Umbrella anyone?

There are mornings you wake up thinking: "Oh... another day at work!" But it wasn't just another day.

I skipped last week because I was ill, so there really was no excuse not to go in. I got showered and dressed, put on my jeans and a sweater, and off I cycled to work.

I was actually the first one there, since my colleagues were all... fashionably late. And I mean 'fashionably', because they were either in a suit or a formal dress, while I sat there in my jeans and sweater.

I had completely forgotten today was the official opening of the new building, and that there was a whole programme lined up the whole afternoon. It didn't matter that we had been working at the new building for over two months, because some VIP has to 'officially' open the building with speeches and carpets, champaigns and little hors d'oeuvres, or else the building is not 'officially open'.

So during lunch break I cycled home and got changed. With suit, shirt and tie, veryday David soon became young city professional David. And I was ready to face the crowd, let alone fit in.

It just had to be. The 'new' building I work in is situated on what has been called the "most beautiful avenue in Europe", right next door to the Swiss and Spanish embassies, a few steps from the parliament buildings, and a only a few houses down from the chique hotel where many prominent foreign dignatories have stayed on state visits to the Netherlands. And as the mayor of The Hague joked in the opening speech, the neighbourhood will get even more exclusive as soon as the Dutch version of Guantanamo Bay a stone's throw away (the American embassy) moves away.

The ‘official’ ceremony started in the old building, and then eventually the crowd made their way toward the new building. As all 'official' events, the heavy-weight VIPs gave speeches, praising what wonderful and gracious achievements have been made, and what bright wonderful future we all welcome with the opening of the new building. The Hague, despite being the 'City of Peace, Justice & Security' of the world, does not actually have an official university. Leiden University where I study and indirectly also work at, is the only institution with a presence right in the city centre, and in the past years has been offering high quality education to professionals and civil servants and the international community. And this has grown so much we need a second building to accommodate all the different academic institutes and courses that are now available. The people who were invited were people who's names you often read in the newspapers… former ministers, university rectors, professors, experts in this and that field… Of course, as lowly employees my colleagues and I could only stand at the sideline and gawk and awe at their influence and prestige, but it felt somehow proud to be standing in the same room as these prominents.

OK, enough bragging. As we expected, my colleagues and I weren’t there to just sip free champagne and nimble delicate biscuits. In the middle of a speech we were silently dragged away and put to work. Each of us were given an umbrella, and I thought we were to use them to escort the guests because it was raining. Even though the weather was gray, there was no rain. Then as we were given our ‘assignments’, I burst out laughing.

A bit too loud, perhaps. From the old to the new building is a walk of around 500 metres. To avoid our very important people wandering off and getting lost, groups of us need to stand at ‘key positions’ and point the way. How would they identify us? With the umbrellas.

Soon enough, my colleagues and I were spread out along the way, hoisting our proud blue umbrellas bearing the university logo, and pointing the way… cursing under our breaths. Well, I didn’t curse, I just found it all hilarious and ridiculous. I stood in front of fences and barriers of ‘Guantanamo Bay’, with an open umbrella even though it wasn’t raining, and wondered how long it would take before the security guards came to arrest me. Probably they have all noted our faces and names, since we’ve been conducting some ‘suspicious activities’ around the American embassy for the past few weeks. We looked like a row of lunatics, in smart suits and shoes, holding up umbrellas and showing people the way.

The kind of things that goes on behind official events…