Life across the pond- eric

  Italy, Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Morocco, Ireland, France.. the list is to be continued. While abroad, I have learned so much about the world, others, and myself. It’s really amazing how fast time goes by when you are having such a great experience.               

            We all survived Dr. Mee’s statistics class in January, and we all survived Dr. Daves’ Management class in February. We are finally getting adjusted to the 9:00 to 5:00 life and it’s actually really nice going to work in lieu of class, even though we miss seeing Dr. Mee’s and Dr. Daves’ faces everyday.

            I am working at Intercontinental Hotels Group and am really enjoying it. The office staff is really fun and the work environment is not as intimidating as I thought it would be. My tasks include strategy planning, auditing and revenue analysis. This internship will definitely be a beneficiary to my future career.

           

Gross British Food: What You Need to Know --Bailey Callaghan

Here's a quick PSA about things you should and should not eat while in London.

The good:
Jaffa Cakes
Chips
Prawn Cocktail flavored crisps
Bangers and mash
Curry
Lots of tea

The bad (aka you should avoid at all costs):
Monster Munch (particularly the ones in pickled onion flavor)
Black pudding
Scotch eggs
Marmite (if you are given the choice of jumping off Tower Bridge or eating Marmite, go with the bridge)

         

Working in London is an interesting experience, to say the least. People here go for drinks at lunch, keep drinks in the office, and leave work at 5 sometimes, just to go get a drink. I'm surprised they don't just install a pub in the basement of every office building to cut down on walking time.

In all honesty, though, working in London is great. I work at Maxus Global, a media agency that has accounts with all kinds of big brands like Barclay's (where I work), L'oreal, and Fiat. I work on a team within a team, composed of about 5 or 6 people (I'm still not 100% on who is the boss of who here). My boss, Howard, thoroughly enjoys making me try horrible food and then making fun of American food. My co-worker, Rose, interrogates me regularly about everything from my favorite American politician, to the difference between a hillbilly and a hick, to the mystery of boneless wings (seriously they had no idea what boneless wings were).  Work is full of a lot of laughs and, occasionally, running to the windows to see what "crazy window girl" across the street is up to (really, this is what they are getting paid to do).

I'm learning a fair share of advertising techniques, channels, and how to analyze audiences. too. It's not all fun and games here, after all (Actually no it pretty much is all fun and games. 3 people in my team are engaged so all I ever hear are wedding plans). I haven't been given much to do so far (I mostly just sit around all day and listen to everyone else's conversations) but I'm enjoying my experience regardless.

Plus, every day that passes by is one day closer to going to the Harry Potter studio tour in April. And that's what really matters here.

Saturday Shenanigans - Maddie Rule

Is there any better way to spend a Saturday than with M&M’s, Portuguese food, art, princesses, grapes, and board games?  I didn’t think so either.  Well, let me start from the beginning since this was pretty vague.  We began our day by sleeping in a bit before heading out to see the Cinderella exhibition in Leicester Square.  Unfortunately, when we got there, they only had tickets for 7 in the evening.  This actually worked out really well for us though as we were all able to spend more time together.  So we moseyed our way to the nearby M&M’s World and explored the various levels of chocolaty goodness.  This place is incredibly interactive and full of cultural references like the M&M mascots crossing Abbey Road and one dressed as a Palace Guardsman.  After spending a lot of time and a little money here, we decided that we should probably grab some real food.  So we found a Portuguese restaurant called Nando’s.  The chips as they call them here were delicious, and I am definitely going back for the bottomless soft drinks… Anyways, we continued on after our nice lunch and found the National Portrait Gallery.  It was neat to see historic figures from centuries ago elegantly painted as well as new works as recent as the 2000s.  And finally, it was 7 and time for us to visit the Cinderella exhibit we had been waiting to see!  And it was spectacular!  It began with original sketches and old memorabilia that brought me back to the childhood animation that I grew up watching.  Then, we moved into the sets where we could see the stunning dresses and suits used in the actual movie.  We began in the main hall where the staircase climbed above a small study, then moved to the cellar where Cinderella worked, then to the chariot she rode in to the ball, and finally, to Prince Charming’s castle itself.  In every room, there were costumes that belonged to Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, the two ugly step-sisters, and others that attended to ball and each piece was laced with tens of thousands of Swarovski crystals.  And to top everything off, they had the crystal slippers were glittering in the light.  They were gorgeous.  Not practical, but gorgeous.  

This was an awesome experience with four amazing women that all deserve to be princesses.  But believe it or not, this wasn’t even the highlight of the night.  When we returned from the exhibition, Tayler decided she wanted some grapes.  And then she wanted to share them.  Naturally, the best way to do this is by tossing them so that the other person can catch it in their mouth.  This fun game turned into a serious competition when we had the great idea of trying to play football.  And by football, I mean soccer.  So it ended up with Tayler (aka Coach) tossing a grape at either Matt or Will who then tried to bounce it off his head and into the mouths of Kathryn, Tucker, Bailey, or Hannah.  It’s definitely a team sport.  After an hour of attempts, we finally had our victory and celebrated promptly afterwards (don’t worry, we have it recorded). 

We then ended the night on the right note with a board game known as Geek Battle.  This was tons of fun as we were all proving our shared love of all things geeky.  This lasted for a good two hours.  I would have to say, this is definitely going to be one of my favorite memories while in London.  We had a great day in the city as well as an exciting night with friends in the flat.  I can’t wait to see what not only the next month brings but also the next two years with all of my incredible GLS fam!  Goodbye until our next crazy adventures!

Cheers!

Maddie Rule

Simon Marcus for MP

Hey Everyone!

Well these past couple of weeks have been the most hectic that I have had in a while.  We started our internships. I am currently an intern at the Hampstead and Kilburn Conservative Party. The election is this May so there is always something that needs to be done. I deliver things, do data entry, canvas, and assist with meetings. The other day I was able to walk around with Simon Marcus, the conservative candidate, and Philip Hammond, the Secretary of State of Foreign and Commonweath affairs. It was quite interesting visiting small businesses in the constituency. Later that day I attended a meeting with the Bangladeshi community. Simon Marcus and Will Blair, the Conservative candidate from Holborn and St. Pancras, gave speeches along with other council members. We then had a bunch of Bangladeshi food. It was an interesting look into the local aspect of the political system here.

The job has been fun. I have gotten to meet a bunch of new people in the office. The Hampstead & Kilburn constituency is the most marginal in Britain. Because of this, there are almost always different interns that are sent to our office. Whit and Patrick spent the first week helping out. We have had seven different interns help out over the past couple weeks. There hasn’t been a shortage of British sarcasm.

I have really enjoyed getting out in to the community and seeing the different parts of London. The neighborhoods are really interesting because there is such a difference in the areas. The changes come fast so it is neat to see the diversity in the city. It is also kind of incredible seeing the massive urban sprawl when you see town houses as far as the eye can see.

These past two weeks have been great and there will only be more excitement as the election gets closer.

Cheers!

William Gass

 
Here are the links to the Simon Marcus twitter page. You can see some wonderful pictures of Whit and I working in the office. Also, you can't see me with Philip Hammond, but you can see my shoes behind him if that counts for anything.

 https://twitter.com/SimonMarcus/status/578133376437104640/photo/1https://twitter.com/SimonMarcus/status/576070228947439617

Work Week One - Sara Seaman

Work week one was, well, wonderful. That being said...there have been some true learning moments/panics/totally lost times.

This week I started my internship with dunnhumby - a data insight company that serves as the middle man between suppliers like H. J. Heinz or Kraft and retailers like Kroger to improve the customer's experience. Speaking of, did you know they created the Kroger Plus Card and whenever you use it data about your specific purchases go to dunnhumby? Well, it does! They use this data to help retailers and suppliers work together to give you what you need and want when you go to the store. But trust me, it's so much more complicated than that...and I don't totally understand it yet!

So what do I do?

That's a good question because I don't know yet! Basically this week I have met 1,000,001 people and tried to learn their software in an afternoon by myself...yeah that was interesting. I am learning so much every day - about the corporate world, data analysis and insight, and my new coworkers. Everyone is so casually smart at dunnhumby that I feel as though I should just ask them questions all day long...which I kind of do as I try to figure out the software and different systems they use. It has all been great though and I really feel like I am getting to know my team, the Insight team, better each day (Wednesday we all went out together and went to a comedy show where two of the comedians used to perform on "Whose Line is it Anyways?"!).

On Thursday though...there are few words for Thursday but I will try to give you a picture of how that afternoon went down.

A member from my team invited me to be a part of an afternoon meeting at the H. J. Heinz corporate office located on the outskirts of London. The plan was for me to work and meet with people in the AM, grab some lunch, take a short train to Hayes and Harlington, and grab a cab to the office. All went according to plan for the morning and lunchtime was lovely (I sat in the middle of a park lit up by the very rare sunshine with purple and yellow flowers scattered about walk paths and green fields). When I arrived in Hayes and Harlington after my short train ride where I enjoyed eating a very large chocolate bar, I expected to walk out of the station and see the classic black cabs that are all over Central London (where I live). But oh no... of course not. I was in an entirely foreign part of London with no black cabs whizzing through the streets and no cell service. Yeah, no cell service. I can't contact my boss, can't book a cab using a handy app, can't get directions to Heinz apart from the walking directions I had saved to my pictures.

"Okay then...looks like I am walking an hour to get to this meeting," I thought. I began to walk in hopefully the right direction when I noticed cars driving by with very similar stickers on the driver's side window. So I hoped for the best and waved one down.

The drive informed me I had to book in his small office on the corner. So I opened the door and was greeted with a white concrete wall with a small hole that revealed a very small view of what appeared to be an office. I peered through that small hole and Voila! There was man to help me. Sort of. He basically looked at me, asked for my name, and then didn't say anything else. So I asked him if I was set to get a cab and he slightly smiled and gave me a nonchalant thumbs-up before getting back to his computer screen.

I exited the 2-by-4 office and walked up to what I hoped was my cab and not a random Indian man in a car who would take me to who knows where. The Indian man driving the cab-van looked nice enough so I hopped in the cab...sorry, Mom. I tried to act like I knew what I was doing but I think it was obvious enough with my American accent and frazzled demeanor that I did not have a clue what I was doing. I tried to make some small talk as we winded through residential, tiny streets while internally I was definitely freaking out. I thought that maybe if he was going to take me out to who knows where that if I talked nice enough and asked him about his day he would take me to Heinz instead...which he did so I guess it worked. Just kidding, he really was a very nice man and we had a good little conversation amidst his broken English and my frantic brain.

So all is well, I made it to the meeting, and now I am happily sitting in my flat a day later listening to music and writing about my minor freak out to you fine people.

Moral of the story: if you don't have cell service and you're in a different country you might end up in a cab that looks more like a van...but you also might meet a very nice Indian man who has a nice smile.

Also, I have no pictures from this week...so here's a few snapshots of Venice, my fave spot in Europe so far.

Life Lessons & Mini Break- Samantha Steichen

Hey everyone!
     Since I forgot to introduce myself on my first post, I'll go ahead and do that now. My name is Samantha Steichen, I'm from Connecticut, and I'm a marketing major. Living in London has been one of the best experiences of my life and I never want it to end! We just got back from mini break and I can honestly say it was one of the most eye-opening trips of my life.
    Our first stop was Madrid, Spain. The second we got out of the airport and we realized it was warm and sunny outside, we all got about 1000 times happier. Not that the sun never shines in London, but it is rather rare. Spain is probably one of my favorite places I've ever been to. Everybody is so happy and it's very family-oriented. We stayed in a smaller city outside of Spain called Alcala, which I liked even more than Madrid. It definitely helped that Laura Beth was on our trip and knew the city quite well since she has spent her past 3 summers working there. On Saturday night we walked around the town square and we were surrounded by families that were visibly so happy to be together.
    On Sunday we went back to Madrid and spent a majority of our day laying down in the parks, soaking in the sun. At one point in the day I saw a huge dog that I just needed to pet, so a group of 4 of us went up to the dog's owner and asked in somewhat broken Spanish if we could pet his dog. We ended up having about a 15 minute long conversation with Miguel. We could tell it meant a lot to him that we were at least trying to communicate and it meant a lot to us that he was willing to listen and help us out with our Spanish. Overall, Spain was the most accepted I've felt while traveling during this entire trip. It was obviously easy to tell we were tourists once we began speaking but nobody put us down or treated us badly because of it.
       One of the best parts of the trip by far was meeting Laura Beth's host grandpa. We went to his restaurant for lunch on the last day we were there and on the way out LB asked if we wanted to meet him. We all (mostly Taylor King and I) started freaking out because we were so excited. He was so sweet and tried to use some of the english he knew.

       After we left Alcala we had an interesting time getting to the airport. We accidentally got on the wrong train and basically thought we weren't going to make it to our next stop on the trip, Marrakech, Morocco. After running through the airport we ended up making it to our gate with plenty of time to spare. Getting to Marrakech at midnight was probably not our smartest decision. While our taxi was taking us to our hostel I was overcome with fear when I looked out the window. The streets were different than in any city I had ever been in and it was quite dark because, again,  Marrakech is not like a European city. I had never been in a third world country before and really didn't know what to expect. Although for me the trip started off on not such a great note, the rest of the trip was incredible.

      The first full day we were there, Eric, Laura Beth, and I went camel riding. I will honestly never forget that day. We went far outside of the city and it was beautiful. The camels were so much fun to ride and it was the experience of a lifetime. Halfway through, we got off the camels, had water, mint tea, and pancakes that were made for us. I ended up spilling syrup everywhere, including all over LB's knee. Once we got back on the camels, the camel behind Laura Beth was tried to bite her knee because it smelled the syrup. Once we got back to the hostel, we met a girl named Liz who was from Estonia. She travelled to Marrakech alone, so we ended up going to lunch with her. She was extremely interesting and we had a lot of great conversations.

     The people in Morocco are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They are willing to help you when you get lost and they want to make sure your experience is as enjoyable as possible. We had a really great conversation with the manager of our hostel. She wanted to make it clear that the people of Morocco are good, peaceful people which most of the world has difficulty understanding. After being in Marrakech for only one day, we could already see that what she was saying was true.

     The last day we were there, we spent a majority of the day in square bargaining. Eric and I made a great team and we soon learned that if you hold the amount you want to pay in front of the vendor, they will take it.

    Overall, going to Marrakech was a really great experience. Although I was a little scared at first, I think it showed me that keeping an open mind when it comes to different cultures and countries is really important. I'm glad my initial fear didn't get in the way of my time there because it was truly amazing! 

The Chronicles of a Polish Girl in Poland - Abbey Rozanski

Well, here we are.  Classes are over, and we are about to start our internships tomorrow morning  (very excited but crying at the same time because I'm kind of an adult now).  After a month of what felt like a non-stop adventure around Europe, I'm back to London with a pretty awful cold but more importantly a lot memories I won't ever forget.  

Before this semester started, people began talking about and planning what they wanted to do over our two breaks.  I knew I really wanted to somewhere in Poland (preferably Kraków), but I didn't think anyone would want to go there. I figured Poland wouldn't strike many people as a pleasant tourist destination, so coming into this semester I was mentally prepared to throw away my pride and flat out beg people to come with me.  Both sides of my family are from Poland, and ever since I can remember I have always wanted to go there.  To my surprise, there were quite a lot of people that wanted to go to Kraków and my dream of visiting Poland was finally fulfilled.  

The buildings weren't as pretty as Prague and the weather was certainly not as pleasant as Madrid, but there was something about being in the same country that my great grandparents grew up in that made Kraków such a special place.  Poland, especially Kraków and the cities surrounding it, has so much history and I think there is a lot of beauty in that.  I might be a little biased but I also think the food in Kraków was the best out of all the cities I've traveled to this semester.  I mean I didn't get my excellent pasta cooking skills from nowhere (lol). 

Anyway, here are a few pictures of some of my favorite things from visiting Poland. Do widzenia!

The Kraków Barbican in front of the entrance to the Main Square

Alter at St. Mary's Basilica

Sculptures carved into salt at the Wieliczka Salt Mines

Top of the bell tower at Wawel Cathedral