutch...

I don't have an answer yet, but I feel that I will learn more Dutch now than in the past 6 years!

A new habit

New places and new colleagues mean even new habits and rules of behavior.
For example here there is the habit, when you go to take a coffee or a tea, to ask all the colleagues if they desire something too.
It's nothing special, but it creates a sense of kindness around and that's very nice.

But I'm missing my massages, me going to colleagues and making some little shoulder massages to them....
It's not yet time for that, I'm still too much new here and still feel I'm not fully part of the environment.

It's always about vegetables...

One week in the Watermelons field has passed and what can I say: that at the end it's always the same old soup, it's always about vegetables!
Yes: the Orangery and the Watermelons field are not so different, there are always the same problems and dysfunctions.
For example in both the Orangery and the Watermelons field there are problems with the toilets!
In the Orangery the problem was that they got stoked and water was flooding all around, while in the Watermelons field they are simply under reconstruction, since the second day I got there, and with an advice on the door saying that they will be under reconstruction till the 14th of April.. that's more then a week ago!

But of course there are even little penetrating differences...
As the strong smell of curry when you arrive next to the cafeteria, even if I still have to understand if it's due to the kitchen and the dishes of Indian tradition they serve or instead because of a critical crowd mass reached by my Indians colleagues at lunch time.
Or even maybe because of their own food that the same Indians colleagues bring from home for lunch.
This last is an interesting opportunity that I've leveraged too: in the cafeteria there is a set of microwaves that you can use to warm up what you have just bought or what you brought from home, and you can even mix the two source of course!
Today for example I've brought from home two slices of spinach and rice pies, and I've wormed them up using a dish I got from the cafeteria, and then eat using fork and knife always from the cafeteria.
It's very convenient and practical.
I have to let my fantasy wild to prepare more different dishes for my lunches!

Keeping my Ornge skin inside...

When I had the goodbye party at CECI, my colleagues gave me a lot of orange object telling me that I should use them in my first days in the Watermelons Field.
Sorry friends, I've not done it...
I've thought about it, meditating on which level of provocation I could have used, but at the end I have not had the courage to challenge all the watermelons... I'll have to spend a lot of time there, and starting with such a provocation would not be a good move.

Am I becoming a watermelon myself? Probably in the long run it will happen, I've not moved into the hell where all the people are bad and the smell of sulfur is in every bit and byte...
The people here are normal people, not with three legs or two heads, and they are showing the same defects and merits as everywhere, so slowly I will become one of them too.
But for now I have to keep my orange skin hidden and just for me... for the moment I still feel the alien, the stranger, and I compare every corner, every little place with what I was used to in the Orangery.

So for example: even if there is a lot of light, the building is a bit more dark, as if the tones of the colors were dimmed, washed away from the time.
Yes, there is a bit of an old fur on the things, a light fog in the air...
And this is a strange feeling in contrast with the quickness and efficiency with which I've been involved into the working activities.
Is it maybe that here the watermelons take less care on the looks and more on the substance?
It's too early to judge, let's hope my positive feeling will not be betrayed!

Just one more note: the building is what is being said an "intelligent building", one of those building that decide if and when the curtains of the windows must be opened or closed, do that when you are not expecting it the building turn them up or down so that you are unexpectedly in the dark or flashed by a sudden sunshine!
I've to get used to it....

And the first day has passed!

First day in the Watermelons Field, and I should say that it has been a good day.

I expected a slow starting, with a lot of device delivery, software installation, configuration check.... Instead in just a couple of hours I was ready and active!
A new laptop, the secure card configured, the email account activated, the access to Jira up and running, what else? All working and with just a little help from the new colleagues which have been all very kind and available to support me in my first steps in the new environment.

Strange feeling: how long will I take to feel myself not an alien in this place? How long will my skin take to became green?

The place is quite different from the Orangery: a bit more closed, with less colors and fashion places... And from a statistical point of view with less women and more Indians....
In the Orangery I was used to have many women around, compared to usual IT/DevOps environment, so from this point of view the ratio here is more "normal". What a pity... 

But most of all yes: there are really a lot of Indians around, even if they are not the only nationality present.
In my team at the moment we are: 1 Italian, 2 Indians, 1 Iranian.
In the neighborhood there are even 1 English, 1 French, 1 Spanish, a number of Dutch, and many many other Indians too.
But the real evidence of the wide presence of Indians, bot physically and virtually (that means working from remote in India) is that all around the building there are many wall clocks on the timezone of Mumbay!

One little problem: I don't have a locker, and the desk policy is of real "open desk policy" so I have no place to store anything, not even my mug and my tea bags... How can I have my good tea instead of the standard company taste-less one?
I'll have to find a solution to bring with me everyday my mug and my tea without occupy too much space in my backpack!

Last day on the Orange tree...

Well.... tomorrow I'll start a new adventure, after almost six years spent in the International Carbon Emissions Committee (also known as CECI).
 

Which are my feelings?
Most of all I got the perception of experiencing the last moments of my experience in CECI.
So many times I've told myself "this is the last time I'll use this toilet", "this is the last time I'll use my badge", "this is....". At the end it could have been a very depressive and boring day, but instead I've been very happy: all the good friends passing by and saying hello, exchanging a hug (not the last I promise... just a little break of time till the next).

I was even a bit sad because all my most direct colleagues would have been at an offsite, where of course there was no reason for me to be.

I was scared specially of the lunch time, because I feared I would felt alone...

And instead such an amazing lunch: the yearly Bingo session with all gifts received for Christmas and redistributed as prizes!
Such a nice way to say not goodbye but see you soon again my friends! 

 

And I'm sure of only this: inside I'll always be CECI....

But tomorrow?

Will I be thinking of my empty desk among the other desks in CECI?

Probably I'll have too much to do and think about, probably I'll have time only in the evening after that all the exciting things of the first day in the Watermelons Field will have calmed down...