It’s been just over a week since I touched down at JFK and the time has just flown in! After about 14 hours of airports, planes and taxis the NYC 4 arrived at our splendid Upper East Side apartments. The area we are in is lovely with lots of restaurants and bars and within walking distance of both Central and Carl Schurz Parks. Sunday was spent exploring our surroundings, stumbling upon many of the NYC landmarks before an afternoon watching the World Cup Final. There was real mix of people in the bar (with some behavior demonstrating why we share 98% of our DNA with chimps!) but the atmosphere was great and everyone was really friendly. After an emergency trip to locate a new hairdryer (which proceeded to fuse the majority of the apartment) it was takeaway New York style before an early night in preparation for our first day at Lab49.

Our commute to work involves a pleasant 15 minute walk followed by a hot and crowded20 minute subway ride- I do not know how so many New York women manage to stay looking so glamorous in this humidity as after being in the subway my hair tends to resemble something more similar to a poodle!! Anyway, the Lab49 office is in a great location- right opposite the Charging Bull of Wall Street with impressive views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We were greeted by Ross Hamilton, one of the founding members of the GlobalScot network, who showed us around the office and talked to us about the type of project work we wanted to get involved in. Unlike other internships, we have not been given a fully structured project but instead will get to contribute to various projects and have weekly deliverables, tailored to what we want to get out of our 8 weeks here. The first few weeks I am I going to be working alongside the Strategy Group doing research for a current client project. Due to client confidentiality I am not able to discuss specifics but generally I will be focusing on the foreign exchange (FX) markets. My first week involved creating a presentation on the lifecycle of a FX trade and the various subcomponents and processes that are utilized. This has been a really useful exercise; not just in helping me better understand the FX market but also in developing those all important presentation skills! On Thursday we were taken out for lunch by the Strategy Team to get to know one another in a more informal environment and find out about the best places to see, things to do and places to eat.

Over the course of my first week I’ve found it interesting seeing the office dynamics. I think our experience at Lab49 will be very different in the sense that we are working for a relatively small company (about 200 employees in total) so we see a lot of what is going on. In this environment all levels of employees, with different skills and experience interact; the founders of the company are extremely in tune with all the projects being conducted and regularly converse with everyone in the office; everyday there are numerous team meetings to ensure that all project work is on track for delivery and I receive many e-mails from the tech guys looking to share knowledge on any problems they are having (it’s all a different language to me!)- But overall I feel this is a very efficient way of working.

The food available here is amazing- so far have experienced Chinese, Thai, Japanese (whilst mastering the art of chopsticks), Mexican, Italian and of course the good old American steak houses and diners. Really looking forward to a trip to Little Italy and Chinatown but may pass on the frog porridge and Wasabi ice-cream I’ve heard about! Seems like it really is true that you can get any type of food at any hour of the day here in NYC- now that’s my kind of city J

On Friday we went to see Avenue-Q thanks to Graeme and Matt’s discounts! One word= hilarious! There are some scenes from this that I know are going to be stuck in my mind for a loooong time so if you ever get the chance I would definitely recommend it! On Saturday we turned into real tourists with camera firmly in hand. We managed to experience the mystery of the Whispering Corner in Grand Central Station- an area outside the Oyster Restaurant where if you face one wall and someone faces the other wall you can talk to each other without anyone else hearing (maybe some clever physicist can explain this?!) We then explored some of the shops that Fifth Avenue had to offer before making our way over to Times Square to go to Roxy’s, a delicatessen which serves the biggest and best cheesecake I have ever had…d.e.l.i.c.ious! We then met up with Aiden and Graham who are based at IBM upstate who had come down for the weekend (just to outnumber me even more!) so we had a bit more of an explore before a few drinks and night at a local comedy club. Sunday was a lazy day with brunch at a local diner who did great fruit smoothies!

Anyways, I feel like I’ve rambled enough before I even start on what’s happened this week but life Stateside is awesome and hope everyone else is having an equally great time- sounds like it from the blogs J

C x