A Thoughtful Thanksgiving Abroad

Thanksgiving has come and gone!  If I were in the U.S., I'm sure I would have spent the day visiting with family, enjoying delicious home-cooked dishes, watching football, and baking Thanksgiving-themed desserts with my sisters.  However, since Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in London, I spent my day a little differently than normal.

I was still able to celebrate !  My coworkers at MEC took me out for a lunch of pie and mash, and my floormates and I cooked a big dinner and had a family meal (no turkey, but lots of pasta!  Hey, we're college kids, what do you expect?)  The meal was great, and so many people made homemade dishes that it felt like a real Thanksgiving. 

Don't get me wrong, I was still pining for home on Thanksgiving!  Being away really made me think of all the things I am thankful for, and how much I'm looking forward to returning to many of these things in just a few weeks time... Oh, and I'd be thankful if you followed the jump to read more. :)

Munich Musings

My roommates and I spent this past weekend in Munich, Germany.  I think it has been the most moving experience I have had this semester-- we learned about and experienced so much of the city's history and culture in just two days.  It is such a beautiful city with such a tumultous history, but being there in person let me see firsthand things that I never have, and know I never would have, gotten out of books...

Powers Invasion ~ my parents come to London!

It's been a family affair this week-- my mom and dad flew to jolly old Londontown to visit me!  We had a great time, and did so much in just five days!  If you remember my post from when my older sister came to visit me in London, you may already know that we Powerses have a great time whenever, and wherever, we're together... so being all together in London of all places just couldn't be better.  And we had a great time!  Follow the jump and see what we got up to!

Belgian Waffles and Bicycles! ~ Brussels and Amsterdam

This past weekend my roommate Jen and I lived some truly wise words, 
taken from one of the most classic, inspired pieces of film of our 
generation... Up.

Adventures are out there!

With that in mind, we ventured off to Brussels and Amsterdam for the 
weekend!

 

(Intern)ational Experiences!

After my fall break sojourn to Florence, I started the second part of my BU study abroad progam-- my internship!

Through the BU and EUSA placement program, I interviewed and was hired for an internship position with MEC Global, a media planning and buying company.  The company has offices in a number of different areas, (including New York!) and I would be working in the press department of MEC's London headquarters.

Before I started with MEC, I honestly didn't know much about media planning and buying.  I knew I wanted to experience marketing and advertising, since my last internship in New York with SNY focused more on the actual post-production and editing of media (in SNY's case, the media was sports television programming).  It's an entirely new experience for me, so I've just been trying to learn all I can.

Media planning and buying has a number of different sub-areas that I've been learning about.  One of MEC's jobs is to act as a middleman agent between advertisers and, in the press field, major newspapers and publications in London (such as the Sun, Metro, and Times).  Advertisers who want ad space in the papers seek out MEC as an agent, and we negotiate rates with publications and book the clients' ad space.

I've also been exposed to more creative areas of MEC, as well.  On my first day of work I sat in on a brainstorming meeting with my coworkers, and observed and listened as they tossed around ideas for how to promote a new organic sweetener.  It was really interesting to see the start of the creative process, and how the ideas and concepts really start flowing just in these small sit-downs.

I really get along well with the people I've been working with.  There are eight other people on the press team, and I sit at a big desk with five of them.  Somebody is always making a joke or playing music, and the
British sense of humor is definitely something else!  It took a few days to start getting used to the more sarcastic, quick wit of my coworkers, but it never fails to make me laugh-- and it's absolutely part of the culture!

Overall conclusion: so far so good!  I hope it stays that way this semester; MEC seems like a good place to learn more about the industry from a UK standpoint.  And worst comes to worst, I can say I got to work in an office whose kitchen actually had boiling water on tap for constant tea-making.  It's the little things in life...