January 31, 2004
My small room
Finally I found some time to take some pictures of my little room and the house where I live in the moment. As you can see, it's a reeeeally small room!
January 30, 2004
Bad hang-over!
Oh my goodness....I am completely crushed today since we had some leaving drinks for one of my colleagues and I got terribly pissed.
In the end I arrived at work at about 11:45 today....weird! Now I am just looking forward to my weekend and getting some sleep. Still have a day to go.... ;-(
January 29, 2004
London under snow alert!
Holy cow!
I cannot believe, but yesterday apart from the tension in the city due to the presentation of the "Hutton Report" to the British Government and the relief for PM Tony Blair, London got under snow attack!
It was tremendously snowing until late in the evening and believe what, although the weather forecast did predict this event since one week, the city was not prepared for this "winter chaos".
As a consequence, the streets were completely under snow cover, the already messy tube transportation system became even worse with delays up to 4!!!! hours...you may imagine this horrible scenario.
Female colleagues did put off their heels because it was so slippy and icy when walking along the pavement. Indeed, the British don't even know that you could prevent dangerous falls by sprinkle salt....
I try to take some pictures tomorrow for you to get an impression what it looks like.
Additionally, you cannot imagine how freezing cold it is at the moment.
UPDATE: I found an article about the recent snow fall in London. It's in German but nevertheless interesting.
UPDATE:
Here it how it looked like. A view out of the window of our home:
January 27, 2004
British attitudes....
Here are my TOP x list. The entries are derived from personal experience. If you have any suggestion what kind of typical behaviour should be included in the list, please feel free to contact me.
1.) Business women wear sports shoes when going to work in the morning
2.) The word "bloody" is more commonly used than the f* word in the US.
3.) British people use to have lunch at their own desk in order to eat their
sandwiches and move on working.
4.) Business men tend to drink alcohol during their lunch break (when they are
having lunch out of the office)
5.) British people merely speak one language - English, nothing else.
6.) ....to be filled with other impressions...
"Fire (Silence) in the hole!"
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg. I am splashing! There is nothing to do here in the office and no wonder if I get more and more agressive the next days!
And what makes thing even worse, is the fact that today I am not able to access the university email account. Hence I am completely cut-off from the entire world....hmpf...
Claudio, who is kind of frustrated today!
January 26, 2004
Chinese New Year in London
Happy Chinese New Year!
Yesterday there was a celebration together with around 40,000 people standing on Trafalger and Leicester Square enjoying the fireworks and stage performance. Whole Chinatown was almost closed for access because of the crowd. Enjoy the pictures!
January 24, 2004
Finally weekend
Oh great...it's weekend and surprisingly we have a great weather today, no rain, hardly clouds...great!
Since last week was Chinese New Year I will go to China Town tomorrow at noon to celebrate this event. I will take my digicam with me, so I may hopefully take some lovely shots. There is going to be a firework as well. I am looking forward to.
Enjoy your weekend as well!
January 23, 2004
Finally some work to do
After nearly 3 weeks of work, I finally joint a (small) project team where I worked out of the office yesterday and today.
It was good to be on the 'spot' again and I really hope I will get more things to do the upcoming weeks.
I am feeling a little bit tired today since I went out late yesterday but fortunately in only two hours I will heading off for home and my bed! ;-)
Oh another good news - a very close friend of mine is going to visit me in London together with his brother in the end of february. This is going to be great fun!
January 19, 2004
Third week at work...
and bad news. I didn't get the chance to join the project team in Germany. Though I am still sitting in the office and waiting that something will going to happen. Anoying and I still have had a short chat with the partner about this issue earlier today. We will see what will change....
Another bad news from Mexico this weekend. The company which would like to offer me an internship position this summer still insisted that this offer would implicate a non-paid internship. This is really a pitty, since I think I will not accept this offer and though I am looking for some other positions elsewhere.
Since I have nothing to do in the office, I took the opportunity to submit some other applications, we'll see how they might repsond to it.
This weekend was quite chilled. After returning back at home after work on friday, I felt asleep immediately and slept until 5 am the next morning. crazy, isn't it?
On Saturday night, we discovered another club in Notting Hill which except myself, novody of my friends liked it a lot.
January 15, 2004
Nothing changed so far, but...
things may change next week. There is a certain possibility to join a project team next week, which will be operating in Germany. Isn't that weird, I am doing an internship here in London, but being placed on a project in Germany, my home country :-)
Well, there has been made no decision in this repect, but I would strongly appreciate this since I am fed up with sitting in the office without doing nothing!
After work I will go in a pub and have some pints together with a German community based in London.
Cheers!
January 13, 2004
Finding an accomodation in Milan
...isn't that easy. Yesterday evening, I made some calls to Milan (hell was it expensive!) in order to clarify further matters regarding a possible accomodation. So far, the announcements I received weren't vacant anymore or the offers included sleeping in a double room together with another student. Actually I was looking for a small private room for my own....
Additionally, it isn't that sure that I will be studying at Bocconi University there as far as the Admission Office of the University told me today. Things are going to be quite tricky in February.
Final exam results published
Today I received the results of my final exams from last December. The good thing about it, I passed all my exams and I do not have to resit any exam in february which gives me a little bit more air to breath in february.
The bad thing is that there is no bad thing behind that news :-)
Jippieeeeeeeeeee!!!
January 12, 2004
Rainy London and my second week of work
Gosh!, it's been raining in London continously for days. I know I should not be surprised since this circumstances seem to be part of the British living atmosphere. Anyways, it's quite disappointing looking out of the window and seeing nothing but the rain.
Here at work, merely nothing has changed so far. I still have nothing to do and it's getting more and more anoying as time passes by. Still nearly one hour left today and hopefully things will get better by tomorrow. ..... Hope hopefully never dies.
January 06, 2004
My second day at work!
Puh....two days at work and I am almost crushed. It's nice being back again in one of the former companies I have been working with but it's really challenging.
I was warmly welcomed by the whole team. Furthermore at the moment it is real tough for me to understand all the procedures taking place in my department.
Today - whether it was for language misunderstanding reasons or not - I failed delivering a task given by one partner in my department. Oh, that is really silly...the first task and just failed.
Beyond this, I have been on a client meeting and it was quite interesting to follow the conversation although I really couldn't add any single point. My hope is that I will be improving in handling such situation in the near future.
January 04, 2004
Back again in London
Gosh!, once again back in London! I made myself comfortable in my new little room and I am currently sitting in an Internet Cafe next to my home since I still haven't any internet connection at home.
Tomorrow I will begin my work here in London and thus I am feeling both excited and interested what will be happening from tomorrow. I strongly hope that I will work with pleasant colleagues and that I will be working on interesting jobs during my work period.
All my friends from University who also decided to stay in London in January and February should arrive all today night or at least by tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing them again.
January 03, 2004
Happy New Year!
I wish you all a happy New Year 2004!
The past days after New Years Eve have been quite calm. I am currently checking my luggage before my return flight to London tomorrow morning.