I'm now in my 7th week of my internship here at IBM in Shenzhen and it is starting to feel like the beginning of the end. In two weeks exactly, I will probably be on a plane approaching Glasgow Airport and then it will be back to reality, no doubt with a thump! I cannot put into words how much I am enjoying every second of my experience here in China, I have learned so much about the way huge international corporations function and I have also learned a lot about myself.

Last week was another busy week for me. I have been spending a lot of time evaluating how data is prepared and reported to management and trying to find ways to improve. I have also been coordinating a number of brainstorming sessions with my team and a conference call took place with IBM's site in Rochester in the US to exchange ideas on best practice for inventory. The conference call was quite interesting and it highlighted to us a number of different processes that are not currently in action here in Shenzhen. I spent most of the second half of the week following these up and hopefully by the time I leave here I can get them implemented - so I have plenty to be getting on with for my last week and a half here. I also got the chance to meet with John Paterson - who is a Vice President for IBM (now there is a job title!) responsible for supply chain. It was an interesting chat, he has spent 40 years working for IBM origionally starting out working at the Greenock plant. All the senior positions here in Shenzhen seem to be taken by Scotsmen - I also caught up with the General Manager for IBM Shenzhen, Robert who wanted to track how my progress was going. We spoke a lot about the different opportunities that are not only available in IBM but also in Asia-Pacific in general - the growth here is incredible - if I look out of my apartment window, I can probably count easily over 100 new high rise buildings under construction - either apartment blocks or office blocks. China is really going to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years - and consider thow powerful it's economy is already!

At the weekend, I took the high-speed train from Shenzhen to another city called Guangzhou and spent my weekend there. I have to say I thought Shenzhen had bad overcrowding until I went to Guangzhou. On the subway, you literally have to take two steps back then run at the train to get on. Guangzhou has a lot more history to see than Shenzhen so it was quite interesting to experience that side of Chinese culture. This weekend, one of my friends from back home is coming to Hong Kong on holiday so I am planning to head there for the weekend and then my final weekend is spent in Hong Kong before flying home.

My mum sent me a text message in a panic last week to see if I was caught up in Typhoon Morakot - I don't know what the media were reporting back home or whether she just assumed that the typhoon had destroyed all of China but luckily Morakot did not affect Shenzhen as it definetly packed a punch. I got access to the BBC World News at the weekend in my hotel which really was a treat. In my apartment I only have two channels in english that come from Hong Kong but they are censored by the Chinese Govt so if they don't want you to know anything - you won't know it - simple as that. The internet here is also a major difficulty at times - so many sites are blocked by the government - it can get a bit frustrating at times. Luckily our office internet comes from Hong Kong so we can access the internet freely in the office.

So for my last two weeks I have a lot to look forward to and a lot to keep me busy. I just know that time is going to disappear before my eyes though.

Anyway, back to work for me. Hope you all have another good week!