The End of the Internship Phase (and Pics)

Album: Closing Ceremonies

You can feel free to view those Facebook pictures of some of my last activities on the London/internship portion of my Albion Adventures. Starting on Saturday, I will be off on my solo UK journey. I go to Brighton for a day and then to Oxford.

Today (Thursday) was the last day of my internship, and it was a pretty good day. Everyone was really nice. The 'big kahuna' (as no one calls him) took me out for 'coffee' (but we both got juice) this afternoon and we had a nice chat. He told me I should draft a letter of recommendation for him to edit. Apparently this is a somewhat normal practice in the work world today...even more evidence of how bogus the job search process can be at times. But in any case, I will be happy to have the reference from him, even if I helped write it. :-) My immediate boss also said a nice goodbye to me. Both of them were very complimentary about the work I had done and wished me well on my future. I also said goodbye to Ellen, my fellow 'American girl.'

Then I went out with Jessica, her sister Brittney, and Rahbi to celebrate the end of our internships. (Well, Brittney is just visiting Jess, so she didn't have an internship. And the other two were done before today. But still, we were celebrating that we were ALL done with our internships.) We went out to eat at Benito's Hat, which is a restaurant very similar to Chipotle. It was started by a guy who was impressed with the burrito restaurants in the States and wanted to open something comparable in London (because there really isn't anything else like that over here). We were looking at the menu for this restaurant on the Tube about a week ago, when a young, cute guy--of course, with a British accent--comes up to us and is all excited. "Did you have a menu for Benito's Hat? I'm really excited because it's my restaurant, and it's the first time I've seen a menu out and about." So we met the founder of what is basically going to be a phenomenal success throughout the UK (that's my prediction anyhow). Plus we made his day. Jess and Brittney have been to the restaurant three times now, and the owner has talked to them each time. He talked to all of us tonight, which was fun. After Benito's Hat, we went to The George. It's a really fun pub where Dickens used to eat (and apparently Shakespeare ate at an earlier version of the pub before it burned down). We also brought AMAZING cake from Konditor and Cook to eat there. I had a half shanty (beer/Sprite) for the second time. I'd say it's my favorite drink so far. Well, the white wine I had in Paris was really good too. Anyways, after that, we came back and watched a movie called Smart People in Jess's room. It was a pretty fun movie, though we were all falling asleep.

Tomorrow (or should I say today, since it is after midnight) I have to pack, ship some stuff home (at a high cost, I'm sure), call the hostels to confirm my booking, figure out how to validate my Eurail pass, possibly try to get my money back for the pants I got hemmed which came out after wearing them three times, and anything else I may have forgotten.

So I really probably should go to sleep now...