Hello Saltire universe! (I saw someone start their blog with that recently and I thought, stolen)
For anyone who's not read any of my previous blogs, I'm Aidan and am working for Jabil Circuit here in Florida.
I've had another great week here in Tampa and surrounding area, where I am feeling very much accustomed to life across here. Working at 8.30 every morning (that one took a while), packing all sorts of fun into the weekends, and eating out ALL the time! I could very much get used to the last two back home. This week has been HOT HOT HOT!
Stacey and I spent our Saturday in downtown St Petersburg with a lovely fellow intern who showed us around the place. St Petersburg is a quaint little city, sporting the motto of being 'Always in Season' . And for anyone reading this far and thinking 'that heat must have really got to him, St Petersburg is in Russia you idiot!', this is a second city by the same name. But the two are not unconnected. One of the co-founders of the city, Peter Demens, was born and raised in the Russian capital, and so named his new city in tribute to his hometown. There are certainly many nooks and crannies to this place to keep you occupied for a long time. We spent a great deal of time down at the waterfront, which is lined with bars, restaurants and cute old shops all facing onto Tampa Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, where it is possible to spot all kinds of fish and sea creatures. After a nice little brunch at one of these eateries (a luxury omelette being my particular choice) we weaved steadily in and out of these waterfront shops, with each one containing all sorts of mementos and old arty things. In stereotypical fashion it was in one of these shops that I managed to pick up something to bring back to Mother dearest back home. St Pete is also known for it's galleries dotted around the area, including the recently opened Dali museum, which I am determined to visit soon. A couple of friends from Jabil also took us out the following day to see the latest, greatest and last Harry Potter film, which I have no shame in admitting I was completely and utterly captivated by. I absolutely loved the books when they first came out, and this last film brought me back to those days.
On the work front, I feel I've found my feet. I now feel relatively comfortable with the jargon Jabil likes to throw around, the various reporting tools our department uses to analyze our data, and how the Finance Transformation team works itself out among the various other departments that make up Finance. For almost three full days last week, our department along with Financial Reporting and others met to discuss the processes we are all in charge of, and whether each of the groups is doing what they expect to be doing. Where that was not the case we looked at the reasons why and what could be done to amend that in the future. This is a big part of Finance Transformation: it takes a look at the whole of Finance from a distance and evaluates where processes could be done differently or made more efficient. My biggest task for this week remains the same: to test our new reporting tool and make it road-worthy; there must be no creases left to iron out by the time it is rolled out to the rest of Finance in a couple of weeks time. It is a challenging task, but one I continue to relish and feel more comfortable with as time goes on.
Today's highlight was was managing to get my hands on a guitar!! My guitar has been sorely missed since I abandoned it three weeks ago in Edinburgh, but I vowed to find a temporary one as soon as I could. So, thanks to the generosity of one of my colleague's housemates, I now have a lovely acoustic for the remainder of my time here, which I intend to play in between the busyness which is this Saltire trip! What fun it's been. Really enjoying everyone else's blogs, keep it up people! Hope you're all having a blast.
Aidan