Week 4, Day 1

Tuesday morning was back to waking up in the dark. At least because of Daylight Savings Time, this week it was past dusk when I walked to the underground! The tube was packed per usual, and when I arrived at the office my boss informed me that my co-worker Carlo had been out sick for the past few days, so it would just be me and her. Cue the pressure. Unlike last week when I sat around for a good portion of the day (pretending I was actually doing something professional), from 9AM onward she kept spewing tasks at me, but not with specific details or in any order of importance. By the time I had just started and gotten a handle on one task, she had given me another, and in between told me to send multiple e-mails to managers in New York and London about problems our team had encountered (but I had no idea about). She is a very lovely person, don’t get me wrong, but I’m definitely a visual person: shouting out tasks and then turning away does not work well for me. Fortunately (for me at least), the IRFE system crashed in the afternoon, giving me an hour or two of relief, and the opportunity to focus solely on Traiana issues. My perfectionism must attract problems in the system, because whenever I do test trades I find unexpected errors, which lead me to e-mail our supervisors and managers in New York. Not fun. After a few cups of coffee and dark chocolate mini-reeses brought in by a New York manager (so good), the afternoon managed to go by pretty fast. Then again, I watched the sun set at quarter after four so that might have had something to do with it… I left right at 6 o’clock and made my way to the St. Paul’s station in the pitch dark (where I waited for three trains before I could fit… this is getting real old, real fast!).
After a quick dinner, I was greeting by Carolyn (who had been setting up all day for a Christmas Fair in Hammersmith!), who generously picked me up a Ben’s Cookie on her way back (and my favourite flavour nonetheless!). It was the perfect addition to my Project Runway finale viewing (Mom I won’t say anything, but we’ll need to discuss after you get back!).
Before I left the office this afternoon, I made arrangements with another BU intern to have a car pick us up tomorrow morning: thank you tube strike workers (and no JPMorgan expense report, Dad!). I have to mmet him at the Crofton (the other BU dorm) at 7:40 so it’s going to be an even earlier morning than usual. I also have a meeting with the Prime Brokerage VP for an overview of the department (they were just awarded “Best Prime Broker – Securities Lending” in the US Hedge Fund Services Awards!) at 10AM so it’s going to be a busy, busy morning. At least the weather has warmed up a bit…
         Cheers,
          LC