Dag Ett (Day One)

First day of work today and I'm still really jetlagged. Luckily, Swedish coffee is very strong and tasty—I've been drinking a lot of it. As I've discovered before during long conferences and media events, it takes a lot of energy to stay "on" for any length of time. It sounds bad to say it's hard work to be happy and polite, but if you've ever worked in the service industry and been good at your job, you'll know what I mean. Meeting lots of new people and being bright and cheery despite a lack of sleep is exhausting, but I'm having fun.

Now might be a good time to give some initial impressions of Stockholm and the Swedes: we'll see whether I still agree with the stuff I'm about to say here six months from now. The vibe here is a bizarre combination of haute urbanism and shy provincialism. The department stores and interior design in Stockholm are insanely hip, but the people tend to be endearingly modest, sometimes to the point of unnecessary embarrassment. There's a relaxed, neighborhoody feeling to the city, with zero attitude, and everyone seems to love children. You can't throw a stone without hitting a kids' store or a stroller (nice imagery, huh?). The park in front of my apartment complex features an orange mountain made from bouncy rubber, which I'm planning to jump on later tonight when no one's looking. There's sort of a working-class, Eastern European feeling to some parts of the city, too, which reminds me of my old neighborhood in Brooklyn. If you can imagine Soho and the Upper East Side both being plopped down on top of Greenpoint, that's what Stockholm is like. Only the Poles would be Swedes. Same exaggerated tans and blond hair; fewer alcoholics.

So take everything I just said and imagine that this is the home of a major media company's world headquarters. There are no private cars idling outside, no Armani suits brushing past you in the hallway, no Andre Leon Tally in a gigantic mink giving you the stink eye because you're checking your Blackberry but he thinks you're MMSing a cell phone pic to Gawker Stalker (get over yourself, buddy). Jonas's "corner office" is actually a desk exactly like mine, only in a right-angled space between two windows, because that's how he wants it. The whole thing is wildly unpretentious, refreshing and entirely unlike the American media business.

In other news, I jumped right into my first project today. I hate that weird lag time when you start a new job and for a day or two you're not sure what you're supposed to be doing. But Bonnier is hosting a big international conference called GRID next Monday and Tuesday, and it's my job to make sure the event is documented and archived online with lots of great content. My immediate task is to create a home for all the photos and video. The conference organizers hired a very good videographer, but without a Web person on staff, they didn't know exactly how they'd present it online. So I've got a week to fix that. If you think of it, check out the GRID site next week to see what we came up with.

In the meantime, here's what Bonnier AB looks like on the inside. I haven't taken any photos outside at all yet because it's been rainy and dreary the past two days. As soon as the sun comes out, I'll show you the city.