First try: with the backboard

What is going on?

“I need your table for a few minutes,” said Pietro. Next thing I know we have various bits of kit, improvised backboards, a hurriedly-drafted in photographer’s assistant (variously around, behind and even under the aforementioned table) as well as, as you might expect, the odd passer-by pausing to observe proceedings.

The second option required a helper UNDER the table

Second try: no backboard

For fifteen minutes, my office was taken over as a studio. Don’t worry, they said, we won’t disturb you. And, well, round here that’s how it is. It’s our job. Which is another reason I really like my job.

The fruit of all these labours? See the picture here.

(For best results, click on the photo.)

Why?

I got super-stressed when I arrived at the European Parliament’s building in Strasbourg.
“No info desks,” I was told by the buildings service, “however, the security service at the entrances can provide information. Plans of the buildings can be consulted at main points and in front of the lifts.”

But …… If you think that you will arrive there and the security men will tell you the correct updated office number of your boss, then you are as naive as I was. They sent me to the 14th floor, where he had been more than three years previously. No DG Communication anywhere near… A Polish administration lady went with me to investigate the right office. We even grabbed a passing fire-fighter to help us to find it.

After asking, labyrinthine-ing among 2.600 offices and 57 meeting rooms, including the Hemicycle, while hoping I would not have to take all 34 staircases and sweating because I was already late, we finally arrived. After three quarters of an hour. Polish lady, fire-fighter and ME {laugh}.

Letters, numbers and colours … Coffee, please!

There are 4 buildings and 6 places to get some snacks in European Parliament area:

1, Louise Weiss (LOW) named after a lady Weiss born to a Bourgeoisie, Alsatian family. The centre of her interest was Europe, and so she came to find herself in Strasbourg towards the end of her life. She was then the oldest Member of Parliament to be elected by direct universal suffrage. She remained MEP and oldest member until her death in 1983 at the age of 90.

LOW is famous for its Flower Bar with a very funky carpet and a lot of yummy things to choose from. It is always very full, though. :{

Second one is Visitor’s bar at LOW 00 – under the Hemicycle
Thirdly, Members’ bar at LOW 01 -next to the Hemicycle zone Nord
And the fourth one – Press bar at LOW 00 zone Nord – approximately opposite of the Members’ bar, one floor beneath.

1946: “There is a remedy which … would in a few years make all Europe … free and … happy. It is to re-create the European family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe.”

2, Winston Churchill (WIC), a former army officer, war reporter and British Prime Minister (1940-45 and 1951-55), was one of the first to call for the creation of a ‘United States of Europe’. Sir Winston Churchill also made a name for himself as a painter and writer; in 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I think Mr. Churchill would be very happy If he would have known that we have on -1 floor Cygnes/Swan Bar. It is very nice one with view to the river and a lot of trees. Bonus!  It is very close to the one of 28 restrooms in the complex.

3, Salvador de Madariaga (SDM) is the founder of the College of Europe. Passionate defender of liberty and tolerance, he wanted to construct a free and democratic Europe of continental scale. He was also a writer, poet, historian, philosopher and politician. After working for the League of Nations, he pursued a university career at Oxford, where published a number of works, including the famous “Englishmen, Frenchmen and Spaniards”, an essay on the observation and comparative psychology of people.

Unfortunately, no bar in SDM.

4, Pierre Pflimlin (PFL) Pierre Eugène Jean Pflimlin was a French Christian democratic politician who served as the penultimate Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic for a few weeks in 1958, before being replaced by Charles de Gaulle during the crisis of that year. Pflimlin served as mayor of Strasbourg from 1959 to 1 983. He also was the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1963 to 1966 and President of the European Parliament from 1984 to 1987.

And finally our building: It has an Accueil Bar on the -1 floor. Wonderful place to meet all communication people.

My PFL F000445A.  My castle.

First 3 letters is the abbreviation of the building’s name PFL= Pierre Pflimlin. The first 2 numbers are the floor number and then the rest is the office number.

LOW building, the biggest of the 4 Strasbourg buildings, is divided into 6 zones: N=Nord, S=Sud, T=Tower, H=Hemicycle, C=Canal, R=Rivière. The other 3 buildings have not been divided into zones. However you can still follow different colours connected to different zones in the WIC.

You can get to our office in PFL by two ways – the official way and my way

The official way: “The common floor to all 4 buildings in Strasbourg is floor 01. You access the PFL building through the WIC building, than you take the lift or staircase down to floor 00. The working post F00044a (and not F000445a) is situated inside the open plan space F00040. There are 2 such spaces in the PFL, the F00030 and the F00040, each one contains approximately 30 working posts, ” explains  Buildings service.

My version would be: Get off the bus. Behind the corner, there is a big entrance to PFL building. Pass the security. First stairs on your left to first floor. And do you see second door on your left? You scored….

Strasbourg a peaceful city

The capital city of the Alsace region situated in north-eastern France where some of us spend every 4th week or the others have the only possibility to see while on traineeship.

What interests me is the density of the city. It is around half of Brussels one {according to an online encyclopaedia statistics Brussels has 6,6 inhb/m² while Strasbourg only 3,5 inhb/m²}.

Getting around

You can easily get around by bus, tram or on foot. The best way to get to EP is tram or bus number…  It has actually no number. It is a special service for the European Institutions and it is called the Navette. The actual bus stop is on your right side behind the flags when you are standing the way that the train station is behind you.

“Here is your office and your desk, put a password on your computer and come to my office, we will drink a coffee together and speak about your future job” said the nice coordinator and smiled. We have never drunk this coffee. Because only setting up a password took me one hour!

My office

Why? Our unit writes the news about the European Parliament in 22 languages. Do you know what that means? On my language bar I have 21 options for the keyboard setting. I don’t know, which one of them was pre-selected on my computer, but it took me ages before I was able to retype my password again. This was my first big lesson about multilingualism.

When I finally was able to enter into my computer I had already 37 e-mails in my mailbox. I couldn’t decode two-thirds of them. My colleagues spoke about “synopsis”, “visuals”, “ads” and “short stories”. What should the message mean: “Please, send me the update for the focus on budget discharge!” For sure “I liked the tapas on the blue card” was not about Spanish food, but what was it about? And what is IMPRESS? Oh, help!

For sure “I liked the tapas on the blue card” was not about Spanish food, but what was it about? And what is IMPRESS? Oh, help!

The help appeared with the smiling coordinator at my door, who explained me that IMPRESS is our tool to publish articles on the web and suggested to introduce me to the colleagues. All extremely nice, young people, all smiling and suggesting help, one even sung a song in my native language. Maybe it is true – I landed in the nicest unit indeed.

But in this first day everything was difficult. To remember 22 new people at once is complicated enough, but if they are from 22 different countries this is even more confusing. Back in the office I was not sure – was the singer from Slovakia or Latvia? And how is the pronunciation of the name of the French editor?

In the meantime I had 24 new e-mails. Full with “synopses” and “ads” again. I had the heart to ask the Danish colleague. After kindly correcting the spelling of his name, he explained that the synopsis is the draft, the skeleton of our stories (see also “The day we invented the synopsis“). The tapas are also such texts, but shorter, visuals and ads are products to make our page more attractive – with photos, quotas and polls. OK this is enough, I said, enough for today.

I had to go home and have a rest – tomorrow was my second day in the office.