So I am writing my final blog from the comfort of my own bed at home in Glasgow. It's quite a depressing thought that this time last week I was just home from work and getting changed to go out for dinner in Boston.

My last blog finished last monday night so i will just quickly recap my final few days at Genzyme and in Cambridge/Boston.

On tuesday night I met Colin and David in Boston and we went to the newly opened Scottish restaurant! We wanted to check the place out and show our support to the owners, as Boston is known for having many Irish descendants we doubted that there would have been any Scottish people to visit the place. We had such a nice night and loved our haggis, neeps and tatties and irn bru! Jason was such a good host and said that when he chatted with us it made him really miss Scotland. We could have stayed chatting with him for hours but we were all tired from our early start. In hindsight, it was pretty pointless going to a Scottish restaurant so late in the summer as we are home already but the guy gave us his business card so we now have another Scottish contact abroad and it was really nice to hear his experiences since moving away all those years ago!

On wednesday night all of the Boston/Cambridge saltires met up for a final dinner and believe it or not it was actually the first time we had all been together at once as throughout the 8 weeks someone was always out somewhere with friends they had made so it was nice to all get together at the same time. Then on thursday Stephanie and myself went out for a farewell meal with some other Genzyme interns whom we had got to know so well over the 8 weeks at work. It was nice to have a proper goodbye with them.

The last week of work flew in. I was busy finishing a few projects that I had been involved in. Many of these projects will carry on and the results won't be seen for a while but I am really glad to have been part of them and I'm proud that my work will contribute to the changes made to the process in the future. On thursday afternoon I attended a meeting regarding some of the work I had been undertaking for the supply chain. I had been collecting and analysing yield data for the Thyrogen process and displaying my results in a way that the data could be easily interpreted at the meeting and would enable the managers present to decide on confidence intervals for the process. This is a range in which the yield must fall to meet the standards set by the U.S and E.U and also to meet current demand for the products. I was told that morning that I would be presenting my work which I didn't know about so I quickly went over what I would say before the meeting. My manager was chairing the meeting but as I had done most of the work to be discussed, I was promptly given this position. I explained my work and what each slide meant and I answered all of the questions and queries that the managers had for me. This was a good experience and was really interesting as I was able to see how they will use this information in the next step of the project. It was a great way to end my 8 weeks as I felt really valued when everyone was thanking me for my help and telling me I had done a great job. On Friday I was finishing off some small sections of other work I had been doing and transferring all of my work onto a shared drive so that it can be used in the future. My manager then took me out to lunch with some of the others in the office which was such a nice gesture and meant that I got to say goodbye properly to some of the people that I worked closely with.

Then came Saturday, my day of travel back to Glasgow. This was a really sad day as not only was I travelling home alone (haha) but I knew that I was really going to miss the place and the people I had met, especially the other interns. My face didn't stay dry for long. As I said goodbye to the other Saltires on the bus to the airport, the tears came. The end of the most amazing summer had come.

Once I had dried my face and checked in though the journey was actually quite pleasant. I met a really nice American girl on the plane who was coming over to Glasgow to study for 3 months so I took it upon myself to invite her out with me and my friends. We swapped email addresses and are hopefully going to meet up at some point in the next week or so and I will be able to show her round the town. I think its safe to say the 8 weeks was successful as I was still networking while on the flight home!

I would just like to take this opportunity to say thank you to The Saltire Foundation and everyone who made this experience possible! I feel so grateful to have secured this position and to have been placed in such a great company and with such nice people. I have truely had the most amazing summer and have made so many contacts 'across the pond'! I'm no longer daunted about graduating next year and getting a job in 'the big bad world'. I feel I have matured and grown in confidence over the past two months and that I could even move away from Glasgow which I never thought I would say before this experience. This is probably essential if I want to pursue my dream career as a Chemical Engineer. I am privaleged to be able to put 'The Saltire Foundation' on my CV and hope that I can continue to be part of and promote the foundation in the coming years.

Thanks again,

Christine