21 Aug London never sleeps
You know the surreal feeling of being so over whelmed and cannot believe what you are doing or what is going on around you – that’s how I felt arriving in London. It felt as if someone was going to be waiting on the other side to laugh in my face and say sorry this is all a dream. Getting off a 23-hour flight from Australia was a struggle enough, let alone being in a completely different country.
Desperately trying to find the “Absolute Internship” sign to know I was going to be well looked after from then on, who personally took us too our apartment and a bit around our neighbourhood while we waited for the rest of the group to join later that afternoon.
The apartment building in which we are all staying in is full of UK students from all over the world, everyone has they’re own room with kitchen and bathroom, so no complaints here! As many “normal” people would after a 23-hour flight with only a few hours sleep, you would have a nap… well instead I decided to stay awake for as long as possible so I could seriously crash later that night, I ended up in an argument with my phone provider at home because my new SIM wouldn’t work – so make sure you triple check with them before you leave, they told me it would be unlocked, funnily enough something was locked.
Once the rest of the Interns arrived we all headed out to an Italian restaurant in the city for the Welcome Dinner, to get to know everyone and a bit about they’re background. It was interesting to hear where everyone came from, what they all study and how much longer they all have of their degrees. I was really surprised how quickly everyone clicked and got along, some felt like you’ve known him or her forever – when you think about it though everyone is in the exact same boat as you, they don’t know anyone and if they do it’s out of pure luck, and if they’re homesick good possibility someone else is too.
We had basically the whole weekend to explore the city and relax as much as possible before we started our internships on Monday. A few of us managed to squeeze in majority of London’s tourist attractions, which have to be done! I would love to know how far we walked all together over that weekend because my feet were in agony – result of poor shoe choice unfortunately.
Over the weekend we used the “Tube” (London’s Underground) to get around the city and it was ridiculously confusing the first couple of days, but now after taking it every day to and from work, I’ve become to like it quite a lot! It’s easy if you know where you need to go. Just make sure you get on the right line… I’ve done it a couple of time already in the first week – good thing is though you learn from it and pay very close attention as to which line you are about to hop on to. City Mapper will save your life!
Absolute Internship made sure we arrived on time at our first day and came to the office with us – after that we were on our own! I think I’ve got the best office but so does everyone else, right next to Tower Bridge and Tower of London! It also reminds me of Melbourne Docklands a lot, as on the other side is an dock that looks just like home. Immediately I was made very welcome and jumped straight into work and meetings on the first day – it was also very hectic as our boss was flying out of the UK and needed a lot of help organising his trip. – Fair to say it was a longer night at work than intended, but sometimes you will get that.
Fair to say after a week of being here I feel as though I have been here for a very long time. Very settled into my apartment for the next 2 months and made some great new friends, know my way around London – most parts anyway, tried some English delicacies and experienced the London nightlife.
Now just for the shopping.
Visit my personal blog http://findingmypearl.weebly.com for more posts during my internship in London.
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