Julianne and I want to trend #betterintheuk on twitter, but neither of us have a twitter... so we turned it into a ongoing game.
For instance:
Walking to work in a windstorm #betterintheuk
The view from the grocery store #betterintheuk
Pubs #betterintheuk
Scarf and glove shopping #betterintheuk
Mochas #betterintheuk
However,
Baking brownies #notbetterintheuk
Conversion rate #notbetterintheuk
Guacamole #notbetterintheuk
And so it goes. The reason the view from the grocery store is better in the UK is because our Sainsbury's has a huge, practically unobstructed view of Arthur's Seat. And as far as baking brownies goes, I had my first attempt this afternoon and it turned out better than I expected, which is not saying much at all. I can hardly count my thin unsweetened brown pancake of a dessert as a brownie. I ate them anyway.
Well in more interesting news, I had my "second" day of work today. My "first" day was yesterday. They have not been real full days, I've only been there for about an hour each day, but I love it so far! I should start my full day tomorrow, I believe. Just in time for the parliamentary recess!
It felt simultaneously surreal and real as I walked to the parliament early yesterday afternoon. I had my rain jacket and thick grey H&M scarf covering my business clothes as I walked down the busy and windy streets to the Parliament. It's one thing to walk around Edinburgh in my typical uniform of jeans and a sweater. But when I got dressed up it felt like I was really living here and really belonged in the city. I don't know if it was the fact that I was going to work or the fact that dressy clothes make me feel more confident though. But it felt very real when I was walking down London Road passing Fish and Chips shops and pubs and other Edinburghy buildings.
I went through security and waited in the lobby until my MSP's Office Manager came down to bring me up to the office. His name is Iain and he's very nice and has been helping me by giving me tours of the Parliament building and giving me useful lists of numbers and stuff like that. Each MSP has a narrow cubicle office. They're all very similar looking. The architect designed it so that each office has a "thinking module" or something like that so at the end of each office behind the MSP's desk is a pop out window with a seat. I have a desk along the hallway. The view from my desk is unreal. As soon as I am left unattended long enough I will attempt to take a picture of this. I can see half of the interesting looking Parliament building and almost all of Arthur's Seat.
I had a quick conversation with my MSP. He did most of the talking about his constituency and his political interests. I hope I made a good first impression. He asked me if I knew what committees he was on and luckily I had read his website and luckily I have a strange capacity for retaining seemingly useless information and I was able to rattle off most of his committees. He had a meeting to go to or something, so I left after that.
Today I spent a little more time there. I got my security pass! It's very official looking. It's a very thick plastic card with my picture on it that I wear on a thin silver chain around my neck and I have to scan it to open doors and use the elevators (or "lifts"). I can now also enter the Parliament building through the employee entrances instead of the public entrances! I also was delegated a task today, which was to go collect someone from the lobby. I thought about leaving breadcrumbs as I worked my way through various narrow corridors and took counter intuitive turns to get to the lobby. There was a lady who was interviewing my MSP or something. She was very nice and I talked to her as I signed her in and brought her to my MSP's office. Because I don't have an account to sign in to the computer yet, I was able to leave after that.
It's scary though because the internship liaison was supposed to explain to us how to do different internshipy things like case work and press releases and briefings and he didn't. So I'm worried when I start my first real day of work I'm going to be sitting at the computer screen for hours going... "well now what?" Luckily my MSP and my office manager are very nice so I'm sure they'll explain it to me. I would rather be self sufficient from the get go, but I guess I'll learn a whole new skill set. Currently my internship skill set only includes things like making coffee and copies and getting people from the lobby. An MSP only needs so many copies though, so I suppose I'll have to learn how to do real work eventually, which is scary, but exciting.
It's also cool because I feel like I'm starting to absorb a lot of UK culture through osmosis I suppose. For instance, this morning for breakfast I had beans on toast. I also have starting saying "mobile" for "cell phone", if only out of necessity since no one knows what I'm talking about otherwise.
Other than that I am currently planning my two week recess from the Parliament. I believe I'm going to Istanbul for a few days. I'm also taking a trip to London with the other UC interns. I would like to go elsewhere, too. I think my roommates are going to Paris, so I may join them for that. I would like to go to Copenhagen and Cardiff as well, so it would be great if I could find people to go with me. I also would like to go to some concerts while I'm here! Maybe concerts will be #betterintheuk as well, we'll have to see.
Sending lots of love from windy Scotland!
For instance:
Walking to work in a windstorm #betterintheuk
The view from the grocery store #betterintheuk
Pubs #betterintheuk
Scarf and glove shopping #betterintheuk
Mochas #betterintheuk
However,
Baking brownies #notbetterintheuk
Conversion rate #notbetterintheuk
Guacamole #notbetterintheuk
And so it goes. The reason the view from the grocery store is better in the UK is because our Sainsbury's has a huge, practically unobstructed view of Arthur's Seat. And as far as baking brownies goes, I had my first attempt this afternoon and it turned out better than I expected, which is not saying much at all. I can hardly count my thin unsweetened brown pancake of a dessert as a brownie. I ate them anyway.
Well in more interesting news, I had my "second" day of work today. My "first" day was yesterday. They have not been real full days, I've only been there for about an hour each day, but I love it so far! I should start my full day tomorrow, I believe. Just in time for the parliamentary recess!
It felt simultaneously surreal and real as I walked to the parliament early yesterday afternoon. I had my rain jacket and thick grey H&M scarf covering my business clothes as I walked down the busy and windy streets to the Parliament. It's one thing to walk around Edinburgh in my typical uniform of jeans and a sweater. But when I got dressed up it felt like I was really living here and really belonged in the city. I don't know if it was the fact that I was going to work or the fact that dressy clothes make me feel more confident though. But it felt very real when I was walking down London Road passing Fish and Chips shops and pubs and other Edinburghy buildings.
I went through security and waited in the lobby until my MSP's Office Manager came down to bring me up to the office. His name is Iain and he's very nice and has been helping me by giving me tours of the Parliament building and giving me useful lists of numbers and stuff like that. Each MSP has a narrow cubicle office. They're all very similar looking. The architect designed it so that each office has a "thinking module" or something like that so at the end of each office behind the MSP's desk is a pop out window with a seat. I have a desk along the hallway. The view from my desk is unreal. As soon as I am left unattended long enough I will attempt to take a picture of this. I can see half of the interesting looking Parliament building and almost all of Arthur's Seat.
I had a quick conversation with my MSP. He did most of the talking about his constituency and his political interests. I hope I made a good first impression. He asked me if I knew what committees he was on and luckily I had read his website and luckily I have a strange capacity for retaining seemingly useless information and I was able to rattle off most of his committees. He had a meeting to go to or something, so I left after that.
Today I spent a little more time there. I got my security pass! It's very official looking. It's a very thick plastic card with my picture on it that I wear on a thin silver chain around my neck and I have to scan it to open doors and use the elevators (or "lifts"). I can now also enter the Parliament building through the employee entrances instead of the public entrances! I also was delegated a task today, which was to go collect someone from the lobby. I thought about leaving breadcrumbs as I worked my way through various narrow corridors and took counter intuitive turns to get to the lobby. There was a lady who was interviewing my MSP or something. She was very nice and I talked to her as I signed her in and brought her to my MSP's office. Because I don't have an account to sign in to the computer yet, I was able to leave after that.
It's scary though because the internship liaison was supposed to explain to us how to do different internshipy things like case work and press releases and briefings and he didn't. So I'm worried when I start my first real day of work I'm going to be sitting at the computer screen for hours going... "well now what?" Luckily my MSP and my office manager are very nice so I'm sure they'll explain it to me. I would rather be self sufficient from the get go, but I guess I'll learn a whole new skill set. Currently my internship skill set only includes things like making coffee and copies and getting people from the lobby. An MSP only needs so many copies though, so I suppose I'll have to learn how to do real work eventually, which is scary, but exciting.
It's also cool because I feel like I'm starting to absorb a lot of UK culture through osmosis I suppose. For instance, this morning for breakfast I had beans on toast. I also have starting saying "mobile" for "cell phone", if only out of necessity since no one knows what I'm talking about otherwise.
Other than that I am currently planning my two week recess from the Parliament. I believe I'm going to Istanbul for a few days. I'm also taking a trip to London with the other UC interns. I would like to go elsewhere, too. I think my roommates are going to Paris, so I may join them for that. I would like to go to Copenhagen and Cardiff as well, so it would be great if I could find people to go with me. I also would like to go to some concerts while I'm here! Maybe concerts will be #betterintheuk as well, we'll have to see.
Sending lots of love from windy Scotland!
Another great post! I would say #betterintheUK is Soccer, rock and roll music, and perhaps the royalty. #notbetterintheUK is probably weather and dental work. But these things are just stereotypes!
ReplyDeleteIt is great to see you are starting work. You'll learn fast and be on your way! My first day at Intel they forgot about me in the lobby and I waited for 4 hours until they found me. Then I sat in a cube for 3 days until I got my first instructions. Hopefully your first 3 days will be better than mine! Good luck!!!!!