New Beginnings

I've been anticipating this day for the past 2 1/2 months: the day I start my job at Service Canada. Although it was a tough decision to leave DND, I believe I made the right choice, as what I will be doing will be more closely associated with what I am studying and my field of interest. But don't get me wrong, I think most of you all know that I truly enjoyed my time at DND and if I can find a policy-related job or something in Public Affairs at DND, I'll jump at the chance to return to the department. But as of this moment, I'm looking forward to my four months at Service Canada.

Today started off with waking up at the same time as usual, 6:30am, although I didn't really get out of bed till like 6:45am. This was the first time ever that I actually had to look at the bus schedule prior to my departure to make sure which bus to take. It was weird. So I actually had to leave on time and give myself enough time to walk to the bus stop with a few minutes to spare just in case the bus decided to show up early. Well, turns out I got there pretty early, but the bus 8 never showed up. So I hopped on bus 40, which also goes to Hull (but I didn't exactly know where it stops at Place du Portage). The bus was a little packed so I stood near the second set of doors. At Laurier, I had to move so I could let the people get off. As soon as I turned around, guess who I see? My old boss. Hahaha. It was too hilarious. She's like "Lydia!" And I just looked at her in shock. So I sat in the seat behind her and we just chatted a bit until she got off at Mackenzie King. She said to me "Looks like you'll never get rid of me!" Hahaha. Too funny. But I probably won't see her on the bus anymore because I start at 9am. Today I had to start earlier because of paperwork stuff.

Anyway, I enjoyed the commute to work because more people got off along the Transitway but not a lot of people got on. Then I realized the bus turned onto de Maisonneuve and Laurier. Woot! And it actually stops right in front of Phase IV! Whoo hooo. If I took the 8, I would of had to jay cross Laurier. Turns out I arrived almost 15 minutes early, so I just sat downstairs reading my Metro newspaper until 8:30am, when I proceeded to the visitor's phone to call my boss.

Security at Service Canada is completely different from DND, which is expected. More on that later. After reintroducing ourselves (we haven't seen each other since February and I could barely recognize his face from the interview!) and getting signed in, we proceeded up to our floor and he introduced some people to me; sat me down to discuss things I have to do and what to expect; and then did some paperwork. About 15 minutes later, the boss tells me that I have a meeting to attend at 1pm. OMG. I barely know what work I have to do and I have a meeting already. 10 minutes later, he returns and says that I also have a meeting at 11am and that I should read this deck. WOW. The meetings were quite interesting. I had to take notes (for my own benefit) so I knew what the heck was going on. Aside from the two meetings, I just sat at my empty cubicle (I miss my old cubicle actually...) and read up on the orientation manuals and some briefing notes that I have to know for a meeting with Citizenship and Immigration Canada on Wednesday. My oh my, lots of work, but it does seem really interesting!

Like I mentioned above, security at Service Canada is completely different from DND. No PIN codes to punch in, no chips behind my pass, no turnstiles, but just a swipe thing that turns green; no wearing of pass after scanning through (!) and visitor's get stickers instead of temporary passes. Everything is pretty lax there. Well, except for the Internet -- same deal. I got my ID pass in 5 minutes and it's done by Service Canada people. At DND, I had to wait almost 15 minutes and it was done by the commissionaires. We also had to wear our ID passes above the waist at all times. It was sometimes annoying, but now, I can actually just clip it on the side of my pants or even put it away until I have to scan through at the entrance. The only crappy thing is that every time I bend or something, the clip digs into me. Owwie.

Anyway, my boss Guy is hilarious. He's pretty laid back. Every one in the office seems laid back too. A couple of them, including my boss are alumnus from uOttawa and had some of my profs as well. But you know the public service is a small world when my boss knows one of my profs (Michael O'Neill) because they used to be colleagues at Treasury Board. And my boss is also a Manchester United fan! Woot! But I also have a colleague that's a Liverpool FC fan. Oh well. But he's a soccernut like me. And the student that I'm sharing a cubicle with, he loves hockey according to everyone else (he's on holidays for a week). Wooot. Hopefully, I'll be able to get along very well with everyone else.

Today, when my boss was introducing me to some people, he would say "I would like to introduce you to Lydia Pang, the new co-op student who just came from National Defence". And then everyone's like "wow, what's it like at National Defence?" Seems like people are always very curious about DND. I guess it's quite unique because we're not exactly serving Canadians per se, but acting as a support arm for the the Canadian Forces.

Anyway, this blog has been quite long and I've definitely had information overload for today. So I will end off by saying that Timmy's is a little bit more expensive in Gatineau than in Ottawa (I forgot about that...). I can't believe a little body of water that separates the two cities makes such a difference. I'm definitely going to miss going home for lunch and the NDHQ cafeteria....I was so spoiled at DND. I think so are other NDHQ employees...