I'm back! And with a very boring blog post title but at the moment, my brain is fried.

First day! Many thanks to Professor Elins who was diligently waiting outside to take our pictures before we left.

This week we started our internships. Some of you may not know this but the entire purpose of this trip is to intern at companies in the public relations, magazine journalism and advertising fields for five weeks. Some of us are placed at Michael Kors, Mindshare, Marks & Spencer, The Daily Mirror and so on. I am so thankful to be at J. Walter Thompson in account management!

We were all very anxious to experience the London workplace after hearing about the many differences between the UK and the US. For me, I was even more anxious because I had not seen "agency life" yet -- you know, like on MadMen?

But my first week was nothing short of wonderful. I sat in on meetings, worked on competitive analyses, and somewhat carried a conversation about the World Cup at the tea station (yes, they have a entirely separate station for tea). At first, the analyses seemed like mundane work but it is actually incredibly helpful when it comes to learning all about UK brands.

As for "agency life", it is exactly what you would expect it to be (except that the smoking takes place outside) -- an open floor with bright, colored walls and hundreds of sticky notes forming elaborate "to do" lists. People are constantly clicking away on their Mac computers in teams such as design, account management and video production. The comm, or cafeteria, is bustling with fun conversations and informal meetings. In addition, the f bomb is dropped after every other word... but I've heard that's just a London thing :)

The coolest part for me is to see how one advertisement can start and finish at one location. Because JWT is an agency, they have the resources to plan, shoot, copyright, design and edit their work all under one roof. Previously, I have worked at places that specialize in one or two of these parts.

Overall, I think I will be able to survive here for five weeks :)

In other news, this song has been on repeat in our flat for the past three days so it's only natural that I share it with you all.

I hope everyone's summer is off to a great start! Will post more soon xo