The Welcome Wagon

Our company has a great graduate programme that allows new graduate to do stints in areas around the company, getting a view of the whole company and gaining lots of experience. A few luck out and make it to the US. Jacqui was one, and our newest arrival - Colin - is another.


He arrived yesterday and I volunteered Stephen and I to be the Welcome Wagon and go and collect him from the airport. I got a call from the company that had organised his accommodation letting me know that the keys were available and suggesting that I collect them before heading out to the airport as the site office closed at 6pm and who knows what can happen to traffic round the Beltway during rush hour.


Having planned to leave the office at 1:30 it was inevitable that we got delayed and didn't get away until nearly 2:15. Colin's flight landed at 2:40, and with having to get through immigration I hoped we just about had enough time to get there before he appeared! We jumped into the car and legged it in the general direction of the apartments whilst I fought with the overly complicated SatNav. We were there before I got it to accept the address!!


I leaped from the car and into the office. There was a girl behind the desk trying to find a package for a resident. She threw me a look and snapped "what number?".

"I'm here to collect keys for Colin Bennett who's moving in today".

No verbal response, just another look. She eventually found the package for the other chap and swished round the desk and past me. I was immediately in hot pursuit.

"Excuse me, but I'm here to collect keys for Colin Bennett"

"What number?"

"He's moving in today"

"I can't give keys to someone not on the lease"

"He's possibly not going to get here until after 6pm. I was told to collect the keys by the letting agent"

""I can't give keys to someone not on the lease. People generally tie moving in with our office hours"

"Well that's not a possibility. He's currently on a flight from the UK. I'm going to collect him from the airport this afternoon"

This just elicited another stroppy look. Oh dear....

"Right. Let me get my phone. I'm going to call the letting agent and you can speak to him and explain why I can't collect the keys". I turned on my heel and stomped out to the car to get the agents phone number. I was rummaging in the car muttering loudly to Stephen about the stroppy attitude of 20 year old girls when she came out of the office with an envelope of keys and thrust them at me without a word.

We finally got on he road and spent most of the time on I-66 doing a staggeringly fast 25mph. I was pretty convinced that he would be out and waiting for us by the time we finally got there! Thankfully we picked up speed, and immigration was slow... We had about 30 minutes to wait before he came out. I was there with my sign as neither of us had any idea what the other looked like!

He's a very nice young guy, very chatty. We got him back to his apartment (just before 6pm!), and then left him to it as he was keen to go and explore. He's just across from Potomac Yards (Target, Best Buy etc), so pointed him in that direction as he was wanting to go buy a cell phone and have a look round.