Meeting Mai Predecessor

I've been back to work this week at UK Trade and Investment. I am now interning with the Major Sports Events sector after we changed our name from the Sports and Leisure Infrastructure team. Presumably we changed our name because we deal mainly with major sporting events and the word "infrastructure" causes people to only think about construction when in reality we work with companies that provide all sorts of products and services.

I've been helping our marketing manager, Jessica, with some case studies on UK companies who had success at the Olympics in Beijing this summer. "Success" meaning that the company was able to win or sign a significant business contract and profitably provide their services. We're trying to research how the contracts came about and what the details of the companies' successes are. Some of UK companies we're looking at include the architects of the "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium, the suppliers of the minerals and metals used to make the Olympic Medals, the manufacturers of the device used to test the quality of the swimming pool water, and even the florists who provided over 40 million flowers for display around the Olympic gardens. I have been contacting people in Beijing to help us get more info on these companies. When finished, the case studies will be used for future promotions, events, reports, press releases and speeches.

Interestingly enough, this week I was also able to meet the TWC intern, Mai Le, who worked at UKTI during the summer program, and wrote for the blog as well. She is studying in Madrid this semester and came to London for a weekend visit. She stopped by UKTI to go out to lunch with some of her colleagues from over the summer who are currently my co-workers. It was funny to talk to someone who had the same internship and the same responsibility of writing for the blog. We were able to share stories and laugh about many of the office's idiosyncrasies. We also tried to teach our supervisor Andy how to use chopsticks, not really an endeavor which could be considered a UK "success."

On top of that, Linda and I had been planning on making a Vietnamese noodle recipe called Pho that night, so after finding out Mai was Vietnamese, I mentioned our dinner plans. She got pretty excited, so I invited her back to our flat for dinner. The Pho was delicious as we talked a little more about UKTI and Linda and her discussed different Vietnamese dialects and foods. She soon headed out as she had a flight back to Madrid the next day. It was all a happy coincidence shared over a tasty meal. It was great to meet Mai, although a little like I was catching up with my own ghost… hmmm, and tomorrow's Halloween? Anyway, I've been writing this over my lunch break at work so I have to get back to it and finish up a few things before it's officially the Halloween weekend. I'm not sure what I'm going to be yet, but I do know where I'll be; Amsterdam and western Germany.

Dylan

It's a little windy for a kilt, I'll go with jeans

Last Wednesday night we were all relaxing a bit in our flat when Linda mentioned she and her sister Mary, who is visiting from Canada, had booked bus tickets to go to Edinburgh, Scotland on Thursday for the weekend. Being that I didn't have any plans for the weekend, and I had been wanting to go to Edinburgh, I got on my computer and had soon booked a ticket as well.

Thursday night we got to Victoria bus station, about a 30-45 minute trip from our flat, and of course I forgot my ticket at home. I tried to use my mobile phone to call someone back at the flat so they could look up my confirmation number on my computer, however, even though I had added £10 to my mobile account that day it hadn't gone through so I had to scramble to find change to use the payphone. Eventually I got ahold of Brittany who texted me the number and I was able to hop on to the bus just before it left.

The cozy common room of our hostel

An eight-hour overnight bus ride is not something I would recommend; however, it was cheap and got me to Scotland. We left the station and found the place we were staying, Castle Rock Hostel. The hostel had super friendly staff, was clean and in a great central location. After checking in at around 9:00 am and taking advantage of the cheap but tasty breakfast offered at the hostel, we went on a free walking tour of Edinburgh. Although I'm not generally one to walk around as part of a big touristy group, we were able to see a lot of the city and get some good historical background from our guide, a lively and knowledgeable girl who was also from the US.

The sun came out and I jumped for joy (photo courtesy of a patient Linda)

Early fall colors

Friday night I met up with Colin, who had stayed at Olov's apartment last weekend when Dave and I were there. Colin lives in Edinburgh and he was going to a friend's house party so he invited me along. The party had a summer theme with blow up palm trees and people wearing hula skirts and flip-flops. I was in jeans and a hoodie because I didn't know about the theme. The host of the party said it didn't matter since I'm part Hawaiian, although I think a better excuse is simply that Scotland is freezing cold.

The sun went down and we were out and about

Saturday and Sunday we walked to a few great sights on the outskirts of the city. We saw the Scottish parliament and then went on to Holyrood Park where we hiked up an enormous cliff that looked westward over Edinburgh. The view was really incredible, as one could look down and get a bird's eye view of the cathedrals and castles that appear so ominous when you're looking up from the street. On our way off the cliff we took a bit of a short cut and quickly found ourselves trying to navigate our way down a very steep slope. The cold wind was blowing as we were stepping and sliding down the slick, grassy side of the cliff. A couple times we weren't really sure how to continue without risking a pretty big fall. Things were made more challenging as the three of us couldn't stop laughing at the situation we had gotten ourselves into. Finally we managed to carefully inch our way down to the bottom safely.

Sunset high up on a ridge in Holyrood park

Autumn in Edinburgh brings wind and rainbows

Sunday evening we got our things together and got ready for another overnight bus ride home. After two consecutive weeks of traveling I was happy to get back to London; although I soon checked my email upon arriving home to see Dave had booked two tickets to Germany for Halloween weekend. So I've got one weekend in London before I'm off again to Germany (and maybe a small detour to Amsterdam).

Surfing Stockholm

Swedish Security

I finally managed to get out of London and explore another part of Europe this past weekend. My first experience in Scandinavia proved to be a very enjoyable one as I flew into Stockholm, Sweden Friday morning. I went with Dave, another student living in our London flats. Dave is doing an internship at a record label through CAPA but is not in The Washington Center London program. Dave and I have become pretty good friends, partly because we share a near obsessive interest in football and often go out to pubs to watch the Premier League matches on the weekends. He tends to lose bets to me like; what football pitch is the largest in the Premiership, or how many goals were scored by what players in the European Championships over the summer, but I don't hold it against him.

Anyway, we flew in to Stockholm on Friday morning. The airport we flew into was about an hour and a half outside the city, which is a pretty standard inconvenience when you choose to fly with the discount airline Ryanair. On the bus ride to the city terminal we were able to see the Swedish countryside as the trees were beginning to change color for the fall season. Soon we were in the middle of Stockholm, a beautiful city built on an archipelago of 14 different islands. Water and stunning Swedish architecture surround you as you pass over bridges from island to island. The weather was cool and breezy as we strolled by the shops and restaurants on the cozy cobblestone streets of Gamla Stan, the original city center. A small hole in the wall, literally, led us down a narrow alley to a small but fantastic kebab restaurant. It was full of people and we waited in line for our taste of what seemed to be a pretty popular eatery. We enjoyed our meal outside under a tree in a quiet courtyard surrounded by tall earth tone buildings. After our deliciously satisfying kebabs we set off to head to the north part of the city to meet up with Olov.

Tastiest hole in the wall ever

We had never met Olov before, and had only spoken over email after contacting him from a website. The site, couchsurfing.com, is somewhat like the social networking sites facebook and myspace, however it's based on the theme of traveling, meeting and staying with new friends. The site allows you to make a profile, leave references, and host or be hosted by other couchsurfers around the world. So, we contacted Olov, who had about 100 verified references from other couchsurfers, before we left and he said that we could stay in his apartment for the three days we would be in Stockholm. It turned out to be a great experience and we became good friends with Olov as well as an Italian guy named Carlo, Scottish bloke named Colin and a nice German girl named Anika who were also staying with Olov. We had a great time together and it was far better than paying the equivalent of $50 a night for a hostel where you would be sleeping in the same room with 16 other people.

The geometric city square

Saturday was a bit cloudy but that didn't stop us from just walking and exploring the city. We came back to Olov's that night to watch the World Cup Qualifying Match between Sweden and Portugal. He had some friends over and we enjoyed the game before venturing out into the Stockholm nightlife for a few drinks. Sunday was a beautiful and warm day. Dave, Carlo and I set off to walk along one of the city's main ports, admiring, discussing and dreaming about buying one of the fantastic boats and sailing around the world. We walked on towards a museum that Olov said we must visit, the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a 17th century Swedish war ship that sank in 1628 (I think) and was recovered in the 1980s to be reconstructed. The museum holds the massive revived ship, a great deal of artifacts, and some of the skeletons from the crew that went down with the ship. It was really an incredible thing to see.

Overlooking the port near the Vasa Museum

Stockholm really is one of the most aesthetically pleasing cities I've ever visited. The people are incredibly friendly and the streets are cosy. The island hopping nature of exploring the city really gives it a unique feel. Olov made my first couchsurfing (although actually only Dave slept on a couch, I got a bed) experience a great one, while Colin and Carlo have offered us their couches in Edinburgh, Scotland and Southern Italy respectively. Stockholm had not initially been in my plans when coming to Europe but I'm glad I went and I would definitely suggest it if you're looking for a beautiful and unique city.

One Italian and two American travelers were spotted in Stockholm on Sunday afternoon. They were apparently caught "soaking in the city's scenery" and "having a ridiculously awesome time".

If you're trying to stay positive, don't read the headlines

The crashing economy has been on the front pages of the newspapers for the past few weeks and today was is no different. Living in London and commuting everyday has put a newspaper in my hands most every morning. I mean this quite literally as there are always people at tube entrances placing newspapers straight into your arms. It was a little annoying at first, but now I get irritated if I have to get on the tube and no one is there to hand me the day's news.

So, it's Tuesday morning and yesterday the $700 billion dollar plan to bail-out Wall Street was voted down by congress. Everyone at work is talking and there are a few meetings going on about what it means for UK business, although I haven't been invited to sit in today. I've been following the economy more than I ever have recently (I think a lot of people probably have) and it's interesting to be watching the economic situation from a global business center like London. When Lehman Brothers collapsed everyone talked about it in a bit of disbelief. I watched interviews of Lehman's London branch employees leaving their offices, having no idea what was going and all the while wondering about a friend of mine who works for a Chicago branch. This is a global economic storm and I can't help but feel London is making me more aware of this. I'm living in a true economic center and listening to the opinions and concerns of people who are working in it.

While university students are well educated and conscious of the world around them, we still often miss some of the world's realities. If I were back on my school's, Indiana University, campus right now I know I would be paying attention to the news, but not to the extent that I am now. A college campus is a bit of a Utopian place for students. Many of us don't have to worry too much about expenses, or if we do, we're getting loans and worrying later. We are also surrounded by people our age, who don't have any more experience in the world than we do. Our campuses are relatively small and self-contained. While walk to class back on campus offers fall leaves, friends and fun, the commute through London offers a glimpse at the diverse culture, experience and knowledge that resides here.

We're all watching a historic economic storm, but the view and its perceived danger depends greatly on where you're watching from and the amount of shelter you have.