Day 1
Today was this first day of work and I was really excited to begin working with my future co-workers. On my way to work I took a wrong turn and got on the wrong bus. It was a good thing that I left an hour ahead of schedule. I asked a gentleman for help and he told me where to go and was extremely kind. After I finally arrived to The Frozen Food Store, I was kind of disappointed. I thought I would be working at this huge company but it was just a hole in the wall. It was crappy. I had high expectations after speaking to the owner, Pete Snieder on the phone. Pete sounded very intelligent and had some great aspirations for me when I spoke to him on the phone. Once I entered the building I was greeted by Stephanie Smith, receptionist. Stephanie was more than the just the receptionist though, she ran the whole company from her desk. Stephanie was so nice and was a complete sweetheart. Stephanie was completely professional as well. For about the first 2 hours it was Stephanie and I. Then finally Pete arrived and I was able to speak to him. When I first met Pete I was very intrigued on how my internship would go from here. Pete said that he wanted to have me complete a project for him so that I could have a sense of accomplishment. The project that Pete wanted me to complete was to find an easier way to attract clients and leads. The sales people don’t have any time to go out and talk to perspective clients. The project would eventually be overtaken by the next intern but Pete wanted to get started on it as soon as I could. The next person I met when I was there was Julie. Julie is the accountant and is like your typical English grandmother. Julie has an under bite and is not afraid to tell you what is on her mind. She literally talks about some personal things. This was a rare treat to meet her for the first time because right after she talked to me, she lifted up her armpit and sprayed deodorant in it. I was completely grossed out and would never think a sixty something year old woman would do that. I was more shocked than anything else though. I was interested to see how things were going to turn just from my first day experiences. One of the things that I realized is what FFS specializes in. FFS specializes in Italian desserts and frozen seafood. They mostly cater to Italian restaurants in the greater area of central London. For my first day I was excited to see what new troubles and adventures I could get myself into. Stephanie said there is another intern coming and that I will be working with him directly.

Day 2
This was my first full day of the internship and as for all my Tuesdays it was my long day in London. I work for 5 hours then I have school for 4 hours. I have my organizational leadership and supervision class for three hours with Dr. Lybrook. Dr. Lybrook is probably one of my favorite teachers I have ever had to date. Then there is Dr. Anthony’s class. Dr. Anthony’s class deals with culture side of London and also with our internship progress. It’s kind of rough but it leaves me with two days free to do what I want. Today was a good day just because I got to meet the rest of the workers at FFS. I was able to meet Pat Smith who is the manager of the freezer area. Pat is a really big guy that is bald. He is also out spoken funny man who always something funny to say to everybody. I also was able to meet Mrs. Smith who was the cleaning lady. Mrs. Smith was one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. I have a feeling im going to be calling her mom by the end of the trip. I then met some of the drivers Pedro and Andy. Pedro is 26 year old guy from Portugal. Pedro is very outgoing and was easy to talk to on the first day I had met him. We really kicked it off and were surprisingly relatable to me. Then there was Andy, who is of Caribbean descent. Andy has long dreads and has a pretty deep Caribbean accent. He is another funny guy who is a very talented singer. One of the things that I didn’t realize about London is how diverse it is. London is a melting pot of cultures. London is generally mixture of all the different cultures that make up London. I call London a melting pot because all of these cultures work with each other to accomplish the same thing. Everyone wants to provide for their family and live a successful life. The Indian and Caribbean cultures are huge. Especially in south London where I worked there was a large population of these people. All the people that I would see would either be black Caribbean’s or dressed up in native Indians dress ware. I liked it because I had never formally met any people of this descent, and I am always willing to try new things and love to meet new people whenever I could. I am excited to work with all the wonderful people I have met today and can’t wait for all the other things we will do together. I tried answering the phones today but it is just unbelievably hard to understand what the other person is saying. In part it is mostly due to the British accent. British people pronounce things differently and on top of the most of the people I talk also have an Italian accent. The mixture of these two accents is the death of the phone ability. Out of the 5 phone calls I made, I only understood one person, the rest I had to handover to Stephanie to answer. I always ending up asking the person on the other line to slow down or spell out what they are ordering. Sometimes this pissed the person off and ended up getting cussed at by the person on the line. I wasn’t even angry when I was getting yelled at. All I would say is that I am sorry for your inconvenience and then I would hand off the phone to Stephanie. Sometimes before I would even be able to finish the order the person would automatically ask to talk to Stephanie.

Day Three First Wednesday I have ever worked and I am looking forward to it. Like I said before I only work 3 days a week so I can have 2 days free to myself during the week. I really like this public transportation thing. I love going all over the city by bus or subway. It is so convenient and unbelievably easy once you get the understanding of it. Especially when you get drunk at night you can always find a ride home. No one ever needs a reason to drive. It’s awesome I wish the United States would develop something like this in America. I was able to get promptly to work today at 9am. It was weird though because when I arrived I was the only one in the office at the time. Only Pat and the freezer guys were there. So I had to wait till 930am for Stephanie to arrive. Then at 10am Julie arrived and finally Pete arrived at noon. Pete is only half owner with his brother, Mario. Mario works mostly as the salesman with another guy that I haven’t met yet. Stephanie says that Mario hardly comes into the office. This is okay because I don’t need two people telling me what to do. Today I did the usual. I talked to Stephanie for the first two hours then lunch came around. I had Stephanie take me out and show where some of the locals eat. We went to this place called Nunzo’s. It was just a chicken place. The weird thing is you can only get grilled chicken there not fried. It was a bad experience because we ended up waiting 45 minutes for my food. We did have some entertainment when an irate customer was cursed out of the building and was told to never come back. I guess the customer was given a customer loyalty card and manipulated the system by trying to make his own cards. When the customer wasn’t given the chicken that he thought he deserved, he had a fit. I was just thinking to myself, “Ah this stuff happens to me from where I’m from too”. I said something about to Stephanie and she said this happens all the time and people like this are all over the city. When we get back to FFS, Julie and Pete were bitching a fit because they were mad that they had to answer the phones since we were gone getting me food. Overall it wasn’t a bad day I like the food a lot and was especially happy just to be hanging out with Stephanie all day.

Day Four
I am back to the grind on Monday, after my second weekend in London. I love London, I love the atmosphere and I love the place where we live, and I love all the people that I am meeting. I never want to leave this place, I just wish that everything here wasn’t so damn expensive. Today I was able to meet the other intern that I would be working with. His name is Wilson Korte and he is from the same town that my grandma grew up in southern Illinois. Wilson is a finance major that goes to Ole Miss in Mississippi. I immediately could tell that he was a frat boy right when he walked into the door. I do not get along with fraternity guys and was interested to see how our relationship would end up. We both have computers and were assigned to do the same project together. Like in most situations I took control. I was the lead in the project and took full advantage of my situation. Some people might call it brownnosing, but I’m going to try my hardest in any situation I can get into. In the real world, everyone is out for themselves so it is always a good idea to assert myself and separate myself from the pack. That’s all I was trying to do. I treated this internship just as a job and wanted to do the best I could. Something interesting happened when Pedro arrived today from his route. Pedro came in laughing and looking at Wilson’s shoes. I knew that Wilson was wearing cowboy boots. So I was thinking to myself this is going to be a good one. So Pedro comes up to me with this huge grin on his face and his crooked teeth showing. Pedro sits down and says in his Portuguese accent, “In America is it like the Wild West and you boys ride your horses to college”. So immediately I think this guy is joking and cannot be serious. Sarcastically I say, “Yea my dad dropped me off in a horse and carriage when I was little”. Then Pedro says, “Yes, I knew it. I watch all of these movies and television shows that everyone is riding horses instead of driving cars”. I say, “Are you kidding me we are more industrialized then England”. Then Pedro says, “But you guys still ride horses to school”? Then I said, “I only know one person to have even own a horse and ride one to school was my grandma back in the 1940’s”. Pedro just started laughing and said, “Then tell that cowboy over there to take off his cowboy boots and never wear them again”! After that I just started cracking up and the whole office was in an uproar. I kind of felt bad for Wilson because on his first day the whole office was laughing at his expense, but it was okay because it was like his acceptation into the work group. I really didn’t do much today except answer phones and file invoices like I do every day. My day always consist of the same thing now. I’m starting to bring my lunch every day to try and save a few bucks for the bars. I really like everyone that I work with. It is just such a good caring group of people to be with. Today we also got a taste of what FFS was all about. We got to try some ice cream. The ice cream that gave us was stratchiatella or cookies and cream ice cream. It was great it was so rich and creamy and I loved every minute of it.

Day 5 Alright it’s another nasty Tuesday in the city of London. But that is okay because a nasty day in London is 5 times better than other day in Indiana. I don’t know if I mentioned it before but I work with the Smith family. That is Stephanie, Pat and Mom Smith. They have adopted me as their son for the time being. I don’t like to call women on the on the other side of the hill by their first name, I think it is a little bit disrespectful. So I just started calling her mom. Pat said it was okay because that is just her personality, she is just a caring and loving person. Pat and momma Smith had Stephanie when they were both 19 years old. This family has the best relationship I have ever seen. To work full time with your family members you have to be very close to them and accept their own bad qualities. I admire this family because they always ready to pick on each other and make fun of themselves. Pat even has a tattoo on his outside forearm that say Stephanie. Stephanie has a tattoo on her right shoulder that says dad. It is just a pleasure to come into work every day and hear them go back in fourth with each other. The best part about it is they don’t hold anything back. They drop many an F bombs all the time. Even mom drops F bombs. For me this highly awkward, because my family is nothing like this and this would never happen. I was completely foreign to this kind of situation because only my friends and I talk bad like that. I felt guilty at the end of the day today. The cool thing about the English people though is that they can get away with cussing like they. Everyone swears! It’s just more common and much more acceptable to hear people swear in England compared to America. This just made it so much easier to get along with people. I’m so comfortable with everyone I feel like I can tell them everything about me. Pat started talking to me today about forearms. Pat says, “Oy Ryan, you got some big forearms there dude. Do you workout”? I said, “I worked out a lot when I was in high school. When I did workout I was able to bench 300 pounds and I was captain of the team”. Pat then says, “Bullocks mate I got these from looking at the page 3 models, in the changing rooms at Harrods”. It took me a while before it dawned on me. Pat was talking about masturbating in the changing rooms. I just started cracking up and I asked him, “How can you say that in front of your daughter”? Pat then said, “She is old enough to know what happens. Stephanie hears about it all the time at home anyways”. I was in shock because no daughter should ever have to hear their father talking about that stuff. Though it was funny I don’t think anyone should ever have to listen to that. I still love the family no matter what. This was a crazy day, I really had a great time working today. I really didn’t do anything productive as far as work. I did the usual filing and made tea for everyone. I am the tea master as soon as I get in I just turn the tea pot on and fill up everyone’s mug.

Day 6
Today was an interesting. I was assigned a project to develop an environmental consultation project. Pete gave me this assignment directly. I actually was able to work with Sunny Lee who is the head of chamber of commerce environmental coalition. This was great for me because I already had some background in the environmental area because my parents own an environmental consulting company. So I already had some ideas on how to make the FFS more environmentally friendly. The first thing I suggested was LED lighting. LED lighting last a lot longer than normal halogen lights. It is cost efficient and better for the environment because there is a special disposal procedure for halogen lights. The next thing I suggested was putting plastic bottles in the tower of the toilet. This will reduce the need for more water in the toilet and can save up 1000 liters of water every year. The next thing I suggested was to make sure that everyone knows to turn off the lights when they aren’t using them. I suggested that Pete should order some posters showing that lights should be turned off when ever they’re not in use. Pete was very impressed with all of my suggestions. I was just happy to show that I was actually able to do something, rather than just sitting around all day talking to everyone. I met with Sunny Lee the same day and we talked about everything. She said she would be able to order everything and all the products would be come in at a good time. Time was against me because I only had 4 hours to prepare the environmental consulting project. Pete said he was impressed with my progress. For the rest of the day I really didn’t do anything except answer phones and filing invoices as always. Stephanie and I started talking about the differences in soccer in America and football in London. I said that soccer is not even popular at all in the states. Which is true in many ways but it is increasing in popularity. Soccer is definitely not as popular as baseball, basketball or American football. Stephanie says that everyone plays football from a very young age and up to the age when they graduate secondary school. Which is understandable because we are in Europe and nothing is watched more than the World Cup. The World Cup was just beginning and everyone was getting excited. Everyone believed that England had the best team on paper and no one should be able to stop them. I thought it was just dumb ignorance because all English people are full of it. They think they are better than any American. I can’t wait till America beats England. I will walk around with the old stars and stripes, and wave it in everyone’s face. I’m excited about the World Cup, I have never really watched soccer but will feel more obliged to watch it just because of my surroundings. I figure as long as I go to a pub everything would be good. I’ll sit down with a nice pint and have a good dinner with all of my roommates. The Belgravia pub which is right next to our flat is really nice. It is very quaint and the owner likes us a lot. I think anyone would like all of the money that we bring into the place. By the time we leave, the owner will be able to retire. Probably the favorite part of my day is always talking to Stephanie. She has so much to say and I really get the best perspective in London because I get to relate to some real locals. I get away from all of the tourist crap and get to pick though a locals brain every day I work. That’s the best part of our internship because we get to interact with the locals and get the real perspective on different subjects.