Hello from Manhattan everybody!

Myself and the other New York interns arrived without a hitch on Saturday evening....actually there was a minor hitch when one of our number had to spend some time conversing with customs staff but all is well now! In fact there was one other small (very small) issue as well The moment I stepped out of the airport I took my camera out and took a picture of some genuine New York taxis and was approached by a member of airport security who thought it would be funny to pretend I had violated the taxi photography bill of 1865 and would have to surrender the offending camera to him to be destroyed immediately. The spelling of immediately has just caused me a minor headache....is my spellchecker on US English? Who knows?

Anyway I was half way to handing over my camera and writing a letter of apology to Barack Obama when my jetlagged brain woke up and told me the taxi photography bill of 1865 could well be a wind up. Oh and I noticed the guy was laughing at me. Good one.

Shortly after midnight US time we arrived at our apartment on East 82nd Street, or East82ndStreet as the SEVIS website likes to call it. Armed with our door access codes we entered and proceeded to put the air conditioning on before we met a sweaty, humid end. The temperatures here in NY have been averaging 90 degrees recently, considerably higher than what I was expecting as the last time I was in New York was coincidentally also the first time I saw someone with icicles in their nose. After getting familiar with our rooms, which I am pleased to report are highly satisfactory, Claire, Matt, Graeme and I headed out and got some food (and Mountain Dew, see my last blog to discover how I feel about this!). It was pretty late when we got home so I went straight to bed anticipating a long, well earned sleep......

.....and woke up at 5am.

Not the kind of waking up that promises the chance of getting back to sleep. This was a full blown, start of the day wake up. It gave me the chance to do some early morning wandering though and the 24/7 nature of the city was highlighted to me as I came across local tennis courts packed full of players at 6.30am.

The rest of the day consisted mainly of watching the world cup final and food shopping. The latter of which brought to me a strange revelation. I always thought in the US everything was bigger. As an avid egg eater, I bought a pack of LARGE eggs (free range of course) from my local supermarket. Imagine my surprise the next morning when it transpired that my LARGE eggs were actually closer in size to eggs of the mini, chocolatey variety. I was expecting to ask for an egg and receive an omelette (this very nearly had the honour of being the title of the blog.) As I am writing this it is lunch time in Lab 49 and I have just had another similar experience, having ordered 2 hot dogs from a local deli and received 2 small link sausages in even smaller finger rolls. These aren't hot dogs, they look like something that would be served at the start of a cocktail party! And so a blog title is born.

Now, onto more important things. My 1st day of work at Lab 49 began with an introduction to Ross Hamilton, the Global Scot who arranged the internship. Ross introduced Claire and I to our co-workers then took us into a meeting room with an unbelievable view (pictures to follow hopefully) of the Hudson and the Statue of Liberty. One my jaw had been returned to a more conventional position we were given an overview of the company and it's strategy group, where we would be working. Obviously I am unable to go into great detail about the project I will be working on as this would be breaching client confidentiality but I am pleased to say it is, or at least sounds fairly high profile. No tea making here then. Which is a shame as I make a mean cup of tea.

One of the first things to strike me about the working environment in the Lab (I'm staff so I get to call it that now) was the laid back attitude everyone seemed to have. Ties and suit jackets are rare, and by rare I mean only one mug turned up wearing them (and he's just some Scottish intern) and staff of all levels wander around the office chatting casually and eating snacks from the impressively well stocked fridge. Questions about anything are encouraged and the software engineers are encouraged to email colleagues for support with problems instead of googling the answers. Working hours here are flexible with people coming in from 8am onwards with Claire and I starting at 8.30 each day in an attempt to avoid wild subway overcrowding on the way in. 

My first piece of work will consist of researching and then making a presentation on capital markets. As anything without the word turbofan or regional aircraft in it is almost certainly alien to me thanks to my aeronautical background, this should be a good experience of working outwith my comfort zone.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, I was let in on the secret of how Lab 49 got it's name.........I might reveal it in my next blog. If you’re lucky.