PARTHENON!
We got obsessed with taking jumping pictures
View from the top=)
After scurrying up to the top, we had to go back down in order to make our flight to London. We were conveniently seated on the very last row of the plane in the middle where we got no view of the outside. The one perk? There was a cabinet with a handle that was too small to be a bathroom, but at least 5 people tried opening it and we got quite a few laughs from watching determined people attempting to open the door.
The week went by pretty quickly and the main highlight was MY INTERNSHIP STARTED.
I shouldn't call it a highlight, more like a lowlight. On Wednesday I got the riveting task of opening the mail for the accounts payable department and organizing it for all of the people who process the invoices. For people who don't speak "Accounting," the accounts payable department is where all of the expenses are process and paid. Invoices are basically the letters the company gets informing them of what the bill is, when it needs to be paid and how much each product costs.
Because HCA controls 6 hospitals with thousands of vendors and clients, there is a lot of mail. Thursday and Friday I was staring at excel spreadsheets updating databases. Worst of all, I thought I was only working 20 hours a week because that's what my VISA said, but I found out its only 20 hours a week if I'm being paid. So, I'm stuck working 9 - 5:30 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I hate being given menial tasks because I've already had two internships where I was given actual responsibility and did parts of audits.
I only wish FIE had explained how much I'd actually be working and that I wouldn't be learning about the industry, but instead be doing bitch work for the department that they don't assign to people who are actually on the payroll. I have heard other horror stories that aren't as bad as mine- one girl has to make tea for all of the people she works for and has to remember who likes 2 teaspoons of sugar, who likes a pinch of milk, and who likes it plain. If she gets it wrong, they tell her to do it over again.
If my boss told me to make tea- fuck that I quit.
The upside is that some of the people I work with are quite funny. The entire department, minus my australian boss, are dudes in their 20's who like to crack jokes and are actually interested in getting to know me and the other two interns I work with.
On top of the internships, we have an internship class thats an hour and a half long where we talk about our feelings. We have an essay and a presentation (such bullshit) but at least it's an easy A.
This weekend was quite fun. I went to Greenwich market in the east end of London which is basically a mini Camden Market. Dave and I had a lot of fun walking around and getting cute trinkets. We then saw the movie Due Date which was actually quite hysterical.
FUN FACT !
Cinemas in the UK serve American sized popcorn and drinks! All of their food sizes are much smaller, so I was super excited to be watching an American movie with American sized movie going snacks. Of course I stuffed my face full of popcorn.
Later that night Genna, Cierra, and I went to a club called "The Rocket" in Euston which is in the northern part of London to meet Emily (our friend who is going to UCL) and some of her friends from AU. We ended up running into more AU students who are going to LSE. We all got cheap drinks and danced our butts off to some sexy jams. It was a lot of fun to be with 10 other American University students in London just having a good time. London may be a big city, but somehow I keep running into AU students...
Sunday I just went grocery shopping at Sainsbury's for the first time in over a month and cooked a full dinner. Yay for home cooked meals!
To leave on a positive note - I get a tour of Parliament tomorrow for my British Life and Cultures class! yay!
Cheers!