First day at the EIB

 On Monday 26 September, I was up at 7.30 am to get ready for my first day at the European Investment Bank.  (I still can’t get over how cool that sounds.)  I had to have a cold shower because the hot water at the youth hostel was probably already running low.  It was unusually busy in the showers and toilets for that time of the morning.  I had ironed my clothes the night before, so I got myself ready and had breakfast.  I climbed up the steep hill and was out of breath when I got to the bus stop.  The youth hostel was in a valley so going to work was going to be an uphill struggle. (See what I did there?!) :-P

When I got to the bank, I headed for this building

But that was 98 boulevard Konrad Adenauer.  I was told to turn up at number 100, next door.  My office was going to be at the concrete building next to it.

They are both EIB buildings though, and they are linked with a passage under ground level.  The stagiaires (trainees/interns) regularly go for coffee in that “connecting” bit.

After I got my security badge, I met my colleagues and sat at my desk.  I share an office with two of the Legal Counsels.  They didn’t give me too much work on my first day, but I was glad to get on with some. 

It’s all so cool, and I still pinch myself sometimes.  For 5 months, I’ll be working in the Legal Department for the EIB’s operations outside Europe, meaning loans made to non-EU entities.  I’ll pretty much be doing what a trainee solicitor does, I think.  Very, very cool indeed.

I’ll sign off with my new email signature:

Dianne Marcos

Stagiaire – Legal Department (Operations outside Europe)

European Investment Bank

The start of my Luxembourgish adventure

 It all happened within 11 days.  I sent my CV and cover letter on a Friday; I got a phone call on the Monday; I had the interview on Wednesday; and I received the offer for the following Monday.   So this Monday, 26 September, I start my 5-month internship at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg.

Things is, because of the quickness of it all, I haven’t had that much time to process everything.  When I left for Belgium, I knew I was going to do it at least two years in advance.  I knew about Luxembourg barely two weeks! 

As pleased as I am at securing this internship, nerves quickly overshadowed my

excitement as I realised how much I needed to do in one week.  I needed to sort out accommodation, flights, packing, cancel plans I already made in England, and tie up some loose ends.

I also felt sad, though, for leaving my loved ones behind.  I count myself lucky for having such a supportive boyfriend and family.  I really wouldn’t be able to do this without their support.

At the airport

On 24 September 2011, I flew with Luxair from London City Airport.  My dad kindly drove me to the airport, and the whole of my family came too. It was nice that they all came to see me off, but in a way it also made it harder to leave them behind.  I walked through the airport with the sadness building in me.   It wasn’t like how I felt when I left to live in Leuven (Belgium) for Erasmus.  It was much sadder leaving this time around.

The Flight

I flew on a Bombarider Q400 aircraft for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 667 km/hr.  I just cannot get over the fact that it had exposed propellers!  The plane was flying quite low so I could see the English Channel, and houses and roads most of the time.

See the propellers?

The airplane was one of those small ones with two seats either side of the aisle.  But it’s not like your budget airline.  People I flew with were reading The Financial Times or Le Figaro – not OK! or Hello magazines.  There were the men with loafers and knitwear on their shoulders.  There were the women with their (low key and tasteful) designer shoes.  I just wonder what my fellow passengers are going to do in Luxembourg.  Every other time I’d flown, there was always a mix of people there.  This time, everybody seems to be going to a business trip.  I sat there and thought: “Oh… am I one of these people now?”  Well, I was travelling there to work , so yes, I suppose I was.  I should’ve brought my copy of The Economist.

As the plane took off, I still felt sad that I was actually leaving.  I had lived back home for the past year and I think I got used to home comforts.  I was living all that behind and going somewhere to live on my own.  The realities of living abroad dawned in when the flight attendants came round with lunch.  (I was surprised to get food on such a short flight!)  They were handing round sandwiches – nice ones on proper bread that they have on the continent, not the ordinary white or brown packaged bread that we have in England.  And that’s where it dawned on me that I will need to get used to a different lifestyle.

Somewhere along the 522 km between London and Luxembourg, I left the sadness and fear behind.  As we flew over France and Belgium, my emotions were replaced with excitement and a sense of “bring it on!”.   It was as if the flight attendants knew that my mood was picking up and offered around mints before we landed.  “Ooh! Yes please!” I said, and carried on thinking about what a great opportunity I had just been given (the internship, not the mint). :-P

It was a lovely sunny day when I flew to Luxembourg.  It was as if the weather also wanted to cheer me up and spur me on.  I took the bus from the airport to my hotel: it took about 20 minutes and it set me back a whopping 1 euro and 50 cents.  You’re never gonna get that much value for a bus journey in England!

As I set my suitcase down in my hotel room, I thought:

Phase one (the “getting here” part): DONE.

Listening to Books

The new James Bond novel? Yes, I've listened to it.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Yep, I've listened to that one too.

Stephen Fry's autobiography? Yep. Got it. Done.

Listened, that is. Not read.

You may have your kindle; I have my audiobook.  The great thing is that the story doesn't stop when I get up and off the train - they carry on as I walk to my destination.

In my opinion, audiobooks come to their own when they are read in the first person.  That's what was great about Stephen Fry's autobiography, The Fry Chronicles.  It was like he himself was confiding in the listener about stories of his life.  His autobiography is also peppered with alliteration which works brilliantly when read out loud.  I can imagine their effect can be lost on the written page.


I got The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG) after I listened to The Fry Chronicles.  It was also narrated by Stephen Fry and he is truly brilliant at it.  That one was in the second person so the events are being described as they happen.  The narrator puts in the voices, accents and expressions.  As it was a colourful and bizarre story, I felt that it was narrated by just the right person.


Carte Blanche, the latest James Bond novel is a serious novel in comparison to HHGTTG.  Although I really got into it, I did feel that there were moments where I could have read a certain dialogue in a different way to how it was narrated.  Perhaps a woman's scream when her house was burning down would have been more poignant in my head than an "aaahhh!" sort-of-noise from the male narrator.  That's the catch with audiobooks - it's important to carefully consider which one to get.


For example, I considered getting One Day as an audiobook.  The reviews were mixed - some loved it, others moaned about how the narrator made Dexter seem too arrogant.  I took these on board and bought the actual book instead.  I loved the book and I was able to decide for myself the tone of the characters' voices and just how arrogant should Dexter be.  In the same vein as refusing to purchase the audiobook, I have decided not to watch the film.  I've made my mind up about the book and it was perfect the way I read it.  I don't want it tainted by another person's view of how to visually represent the story.


Currently plugged into my ears is The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  The book itself received great reviews and I should add that the audiobook is really well narrated.  The narrators read with appropriate accents, bringing life to story.  It's especially apt given that it is written in the first person.


The other thing to note is the length of these audiobooks.  The Fry Chronicles was 12.5 hours long.  HHGTTG was 5.5 hours.  Carte Blanche was 13.5 hours.  And I am currently 6 hours into The Help, out of 18 hours.  Laid out like that, it seems like ages!  However since I travel on trains and make the journey into London anyway, I listen to them then.  I think it's an excellent way of making productive use of that time.


The shortlist for the Man Booker prize just came out recently, so next on my list is Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman and maybe Snowdrops by A.D. Miller.  I also want to buy The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, but that one I want to read so I can make my own mind up on the imagery and the feelings of the characters.

First day of no school

Tomorrow, term starts again.  Except it won't start again for me.  I completed my degree in 2010 and finished a postgraduate course this year.  As facebook tells me in the little box on the right of my home page, this time last year my status was: "First day at the College of Law tomorrow! Eek!"  Now there is no such status update, and tomorrow is just a normal day.

As my youngest sister packs her school bag and prepares her things for tomorrow, I reminisce at my first days of school.

I remember Year 1. I was scared and anxious at starting at a new school.  A big school at that.  What are the other children like?  Will I make friends?  My uniform was all neat and tidy and my blouse was as clean and white as it could have been.  I remember saying goodbye to my parents by the classroom door.  They had taken the morning off work to take me in, for which I was thankful for.  It was the start of 17 years of institutionalised education.

Year 2 - I was still as nervous since I didn't know everybody and I would be having new classmates.  As per last year, mum and dad took me right to the classroom door.

Year 3 - My sister started school when I was in year 3.  This meant that we had to split mum and dad.  I can't remember which one I went with, but this time I was more excited about starting back and making friends.

Year 4 - There was a bit of confusion about where my classroom was, so I think I arrived late.  You must understand, my school was huge! There were about 500 students in each year and 7 years, which makes 3,500 students in my primary school.  Yes.  3,500.

Year 5 - I can't remember this first day very well.  But I remember that everyone had to introduce themselves to the class and the teacher by thinking of an adjective which started with the same letter as our first names.  I was "disciplined".  There aren't many adjectives that begin with a "D".  I should've gone for "dependable" though.  I gave that one to Denise, who was struggling for ideas.

Year 6 - Feeling properly grown up this time.  Mum and dad both went to take my sister to her classroom.  I did feel a bit sad about this, but this feeling went away when I later saw my dad peek through the classroom window to check if I got in fine.

Year 7 - Easy peas.  Done this before.  Let's get on with it!

Year 8 - New school in England.  Proper scary!  I worried whether I'd get ruffled up by the children - like you sometimes see in the movies - because all my uniform was so new and stiff!  I know I was just being paranoid.  I'd also never worn a blazer before.  The Philippines has a tropical climate so we just wore blouses.  Blazers? - they were for working women who had air-conditioned offices!  Rest assured, I didn't get ruffled up.  I did get a massive culture shock though, which is a topic for another blog post.

Years 9-13 - My first days of in England were very different from in the Philippines.  There wasn't as much excitement to it.  It was more like Alright. Summer's over. Here we go.

First day of uni - A whole new excitement for a whole new chapter in my life.  Fresher's week proved a great start to my uni experience.  So good that I stood to be a Freshers' rep for the next year.

First day of my year abroad - I learnt one thing: put a bunch of international students together and you'll get a great party atmosphere!

First day as a postgrad student - Again with the excitement and nerves. Will it be like uni all over again? What's the teaching going to be like? And that eternal human anxiety: Will I make new friends?

Now I suppose it is my first day in the real world.  No more school/uni/college to hide behind.  This is it.  How do I feel?  More anxious than excited - after all, this is the real world now.  There is also that feeling which I can't find the word for - that slight sorrow or longing for something that will never be the same.  This is a new chapter of life indeed.  And the first day of no school.

... unless of course I end up going into teaching!

Adding a bit of colour to the West Country

Towards the end of August, my family and I went on holiday in Cornwall.

I was pleasantly surprised at what Cornwall had to offer.  We usually go abroad for our holidays, and so the idea of an in-country holiday did not excite me much.  I was proved wrong and was shown that the quaint west country should not be dismissed so easily.

My sisters and I went on a group water sports activity which included kayaking, jumping off high rocks (wouldn't really go so far as to call them cliffs) and snorkelling.  

Perhaps it's scepticism or just plain ignorance, but I didn't expect Cornwall to be so beautiful!  It was amazing to see blue/green seas and unspoilt beaches.  Brighton, South End and Clacton-on-sea have nothing on this.  Makes me wish I lived in that part of the country.

My body aches the morning after should really have been anticipated, given the fact that we kayaked 6 miles in total (!) and my bum cheek pains were the result of landing arse first in the water. he he.

It was really good and I highly recommend it!  In fact, I would even do a little promotion and give you their website: 

http://www.activecornwall.co.uk/activities-in-cornwall/wetwild-multiactivity-day.php

Alas, I am not paid for this advert.

We also visited the Eden Project.  This photo was taken on a 50-metre high platform in the Rainforest Biome.  It was amazing and really humid, as one should imagine a rainforest would be like.  I am not a big horticulture fan, but I appreciate what they are trying to do there at the site.  It used to be a China clay pit until they could no longer extract what they needed from that site.  The Eden Project was then developed in the same place to demonstrate regeneration.  It's pretty amazing to think that they have such specialised climates in those two domes... in England!

There is a bit of irony in driving 5 hours and paying so much to get into the Eden Project, only to discover that most of the plants are native to the Philippines anyway.  My parents went around excitedly pointing at plants and trees, reminiscing and thinking about which Filipino food they could cook with them.  It's just a shame that we couldn't take home a couple of fruits or leaves to have with our dinner, really.  That would have made my parents very happy!

On the last day, we rode on a steam-powered engine train! It was so quaint how they kept the old-fashioned design of the train station - 1950s, as I later found out.  I didn't realise that the engine itself had to run around the carriages to pull it in either direction.

Here is a photo of the engine pulling the train "backwards":

Yes, it looks ridiculous, but there you go.  You learn something new everyday. :)

"Gumamela" in the Eden Project. 

Filipino children know too well that if you crush their petals, they make a good blowing bubble solution 

(instead of using washing up liquid)

The reference to adding colour to the west country at this blog's title points to an interesting observation.  For the great majority of our time there, my family were the only BMEs in the vicinity.  Even in restaurants and tourist places, we were the only people with a tan.  The only place where we saw other BME families was at the Eden Project.  Thing is, London is so cosmopolitan and multicultural that you don't see colour anymore.  Yet travel 5 hours to the west and you get reminded that you're not a "native".  There's nothing to it, though.  I'm merely expressing an observation.  Perhaps this is only even relevant to the south side of Cornwall - I don't really know.  I'm just saying that we added a bit of colour to the place. :)

At any rate, it was a good holiday and I would like to go again.  We were very lucky with the weather though.  The forecast was for heavy rain for the duration of our holiday, but it was only on the last day when it rained hard.  Otherwise, the weather was kind to us.


One Life Quirk to end this blog with:

Getting changed after the water sports activity, I took off my wetsuit only to discover that my feet and ankles had tanned, leaving a horrific tan line where the wetsuit ended!  I now look like I'm constantly wearing brown ankle socks!  I can only laugh about it, really.
Ha bloody ha!

Making a what?

Making a blog, that is.

Well, as part of my foray into the vast cyber universe, I have come to blogger to create my footprint in the web.

If you come across my blog, welcome!  I hope you find it interesting!

Please feel free to comment on my posts.  It's always interesting to get a discussion going.

Ciao for now!