I made it to the Windy City! But have only just been connected to the internet so here come a lot of posts (I’ve been typing them up on my laptop in the evenings and waiting to post them all).
Flying into O’Hare over Lake Michigan was fantastic – I had a window seat so was treated to a wonderful view of Chicago. I could make out the Sears Tower, Navy Pier and Grant Park, as well as spotting some of the larger beaches along the coast. I can’t wait to explore what looks and sounds like a fascinating city!
I’m staying in Naperville, which is about 40 miles from the centre of Chicago and a fifteen-minute drive from Fermilab – this is where I will be working for the next 10 weeks. I’m not quite sure exactly what my internship will entail, but I’m working under the supervision of Douglas Tucker, who works on the Dark Energy Survey. More on that later.
The apartments they have put the interns in are great – they are a decent size and, most importantly, have massive walk-in wardrobes :) All the better to store my future purchases in! Our blocks of apartments are clustered around the ‘club house’, which has a gym AND a pool. Result. And we’re dead close to lots of shops, supermarkets and restaurants. Including three drive through (I still can’t quite bear to write it as “thru”) pharmacies, two drive through Starbucks and a drive through bank. Honestly, I don’t think anyone around here walks anywhere!
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Crunch time
I just emailed CERN and turned down their offer. So Fermilab it is!
Now I just need to get a US visa. Easier said than done, I feel...
Now I just need to get a US visa. Easier said than done, I feel...
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
I'm in a pickle
So I just found out that I got onto the CERN Summer Student Programme too.
Now I have to choose between working at CERN or Fermilab over the summer.
Easy. Not.
Now I have to choose between working at CERN or Fermilab over the summer.
Easy. Not.
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Science For Careers: Report Published
My group's report went live today! The interactive BIS website has an embedded version which you can read online, although if you have a slow internet connection, this page takes ridiculously long to load. The pdf file of the report can be viewed directly here (1MB pdf file) and the Group Chair Diana Garnham's letter to BIS about the report can be seen here (13.6 KB pdf file).
Just in case you were wondering, my box is on p12 and also in the appendix on p41 (that one is my original version, before Cate added my comment about getting emails...). Check it out!
EDIT: Diana discusses the key points from our report here, as well as mentioning the prospect of a "Hidden Science - Hidden Scientists" event, scheduled for this summer, when scientists can come 'out the closet'. With any luck that event will happen, even with the change of government, as the idea sounded really good in our last meeting.
Just in case you were wondering, my box is on p12 and also in the appendix on p41 (that one is my original version, before Cate added my comment about getting emails...). Check it out!
EDIT: Diana discusses the key points from our report here, as well as mentioning the prospect of a "Hidden Science - Hidden Scientists" event, scheduled for this summer, when scientists can come 'out the closet'. With any luck that event will happen, even with the change of government, as the idea sounded really good in our last meeting.
Change of plan
Chicago here I come!
So I've officially accepted my place on the Intership for Physics Majors (IPM) programme at Fermilab for summer 2010. Slight change of plan from working on the trading floor at RBS in the City... In fact, it's not really sunk in that I'll be spending 10 weeks working in the US of A yet. I'm not even sure what I'll be doing - I don't get assigned to a research group/project until much closer my starting date of June 7th. I'll still be experiencing work in the Big Smoke - I've lined up a 6 week internship with Promontory Finance in London, which starts as soon as I finish up at Fermilab. I'll most likely be working on some anti-money laundering stuff when I'm there (in between hitting up Topshop and Sketch every weekend...).
I'm going to be busy busy busy this summer! It's better that way: I get bored far too easily and can't stand sitting around for too long :)
So I've officially accepted my place on the Intership for Physics Majors (IPM) programme at Fermilab for summer 2010. Slight change of plan from working on the trading floor at RBS in the City... In fact, it's not really sunk in that I'll be spending 10 weeks working in the US of A yet. I'm not even sure what I'll be doing - I don't get assigned to a research group/project until much closer my starting date of June 7th. I'll still be experiencing work in the Big Smoke - I've lined up a 6 week internship with Promontory Finance in London, which starts as soon as I finish up at Fermilab. I'll most likely be working on some anti-money laundering stuff when I'm there (in between hitting up Topshop and Sketch every weekend...).
I'm going to be busy busy busy this summer! It's better that way: I get bored far too easily and can't stand sitting around for too long :)
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Dilemma
I returned home from London with two internships under my belt - RBS GBM Markets (sales, trading and structuring) and Promontory Finance (risk management) - and was hoping to squeeze both of them into my summer holidays without any major problems.
That was until Fermilab emailed me this afternoon. I got their internship too.
My instant thought? CRAP. What am I meant to do now?!
Here's what I'm trying to work out now: I don't think I want to go into research, so I should take the finance internships if I want to go into finance. But then I might really enjoy working in Fermilab over the summer. And I could still probably fit in 6 weeks with Promontory after coming back from the US. But that means turning down RBS. And I might want to do RBS's graduate programme. So I should do the RBS internship to ensure I stay on speaking terms with them. But then if I decide not to go into finance, having the experience at Fermilab would really enrich my CV.
Can you see why I'm confused? I've already emailed one of the guys at RBS (he was one of my interviewers and got in touch after my assessment centre to congratulate me) who phoned me back this evening to give me some advice. It was helpful and reassuring to hear his point of view, but I'm still torn between RBS and Fermilab. I guess I'll sleep on it...
That was until Fermilab emailed me this afternoon. I got their internship too.
My instant thought? CRAP. What am I meant to do now?!
Here's what I'm trying to work out now: I don't think I want to go into research, so I should take the finance internships if I want to go into finance. But then I might really enjoy working in Fermilab over the summer. And I could still probably fit in 6 weeks with Promontory after coming back from the US. But that means turning down RBS. And I might want to do RBS's graduate programme. So I should do the RBS internship to ensure I stay on speaking terms with them. But then if I decide not to go into finance, having the experience at Fermilab would really enrich my CV.
Can you see why I'm confused? I've already emailed one of the guys at RBS (he was one of my interviewers and got in touch after my assessment centre to congratulate me) who phoned me back this evening to give me some advice. It was helpful and reassuring to hear his point of view, but I'm still torn between RBS and Fermilab. I guess I'll sleep on it...
EDI -> LHR ; KingsX -> Waverley
It now feels like a very long time ago, but here's what went down in London town at the end of January:
Wednesday 27th
Headed down south for my RBS assessment centre on the 06:30 flight, driving past RBS's "head"quarters at four in the morning... Don't see why they can't do some of their assessment centres in Edinburgh; it would have made my life a lot easier! Shame all the trading floors are in the City... Got into central London in time for two large coffees and a sandwich before heading to New Broad Street.
I walked in to be greeted by a small sea of black suits - I was one of only two girls out of a group of twenty students. They wasted absolutely no time in getting started and sent us off in two separate groups. My first exercise was to review four financial/business opinion pieces and make a five-minute presentation (including a poster) for my 'boss', in 40 minutes. Yes, you heard me, I had to read four two-page newspaper articles and make a five minute presentation in the space of forty minutes. I then went straight into my first 30 minute one-on-one interview to give my presentation and then have a Q&A session with my interviewer. Swiftly followed by another two 30 minute interviews, a 40 minute data-analysis test and then a 30 minute numerical-analysis test. I didn't even have time to go to the toilet (I had to sacrifice some of my test time to go and spend a penny!).
As expected, I much preferred the interview section of the day to anything else. Two out of three of my interviewers were really friendly and nice to chat to. I got asked some absolute corkers though:
What is 7! (seven factorial)?
What is the square root of this? (All mental arithmetic, I should add...)
How many trees are there in Canada?
How many piano teachers are there in London?
Thankfully, I have done these type of 'brain teasers' before so wasn't too taken aback!
We then got a wee tour of one of the trading floors in their Broadstreet office. IT WAS HUGE. I couldn't quite believe the scale of this place compared to the trading floor in Tokyo, which at the time I had thought was quite big!
After being awake from 4am and enduring five and a half hours of assessment centre, I could barely speak. So my mum and I (she had come down with me for some retail therapy) headed off to China Town for some good grub.
Thursday 28th
Headed to Promontory Finance Group's London office in Devonshire Square to say 'hi' to the team there. I got to meet pretty much everyone who works in the office (currently a small team of 10 people, although they are looking to expand to about 40 this year) and they were more than welcoming. The risk management based consultancy work that they do sounds really interesting and varied and they seem like a fantastic company to work for.
I then hopped on the tube to Westminster, avoiding all the non-existant extra security in place for the Chilcot Enquiry (there was one helicopter hovering overhead, that was it) and made it in plenty time for my Expert Group Meeting. We spend the vast majority of the meeting going over the fianl draft report, working out how it was going to be formatted, which bits to emphasise and which bits to discard. A few of us, myself included, have written 'example boxes' to add some personal anecdotes. Hopefully, it will be published quite soon - I will be sure to post links on here when it goes live.
After the meeting, I met up with my mum to wander around Liberty for far too long, and we then headed for dinner at Joe Allen's (my 'old' favourite place in London).
Friday 29th
My day off! This was my opportunity to buy all the things from Topshop Oxford Street that aren't available in the Edinburgh shop :)
After getting in a fair amount of shopping, we headed to Sketch on Conduit Street for some afternoon tea. This was quite possibly one of the best ideas my mother and I have ever had. The place is out of this world! It is my new favourite place in London. The building was recently bought-over and renovated into four different restaurants and an art gallery (if you watched the most recent series of 'Master Chef: The Professionals' it featured in one episode). The whole place is so eclectic and surreal that you half expect a member of Cirque du Soleil to cartwheel down the entrance hall as you wait to be seated in 'The Parlour' (and, after soaking up the atmosphere and decor for five minutes, you wouldn't be the least bit perturbed if they actually did...). The afternoon tea was delicious and very reasonably priced for what we got:
I am very aware that this is turning into a food blog again, but it was too good not to mention!
The attention to detail in this place is second to none and no effort has been spared anywhere - not even in the toilets, which are Swarovski-crystal and glass-bead encrusted. This sculpture was just chilling outside the Ladies:
Needless to say, we got so carried away by it all that we ended up missing our train home. Oops.
Wednesday 27th
Headed down south for my RBS assessment centre on the 06:30 flight, driving past RBS's "head"quarters at four in the morning... Don't see why they can't do some of their assessment centres in Edinburgh; it would have made my life a lot easier! Shame all the trading floors are in the City... Got into central London in time for two large coffees and a sandwich before heading to New Broad Street.
I walked in to be greeted by a small sea of black suits - I was one of only two girls out of a group of twenty students. They wasted absolutely no time in getting started and sent us off in two separate groups. My first exercise was to review four financial/business opinion pieces and make a five-minute presentation (including a poster) for my 'boss', in 40 minutes. Yes, you heard me, I had to read four two-page newspaper articles and make a five minute presentation in the space of forty minutes. I then went straight into my first 30 minute one-on-one interview to give my presentation and then have a Q&A session with my interviewer. Swiftly followed by another two 30 minute interviews, a 40 minute data-analysis test and then a 30 minute numerical-analysis test. I didn't even have time to go to the toilet (I had to sacrifice some of my test time to go and spend a penny!).
As expected, I much preferred the interview section of the day to anything else. Two out of three of my interviewers were really friendly and nice to chat to. I got asked some absolute corkers though:
What is 7! (seven factorial)?
What is the square root of this? (All mental arithmetic, I should add...)
How many trees are there in Canada?
How many piano teachers are there in London?
Thankfully, I have done these type of 'brain teasers' before so wasn't too taken aback!
We then got a wee tour of one of the trading floors in their Broadstreet office. IT WAS HUGE. I couldn't quite believe the scale of this place compared to the trading floor in Tokyo, which at the time I had thought was quite big!
After being awake from 4am and enduring five and a half hours of assessment centre, I could barely speak. So my mum and I (she had come down with me for some retail therapy) headed off to China Town for some good grub.
Thursday 28th
Headed to Promontory Finance Group's London office in Devonshire Square to say 'hi' to the team there. I got to meet pretty much everyone who works in the office (currently a small team of 10 people, although they are looking to expand to about 40 this year) and they were more than welcoming. The risk management based consultancy work that they do sounds really interesting and varied and they seem like a fantastic company to work for.
I then hopped on the tube to Westminster, avoiding all the non-existant extra security in place for the Chilcot Enquiry (there was one helicopter hovering overhead, that was it) and made it in plenty time for my Expert Group Meeting. We spend the vast majority of the meeting going over the fianl draft report, working out how it was going to be formatted, which bits to emphasise and which bits to discard. A few of us, myself included, have written 'example boxes' to add some personal anecdotes. Hopefully, it will be published quite soon - I will be sure to post links on here when it goes live.
After the meeting, I met up with my mum to wander around Liberty for far too long, and we then headed for dinner at Joe Allen's (my 'old' favourite place in London).
Friday 29th
My day off! This was my opportunity to buy all the things from Topshop Oxford Street that aren't available in the Edinburgh shop :)
After getting in a fair amount of shopping, we headed to Sketch on Conduit Street for some afternoon tea. This was quite possibly one of the best ideas my mother and I have ever had. The place is out of this world! It is my new favourite place in London. The building was recently bought-over and renovated into four different restaurants and an art gallery (if you watched the most recent series of 'Master Chef: The Professionals' it featured in one episode). The whole place is so eclectic and surreal that you half expect a member of Cirque du Soleil to cartwheel down the entrance hall as you wait to be seated in 'The Parlour' (and, after soaking up the atmosphere and decor for five minutes, you wouldn't be the least bit perturbed if they actually did...). The afternoon tea was delicious and very reasonably priced for what we got:
I am very aware that this is turning into a food blog again, but it was too good not to mention!
The attention to detail in this place is second to none and no effort has been spared anywhere - not even in the toilets, which are Swarovski-crystal and glass-bead encrusted. This sculpture was just chilling outside the Ladies:
Needless to say, we got so carried away by it all that we ended up missing our train home. Oops.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Science For All: Report Published
The Science For All Expert Group recently published their report; here's the pdf and the press release. Our group has almost finished with ours and it should hopefully be published in time for National Science Week, which starts on 11th March. I'm in the process of writing a wee 'example box' to go in it.
I promise to get round to writing up how I got on in London at my interviews and meeting when I have some free time (maybe tomorrow morning if I get up before lunchtime...).
I promise to get round to writing up how I got on in London at my interviews and meeting when I have some free time (maybe tomorrow morning if I get up before lunchtime...).
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Science and the Media: Report Published
One of the other Expert Groups have just published their report, which can be found here, along with a summary of the group's actions and recommendations.
Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation, responded on behalf of BIS, saying:
“I'm very grateful to Fiona and her group for producing this Action Plan. The quality of journalism by the UK's specialist press is excellent, so it's great these actions are targeted at protecting and building on it.
The plan contains a number of initiatives to raise the profile of science journalism and programming and improve their operating environment.
I'm particularly pleased by how many organisations, from the BBC to the Wellcome Trust and RCUK, have committed to actions. Government will now consider the proposed actions and recommendations.”
I'll post more about my group's report after our next meeting (as it's not been published yet, I'm not sure how much I'm meant to share...).
Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation, responded on behalf of BIS, saying:
“I'm very grateful to Fiona and her group for producing this Action Plan. The quality of journalism by the UK's specialist press is excellent, so it's great these actions are targeted at protecting and building on it.
The plan contains a number of initiatives to raise the profile of science journalism and programming and improve their operating environment.
I'm particularly pleased by how many organisations, from the BBC to the Wellcome Trust and RCUK, have committed to actions. Government will now consider the proposed actions and recommendations.”
I'll post more about my group's report after our next meeting (as it's not been published yet, I'm not sure how much I'm meant to share...).
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Where's Holly?
I’ve been getting it in the neck from my family as to why I’ve not been keeping up with this blog and, to be honest, I don’t really know why I never kept up posting after coming back to Scotland. So, lets get back into the swing of things and start writing about what I’ve been getting up to – there’s no time like the present (and I am bored revising for exams…).
Upon returning home from Japan, I had just under two weeks to relax and get over my jet-lag before going back to university for the fourth year of my physics degree. During Freshers’ Week, I popped over to Glasgow one evening for a gathering of all the SaltireFoundation interns. It was really nice to swap stories with everyone.
This year, I signed up for evening classes in Japanese (I’ve just finished the first semester’s worth) as I really hope to go back to Japan one day soon, and having a better grasp of the language would certainly help!
Starting in the final week of September, I have been flying down to London to attend bi-monthly meetings as a member of the Science For Careers Expert Group. We meet to discuss the future of education, careers advice and careers available in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects and then pass our results/findings onto Lord Mandelson for government to act on accordingly. The group (which is chaired by Diana Garnham and funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) wrote a draft report on what we’d been getting up to at the end of December. I’ve got another meeting in a few weeks, so it will be interesting to hear how well it went down…
In November, I almost went to Paris for an Intel ISEF affiliated event but, unfortunately, the week before I was due to go, Intel got fined in excess of £1 billion, which meant they couldn’t afford to send me. Boo hoo. Hopefully I might get to go next year if they aren’t too poor.
I spent most of December filling in ridiculous numbers of application forms and updating my CV to try to bag myself an internship for summer 2010. Currently, I’ve applied for two completely different fields:
1) Particle Physics Research
I thought I’d try my hand at applying to CERN and Fermilab again this year, in the hope that they might say yes if I keep pestering them. On the other hand, if they keep saying no, I’ll take the hint…
2) Finance
I undertook the mammoth task of completing the online application forms for analyst (sales and trading with maybe a bit of structuring thrown in) positions with RBS, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan at their London or New York offices. I’ve got my assessment centre for RBS in London at the end of the month, so wish me luck! After speaking to the careers advisor in St Andrews, I also had my CV passed on to the London office of Promontory Finance, with the aim of working in Risk Management. I heard back from them this morning and, quite amazingly, they have offered me a summer internship! I’ve made plans to go to their office and say ‘hi’ whilst I’m down in London to find out what exactly working with them would entail.
In between all this gallivanting, I have, of course, been studying and trying to end up with a physics degree. I’ve just finished my first semester of fourth year classes (scary stuff, I know…) and am in the middle of revising for my exams that are on Thursday, Saturday and Monday. This semester hasn’t been as enjoyable as previous years’, and I can’t quite put my finger on why… It could be that it was a bit of a come-down getting back to studying after being in Tokyo, or the fact that the labs aren’t as interesting, or that some bits of my modules (non-linear optics & optoelectronics, laser physics, atomic physics) were a bit of a drag, or possibly all of the above. Regardless, I’ll stick it out and see what happens.
And there you have it; a whistle-stop tour of the last 4(ish) months of my life.
Upon returning home from Japan, I had just under two weeks to relax and get over my jet-lag before going back to university for the fourth year of my physics degree. During Freshers’ Week, I popped over to Glasgow one evening for a gathering of all the SaltireFoundation interns. It was really nice to swap stories with everyone.
This year, I signed up for evening classes in Japanese (I’ve just finished the first semester’s worth) as I really hope to go back to Japan one day soon, and having a better grasp of the language would certainly help!
Starting in the final week of September, I have been flying down to London to attend bi-monthly meetings as a member of the Science For Careers Expert Group. We meet to discuss the future of education, careers advice and careers available in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects and then pass our results/findings onto Lord Mandelson for government to act on accordingly. The group (which is chaired by Diana Garnham and funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) wrote a draft report on what we’d been getting up to at the end of December. I’ve got another meeting in a few weeks, so it will be interesting to hear how well it went down…
In November, I almost went to Paris for an Intel ISEF affiliated event but, unfortunately, the week before I was due to go, Intel got fined in excess of £1 billion, which meant they couldn’t afford to send me. Boo hoo. Hopefully I might get to go next year if they aren’t too poor.
I spent most of December filling in ridiculous numbers of application forms and updating my CV to try to bag myself an internship for summer 2010. Currently, I’ve applied for two completely different fields:
1) Particle Physics Research
I thought I’d try my hand at applying to CERN and Fermilab again this year, in the hope that they might say yes if I keep pestering them. On the other hand, if they keep saying no, I’ll take the hint…
2) Finance
I undertook the mammoth task of completing the online application forms for analyst (sales and trading with maybe a bit of structuring thrown in) positions with RBS, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan at their London or New York offices. I’ve got my assessment centre for RBS in London at the end of the month, so wish me luck! After speaking to the careers advisor in St Andrews, I also had my CV passed on to the London office of Promontory Finance, with the aim of working in Risk Management. I heard back from them this morning and, quite amazingly, they have offered me a summer internship! I’ve made plans to go to their office and say ‘hi’ whilst I’m down in London to find out what exactly working with them would entail.
In between all this gallivanting, I have, of course, been studying and trying to end up with a physics degree. I’ve just finished my first semester of fourth year classes (scary stuff, I know…) and am in the middle of revising for my exams that are on Thursday, Saturday and Monday. This semester hasn’t been as enjoyable as previous years’, and I can’t quite put my finger on why… It could be that it was a bit of a come-down getting back to studying after being in Tokyo, or the fact that the labs aren’t as interesting, or that some bits of my modules (non-linear optics & optoelectronics, laser physics, atomic physics) were a bit of a drag, or possibly all of the above. Regardless, I’ll stick it out and see what happens.
And there you have it; a whistle-stop tour of the last 4(ish) months of my life.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Home Sweet Home
HONEY! I'M HOO-OOME!
After much packing, many farewells, a taxi ride, an express train, two flights and 4 movies, I made it back to bonnie Scotland! Even though I've been home since Sunday night, it still feels really strange not to hear cicadas screeching or see any Japanese people walking about... It's also absolutely freezing.
Anyway, it's been a while since I updated this blog, so let me give you a quick rundown of what I got up to during my last week in Tokyo. I went out for dinner with two of the interns from last year, their family and friends and my guarantor on Wednesday night, which was lovely. But it meant I had to start saying goodbye to people and think about going home, which I didn't want to do! On Thursday and Friday I was with the Japanese sakes desk - these guys sell european products to Japanese clients. On Thursday night, I headed out for a do-it-yourself BBQ dinner at the Sheraton Miyako Hotel with the CDS desk. This was very delicious and, of course, the evening was finished off by heading out for some karaoke - my last time! :(
My last day at work was no different from any other. At the end of the day, I handed out some wee presents that I had brought from home to all the people I had worked with - the Old Course golf balls were definitely the most popular!
I spent my last day in Tokyo picking up some last minute souvenirs, visiting some new areas and revisiting some of my favourite haunts. After doing some final packing, I headed over to Asakusa to grab a few bits and bobs from the many stalls and shops, and also to sample some green tea ice cream (a bit weird, but tasty). I then walked west, towards Kappabashi Dori. This street has become Tokyo's 'kitchenware district' and also an unconventional (yet quite popular) tourist attraction. The entrance to one end of the street is marked by this giant chef and building with huge teacups:
All of the shops specialise in a particular part of the catering industry - some sell shops signs and lanterns, others are filled with different utensils and pots, and many have every type of meal for sale in plastic model form. If you ever wanted to open a restaurant and were starting from scratch, this is the street to come to.
I then walked over to Ueno and hopped on the train to Harajuku. I spent the rest of the day wandering in and out of shops and watching the outlandishly-dressed Harajuku boys and girls, before winding my way towards Shibuya, where I grabbed some cha-shu ramen and then hit Shibuya 109 for the last time... I spent far too long in there, soaking it all in and eyeing up the latest trends before getting the undergound train home and trying to catch an early night's sleep.
It was pretty much a perfect way to end my two-month stay in the city that really never sleeps.
After much packing, many farewells, a taxi ride, an express train, two flights and 4 movies, I made it back to bonnie Scotland! Even though I've been home since Sunday night, it still feels really strange not to hear cicadas screeching or see any Japanese people walking about... It's also absolutely freezing.
Anyway, it's been a while since I updated this blog, so let me give you a quick rundown of what I got up to during my last week in Tokyo. I went out for dinner with two of the interns from last year, their family and friends and my guarantor on Wednesday night, which was lovely. But it meant I had to start saying goodbye to people and think about going home, which I didn't want to do! On Thursday and Friday I was with the Japanese sakes desk - these guys sell european products to Japanese clients. On Thursday night, I headed out for a do-it-yourself BBQ dinner at the Sheraton Miyako Hotel with the CDS desk. This was very delicious and, of course, the evening was finished off by heading out for some karaoke - my last time! :(
My last day at work was no different from any other. At the end of the day, I handed out some wee presents that I had brought from home to all the people I had worked with - the Old Course golf balls were definitely the most popular!
I spent my last day in Tokyo picking up some last minute souvenirs, visiting some new areas and revisiting some of my favourite haunts. After doing some final packing, I headed over to Asakusa to grab a few bits and bobs from the many stalls and shops, and also to sample some green tea ice cream (a bit weird, but tasty). I then walked west, towards Kappabashi Dori. This street has become Tokyo's 'kitchenware district' and also an unconventional (yet quite popular) tourist attraction. The entrance to one end of the street is marked by this giant chef and building with huge teacups:
All of the shops specialise in a particular part of the catering industry - some sell shops signs and lanterns, others are filled with different utensils and pots, and many have every type of meal for sale in plastic model form. If you ever wanted to open a restaurant and were starting from scratch, this is the street to come to.
I then walked over to Ueno and hopped on the train to Harajuku. I spent the rest of the day wandering in and out of shops and watching the outlandishly-dressed Harajuku boys and girls, before winding my way towards Shibuya, where I grabbed some cha-shu ramen and then hit Shibuya 109 for the last time... I spent far too long in there, soaking it all in and eyeing up the latest trends before getting the undergound train home and trying to catch an early night's sleep.
It was pretty much a perfect way to end my two-month stay in the city that really never sleeps.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Giving up already...
Flight bag regulations:
JAL - 23kg hold luggage, 10kg hand luggage plus handbag
BMI - 20kg hold luggage, 10kg hand luggage plus handbag (I'm hoping my bag gets checked right through from Narita...)
Results of packing so far:
25kg hold luggage
7kg box of stuff to be shipped
(?)kg hand luggage that's not packed (but there's no way my laptop, camera and sunglasses weigh 10kg altogether)
And one very tired intern who can't be bothered
Crap.
JAL - 23kg hold luggage, 10kg hand luggage plus handbag
BMI - 20kg hold luggage, 10kg hand luggage plus handbag (I'm hoping my bag gets checked right through from Narita...)
Results of packing so far:
25kg hold luggage
7kg box of stuff to be shipped
(?)kg hand luggage that's not packed (but there's no way my laptop, camera and sunglasses weigh 10kg altogether)
And one very tired intern who can't be bothered
Crap.
Catch up
My week in the bank was very different to the front office - it was so quiet! The office is a lot smaller and there are fewer people, monitors or phones around, which made it uncomfortably silent at times. I spent my time there learning about what the portfolio managers and real estate guys do, which seemed to me to be a mix of corporate finace and accountancy. For the last three days, I analysed companies' financial reports (so their balance sheets, income statements and cash flows) and wrote a wee report about how well Marubeni is doing, based on the info they published for the 2009 financial year.
This week I'm back in the (more exciting) front office, this time with one of the sales desks - the people who sell yen denominated products to mainly non-Japanese clients. It feels good to be back where the action is! Today there was one of the monthly JGB (Japanese government bond) auctions. Over two billion yen's worth of 10 year bonds were auctioned off and RBS were pretty successful (not acutally sure if I'm allowed to say how successful...). It was an interesting auction to witness as these were the first set of bonds to be released by the new government. As many of you may be aware, Japan had its general elections this weekend and, for the first time in over 50 years, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) defeated the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). This landmark election obviously affected the markets, in particular bumping up the value of the yen (not so great for me, who is still spending sterling!) and was also expected to have an impact on today's auction. To be honest, it didn't seem to alter anything by much, but it was still a good learning experience for me to be involved in a fairly ordinary auction session.
I had a fantatic week acting as a tour guide for my friend, but she has now headed back home. Sadly, I'll be heading back soon, too. But firstly, I've got to work out how on earth to pack all my stuff! I was 2kg over the weight limit on the way out here and have been indulging in a considerable amount of retail therapy, so packing is not going to be fun...
This week I'm back in the (more exciting) front office, this time with one of the sales desks - the people who sell yen denominated products to mainly non-Japanese clients. It feels good to be back where the action is! Today there was one of the monthly JGB (Japanese government bond) auctions. Over two billion yen's worth of 10 year bonds were auctioned off and RBS were pretty successful (not acutally sure if I'm allowed to say how successful...). It was an interesting auction to witness as these were the first set of bonds to be released by the new government. As many of you may be aware, Japan had its general elections this weekend and, for the first time in over 50 years, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) defeated the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). This landmark election obviously affected the markets, in particular bumping up the value of the yen (not so great for me, who is still spending sterling!) and was also expected to have an impact on today's auction. To be honest, it didn't seem to alter anything by much, but it was still a good learning experience for me to be involved in a fairly ordinary auction session.
I had a fantatic week acting as a tour guide for my friend, but she has now headed back home. Sadly, I'll be heading back soon, too. But firstly, I've got to work out how on earth to pack all my stuff! I was 2kg over the weight limit on the way out here and have been indulging in a considerable amount of retail therapy, so packing is not going to be fun...
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