First day of work

Mostly boring, because I didn't get my user authorization and password in time to start actually working. But I had to go to an OSCE meeting in the morning (being driven in the embassy car instead of having to go by taxi is abso-bloody-lutely fantastic!!!!), and I read some interesting reports and looked at a few visa applications, so the time wasn't wasted.
Ambassador, who is currently in Austria and will return to work on Wednesday, called to inquire how I was doing -- nice and thoughtful. I told him that I'd not provoked a war so far and was keeping my mouth shut (very uncharacteristic, but I prefer to stay silent unless I know exactly what I'm talking about).
Having met the embassy staff already on Thursday, I only had to introduce myself to the police attaché, who also seems to be a very nice, easygoing guy.
Tomorrow, due to Ambassador's absence, I'll have to participate in the Head of Missions' meeting in his stead.

Things hitherto accomplished: Various acquisitions like ironing board, sufficiently large sheets for my luxury-size bed (2m by 2, love it!), a few plates, cups and cutlery. Discovered bookshop with a very decent range of English books. Got subscription for mobile phone. And, most importantly, I bought blinds today which will be installed on Wednesday morning. At this time of year, the living room has direct sunlight from sunrise till about 11, and it just gets too hot. Besides the windows look horribly naked without anything.

I'm very impressed with the range of products offered by the two big supermarkets here (one Greek, one Turkish). There's decent cheese -- no big selection, but at least you can have a decent Camembert -- they make fabulous sausages, they have soy milk (YAY! says lactose-intolerant me). So far the only thing I couldn't find was decent tea and coffee, but I'll have that sent from Austria.

The distance from my flat to the embassy is way more than I thought. Silly me, I was using a map with the Embassy's former location. Still, I have discovered a perfect way to get from here to there: 20 minutes' walk downhill there's a taxi station, and from there it's about 10 minutes to the embassy by taxi. So I get my morning walk, too. The road isn't exactly smooth, and also rather steep, so I wear Nordic Walking shoes and take ze pretty shoes with higher heels to the office in my bag. Of course, if there's a formal dinner to be attended, I'm going to call a taxi and do the whole trip by taxi -- it really wouldn't do to arrive there in heavy walking gear and change shoes. Going by taxi is dirt cheap, by the way, i.e. € 1 (yes, one)  for a distance of about 4 or 5 km.

And now I'm going to prepare myself some dinner.