Internship Assignment D

Learning objectives and work responsibilities

1.      1. Archiving

2. Excel spreadsheets

3. Handling post

      2.  The main thing I was able to get from the internship was working in an office every day, or at least two days in a row. I never really got into a routine doing the same thing every day, but just showing up and being there for a full day in consecutive days I was able to start to understand the everyday work life I’ll have in the future.

Supervisor

My supervisor and I get along, he is also the owner of the company. He would tell me what to do and explain it well enough that I was able to get the job accomplished. There wasn’t a whole lot of training that I received, but part of that is it wasn’t really worth his time to fully train me in some stuff, since I won’t be there for that long and they would be able to do it faster by just doing it themselves rather than teaching me to do it.

Co-workers

Everybody I work with is quite friendly. Nearly every morning I’ll be welcomed by a good morning or how are you sort of thing. Recently I’ve been working at the desk helping out with doing basic stuff and have been able to get to know the people working out at the desk a little bit better. It has also showed me how relaxed the office can be as randomly, people will just stop doing their work and start talking just to talk and have some fun.

Myself

1.      I really didn’t need a whole lot of academic preparation for my internship. Most of the stuff I ended up doing was common sense, but it did help having a little accounting background for some of the stuff I did while I was at the desk. I think more than academic preparation was the way my brain works and how I analyze things automatically, especially for when I was working on spreadsheets and was able to analyze it without being told to.

2.      I did what I was supposed to in a faster amount of time than was expected. Multiple times I was told I worked too fast, but I still got done what they wanted how they wanted it. I think the main reason for this is that they were starting to run out of stuff they wanted me to do.

3.      The experience has allowed me to understand what it’s like to work every day for a full day. It has also helped me to be more efficient in what I’m doing and to pay attention to the small details that make something look a little bit nicer or a little bit easier to read or understand for others.

Central College’s Program Organisation

1.      The application process was smooth for me, I didn’t have any problems with it and thought it went well

2.      It was nice being able to say, this is what I want to accomplish this semester, and then be able to reflect on it and look back at what really did happen.

3.      I thought the staff did a nice job in every way,

4.      I would suggest to be prepared to do the work that the people that actually work there don’t want to do, and to also be ready to make some cups of tea.

The biggest project I did, was archiving the client files. I had to go through boxes of files and write down the files that were in them then go and put the files on a spreadsheet so that if an adviser needed the file they could go into the spreadsheet and type in the number and be able to find what box the file they need is in. I also had to combine lists from past years into one list so all the files they have are on the same spreadsheet rather than each year having its own spreadsheet. I also made many different spreadsheets where I needed to be able to create formulas to find a final figure for various things.

The company seemed to be pretty relaxed at the start of it for me, but as time went on I could sense some tension and some dissatisfaction throughout the company, but people were still able to enjoy it for the most part.

As long as you work hard and listen and are able to do what you are told, you would be fine for this position. They are all quite understanding that you might not have a financial advising background and if you ask, they will help you out with it. So I guess being able to ask for help if you need it is a skill that shouldn’t be looked past. My advice would be to just work hard and show up for work every day and do your best and you’ll be just fine.

Assignment 5- East End

The east end of London is very diverse. It is also the main location for the majority of the Indian population. It is not one of the places you would call the nicest parts of London, as back in the day it was one of the poor locations of London and if you had money, you wouldn’t live there. The overall appearance of the east end and central London, where we live, is drastically different as well. In central London there are several tall buildings, and the normal size for a building would be over six stories I’d say, but in the east end, there aren’t the tall buildings and most of them are maybe two or three stories.

The part I enjoyed most about this walk, was Brick Lane. Brick Lane is something that I have never experienced before, but it was fun to walk through. The street is lined with different restaurants and pubs, most of them serving Indian food of some sort. Just standing at the end of the street, you could see somebody standing outside the door of nearly every establishment, which at first seemed a bit strange as you don’t see that in the states too often. Moving down the street, those people standing outside the establishments would start trying to get you to come inside and get food there by offering different deals like fifty percent off food or three free pints. There were even times when people standing outside another establishment would start yelling at you from across the street as you were talking to another person shouting out their offer to you trying to get you away from them and to come over to theirs. They were quite competitive people, and seemed as if everybody was offering some number of free pints to Americans walking down the street.

Eventually I got to the actual market on Brick Lane and really enjoyed that. Everything smelled so good. The opening of it was full of different food stands, once again mostly of the Indian variety. I ended up getting a pancake, but it’s different from a pancake in the states. It was definitely a sweeter kind of food with nutella and bananas on the inside of it. It was well worth the purchase. Once getting past all of the food stands, there were stands selling everything from clothing to jewelry. That part wasn’t as interesting to me as the food part, but it was still fun to walk through and see the different things that were being sold. After going through Brick Lane, we found a nice little pub and just sat down and relaxed for a while. There aren’t too many pubs in the area, which is another difference from the center of London as there are pubs everywhere, sometimes a couple on the same block.

Assignment 9- Reflection

It’s hard to put my experience studying abroad in words. It was definitely one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in my life, and am very glad I took the opportunity to study abroad. I have proven to myself that I am able to live in a big city without knowing anybody, as I came without having any friends on the program, and will leave with good friends I never would have met without studying in London. I have also surprisingly been able to cook at least a little bit and been able to survive off of it, which was in question to start. I was also able to convince myself that I am able to adapt and change to the environment I am put into by coming from a small town and always being in small towns, but being in a large city, I was able to survive and get around by public transportation and not just driving around by myself everywhere. The main skill I have developed is my cooking skills, as it was at nothing before I came and now it has at least improved a little bit and if I absolutely had to cook for myself for the rest of my life I wouldn’t die of starvation. I was also able to improve my skills in an office as I was working in an office eight hours a day, two days a week. I learned how to clean up excel spreadsheets and make them easily understood for people who would have no idea what was going on in the spreadsheet.

I want to be able to share how different London is from any place in the United States for those who have not had the opportunity to go abroad. The diversity of London is something that cannot be matched in small town Iowa, or any part of Iowa for that matter. Another thing that would be nice to be able to tell people about is the buildings and how old they are, but there is no way that you can understand what London or the UK is like without actually being there and seeing the buildings that have been there for hundreds of years, longer than the United States has been a country. The fact that they have such old buildings is one of the things that first amazed me when I got here, and is still one of the things I can’t get over when I see the buildings that have been around for so long.

Advice I would give future London study abroad students is to go out and walk around instead of taking the tube everywhere. Going out and walking you can see so much more of the city and you will actually get to know your way around instead of just being underground and not seeing anything other than darkness. I would also suggest setting up travel plans right away and booking flights and trains right away and not waiting till halfway through the semester to start traveling so you will be able to see and do more things throughout. 

Assignment 8- Villages of London

I went to the village of Hampstead and the first thing I did was went to a pub to get some food. It was relatively cheap compared to what the same meal would have been in London. I went with somebody else and we got a rack of ribs and lo mein and split it between the two of us. It was one of the best meals I had eaten up to that point. After eating, we went on walking around to the church and to the graveyard. The graveyard was not what I was expecting and was different from graveyards in the United States. There was grass and greenery overgrowing everywhere making it look like it wasn’t taken care of to me. The graves were also much older and were worn down from being exposed to the elements for so long. Most of the graves were so old and so worn that the writing on them were not able to be read unless you got really close and maybe cleaned it off a little bit, then there were others that were completely worn down and there was no hope in reading it. While walking around the graveyard, there were a couple people sitting on a bench in drinking beer, whether it’s legal or not, I’m not sure, but it took me by surprise. In the states, people walk around graveyards for exercise, but normally you don’t see people just sitting around drinking and hanging out.

There were a lot of decently sized houses throughout the village, which was completely different from central London where there might be some flats. Another thing I noticed is how old the people were there normally. There weren’t too many college aged students walking around, but lots of older people that have an established job and have lots of money. I looked at some of the houses that were for sale and there were some for sale for over 300,000 pounds, which seemed crazy for such small houses. The houses were designed differently from what I’m used to as well. They weren’t just small houses, they seemed like they were fancier small houses that would be found in a richer part of a city. There wasn’t really a run-down part of town that I saw, most of it was pretty nice overall and somewhere I could see myself living eventually in life once I got the money for it. I also thought the people seemed to be nicer and more outgoing in Hampstead compared to central London where everybody just keeps to themselves and doesn’t say anything to anybody.

Assignment 7- Imperial War Museum

The first sight of the Imperial War Museum was big cannons sitting outside the building that were over 20 feet long. I can’t imagine trying to operate and aim something that large, and they were real guns that were used in wars in the past. Walking inside there were planes and rockets and tanks all over on the floor. The main piece that really interested me was the V2 rocket. The overall size of it is astonishing. Something that big full of explosives could do a lot of damage. Another small exhibit that caught my eye was the 9-11 exhibit. They had a piece of metal from one of the towers on display and they also had a video running that lasted over 15 minutes and all it had was pictures of the destruction from the planes hitting the towers. There was also a board with information regarding the attacks.

The majority of the time I was in the Imperial War Museum I went through the Holocaust exhibition. It wasn’t exactly the most enjoyable exhibit to go through, but I’m glad I went through it. There were a lot of short videos that explained things in detail. One thing I didn’t realize is that there was a period of a couple months where Hitler put in effect new laws at least one new one each week, if not more. That’s a lot to put into action in a short amount of time. There were some which were passed in consecutive days. Another thing that caught my eye was the model of a concentration camp. It wasn’t the entire camp, but had most of the buildings that were there, just not the duplicates. Around the model, there were stories and explanations of the different buildings and what they were used for. It said how people were brought in and the conditions the people would be in once they got off the trains. They were convinced they were going to get to take a shower and be clean and see family again once they got off, but in reality they were done for. There was also a model train car, which showed how big the cars would have been back in the day and that there were people stuffed in so tightly that there was no room for anybody to sit down and just a bucket for their waste which would fill up quickly and cause the car to smell bad. There were diseases started and spread throughout as well being in such close contact with so many people with no way to clean up and get away. It’s not something anybody should be proud about putting people through in the case of Hitler. It was quite impressive how he was able to get so many people to back him and his plan for creating the perfect Germany with all the “flaws” out of the way.

Assignment 4- Organisation

The organisation I joined is part of Hillsong Church, and is called a connect group. Basically what it is, is a group of people aged between the age of 18 and 25 get together and have a lesson of some sort. I got involved by just going to the church and the church is really big in being involved outside of just Sunday services, so somebody came up to me and asked what I usually do on Wednesday nights and invited me to join a connect group.

The group consists of people from all over, with nobody actually being from London. There are people from Naples, Germany, Australia, and then us Americans among other locations. We usually meet up in Café Nero about 20 minutes away from where I live in the center of London, but we have also met in one of our leaders’ friends house for a guys night because the girls in the church had a special night with just them, and also had a big meeting with other groups in a bar/club type atmosphere and just hung out for the night. When we meet in the café, we will start by just talking and having a cup of coffee or something then we will start into a lesson the leader has prepared for the night. It is discussion based, which is nice because the classes we take aren’t exactly discussion based, so it’s nice to have something a little more like I’m used to in the states.

I’ve met a young man named Jamey, who has a lot of energy and is very entertaining. I talked to him for over an hour one night just talking about basically the United States and his experiences there. His favorite part is American candy, with nerds rope being his favorite. He said him and his friends were driving across America and it was his turn to drive in the middle of the night and he had a nerds rope and was wired for the rest of the night.

One thing that being in the group has made me realize is that although people in Britain are generally reserved and don’t talk much, there are some people and some groups that will go out of their way to talk to strangers and introduce themselves to you. When they find out you’re from America, they get all excited and ask questions about different things and what we thing about Obama and all the things like politics that I’m not too into, and they end up knowing more about American politics than I do myself. 

Assignment 3- Interview

I interviewed a man named Thiala. He is one of the guards at the barracks down the road and all he does all day is let people in and out of the barracks. He said he’s old and slow so that’s where they put him, although he really didn’t appear to be that old. He is an only child and is from Nepal. The reason he came to the UK is because it’s tradition there to come to the UK and join the army. He has one son named Sean, which at first he called him a kid but then changed his wording to a young man and said he’s 19, like around my age. The role of religion in his life is minor and he said that is the normal to most British families in his belief. He doesn’t attend church regularly or anything like that.

When talking about identity, he said to him being British means you are English. He said if you are English then you are British. He said one of the UK’s weaknesses is that teenagers aren’t controlled by their parents and they can cause some trouble. He thinks parents in the UK need to be tighter with their kids so that they will behave better in the long run. I asked him how he views the UK’s relationship with the US and he said it was good. He then went on and said a bunch of things he liked about the US and different places he’s been. His favorite parts of the US are the culture and the line dances. He really liked the line dances when he went to the states years ago. He really enjoyed Florida because it was warm and nice there. He also told me about when he was in the active army and they were in Canada and had to walk a lot in the cold. His hands and feet were always cold, and he was also there in the winter, so that doesn’t help the matter of being cold much.

He also talked about in the US how he believes if you can speak Spanish and English, you can communicate with almost anybody. His reasoning is that most of the countries to the south of the states are Spanish speaking, and he thinks a lot of them come up to the US so therefor, if you can speak Spanish as well, you’ll be able to communicate with almost everyone. I’m not so sure his logic is right, since there are different languages spoken throughout the United States, like there is here in London alone, where there are over 150 languages spoken alone. It probably isn’t to the same extent in the states as it is here, but there are still more languages spoken than just English and Spanish. It was interesting to hear his insight on things, particularly on the US and how he views it and what he likes about it.

Assignment 6- Greenwich

The Royal Greenwich Observatory was the most interesting thing from the trip to Greenwich for me. Not many people can say they have stood in two different hemispheres at the same time, so that was a cool thing to do that I can say I have done. There were also a lot of old, historic clocks and other astronomy things in the observatory that were neat to look at and see how they work and how much things have improved, as far as being better overall and also how they have made things smaller that can do the same thing as a bigger model, and even do it better. Like the old telescopes that were over 10-20 feet long, and now there are some that are just a couple feet long that are just as, if not more powerful than the old ones that were really big and space consuming.

The National Maritime Museum wasn’t overly interesting to me, because I’m not much of a history guy. There were some neat things in it though, for instance the jacket Nelson wore when he was shot was there. It was neat to see something so old that had a major impact on the country. There were also some other interesting little things throughout the museum that were interesting to look at and think about. Another thing that stood out to me for some reason, was one of the ships they had on display. It wasn’t overly big, but it was decorated in a way that was appealing to the eye, and also had some different things around it explaining some of what was going on with it and why certain things were involved with the ship.

The Queens Gallery was pretty monotonous to me. There were a lot of paintings that seemed to look alike and wasn’t much of a variety. Part of that might also be that I go to a museum every week for another class, and I’m not much of an art person either, so after looking at so much art I tend to get bored and not care about what they look like after a while. The inside of the building was interesting though, it was pretty wide open and had some nice little places to sit down and relax if needed.

Going back into London by the overground was a little different. It was the first time I had been on it and it was a little shakier than the tube is. But once we got off and went through Canary Warf, it seemed almost like I was back in the states in a big shopping complex. Once we got off the train, we were instantly in a big open space with shops all around on the outside and a floor above and below also full of places to shop.

The Travels

So, it's been a couple weeks since I actually blogged about my life in London, so I'll try to catch up here somewhat quickly. A couple weeks ago we went to Canterbury as a program and walked around the cathedral. It was quite impressive. The building itself was quite large and the detail inside was incredible. There was stained glass that would have costed a ton to get and was neat to look at. We were only in Canterbury for a couple hours so we didn't have a ton of time, but it was enough time. There wasn't too much else in the town. The only other thing I did was eat in a pub with a really really low ceiling that I had to duck under till I got to my seat, not much fun. At least I didn't hit my head, like someone else.

After going to Canterbury we went to Leeds Castle. I was pretty excited to go to a castle, but this castle wasn't what I expected a castle to be like. It's pretty sad that they have a maze near the castle, and the maze was more fun than the castle itself.

This past weekend, me and four other guys went to Liverpool to see the Beatles stuff. We left London Euston station at 5:39 am. That meant we had to leave Vandon house at 4:20 to get to a bus station to make it to Euston. Waay too early. We got to Liverpool around 9 and started walking around and went on a bus tour that took us to important places in Liverpool for the Beatles. That night we went out and about and at one of the pubs we had a lady come up to us and tell us how good we did tonight performing. So the other guys went along with it and she told us she wanted us to join with another group she knew and make a new band. It was quite entertaining. I ended up leaving the others and going back so I could get some sleep because we were getting up the next morning and leaving at 9:20 to go to Manchester. Once we got to the train station on Saturday, one of the guys couldn't find his tickets, so he went to the information booth and they said since he lost them, he would have to buy another ticket, so he decided to just get another ticket back to London. We were originally trying to get tickets to a Manchester United game, but that didn't happen, so we stayed in Manchester for a couple hours then got a train to go to Bangor, Wales, and see some of our friends there. While in Bangor, I got to hang out with friends I hadn't seen in a while and we went to karaoke, which was a good time. On Sunday, the Bangor program had a day trip, and there were enough seats on the bus for us to go, so we got to go to a castle and also a small village which was quite neat and colorful. That was pretty much the weekend, and not much else has happened other than the weekend trips I have typed about.

Internship Assignment C

1. The overall environment is very relaxed. Two things I would keep would be the relaxed environment and the small company. Two things I would change would be that it was made more clearly what exactly they want me to do sometimes and that people were closer to my age.

2. He does a nice job, he has something for me to do each day, and has it planned out what he wants me to do. I would want to be the same way, only explain what I wanted as clearly as I can and leave no room for guessing what is supposed to be done.

3. I have learned that I like to work quick and get things done, rather than taking breaks and taking my time, which doesn't work so well in a British office where things are done slowly. I would like to get to be a little more creative in some way.

4. I have improved on making excel spreadsheets look nice and neat and also how to use my time efficiently.

5. I don't think I will look for a company that deals with investments and mortgages, but I wouldn't argue if I ended up getting a job there if it was the only one I could get.

Steven Grotzinger

Objective

To attain a job that interests me and I am able to help others around me.

Education

Central College, Pella, Iowa. Expected Graduation May 2014

Actuarial Science and Accounting majors

Related Courses

·         Principles of Microeconomics

·         Principles of Macroeconomics

·         Principles of Business Management

·         Intro to Financial Accounting

Work Experience

Internship at MasterAdviser, February-May 2012
Financial advisers in London

·         Created excel worksheets dealing with financial information

·         Worked independently

       Assisted other people

       Archived client files

Student Manager, Central Catering, January 2011-present

Central College, Pella, Iowa
In charge of students when needed

·         Help with decisions at events

Camp Counselor, Summer 2011

Pine Lake Christian Camp, Eldora Iowa

·         In charge of 5-8 campers for a week

·         Lead group discussions

·         Wrote reports

Activities and Achievements

·         Intermural Basketball

·         Got promoted to student manager after one semester of college

·         DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) Role Model

Additional Skills

·         Can read, write and speak beginner Spanish

·         Good with Microsoft Office and Excel

·         Self-motivated to get goals accomplished well

·         Certified in CPR and First Aid

Internship Journal #5

March 12&13

Monday I started going through all the boxes in the back closet to see what was in each one so that I would be able to do the project I was presented with the previous week. I had to write down each file number or the name of  the client so that I could copy it onto an excel worksheet that will eventually be every file the company has had.

Tuesday, I finished going through all the boxes and started onto the master list of files and boxes that include files from 2007 till now. So far the company has 130ish boxes of client files, and all of these will be on one worksheet so that it will be able to search for a specific file and be able to find what box it is in easily.

Once again I was reminded how relaxed the work environments are. People will randomly just start talking about a holiday they went on or a football game from the weekend. They also leave early if they feel like it for the day.

The office area

The front desk

The glass building is where I work

Internship Journal #4

March 5 &6

I pretty much served as an assistant to anyone that needed help in the front office. I did some scanning of invoices and also did some shredding of old papers that weren't needed anymore.  I finished up my previous project as well, by going through the rest of the clients folders checking for their email addresses that were available.

Tuesday, I found out I would be doing the archiving. So they have a small closet in the office they use to keep the most recent client files, and those files are in numbered boxes. Once the closet is full, they ship the boxes of files off to an underground storage place, where they can call them up and ask for a file in a box if they need that file. But in order to be able to find what box a file is in, it has to be listed somewhere, so that was going to be my job.

The main thing I found out this week, was how much Brits really do like to make fun of other people, as much as themselves and just enjoy it.

Internship Assignment B

A. The main objectives of Master Adviser are: to provide a personal and professional service to their clients, to exceed client expectations, to provide reports and advise using language you will understand, to invest in and utilise the potential provided by the latest technology for gathering information and for communicating where appropriate, and to earn the trust and respect of their clients through their expert knowledge and up-to-date awareness of industry and investment opportunities.

B. The company as a whole is owned by Doug Brodie, and if people want something different done, they go through him, but otherwise everyone is on their own and together they make up Master Adviser.

C. New policies are formed by going through Doug, and everyone can have input on it.

D. Their competition is anybody else that deals with investments and mortgages.

E. They make their money by how much they invest others peoples money and they make a commission off that.

F. They serve people interested in mortgages and investing their money

G. There are around 16 employees

H. They get a large amount of paid holiday and health care 

I. Making sure they keep up to date on the new things that can help them out, and calculating the risk involved in investments.

Internship Journal #3

Feb. 27 &28

When I got in to work on Monday, I found out my boss was on holiday for a week and wasn't going to be in, but he had given somebody else a list of things for me to do. The first thing on the list was to go through nearly 700 clients on the database and see if they had an email listed. So I had to search each and every one and if they had one listed type "yes", and if they didn't type "no".

After that was finished, I was told I had to search all the clients marked with a "no" and see if they had an email listed anywhere in their individual folders. It wasn't too difficult of work, but there were over 400 clients that didn't have an email listed, so I had to go through all of their files under their adviser and try to find one listed in some document. I also did some filing for the company by taking the folders out of the filing cabinet and putting them in boxes to be stored.

The thing that really hit me was how people can take over a week vacation whenever they want, and still be able to take regular days off when they feel like it. In the states, you're lucky to get that week off all at once. I guess it's one of the perks of living in an expensive city such as London.

Assignment 2 Museum of London

I didn’t get much out of the Museum of London, but there were some pretty neat things I saw just out on display. The ancient things were quite interesting to me, like the remains of the different animals and the remains of humans from way back. There were also tools and pottery that were used back when the Romans were settled in London as well. I felt like the museum could have been set up better such as being in a better order and not having a big room with multiple cases and no real order marked on where to go.

Another interesting thing I saw were the different houses that were built as time went by and how they were constructed. It still amazes me how small the houses were and even in London today, the houses aren’t as big as I’m used to back in the States. The furnishings in the house were also semi interesting and it seemed like they got a little more detailed every time there was a time period. The houses were made of basic materials that they would be able to find easily and were easily usable and maneuverable.

The thing I found most interesting were the videos they had showing on the plague and the great fire. The videos went into great depth and explained what happened, where it was, who was affected, how long it lasted, what happened after and all the information people want to know about the important times in London’s history, but it was presented in a nice, appealing way. The one on the fire started from the beginning and told how it was started in a bakers shop and ended up spreading out and how it had a map of where the fire had done damage in London after every day the fire was going on. The one on the plague talked about how many people were killed from it, not only in London, but also everywhere it had been. I can’t imagine living in a city where there had been a fire that destroyed a pretty good section of the city and also a plague that killed thousands and thousands of people.

The lower part of the museum wasn’t quite as interesting to me. There was a touch screen thing that had occupations from that would be possible and you could read about them and then take a quiz to see if you’d be hired for the particular job. It was fun going through that and seeing the different things that would be expected out of certain jobs and what all had to be done. After that was more of a fashion section. I don’t really care for fashion, so I just went through it and glanced at some of the things and moved on through the rest of the museum. Overall, I’m glad I was able to go to it, but it wasn’t one of the most entertaining or interesting things I’ve done in my life. 

Assignment 1 London Markets

I have gone to Portobello, Borough, Camden, Brixton, and Brick Lane markets. Each one was a little bit different from the rest. Camden had shops that sold everything from postcards and souvenirs to hookahs and smoking supplies. There were multiple tattoo and piercing shops as well, right next to a food stand. It was strange walking around and seeing so many different types of people with different beliefs and ways of life.

Borough is my favorite as far as food is concerned. I got a duck sandwich there the first time I was there and it was fantastic and also a good portion.  I wasn’t used to being able to walk around and having people offer samples of everything they are selling. The second time I went, I basically had a nice little lunch off of eating the samples they were giving out. This is also the time I tried Turkish Delight and I don’t blame Edmond for betraying his friends, that is some tasty stuff.  

Portobello was a very big market. I got there and started walking down trying to look at everything I could, but it was difficult seeing everything with the road so packed full of other people. Portobello was a fun market to just walk around and see the different clothing and foods that were offered. There was also a lot of old antique stuff which I find interesting myself, so I ended up looking around at that kind of thing for a while till I realized how big the market was and that I didn’t have a ton of time before it started to close down, so I ended up going through it a little faster than I would have liked, but I still got to see most of the market. I ended up stopping and turning around because it looked like it was going to rain and I had been there for a couple hours and knew I had to walk that much farther back to the tube station.

Brixton was a little sketchy, with just tents set up and not one of the best looking markets I’ve been to. It was fun to walk around and see what all there was being offered there, but there wasn’t anything I would really want to buy so I didn’t end up spending a whole lot of time walking through it. There were lots of fruit stands and also places selling fish, so in many places, the market would smell like fish.

Brick Lane was kind of a surprise to me. I thought it would be a bit run down, and it was, but it was also a lot of food stands. We went in a big section of food stands from everywhere and also right next to it there were a ton of places selling clothing and also jewelry. We started off walking down the road and we had three or four guys stop us trying to get us into their pub to eat there by offering us discounts and free beers, but we wanted to check out what all Brick Land had to offer so we told them we might stop back, but in reality, we never did.

27 million

Alright, I'll get to the title of this in a bit. But first, Monday and Tuesday just had my internship, and you can read about that in my previous blog. But the version in a sentence would be: I did pretty much the same as last week, which would be made excel spreadsheets. Not too much too it. So we'll move on to the actual fun stuff that I'm excited for. Real excited.

Over last weekend the idea popped into my head about going on a cruise for spring break. So I started looking into some, and they were 500-700 pounds, that's $800-$1100 for you Americans that don't know the exchange rate. Then late Tuesday night I decided to look one more time. This time I found one, with food included keep in mind, for 296 pounds($430). So I just got really excited and told a couple buddies that wanted to go with about it and they got excited, but we had to wait for morning since it was late at night to actually do anything about it. The next morning, or I guess around noon, I was sitting in the kitchen area with Brett, and started talking about it and one of the girls on the program heard me talking about it and started asking questions about it. She then announced she was totally in and talked to her roommate who was also in, then some other girls heard about it so they joined in. It got crazy all of a sudden in that kitchen. Unfortunately I had class shortly so I couldn't actually book anything, but Abby, the first girl that heard about it, decided to call the company. There was only one room left in the original cruse we wanted to go on. So we decided to look around and Andrew, the guy Abby talked to on the phone, said he would do some checking for us as well and call back. Well, as I was heading off to class, her phone rang, but I had to go so I wouldn't be late. She texted me and told me about it. It was for 328 pounds ($525) and food was included and went from Barcelona, to La Goulette (Tunis), Tunisia to Valletta, Malta to Messina, Sicily, Italy to Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy to Genoa, Italy and back to Barcelona. They decided to book it and there were 7 other cheap rooms available. I could barely make it through class, and could not focus at all, at least we were just walking around an art gallery. So we got back from class and called and we got our rooms booked. 14 of us on the London program are going, so needless to say I'm excited and it's going to be a blast.

I'm not quite sure how to follow that up. I'm becoming a Londoner, but man, this weather. The last few days it's been 50-60 out and sunny. I think people were lying to me about all this rain business. So since it's so nice, I couldn't help myself but going outside and walking around enjoying this beautiful weather. I went to Portobello Market by myself on Friday for a few hours. It was a really neat market that stretches for 2 miles and has antiques and food and everything in between. But boy was it busy. There were a ton of people there. Then on Saturday I went to Borough Market with a couple friends and ended up finding Turkish Delight, the stuff that Edmond gets from the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia, and I can hardly blame him for betraying his siblings, that stuff is good.

Today gets its own paragraph. I went to church at Hillsong again. This time with about 15 others. This was not any ordinary church service, as they had Matt Redman there. It started off normal and they had their normal worship team lead in a few songs, then they had their offering. After the offering Matt Redman came out and pretty much put on a concert for an hour. Now to the title of this blog, 27 million. Matt and LZ7, a rapper, made a song about human trafficking and named it 27 Million, because there are currently 27 million humans in hostage of human trafficking. I personally like the song and it comes out tomorrow (February 27) on iTunes, and it's to gain perspective of what's going on in the world. They had a lady there talk for a while, who rowed the Atlantic Ocean. Wow. It took her and her team 45 days and they were moving non-stop. they would row for 2 hours then take 2 hours off in shifts, just to gain support for the same cause. It was a great morning and a great way to start off the week. After that, I went to Brick Lane Market with some friends and explored the area a bit.

Well, that's all I have for now, have a great week and God bless!

Internship Journal 2

Feb. 20&21

This week was pretty similar to my first week, so it's nice that I won't be doing anything too different from week to week. Monday I got to sit through a couple hours of meetings and see what's going on in the business pretty much, where they talked about the major things going on within the company. I also learned that I will be doing the post for the company, which consists of opening the mail and checking what it is and dispersing it to the people within the company. Then in the afternoon, I made another spreadsheet on excel. I enjoy creating excel worksheets and seeing them work out the way they are supposed to, so that's fun.

Tuesday when I got in I went over the spreadsheet that I had created the day before with Doug, and he had me change a few things and then also make different graphs. The spreadsheets aren't anything that has to be done, but it's something he likes to look at and see how the company is doing in certain areas that he has me work on. He would say things like "That's interesting," while he was looking at the work I had done.

This week, even more than last week, I realized how laid back the environment is in the office. People will just randomly stop working for a while and talk to each other for a few minutes and go back to work. I was also told that I need to learn a valuable work lesson, which is to work slower. Which I found interesting. I like to get  my assignment or project and start working on it and get it done correctly and efficiently, but I guess I'm supposed to slow down and take breaks while I'm working. So on Tuesday I would tell myself to slow down, but the only way I know how to slow down when I'm working is to stop, so every once in a while I would just stop working and observe the office.

Angry New Yorker's, are angry Londoners on steroids

Finally, I got to start my internship this week. Nearly a month after arriving in London, I was able to do what I came here for. Master Adviser is a small business that deals with investments for people for the most part. There are only around 10 employees, and the work environment is much more relaxed than it is in the states. I was told interns usually work from 9-5, but if I was an early riser, which I'm not, there is usually somebody there before 8 and somebody there till around 7 at night, so the hours can be flexible if wanted. Also, just the atmosphere in the office is really relaxed and they will randomly just start talking about football or a holiday they are going on soon. For my first two days, I made two different spreadsheets on excel and did some secretary work to help them get caught up. Not too difficult, but I can tell it's going to be a good experience already.

Yesterday I went to Brixton market with a friend and it was a bit sketchy. You walked down the street and there were tents popped up with things under them that were being sold. On the edges of the street were other stores that were actually buildings, but most of them were meat/fish places and you could smell the fish. They had full frozen fish sitting out ready to be sold. We also went wandering around the area and ended up finding a tennis court and some people playing football. When we were about to head back on the tube, I saw a sign that said "Pound" and as we got closer it was a Pound Store, like a Dollar Store in the states. Everything was a pound, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to stock up on some cheap candy.

I have been planning on going to church since I've been here, but I've been too lazy to actually get up and go. I decided yesterday I was going to go today at 11:30, but I was tired and slept a little too late. Lucky for me there was another service at 3:30, so I got ready and went to it. I went to Hillsong, and it's in a theatre. It is definitely a church for the younger generation as there were fog machines and lights going everywhere before the service even started. The worship band included four keyboards for two people to play, a drummer, 4 guitarists, and seven vocalists. Not only were the songs up-beat, but the people on stage were dancing around, and not only the people on stage, but people all over the theatre were dancing and enjoying themselves giving Jesus praise and worship. It was quite the sight, and made me think why we don't express ourselves more about what we have back in the states. It caught me off guard at first and I couldn't even sing, I was just soaking in everything that was happening, and seeing all the people dance around enjoying themselves. The guy that gave the sermon told a story about when he was in the New York. He was trying to get a taxi and couldn't. Then he found a line with a person whistling in the taxi's so he got in line. When it got to be his turn, he got in the taxi and started messing with his blackberry. He then heard a guy say "Is that all sir?" but he just ignored the voice and continued on with his phone. Then he heard the voice again, a bit sterner this time "Is that all sir?" That is when he realized he forgot about the crazy thing Americans do, tipping. At that point he said if you have never seen an angry New Yorker, take an angry Londoner and put him on steroids and you get an angry New Yorker. Just something I thought was funny, as the first time we went out to eat, we weren't sure if we were supposed to tip.  We were told not to, but we were so used to tipping, we weren't sure what to do. Then when people from here go to the states, they're in a worse situation. If we tip here, who's going to get mad about it? If you don't tip in the states, they will get mad.

That's all for now, if you look back farther in my blog you will see an internship journal and internship assignment, these are for my program, and just go into a bit more detail on somethings. Eventually there will be assignments for class posted on here which will be the same thing. God bless and have a great week!

Internship Assignment A

An Outline of Personal Goals, Objectives, and Tasks

I.    To become more culturally aware

        A. Learn more about the British culture

        B. Watch and listen to the other employees as they go through their work day

II.   To explore an area I am interested in

        A. Learn from other people who are in the field I am interested in

        B. Do basic work for what I think I want to do

III.  To gain an understanding of what it is like to work in an office every day

        A. Start by working two days a week in an office

        B. See how other people go through their day in an office all day

Internship Journal #1

February 13-14

These internship journals are meant for the directors, but everyone is welcome to read them. They will just go in more depth of my internship.

The first day started off pretty much as an interview, since I never had one with Master Adviser. I got there and I was shown around the office by the owner, Doug Brodie, and afterwards we just sat down and talked for a while. Afterwards, he had me go out and walk around the area a bit to get accustomed to where I was and what was around me. So the first half of the first day really wasn't much of a job. The second half of the day, after lunch, Doug had me make an excel spreadsheet and find the gross and net amount that each employee made from 2005 to 2011.

On the second day, Doug wasn't in as he had a wedding to go to.  The secretary was given a project for me to do for the day. I was to make another excel spreadsheet and figure out how much the company had saved its clients by charging the fee they did, rather than the 5% that is normal from 1996 to 2011.  After that, I was given some invoices to scan and save into their system, basically helping out the secretaries do their work, not much specifically for my internship, but that's going to be part of my job as an intern at Master Adviser.

The work environment is really relaxed. The first day I worked, they had a meeting and I sat in on it. They were doing their business and talking and instantly after it was over, the started talking about football and where they were going on holiday. Also, during the meeting, one of the guys turned to me and asked me a question, which seemed rather strange to me, but after thinking about it, it made sense why he asked.  He asked "Say you're in New York and you're walking in the street and a car hits you. The ambulance comes and takes you where?" He wasn't sure if they would take you somewhere to make sure you had insurance or what they would do, since they have the universal health care here.

First Weekend Trip

The last few days have been quite busy, but before that, the beginning of the week was pretty much normal. Not much new happened, just getting used to the every day life in London. On Wednesday, I found out I have an internship, so that was exciting, as long as it doesn't get pushed back, but this time I actually have a time to be there, which is in less than 12 hours from the time I wrote this. I'll be at Master Adviser, and they do all kinds of things like investments and such, so I'll be working with accounting stuff, along with other things. I'm looking forward to the experience of working in a British office, and getting to know some locals. The location of the internship is much more ideal than my original one as well, as it takes half the amount of time to get there.

On Thursday, everyone on the program got to go on the London Eye, a 450 foot ferris wheel, at night. From the top you could see most of London lit up, which was really cool. It was a bit cloudy, so we couldn't see as far as we would have been able to on a clear day, but it was really neat being able to see that much of a huge city all around us.

View from London Eye

Then at 8:20 on Friday morning, we all got on a coach bus and started off to Stonehenge. It's crazy thinking those stones have been in the ground for thousands of years, and are still standing. It was cool being able to see them, but half the walkway was closed and you couldn't get very close to them, which was a bummer. Stonehenge was a neat thing to see, and something I can now say I've been to, but overall, all that Stonehenge is, is a bunch of rocks. Not overly exciting.  The most exciting thing was getting out of the center of London where I have been for the last nearly month. While we were at Stonehenge, it almost seemed as if I was back in Iowa for a while. There was some snow on the ground, and we were surrounded by open fields. As we left Stonehenge and headed for bath, the only thing different between being here and being in Iowa, besides driving on the other side of the road, were signs that said "Tank Crossing" rather than "Deer Crossing".

Stonehenge

Bath was a nice change of pace. It was a lot smaller than London, and the people were much more relaxed and seemed a lot friendlier. Although there are around 100,000 people living in Bath, it seemed small after being in London for so long. We went to the Roman baths and once again, it's crazy how those stones have been in the exact same place for so long, and how the natural bath still has the same lining and is still waterproof from thousands of years ago. After going through the Roman baths, we were able to try some water. It was the worst water I have ever had. It was warm and tasted just plain bad. But when am I going to have the chance to do that again? It's another thing I can say I have done, that a majority of people haven't.  We also got to go to a rugby match. I had no clue how rugby was played before hand, but towards the end, I started to get a feel for it. One thing I noticed was that those guys are strong and tough. I don't think I'd last an entire match, or 5 minutes in a match at that.

Steam coming up from Roman Baths

 Bath Rugby

Sunday, we left Bath around 11:30, 30 minutes later than we were supposed to because the coach wasn't there. But it eventually got there and we headed off to Lacock Village. I ended up spending an hour and a half in the abbey, just walking through it and taking pictures. It's crazy to think that it was used as a house until the late 20th century. Oh yeah, this is also where some of the Harry Potter movies were filmed. After walking through the abbey, I walked around the block in Lacock and enjoyed seeing the difference from the states, in which every building was made of stone or brick of some sort. It would have been nice if cars weren't on the streets, just to make it look more like it did back in the day, but it was still a pretty neat place to spend an afternoon.

Lacock Abbey

Well, that's about it. I finally get to work tomorrow, got out of London for a weekend, and having a good time. Have a good week and God bless!

Snow

So things are starting to get normal. We are all starting to get into a routine, which is nice. I've gotten to the point where I have seen pretty much all the main things in London, so it isn't quite as exciting to go out and explore, but it's still fun to just walk around. Not a whole lot happened this week. On Wednesday, we had our first art class in a gallery. We went to the National Gallery and walked around it for two and a half hours listening to our instructor tell us about specific pieces of art. Art and galleries are not my thing. She had some interesting things to say, and the pieces of art were cool to look at.. for a while. After a while it gets to be a little old, but yet again, it's one of my few classes, so I think I'll be able to handle it.

This week, me and some guys planned our first trip. It was going way too smoothly.  We had our train to Liverpool booked, a night booked in Liverpool, and a train ticket to Manchester booked. We were planning on going to a Manchester United game, but we tried buying the tickets and found out you had to be a member to get tickets at this point. We ended up finding out we will have to wait a couple weeks to see if tickets will even go on sale to the public. So we have the trip booked, but the main attraction is not certain. Either way, we are still going and going to see the story of the Beatles in Liverpool.

Friday I found out my internship got cancelled. Something within the company and there was supposed to be another girl on the program working at the same spot, but now we are both out an internship. The directors had already sent out emails looking for another internship for both of us by the time they had told me. So I guess I have some more 6 day weekends. It was kind of a bummer, since I was supposed to start tomorrow and was actually going to do something, and since an internship was one of the main reasons I decided on London, but God will work it all out.

It snowed last night. You think people drive slow in the states when it snows, the entire city shuts down with a couple inches of snow. We went outside last night and ended up having a snowball fight in the middle of London at 1 in the morning. Not something that happens every day. This morning I was planning on going to church. I got up and got some breakfast and checked the travel for London website to see if anything was closed or delayed. Most of the tube lines had some sort of delay, but the ones I needed to get to church weren't delayed at all. So I waited a bit and showered and got dressed and decided I should check for delays one more time. The main line I needed had severe delays because of a lack of workers. I wish I had that excuse not to go to school if it snowed a couple inches. It's now almost 3 in the afternoon, and the snow is pretty much gone.

Street outside where we stay

Next weekend, everybody on the program is going to Stonehenge and Bath. It will be nice to get out of the center of London and see some countryside, especially since most of us haven't been outside of London in 3 weeks. We are also going to a rugby match, so that will be an interesting experience. I have watched rugby a few times on tv, but I can't even imagine watching it live.

Until next time, God bless.

Second week

The second week of being in London hasn't been overly exciting. Not a whole lot of new sights were seen, but that was going to come eventually.

I went to the Museum of London with a couple friends, Nick and Jacob, and there was a lot of information there. It went through everything from the middle ages to the Romans, and there were movies on the Great fire and the plague. It doesn't really surprise me when I look closer, that the fire and plague could kill so many people in so little time. London hasn't changed from how it used to be too much. Buildings are all really close together and there are a ton of people in a small space. So it wouldn't take much for a fire or disease to spread quickly and be deadly. I still can't imagine what it would have been like to be living through the days of the fire, where you don't know how long it's going to last or if it's going to get to where you live. I was thinking, it wouldn't be hard for a fire to break out in London today, with everything so close and with traffic so bad, if help couldn't get to the fire in a hurry, it could get out of control very fast. The traffic and small streets wouldn't help much either, by blocking they way for help to get to the fire.. interesting thoughts.

Wednesday night, everybody in the program went to Les Miserables. I had never been to a musical before, and it didn't let me down. Sure, our seats weren't the best, but man can those people sing. I was surprised by how many of the songs in the first half I had actually heard, although it did start to drag on and I feel like some of it could be cut out. The second half was full of action and was very good in my opinion. It was also interesting just sitting there and watching people. There was people dressed in jeans, then right beside them would be somebody in a complete suit. Once again, beer is a big thing. They served alcohol before it started, and you could even order a drink for intermission, where they would just have a ticket by your drink on a table during the intermission so you didn't have to wait in line and order another.

I had my first class of the semester on Wednesday, which is Art in London... for three hours. It's a good thing we're going to be going to different museums every week because I'm not like Diana and I don't think I would be able to sit through another hour of a lecture on art. Then we had our compulsory classes on Thursday, which is basically just talking about what we see and the British way of life. It could have some interesting things, where we get together and share what we have seen throughout the week and what we have done. We have the classes at the University of London, and right outside where we had our classes, there is a farmers market every Thursday, there are so many markets in London, which brings me to my next event.

Saturday I was feeling lazy, and wanted to do something. I looked outside and saw it was actually sunny in London, that's a sight. So I decided I was going to go to Camdon Market.  I ended up going by myself and exploring some of London, but it was a good experience. It was an eye opener. There were so many stores selling everything from souvenirs to tattoos and piercings. So I decided to go into some of the souvenir stores. They didn't just sell souvenirs, there was everything from key chains to coffee mugs to bongs and pipes to condoms. These are small stores, so it was definitely a shock to see all these things within ten feet of each other. Then I ended up running into other people on the program and a friend from Central that is studying in Wales, but came to London for the weekend, so that was nice.

That's all I have for now, have a great week!

Week 1

Well, it has now been just over week since I have arrived in London, and thought it was about time to start a blog. So here we go.

I flew into London with five other guys and there were no problems.. until we got to customs and immigration at at the airport in London.  Four of the five made it through, including me, but one was held back.  I guess he showed a paper that said he was working here in the UK, but he didn't have a working visa, so that caused some complications, and to add onto it, they couldn't call Central because it was a Sunday and nobody would be at the campus.  Luckily, we all had the same papers and after about a half an hour, they let him go with us. So we made it through customs. Then we were supposed to get picked up by a shuttle that would drop us off right outside the door where we were staying, but we couldn't find him.  Eventually we called the company and they sent somebody to get us. It was a long day at the airport.

On the way to Vandon House, where we stay in Central London, it hit me that I wasn't in the states anymore.  Cars driving on the other side of the road, cars driving crazy, I wasn't sure we were going to make it to Vandon. But about 45 minutes later we arrived at the door of Vandon House.  I got my stuff moved into my room and tried to get a little settled in.  A couple hours after arriving, the director took all of us to a pub called The Feathers, which is just a few blocks away.  There he got platters of fish and chips, calamari, chicken, and some sausage stuff.  I heard the food wasn't very good before I left, but I haven't had anything I haven't liked yet.  Then, of course, after the meal, the director told us he was leaving and we were on our own to get back to base.. within hours of landing in London. But needless to say, we did make it back safely.  That night, some of the guys and I decided we wanted to go out and explore.  So on our first night, we walked around London for about an hour and a half, to Buckingham Palace, multiple parks, and saw the Eye of London, that thing is huge.

Monday we had a lot of information thrown at us.  We went across the street to Westminster Chapel and our director, Mark Simmons, talked to us about many different things, including life in London in general, vocabulary, and the classes we have to take.  We also had a policeman come talk to us about how to prevent crimes from happening and just being safe in general while we are in the UK. We then had a short break and a small lunch before going on a walking tour.  The tour was at least two hours long and man does that guy know a lot about London.  I would find myself standing there in amazement that he knew that much history about the city.  After the walking tour, we had a house meeting, in which we were told the rules of living in Vandon House.  That night, three other guys and I went to a restaurant called The Slug and Lettuce, because we found out it had food for 50% off.  It was an experience.  We walked in and I'm sure everybody that saw us instantly knew we were Americans.  Eventually a lady that worked there came over to us and told us to sit down at a table.  We still think she was on drugs or something.  She had so much energy and instantly started making fun of us calling us Americans, but it was funny for us too.

Tuesday I had my internship meeting.  I was a tad bit nervous, but not for the interview, for getting to the interview, as it was my first time using the tube on my own.  As it turns out, it isn't hard at all.  I get on the tube about 5 minutes away from where I'm living, and stay on it for 16 stops, where i get off and walk another ten minutes.  The company is FitPro, and it is quite impressive.  They have over 120,000 members worldwide and they have 3 bi-monthly magazines they publish.  They also have their own music and a recording studio on site, along with a gym for staff to use.  They also serve as a warehouse and sell workout machines.  After my interview, I got back and had an intercultural training session. It could have been much more entertaining.  There was a lot of good stuff, but we were all still tired and getting over jet lag, and don't know how much of it actually stuck to us.  That night we all went to a bowling alley and bowled a few games and also had ten huge pizzas, probably the biggest pizzas I have ever seen. I'll admit, I was a bit shocked when I heard we were going to go bowling in the UK.  After the bowling, most of us went to a pub for a few hours and just hung out and had  good time.  I'm amazed at how decorative the pubs are and how dressed up people get to go into them.

Wednesday morning, I had my advising meeting where I was asked a few questions and got my schedule set.  I will have my internship Mondays and Tuesdays, then an art class on Wednesdays, where we go to a different art museum in London every week, then two classes through Central on Thursdays to teach us about the British culture.  That was all that was required for me on Wednesday.  The rest of the day and Thursday were spent just walking around London with a couple friends.  We went to Regents Park for four hours.  I'm amazed at how massive the parks are, right in the middle of a city with 8-12 million people.

Friday we got up and went to Birkbeck College, where we will be having our classes.  We also had our first class I guess you could say, where we learned what we would have to do for the classes, and also about travel in the UK.  After all that we went back to Vandon and at 2:00 we had a scavenger hunt.  It took us three hours and took us all around London. We even stopped and asked a policeman if we could get a picture with them and if we could wear their hat for extra points, he also instantly knew we were Americans. Long story short, we won.  But there were complications.  For example, at the end we were starting to head back and got on the tube, just to find out the tube was closing for some reason, so we had to work our way around the closure. That was fun.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much lazy days.  Saturday I went on another walking tour with the same guide as earlier and ended in an outdoor market where I got a duck sandwich for lunch. I had never had duck, but it was quite good.  I also found out that FitPro had contacted the director and asked if I could start a week later, so I don't have my internship until the 30th.

That's about all that's happened so far. One of the biggest things I have noticed is space.  Everything is so small and condensed, but goes up many stories.  It's also weird thinking that I'm seeing buildings that are older than the United States is as a country.