Archive for June, 2009
All is well
June 23, 2009 by nate, under General.
Hello all,
It’s been about three weeks since my last update and I believe one is due.
THE WORK:
Since my last e-mail, I have traveled to Helmond in The Netherlands with two other auditors for a two week work trip. I quickly became friends with the two other auditors and found it ironic that an American, Indian, and a Kiwi (New Zealand) were sent to The Netherlands from the UK. It was nice to work with people not from the UK because the cultures they’ve come from is much different than I am used to and allowed for many good conversations throughout the two weeks.
So at work, I created a bunch of Excel files that allowed me to test to see if SGB Holland was following certain policies and procedures. The first week was quite slow because I had to wait for the Holland office to find information I requested and then wait for someone to be free to translate. Once I had all the information I needed, and it was translated to a level I could understand, my work was much easier.
I also had the opportunity to make an upper manager at the Holland site very annoyed with me by pointing out multiple errors and flaws I found in a credit policy. He began to argue with me and I was not quite sure what to say, so I ended with, “I’m sorry, but this is what the policy states I have to mark this exception.” I really don’t like upsetting people, but I suppose if you’re an auditor, you get used to it.
Now, I’m back to Leatherhead and things are rather slow. I will have much more work in the next week but since it is the middle of the month, things tend go slower. However, today was an interesting day. A woman who has been very nice to me and inviting me out to certain events was notified today that she is being made redundant or laid off along with her entire department. I never witnessed someone I knew and was friends with being laid off, and I can only hope that there are no more and the economy picks up.
THE EXCITEMENT:
Hmm, to be honest. I’m not quite sure. The past few weeks have been relatively unexciting. I was able to travel to Hoorn in The Netherlands to check the area out for a brother of mine who may be moving there. It’s a great little town with a lively town centre and huge bay for sailing. I only spent my weekend there, but it seemed like a great place to live.
As for future excitement, I am planning on asking my manager if I can take a few days off in the middle of July to take a trip. I found a flight to Nice, France for £50 round trip, which is about $80. If I can take a Thursday, Friday, and Monday off, I will be able to meet up with a friend from my University who is also working in Europe.
CONCLUSION:
All is well.
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Medieval Times
June 15, 2009 by nate, under Random.
Here’s an e-mail I received at work this morning:
OVER THE PAST WEEK 18 INCH ARROWS ( 3 to date) HAVE BEEN FIRED AT THE FRONT OF THE OFFICE, PLEASE USE CAUTION WHEN ENTERING / EXITING THE MAIN GATES OR USING THE FRONT CAR PARK.
THE POLICE ARE MONITORING THE SITUATION AND ARE AWARE OF WHICH PREMISES THEY ARE BEING FIRED FROM. IF YOU SEE ANYTHING SUSPICIOUS PLEASE CONTACT ME.
I guess the recession is worse than I thought… Going back to medieval warfare.
Time to buy a shield.
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Week Three
June 2, 2009 by nate, under General, Travel.
Hello, it’s time for my weekly update aka Tuesday.
I have now been here for three weeks, but it seems much longer.
THE WORK:
I haven’t been too busy at work since last update because it is near the end of the month. Since I work for the Head Office of SGB, we become very busy the first week after month’s end. All SGB entities submit their month-end financial data and it is my departments job to make sure the statements are correct and if there are any substantial variances between the current and previous month, we must get an explanation. Today was working day two of the new month and things are really starting to pick up. I have been working on analyzing financial statements and compiling lists of currency hedges. I never knew anything about currency hedges but it is a really great idea for multi-national companies, and if you don’t know what a currency hedge is, don’t worry – it’s not that exciting.
THE EXCITEMENT:
So what fun did I have this past week? On Saturday, I traveled to Epsom, which is two train stops away from where I live and about a 10 minute train ride. In Epsom, I wanted to see Angels and Demons, but could not find the cinema in time, so I watched Night at the Museum 2. The movie was not especially good, but for a solid hour I forgot I was in the UK. It was a really strange feeling to hear all American accents (except the one character is English, I’m aware) for the duration of the movie. After leaving the cinema, I went to McDonald’s to continue the Americanism, but the feeling quickly dissipated upon seeing a different menu as well as the £ Pound Saver Menu.
On Sunday, I went to London with the other intern. She is from Toulouse, France and we had a great time. I was able to speak French the majority of the time and she would respond in English. We went shopping in Oxford Street, which is the main shopping area of London and since I severely under packed, I bought a few shirts and she bought some clothes as well as many random souvenirs.
Afterwards, we went to Hyde Park where we sat down from a long walk near Speakers Corner. I learned from my previous trip that the meaning behind the saying, “Oh he’s on his soap box again” referring to someone ranting came from speaker’s corner. At one point in time, it was against the law to speak against the Queen standing on British soil, so citizens would stand on soap boxes to state their claims. Now however, people stand on chairs and make arguments varying from “There is no God” to “Why Muslims are Evil.” It was really interesting to see the backlash the speakers would get from the crowd. For a bit, I thought there was going to be a fight, but I left before anything happened.
Attached is a photo of the man who was holding the Koran and at one point threatened to burn it as well as a photo of Laura and I in Hyde Park.
As for meeting people, I have made friends with a bunch of people from work. I now play football (English for soccer) for SGB every Thursday. We have jerseys that are in our colours and have SGB written on the front. I was told that a few years ago, SGB used to play semi-organized against other companies but when times became tough, it was cut right away. Now, it is just people from SGB and other companies who still want to play regularly. As for this week, this Friday I am going golfing with a coworker, Neil, who works around the corner from my office.
This weekend I will try to get out and take pictures of the town I live in. I will be traveling to The Netherlands on Monday with an auditing team to audit SGB Holland for two weeks. So I may not be able to send an update for a week or two.
Cheers,
Nathan