Beginning of Work

I started work on Monday morning. It was really no different than any of my other first days of work in Canada. Arrive at reception introduce yourself; wait for reception to call someone to come meet you; be shown your desk and taken on a whirlwind tour of the office so everyone knows who you are, and you should know who they are.

The whirlwind tour always involves meeting at least 25 people in under 20 minutes so when a coworker makes reference to someone else and asks if you know them or you run into someone in the hall/canteen/washroom you really have no idea whether you have met them before or not. This whole process is further complicated when everyone’s name is Danish and none of the names are familiar to you. Unfortunately, unlike at UBC, I have yet to meet a Mike. Even once I have mastered pronouncing the name and matching it to the face, I am still not done because I then need to be able to spell it to be able to send an e mail to that individual. I figure in about 7 weeks time, just as I am finishing work I should have all this sorted out!


I took this photo last week soon after arriving in Copenhagen when I went looking for the office so I would know where to go on Monday morning. I have since learned that COWI also occupies two more adjacent buildings and my desk is actually in one of the other buildings.

I am working in the Marine Structures and Foundations Group. There are approximately 40 employees that are a part of it. (Overall, in this particular location COWI has 2000 employees with another 2000 employees in other parts of Denmark. Buckland and Taylor is the Canadian component of this company.) I will be specifically working on a wind power generation farm off the coast of Belgium. I spent my first two days reading the EuroCode for concrete design tying to determine the minimum amount of overlap when joining a second piece of rebar reinforcing. If it wasn’t for all the fun I had in Civil 430, I’d be so lost at the moment.

On workdays I will not starve. Every morning, baskets of fruit are put on each of the floors and you can help yourself to a piece of fruit everyday. Then there is the Kanteen where everyone eats lunch. The kanteen has a feature hot entrée, salad bar (with a good selection of vegetables, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds and crasins), two or three other salads, and a buffet area (with cold cuts, cheeses and pickles) available every day. It only costs the equivalent of $4 Canadian for your plateful. Included in the $4 price is also Coke or Milk. Often there is a soup too, but I think that is an extra dollar. There are also pre-made sandwiches that are huge and they only cost $3, so you can get one of those to take with you for the evening or if you are working late. Apparently, on Friday mornings my department also has (a free) breakfast together, so I have been warned to not have breakfast at home before work.