Internship: Week 12 - My last working week

What can I say about this week.  So much happened so I will only cover the main events.

Tuesday was my last day at tdg.  We finished up our work and headed out for a celebratory drink.  We seemed to walk forever as Patrick played a sort of tour guide as we tried to figure out where we were going.  We did get to see the outside of Patrick's new apartment.  The building and location made me jealous.  It reminded me that people actually live in London for more than just months at a time.  Lucky!

We ended up at a wine bar to share a few bottles of Champagne.  It was so much fun!  It was kind of the perfect end to a great internship.  We talked about everything it seemed like.  We even touched on politics, seeing as the election was going to be the next weekend.  But we all left the night with a feeling great.

This was the same night that the program was going to the dog races at Wimbeldon, and also the night that I had to prepare for a presentation the next day.  Sweet procrastination.  Luckily it was a presentation on Advertising, and that's sort of my thing, or at least I like to think that it is.  My partner, Alex, and I kicked out a powerpoint in an hour and were going to refine it in the morning.  Needless to say, we rocked it, with top marks.  Sometimes it pays to have good public speaking skills.

After advertising we sat through the maybe the most painful Art class ever.  We sat in a classroom for our review session for three hours.  We looked at paintings that we had already seen but were asked questions about them that made me realize how screwed I was for the final.  I was going to need to study, study, study for this test.  We are to know the artist, title and relative date of creation not to mention how it was created.  AHHHHH!  Freak out.

Thursday was our last BES class and it was actually a reentry seminar.  The whole thing was too depressing.  I didn't want to think about leaving London.  It was followed by our last Contemporary Brit class.  It was all about Britian's relationship with America.  Talk about opening a can of worms.  Everyone seemed to agree that America like to bully Britian, and even though the Brits love the products of American culture (like TV, movies, music) they don't want to be associated with them.  But all this just reminded me that I was going to leave.  To cheer me up, we made out last trip to our favorite burrito shop, Tortilla.  It was delicious.

After Tortilla I had to go back and finish packing.  I was going to Barcelona later that day.  That's a trip to remember.  I will tell you about that next.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Brighton

Of all the trip our program had planned, this had to be the one I was most looking forward too.  A part of that was simply because Jane Austen mentioned it in Pride and Prejudice.  It's where Lydia hooked up with Wickham.  Scandalous!  As it turns out, there was a reason had the "hook up" happen in Brighton.  The Regent Prince George IV and his playboy ways made it a sort of party hip party spot for men of fortune and their mistresses.

We got up relatively early to catch a train.  It's about an hour down.  Brighton is located on the English Channel and features a pebble beach.  We were all hoping for amazing weather so we could lay out on that pebble beach but sadly it was windy and overcast the whole day.  Shocking, I know.

The first thing we did as a group was tour the Royal Pavilion, which is the place that the Regent Prince built as his sort of play house.  The building is incredible and there is no words that can really do it justice.  Pictures weren't allowed so I will do my best to describe it to you.  It has visible influences from the east on both the outside and the inside.  The great dining room had the most amazing chandelier.  The ceiling is painted in leaves and the chandelier begins with a dragon springing from the leave and the light fixture itself is supposed to be the flames that the dragon spits.  Gold is everywhere and the ornateness of the building is off the charts.  I'm so glad that I was able to see it.

The Royal Pavilion

From there we set out to find some fish and chips.  Our program director Mark told us that Brighton had some of the best fish and chips in the nation, so of course we had to test it for ourselves.  He was right.  It was quite delicious.  Traditionally, you would get the fish and chips to go and eat them on the beach, but since it was so windy, we dined in.

From the Fish and Chips shop we went to the pier.  There were little shops and bunch of games to play.  At the very end of the pier there were carnival type rides.  I of course had to ride one.  So much fun.  I went on a a crazy upside down ride, a haunted house type ride, and of course ended my pier rides on the Marry-go-round.

View down the beach from the pier

Taking off on the BOOSTER

From the pier we went to the beach.  Don't ask me why I thought this would be a good idea, but I took my shoes off.  Turns out that walking barefoot on pebbles is quite painful.  I had to do it though so I could put my feet into the English Channel.  I know that I was walking really ridiculously and probably looked like a freak but is was well worth it!

Pretty

We hung out at the beach for a while before making our way through the shops and back to the train station and headed back to London.  It was a very successful day.  Just another reason why I love the UK!

Next will be an overview of my last week at tdg and my trip to Barcelona.  You are in for a real treat.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Internship: Week 11

O my goodness.  I apologize profusely for not updating at all this month.  Between finals and papers and ash clouds, life has been crazy hectic.  But all that that really means is that I will have some very interesting posts to come.  Trust me you will be updated on all that went on in my last few weeks in London.  So now I will take you back to the last week in April.

I missed my alarm on Monday and woke up by chance extremely late.  That made for an interesting start to the week.  Luckily I pulled myself together in that little time.  Patrick was gone Monday so I went about preparing articles for twitter.  We had gained 20 the week before and that was the highest growth in one week that we have had since I arrived.  Although Partick was gone, I was given the assignment to write a Press Release to be reviewed in the morning.  It took most of the day.  I also read the latest packaging news magazine.  I ended the day with the results from the Purina search for a company to design their cat food package.  I listened in on the call between Purina and Suni.  Unfortunately tdg did not get the account but they were shortlisted and received some very good feedback.

On Tuesday morning, I felt less rushed but I also had to look a little bit nicer because some executives from the Newcastle office were stopping by to talk to Patrick about the direction of the company.  Thrishira was there and it was the first time in quite sometime that the office was full.  The meeting between the executives was shorter than expected and we all went to lunch next door at the Clerkenwell Kitchen.  That’s when we realized that I only had three days left.  We talked about what I could expect when I got home and Patrick shared some of his gossip websites with me.  I finished the day by editing the most recent thought piece for a German publisher ad reading some weekly publications.  It was not a bad start to the week.


The rest of the week was pretty normal.  In Advertising we talked about product placement and watch the new James Bond Movie, Casino Royal, to look for placements.    This week was our last in week out in a museum for art class.  I don't remember much from that week.  This is why I should have blogged right away.  What I do remember is that we went to Brighton on Friday, and that trip was so awesome that it deserves its own post.  That will be next.


Pip Pip Cheerio!