Where I work

This is the Deutsche Welle building in south Bonn, just up a short slope from the Rhine River. There's actually 9 buildings of varying sizes altogether, housing the radio and on-line operations of DW. Television is based in Berlin. The buildings were originally built as offices for the West German parliament which was just down the street, but has of course now moved to Berlin. Many of the other former parliamentary buildings are now used by the United Nations, including its Climate Change Commission headquarters, and a huge convention centre is being built nearby. I've heard that when the capital was being moved to Berlin, Bonners were lucky enough to have a real tough mayor in office and she browbeat the federal government into putting a lot of money into finding replacement employers for the government offices that were moving. DW radio is the foreign service of German public radio and broadcasts in 30 languages around the world. Natch, I work in the English service. The work day is done in English and German. Most of the people in the unit, well everybody but me, understands German pretty well. The big tower in the background is the Deutsch Post building. When I first came I was sharing this office with Eric and Victoria, he's from the States, she's English. I was so, so lucky to be with these two. They were super about helping me find my way around here when I came and settle into the community as a whole. For instance, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't have known I was supposed to register at city hall and also get a foreign resident permit from the 'Auslanders' office. There's a big atrium right below our office window. It's where people go have to coffee, shoot the shit, and have a smoke. You can even get beer from those vending machines below. God Bless Germany.