Catch Up Post!

To save some time, I've decided to create an easy list and pictures post in order to CATCH up on the first part of March.

I have to look through my pictures to document what happened when. Since I'm so bad at putting up pictures to Facebook these days I'm so behind on my travels on facebook--that's why my blog's an exclusive look at (more) recent happenings!!

Following Spring Break was my first week of work and my supplementary course; International Marketing. I'm wrote about my internship in another post.

Here it goes:

Just before break the program set up a night out at FABRIC--an 8 floor nightclub. There were a lot of BU people there and it got a bit overwhelming with the floors and sounds and lights and other people. I'm pretty sure I'm grew out of the clubbing life within the first week just because everything's pretty far.

On a Saturday, we went to Portobello Market in Notting Hill (like the movie!) and explored the many tents of food, antiques, jewelry, and clothing. It was all outdoors and down a long street, we tried a german scrumptious hot dog, and Gretchen got some Churros with chocolate mmm mm goood. I was tempted to buy a Jazz album of 40 all time hits but found 2 pieces of jewelry I've been wearing a lot. One is a handmade ring made from wire w/3 beads intertwined. The other is a necklace that has an

elephant pendant which opens up to a clock. It was also cool that at this market there were street performers and this really sick guitar blues player...totally enjoyed that.

The next weekend we went to the CAMDEN market (Jen, Danielle, and I). It's a pretty big market with so many sections. We went to the food part first and had oh so good Chinese food (but the noodles tasted funny), we ate them next to a giant lion and on seats resembling mopeds..pretty different. After, we toured around the stalls (previously horse stalls) of antiques, the jewelry and clothing spots and wandered through the stores. I got heart sunglasses-tacky but fun, cute sale earrings-b/c a japanese lady had made them, and a face mask-because it was 1Euro and totally worth the absurdity of us trying it on...pictures are too embarrassing to post!

Another day, it was FINALLY nice and clear in London so since we hadn't previously, we went for a stroll in Hyde Park starting at Kensington Palace, heading toward the Pond, down to this other area with fountains and shrubbery, through the paths to Princess Diana's memorial, and finally crossing over the Serpentine. We had a cute photo opt at the Royal Albert Memorial right across from the Royal Albert Hall. It was pretty cool because the day was pretty amazing for London Standards.

Just briefly before closing, I ALMOST (I know, bad story) saw the Queen during her welcoming of the South African President to London. Since I work 10 minutes from Buckingham Palace and we were looking at the royal site (b/c we heard a bunch of guns firing), it said that there would be a royal procession. I took my lunch break and walked down to the Palace but just got there after she had been seen UGH--I did get to see the army of men on horses which was also pretty cool.

Paris, St Pattys Day, and Church Club coming up next time..

CaxtonFx--The Interning Phase

So I wrote this back at the end of FEBRUARY goodness March has flown by and it's already April..1st...this might be a joke.. BUt anyway, I wrote about the internship 3 days after it is as follows:

Since I have to keep a journal/notes for my internship, I might as well publish a few tidbits from the first few days and continue to keep a log of what I do on a daily basis.

Part of the International Program I am doing involves an 8-week internship at a company I've been placed at...Everyone is guaranteed an internship which is really neat aspect of this program. Since I am thinking of concentrating in Marketing and Finance (not to mention my History minor as well), the placement team thought a Marketing Internship in a Financial firm would be appropriate and I couldn't have found it a better match.

Although I did not know the company going in, it's been 3 days of interning and I feel like I know a lot about the company and the British work environment as well.

I work for a company called CaxtonFx which is a foreign exchange currency company which trades on all amounts of currency for the spread but also benefiting their clients by arranging the best interest for them. Also, recently, they have set up a currency card which works as a credit card without charging fees on the transaction's made. The way it works is that you load your card with the company in British Pounds and convert them to Dollars before you go to the US. Or you convert to Euro's before you head to the EU for travels or a business trip.

My job as an intern is to do market research on 3 different sectors Caxton Fx could possibly penetrate in order to maximize their client base. I am looking into the Auto Industry, Fashion Industry, and Promotional Item's industry. Near the end of the internship I'm going to present this to the head directors of the company so that could be gratifying. It's nice to have a long-term project set up but let me tell you the researching is a lot of work because I'm reaching a lot of dead ends already. There's another intern from the BU program which is nice because we can take lunch together and have some morale boost during the day.

Things I've noticed since being at CaxtonFx:

1. The guys are pretty funny but also very crude, dropping the F-bomb like its nothing and joking about some controversial things (homosexuality etc.)
2. Company culture seems to be about transparency and people are very friendly and mobile about walking around the office to get answers or to communicate (director's windows are all glass with no blinds to cover them)
3. As seen with MOST British companies, people DON'T have cubicles and privacy is more limited to upper management, I could stare at the guy across from me all day if I wanted to be a creep. This is standard to have just flat desks next to each other.
4. Since I work in an area with not too many restaurants/shops (b/c we're near Buckingham Palace and Embassy's), the Sandwich man comes with food (woohoo! but I make lunch mostly)
5. The currency market is really interesting especially in the turbulent economic times and also with the way they view the dollar versus how we view the dollar..(GO US DOLLAR!)

That is all for now! Cheers!

NOW 4/1/2010 at CaxtonFx, things are starting to wind down and a lot of people are on "holiday" aka vacationing for the long easter "bank" holiday which gives people both Friday and Monday off of work.

I've presented my work to both the sales team and the marketing team and they are independently working on developing their grip in the Auto Parts industry, specifically targeting the Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SME's).

Blah blah blah, it's been a good internship and I'm looking forward to this Easter Long weekend (Friday and Monday off) because my gosh--work's really long and tiring and my butt and my back gets sore! OOOF.