business as usual, literally...

Two days of class and interning down, and there is much to tell about my wild and crazy life here!  I finally have time to sit down with some yummy yummy Twinings tea (totally addicted) and catch up on cleaning, email and Facebook, and...of course...blogging.

First, BBDO.  Aaaaah, BBDO.  I'm still somewhat intimidated by the fact that I'm having my first internship with THE largest international marketing corporation in the world...at their European headquarters, moreover.  Thankfully, everybody has been working to ease me in with baby steps...today I got to stick labels on envelopes and do some filing...ooh, glamorous, right?  More significantly, however, I also got to register invoices for hundreds of thousands of Euro and pounds...help with investigating a top exec's suspiciously expensive travel account (apparently she had been flying home to Germany lots and lots, and using business class when she was only allowed to use her corporate account on economy seats)...and celebrate the CFO's birthday.

My boss scares the shit out of me, to put it lightly...she is VERY much the epitome of the "stiff upper lip," prim and proper, reserved Brit we all see portrayed on TV shows, and I really truly think she doesn't much like me, but fortunately everybody else in the office is absolutely wonderful.  My cubicle mate and...well, for lack of a better word, handler, Stephen Claridge, is SUCH a gem...he's only a bit older than us and has been with BBDO for a year...he lives right in our borough so he knows all the fun bars, pubs and restaurants, and would rather chat my ear off than get any work done.  I also have another ND intern in our cubicle, so that will be fun and make the atmosphere a bit more social.  All the male employees are ridiculously adorable, look like they stepped out of a Polo ad, and love to stop by the intern cubicle and chat about our experiences.  And the ladies!! All the BBDO girls are Tinkerbell-sized, have the shiniest most perfect hair I've ever seen, and dress like a fashion spread from the latest French Vogue.  I'm craving some black ankle boots, big thick-knit cardigans, and cute shirtdresses...aaah it's like the uniform de jour there. 

I'll be spending one full day and two half-days every week at BBDO until spring break.  After that it ramps up a bit to two full days and a half-day as needed, as they are entering their tax season, a nightmare for an international company of BBDO's size!  I'm enjoying it so far as much as I can be expected to on the first few headachy days, and I know I'm going to learn, see, and do a lot there.

The other business-y thing I have of note is my Accountancy in the UK class, which met for the first of six times last night.  It's run in conjunction with and under the supervision of PriceWaterhouseCoopersUK, and our class sessions are all at their London headquarters.  Located about 45 minutes from Trafalgar and the London Centre, the place is SO posh.  Aaaaaah like...SO posh.  No words.  I want to move in and just sleep in the conference room under the table and never come home.  Anyway, Paul and Lawson are our two teachers, and are also responsible for training 4000 of the 15000 PwC employees in Europe.  Not intimidating or anything.  :/  Thankfully they are both fantastic...Paul has the most gorgeous Scottish accent, Lawson is from Chicago, and they interact so sarcastically that the class won't be bad at all.  The best part?  They gave us free alcohol.  Lots and LOTS of free alcohol, in fact, as the majority of our first day was a drinks/snacks reception.  One major discovery that the men of the program were really excited about was meat-flavored potato chips...I seriously think that was the primary topic of conversation for a good six or seven minutes of cocktail hour.  It's going to be an awesome networking opportunity and a really good way to get to know some of the accounting majors better, as it's a very groups-based class.

Long post short: I am an intern-slash-office bitch.  I have mad labeling and filing skills.  And PriceWaterhouseCoopers is awesome.  And young British businessmen/women are my new favorite people ever.  :)  Now my tea is getting cold and I have a fun night ahead of me, so cheerio loves and I will get in touch soon...assuming my feet ever touch the ground and I come down to Earth again!