Hi again,

So last week I was finally able to meet with my Global Scot, a very nice man named John Paterson who is VP of Supply and a Chief Procurement Officer for IBM. As John is a very busy man, we only got to meet for a brief 15 minutes but it was a good experience to pick his brain about the industry and how he has achieved his success. He has also promised me a round of golf before my internship is over so I very much look forward to meeting him again. After my meeting with John I stayed at the KJY facility (about 30 mins from my place of work at ISH3) and met with Sammi Huo, a woman from HR who has been responsible for organising my "English Corner" presentations for the empolyees to improve their English. On Friday I presented to a group of 30 employees in ISH3 and my presentation went down brilliantly. Being from Ayr I chose to concentrate my talk on Rabbie Burns and Burns Night which everyone seemed to enjoy and appreciate. I even got asked questions about Braveheart and Nessie which was a welcomed surprise, clearly some of the attendees had done some preparation prior as Scotland isn't too well known in China. In fact, I was even asked if Scotland was apart of England! I let her away with it though as I have once said I come from near Glasgow to a girl from England and her response was "Oh, I love Wales!". That was just inexcusable! So for my "English Corner" presentation this week over at KJY I added a few extra slides to cover the Loch Ness Monster, Bagpipes etc. I even took along my Scotland football top, a Saltire and a quaich which I intend to present to my manager when I leave. They all seemed very interested which was very satisfying!

Workwise, I have now moved from the Power Systems department to the System X operation. To conclude my time spend in Power Systems I presented to the board of managers on Friday afternoon about what I had learned during the week. I felt very unconfident about my presentation as I felt the material I had learned was very basic and possibly a regurgitation of what they already knew but they seemed very impressed and commented how much I had learned in such a small space of time so I suppose I'm pleased. I made comment though that I felt I wasn't learning too much and wasn't getting the level of responsibility and personal development that I had come to expect from a Saltire Foundation internship but after explaining myself to my supervisor in System X he has helped me tweak my planner to focus on systems which are possibly more difficult to understand and that are widely used across the manufacturing industry which should be more benefitual. I still feel that graduates are a rare commodity here and that the level of work is very basic. The easiest way to understand it is if you were to ask how a washing machine works. Here, when I get a response it goes along the lines of "turn it on, load your clothes, turn the dial to 9 and press go" but what I really want to know is how much water goes in and how it is controlled, how the washing powder is regulated, how the drum spins and how the water is drained. In a nut shell I feel as though I get the operating instructions as opposed to the process. So when I want to understand how they test their products the answers I'm getting are irrelevant as I won't ever need to operate the Duluth testing environment.

Yesterday at work I attended a meeting with Raquel, a woman who has been sent over from Rochester (USA) to try to help with staffing when production levels increase. She invited me out for lunch to meet her husband (who also works for IBM) and another engineer called Thembami who floats between KJY and ISH3 as a quality engineer. I was taken out for Italian food which was a welcomed change from the norm and got to speak with them in more depth and on a non-work related basis. It actually turns out that Juan (Raquel's husband) and Raquel actually knew the intern who went over to Shenzhen last year, Adam Muir. We spoke about Adam for a while and they explained how they knew him as "Greenock" and poked fun at his strong Glasgow accent. Possibly the best thing to come out of this lunch was meeting Thembami as he is essentially doing the job I had expected to do whilst in Shenzhen and have been told by my managers that he is full of great ideas so I'm pressing my managers to work with him for as much as possible.

On a final note, I have opted to use my spare time at IBM wisely and have been networking away like a trooper whenever I get the opportunity. Tonight I have managed to get an invitation to the British Chamber of Commerce for networking drinks and to meet other members which I'm very much looking forward to. Furthermore, myself and the 2 interns from Hong Kong have been invited to have dinner with a fellow Scotsman and deputy head of mission at the British Consulate in Hong Kong next Thursday night which should also be a great opportunity. I have managed to get 2 days off of work next week to attend so hopefully I can spend some more time seeing the sights of Hong Kong and absorbing the culture. The problem with Shenzhen is that because it is such a new city it lacks any identity as it is so multi-national so getting out of it can be very nice to seclude yourself from many of the Western luxuries we have become accustomed to.

Anyways, I apparently have some pizza ordered for lunch (which I cannot wait to try as my last pizza in China was like eating adigestive biscuit with cheese on top) so I have low expectations and hope to get a very nice surprise even if it's not as good as home!

Ciao