June 29, 2007

Bomb scare
Last night, a large group of SMU students went out to a club. My roommates and I left the group to go home around 2 because we, unlike our fellow students, had to report to our internships in the morning.  As we were attempting to hail a cab, we noticed a large influx of police about a street over. Little did we know we were watching the police defuse the car bomb outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub. Obviously we are very grateful that the car bomb did not detonate because we most likely would have been affected.

June 27, 2007

On the job
So I’ve had three full days at my internship.  I’m lucky because they usually let me out before 4, and they’re flexible with days off for travel.

It’s quite a trek to get there, though.  It’s a 10-minute walk to the tube station, and from there we change once and have another 10-minute walk to the Development House, where Resource Alliance is located.

Basically I’ve spent my first three days poring over 75-page consultancy reports and summarizing them for the annual review.  Fascinating, huh?  Hopefully I’ll get to do more PR-oriented work soon.  My boss has spent the past two days in Geneva, and I’m set to receive a new assignment tomorrow.  

The people in my office are perfectly nice, but they are definitely the stereotypical British stoic types. They seem content to sit at their desks quietly for multiple hours.  I, on the other hand, am very restless, and I’d prefer to go around and talk to people, etc., but I’m trying not to portray myself as a loud, obnoxious American.

June 24, 2007

Here at Regents
Well, I’ve arrived in London, and I have an update about my first weekend here.

After a 9-hour plane ride, we took a bus to Regents College, where we will reside for the next 6 weeks.  You’d be surprised how much luggage a group of 50-something SMU students can convince the airline to allow them to bring on board.  We must have looked like quite a sight. The driver even exclaimed, “I’m a driver not a porter” as he loaded our luggage onto the bus.

 I share a triple with 2 friends I know from SMU, but there are plenty of people who came knowing no one and have been fast to meet people.  Although the carpet in our dorm closely resembles Astroturf, the building and area surrounding Regents are beautiful.  Everything in Europe seems to have such a great history.  In the U.S. something founded 25 years ago is considered very well established, while here many businesses and traditions have continued for hundreds of years.

Our professors were determined to keep us awake, so the day we arrived we embarked on a 3-hour bus tour to see the sights of London.  Although we were tired, we thanked them the following morning when none of us had jet lag.

Day 2 we took a tour of the Thames River and went in groups to seek out the location of our internships.  My internship is with Resource Alliance, an organization that educates nonprofit organizations about fundraising and money management. I’m not sure what my exact assignments will be, but I will find out when I start tomorrow.  Additionally, a few of us were able to attend “The Taste of London,” which took place in Regents Park, just outside our school.  This gave us an opportunity to talk to other young people and get suggestions about great things to do while we are here.  We found it interesting that most of the music playing was American, including a song that shouted, “Put your hands up for Detroit.”

My friends and I successfully booked 3 weekend travel trips on our own.  I want to see as much of Europe as I can while I’m here.  We will travel 3 weekends in a row starting with our third.  These trips will include Amsterdam, Paris and Madrid.  We booked hotels and hostels and secured plane tickets in advance to avoid last-minute price gouging.  Useful websites were STATravel.com and hostelworld.com.  For anyone attending the SMU-in-London program, I would recommend booking as many flights as possible out of Heathrow because it is the most accessible from Regents College.