I have to admit, this helpful little nugget of advice incited something akin to sheer terror. This was late at night my first evening in St Louis, having travelled for nearly 20 hours, had a few wee wines on the plane, and emerged exhausted into a wall of sticky heat. To say I went to bed nervous is an understatement.

All change come morning time. The long stay studios my fellow intern Rory and I are staying in are great. We’re a bit out of St Louis, in a suburb called Westport, for our internships with Monsanto. The long stay hotel has other residents who have been/will be there for months on end, and have formed a little community. Helpful doesn’t even begin to describe them.

Take the source of such gems as the title of this blog, fellow resident Sonia: clearly worried for my modesty should I run to the safety area sans clothing at 3am. Most kind.

After causing much hilarity by asking where the nearest supermarket I could walk to was (nearly 3miles in 96f heat!) one of the other residents took me shopping for basics. One thing I cannot get over is the sheer choice available. Simply choosing peanut butter was exhausting. I’m assured that Skippy is in fact the best though, so we’re all good.

Everything is fascinating; I could have spent hours wandering around. Thankfully for Mike, my chauffer for the afternoon, I kept it brief, bar a stop to marvel at the white eggs. Queue more laughter at my expense, but I’d never in my life seen a white egg, and they are a little creepy. I’m pleased to report that Mike has never seen a brown egg.

Anyhoo, the point to all this blethering is: if we weren’t in the suburbs, I don’t think we’d have met the same people or experienced quite the same kindness. Not to say that people in the city would be hostile, but the set up at the long stay and some of the other residents being from outside St Louis helps. They really understand that it’s difficult to get to grips with somewhere new, and that a little kindness goes a long way. The staff are also brilliant; Erin has already been on the phone to tell her Scottish granny all about us.

Days one and two at Monsanto; agricultural giant, leader in biotechnology, and one of the world's most controversial purveyors of GM foods, have been great!

I applied for the internship because of my interest in Corporate Social Responsibility and in public relations, and I genuinely don’t think I could have been better placed. Monsanto do all sorts of incredible work with biotechnology and genetically modified seeds, and have an overall goal to improve sustainability in farming. That’s a tiny bit of it, I don’t want to go on too much, but the essence is there.

They also receive, and are not afraid to discuss, some of the most intense press criticism I have ever read. Obviously GM is fairly controversial anyway, but there have been many and varied attacks on the company, and I wondered whether that would be off limits during our time here.

In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Criticism is openly discussed and challenged, Monsanto even feed negative news alongside positive into their intranet for all staff to see, and yet everyone here loves the company. And I mean love.

Every employee here really respects the work that is done and the ethos of the organisation.

The wider community of St Louis seems to feel the same, no doubt partly in response to the masses of charitable work that Monsanto and their staff are involved in throughout the area.

I’ll leave it at that for now, and fill you in on the working week at a later date.

Suffice to say, I’m genuinely excited to work with a company who have so many sides to their story. I can also say that after our tour of the facility we work at this morning, the work being done is amazing, and the technology and people behind it are pretty impressive too. They breed Nobel Prize winners here you know.