Beachy Head- Rob Graham

I was online this Saturday and saw the above picture with the caption "Beachy Head, England". Ignoring the fact it had more photoshop done to it than Hollywood has plastic surgery, I was curious to see where this beautiful nature scene was located. It turned out to be on the southern coast of England; I checked to see if there were any trains that headed in that direction and found one going to the small coastal town of Eastbourne, only an hour and a half away.

So on a whim, Maxx, Tate, Heidi, Carly, and I took off on a train to Eastbourne. This was the first trip I planned, so naturally, it was almost a complete disaster.

I take the southern service train to work (about 30 minutes away) and use my oyster card (tube/subway pass that you can top up with money) for all of my trips. I assumed that the oyster card worked for all southern service train rides, and didn't even worry about it as we scanned in and got on board. When we got off and tried to scan out in Eastbourne, our cards weren't working. Apparently, you can use your Oyster card to get to a certain distance outside the city before it stops working. The people working the gate were friendly, laughed at our American misfortune, and gave us a break on the price for our tickets. 

After we made it out of the train station, it was time to figure out how to get to the cliffs. We asked around and got the general direction. The plan was walk to the coast and follow it until we got there, taking some pictures and enjoy the fact we were seeing sunlight for the first time in awhile. We finally asked an older gentleman how long to Beachy Head from the city center, he responded "Well, 12 miles and the average person walks 3 miles an hour so maybe about 4 hours," I swear it looked closer from google maps.

We laughed, grabbed some lunch in town, and decided to split a taxi to take us to the chalk cliffs of England. After walking around, enjoying the scenery, and realizing how lucky we were...

we made it with plenty of time and caught the beginning of the sunset. This day definitely gets chalked up as one of the best. Can't believe how lucky I am to be in this place and have the opportunities that are around me.  And the scenery is just as magnificent without the photoshop.  

Harry Potter! Andrew Currey

Sorry for not blogging in forever!  We have all been so busy since our internships have started.  Working 40+ hours a week is exhausting, so we know now what all of our parents are talking about when they complain about their jobs.  

Today Ryan, Amanda, Sydney, and I all went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio.  This was one of my favorite things I have done in London so far.  Although it doesn't have anything to do with London or British culture, Harry Potter was a huge part of my childhood.  Many in our class grew up reading the books and watching the movies, so we have developed a deep connection to this story.  

Excited for the tour while waiting in line at the studio!

Ryan and I battling it out with our wands.  Obviously I won.

The model of Hogwarts that they used for filming.

Next weekend many of us are going to Cardiff, Wales, and we are excited about that!  6 hours total that day all on a Megabus together will definitely bring back memories of Edinburgh.  With only 23 days left in London, I am trying to take advantage of every last moment.  I cannot believe how fast this semester has flown by! 

Weekend Bus Tour - Georgia Ralston

This past weekend a group of us took a bus tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath.  Despite freezing cold temperatures the trip was very fun and packed with interesting things to see.  Our first stop was Windsor Palace. The Queen happened to be in, but sadly, we did not spot her out and about the castle ( I don't blame her because it was SO cold and snowing).  Some things we did get to see at Windsor included Queen Victoria's Doll house and the place of burial of Henry VIII.  Next we ventured to see the wondrous stones at Stonehenge.  Currently, they are working on a new visitor center and parking area for Stonehenge.  When they are complete they will shut down the road that currently runs by it so people will have to walk a little further to see the sight.  This is so they can better preserve the stones.  

Our final stop of the tour was Bath; the artifacts at the Roman Baths were very interesting.  It was also really cool to see the baths themselves and the hot springs that flowed into them.  It would have been very easy to spend all day in the cute little town.  After visiting the baths we made our way back home to London.  It is very hard to believe that I now have only a short four weeks left before I head back to the states. 

Hot spring at Bath

Flag showing the Queen was in

One of the gardens

Sarah and I at Stonehenge

Snow in March!-Sophie Henssler

Today I planned to go the Natural History Museum, but the line was enormous to get in. The museums are free, yet they regulate how many people can come in at the same time as it is so popular. It was also snowing today. Instead I went to the  Science Museum and had the most amazing time. They had an exhibition about what makes you who you are and about everything you could imagine. We had actually planned to go to the London Eye, but the visibility was poor. After the museum I took a walk in Hyde Park and lots of flowers were already blooming even though it has been freezing. Kensington Palace was beautiful in the snow.

Internships!- Heidi Faust

Internships have begun! I am working at emc3, a small event planning company in Notting Hill. I have learned an incredible amount about event planning and business in general. During my first week at emc3 I worked at a LinkedIn event, put together some proposals for clients, and spent some time getting to know my colleagues. We have all stayed really busy, and get very excited to see each other at the end of the day and on the weekend. I have a feeling this will be one of the most insane and beneficial learning experiences I have had yet! I can't wait to see what the rest of this internship brings. 

Before an evening out with my co-workers! 

Cheers for now! 

The Savoy Hotel Week One - Jillian Valk

Main entrance on the Strand

       This week I started my internship at the Savoy Hotel in the Accounts Department. I am really excited about working here because of its history and because of the many diverse things its does. On Monday I got my Savoy ID card that I use to get in and out of the employee entrance. Right now all I have really seen of the hotel is the Accounts Department, which is in the weirdest place. You wonder around this concrete corridor underneath the hotel that has piping and wires all over the place and then there is a door tucked in an alcove that looks like it would lead to a boiler room but it’s the Accounts Department.

I have my own desk next to two people that I work with. I am on the Accounts Receivable side of the room. I am helping out Mary, who is also American. She is the income auditor on the team; however one of the accounts members is on paternity leave so she has been doing his job in accounts payable as well. On my other side is Cinnamon and she works with the credit card transactions. I don’t envy her job because she is on the phone all day with angry customers that don’t understand their payments or have something charged incorrectly.

For the first four days I worked on the Daily Operations packets for the company. Every day they compile transactions throughout the hotel such as void reports, zero rate room report,  not to mention they have been short staffed. I also did other small tasks such as a cash control check. The hotel had an outside cash control person come in and order a drink at the bar and they didn’t receive a receipt for the transaction therefore they wrote about the entire scene including what they ordered at what time and for how much.  I went through all the receipts of the day to make sure it had in fact been entered. They do this because money is really easy to slip into employees pockets.  Thursday I shadowed one of the accounts workers, Luchiana. She is Italian and is the most talkative lady in the whole place. She was extremely nice and showed me how to “chase” people that hadn’t paid yet and how to deal with them. Apparently travel agencies are the worst. Their system where they input all the invoices is extremely confusing even to the full time employees. We also had a department meeting where they discussed the yearly revenue and the committee progress. There are only nine people in the department so everyone is really social and helpful.

               On Friday the president of Fairmont came and spoke to the entire hotel staff, which is rare, so I’m really glad I got to be there for that. She showed us all the new hotels that were expected to be coming up around the world and more growth of the company. Not to mention the hotel was trying to be fancy for the president so they had gourmet finger foods for the entire staff. I have never had strawberry trifle in a champagne glass before but it was delicious. The rest of the afternoon I was looking into the charges for the House account. Each department can charge stuff to the house account so the hotel pays for it. For instance, when I came in for my interview we were served tea in the Thames Foyer and the lady I spoke with said she would handle to bill. Now I know that it just gets charged to the HR department on the House account. No money is actually exchanging hands but it decreases their budget. So I had to sort through receipts and determine if they get credit for the transaction, input it on an excel document that is linked to the system, then compile each department charges and send them up so they can approve them. We are preparing for an in-house audit next week and the other accounts member is coming back as well so things will be different.

Internship week 1- Rob Graham

For my internship, I am working for a Member of Parliament, Tom Brake. I split my time working at his constituency office about 30 minutes outside the city and the Westminster office. This week has been all about getting a feel for what the average problems Tom and his staff face in order to best serve their constituents as well as gathering data for the election next year.

I started on Tuesday and went to the office in Carshalton. The main work in the constituency office is casework. Someone who lives in the area represented by Tom will write in with a problem or his/her opinion on an issue. Our office will then research their case and send them a response in order to resolve the problem as best as possible. My job the first day was to take each case (sometimes consisting of entire packets of information), read through them in order to get a general feel of what the people care about and how we respond to letters, and then reorder the stack in alphabetical order so we can reference it later. After that, I tried my hand at proofreading. Unfortunately, the grammar rules are slightly different and I was informed to not add any more “American commas,” so that might not be my strength. I ended the first day learning how to sort mail.

The next day, I was sent out into the community to put up fliers in local businesses advertising a “politics and coffee” informal meeting. The weather turned out to be pretty nice after the first half hour, and it was nice to be able to walk around. When I cam back in, I was given a computer ID and taught how to enter information about voters into our database that we can use in the election next year. Volunteers had gone door to door earlier that month asking constituents their opinions on different issues and their general political positions. Using this data we can more effectively tailor information to individuals in leaflets, depending on what’s important to them.

Thursday was my first day in Westminster and was extremely cool. I met some more of the staff and was given the task of searching the newspapers for mentions of Tom, the local council, or the party. It was nice to be able to learn about the constituents and catch up on their news. The highlight of the day was lunch! The parliament cafeteria is great- has delicious food but at a fraction of the price I would pay in the surrounding tourist area. I also enjoyed being able to talk with my coworkers and find out more about them. One was from Mexico, another Poland, and the other Norway; it was quite the international experience. After lunch, I had my chance to work on casework of my own involving students asking for Tom’s views on the environment.

On Friday, I was back in Westminster with one of our other Americans. I was in charge of finding contact information for organizations around a specific area of Tom’s constituency in order for us to invite them to local events to report problems in to Tom. Obviously there are politics involved, but it impresses me how adamant Tom is to help and be of use to the people he represents. It’s refreshing to see for sure! After a quick lunch, I created some spreadsheets in order for us to organize petition signatures based on constituencies. So far I’m 950 through the 1600, definitely a lot of information.

I went back to the Carshalton office on Saturday morning to help with one of our Action Days. The entire staff will come in, and with the help of volunteers, will phone canvass, pass out leaflets, and go door to door to help report back on what Tom has been doing to represent them and give them the option to get more information. Tom represents around 100,000 people, a much more manageable number than U.S. senators. I think this is one of the reasons politicians feel so responsible to the people here, they have a much more close knit relationship with them then they do the lobbyist at Westminster.