Good morning everyone!
Once again I am writing this after a crazy but amazing weekend, but this time in my hometown of Glasgow rather than London. (A little observation for you – nobody in England seems to refer to any of the cities in Scotland… So far the past ten weeks I haven’t been ‘Glaswegian’, just ‘Scottish’ - as a result I appear to take every opportunity I can to get it out there while I can!)
My weekend started back on Thursday evening – and with it began operation Surprise-my-flatmate-Jill-on-her-21st. This may sound a little over dramatic to you all but I kid you not, it was very large and complex plan! The basic outline goes like this:
Tell Jill I can’t make it :(.
Feel really guilty as she might think I’m not making enough effort.
Get my friend Georgie to convince Jill she has a friend (Jane Anderson) coming.
Catch an evening train with all the commuters.
Work in the Glasgow office on Friday, and feel like a real grown up going to my very own HOT DESK and just getting left to my own devices.
Get a lift from Jill’s sister to their house…
And finally, SURPRISE JILL!
And surprised she was – so much so that when I appeared out of her sister’s room real tears fell down her face. Result! (I mean that in the nicest way, promise) Anyway – this was just meant to be an aside in my blog but I’ve become rather distracted – ceilidh dances were danced and muchos chin wagging was done.
The main point of that whole story was the bit about getting my own hot desk. The thing about this internship that keeps surprising me is how we are treated by managers/directors/all those high up people in companies. There was no air of ‘she’s just an intern’ or ‘oh the intern is here, what do we do with her?’ – I was treated just like anybody else in the company who had travelled through for the day. Mind boggling! I still feel like wee Jenny from Glasgow that likes trampolining, maths and her two cats.
In terms of our project things are going from strength to strength. We have established our basic template/analyses and now as the new data comes in we have to keep updating said analyses. For our last couples of weeks we have two main tasks: putting together our final presentation and working out how to hand over the project to our successor (in the form of a graduate, I believe) so that the work can continue. Certainly, the prospect of giving a presentation to many of the big names in the company (the CEO and Managing Directors...) is a daunting one, but I think we all feel good about the fact that it’s one final push until the end now. This feeling probably stems from the fact that we’re all maths students and, ultimately, enjoy the satisfaction that comes hand in hand with seeing a problem through to the end. I’d just like to add in here that Nick keeps referring to the project/findings as our ‘legacy’ which kind of gives me the giggles/makes me blush every time. On top of the 9-5 working life, we have a good few things to look forward to as well. A week on Thursday we’re going for some drinks with Katie from Saltire and a few London based Saltire alumni – I think I can speak for the three of us when I say we can’t wait to meet you all! Plus we’ve got a dinner with Sarah Lyons and our leaving night, yahoo J. Now, to the title of my blog. For me, the experience of leaving London and then coming back has made me feel like a bit of a Londoner – knowing my way around the tube; getting irritated at the tourists stopped in the middle of the road and joining in on chats about the recent riots you’ll all have seen on the news. This might seem trivial, but for me it feels really quite significant – as the graduate job market looms I now feel like I could confidently apply to those jobs in London offices and feel safe in the knowledge that I could manage and enjoy a life here. For that I have Saltire and Giles to thank. I appear to have been side tracked again…please accept my humble apologies! I am genuinely incapable of writing short blogs. So yes – the London phenomenom that is the Perpendicular People. Basically in London that no matter which way you are walking, there ALWAYS seems to be at least one person trying to walk across your path. These Perpendicular People seem to congregate outside tube stations, at the bottom of escalators and generally between the place you've just left and that other place you're trying to go quite quickly... Can you tell I've been here for ten weeks now?! It's not all bad though - the Londoners certainly have the hang of escalator etiquette. I have visions of me storming up the escalator in Glasgow huffing and puffing, glaring at all those people who dare to not Keep Right. Watch your step, Glasgow! I feel I should take time to mention the riots which have dominated the news over the past few days. Luckily both Victoria and Bank (where we live and work respectively) have both been unaffected so far. My thoughts are with all those who have suffered in any way as a result. Until next time, Jenny xxx
working out how to hand over the project to our successor (in the form of a graduate, I believe) so that the work can continue. Certainly, the prospect of giving a presentation to many of the big names in the company (the CEO and Managing Directors...) is a daunting one, but I think we all feel good about the fact that it’s one final push until the end now. This feeling probably stems from the fact that we’re all maths students and, ultimately, enjoy the satisfaction that comes hand in hand with seeing a problem through to the end. I’d just like to add in here that Nick keeps referring to the project/findings as our ‘legacy’ which kind of gives me the giggles/makes me blush every time.
On top of the 9-5 working life, we have a good few things to look forward to as well. A week on Thursday we’re going for some drinks with Katie from Saltire and a few London based Saltire alumni – I think I can speak for the three of us when I say we can’t wait to meet you all! Plus we’ve got a dinner with Sarah Lyons and our leaving night, yahoo J.
Now, to the title of my blog. For me, the experience of leaving London and then coming back has made me feel like a bit of a Londoner – knowing my way around the tube; getting irritated at the tourists stopped in the middle of the road and joining in on chats about the recent riots you’ll all have seen on the news. This might seem trivial, but for me it feels really quite significant – as the graduate job market looms I now feel like I could confidently apply to those jobs in London offices and feel safe in the knowledge that I could manage and enjoy a life here. For that I have Saltire and Giles to thank.
I appear to have been side tracked again…please accept my humble apologies! I am genuinely incapable of writing short blogs. So yes – the London phenomenom that is the Perpendicular People. Basically in London that no matter which way you are walking, there ALWAYS seems to be at least one person trying to walk across your path. These Perpendicular People seem to congregate outside tube stations, at the bottom of escalators and generally between the place you've just left and that other place you're trying to go quite quickly... Can you tell I've been here for ten weeks now?!
It's not all bad though - the Londoners certainly have the hang of escalator etiquette. I have visions of me storming up the escalator in Glasgow huffing and puffing, glaring at all those people who dare to not Keep Right. Watch your step, Glasgow!
I feel I should take time to mention the riots which have dominated the news over the past few days. Luckily both Victoria and Bank (where we live and work respectively) have both been unaffected so far. My thoughts are with all those who have suffered in any way as a result.
Until next time,
Jenny xxx
And what a fine legacy it will be! xxx
I agree wtih Sarah!
Me too Katie! Apologies for the fact that the end of my blog was absent... Hopefully it makes a little more sense now :)