Day 3

Day 3, done! Training at Bloomberg is going well, but it's very fast-paced. Come our 5th day on Tuesday, we'll supposedly be fully prepared to enter our specific project groups and begin working! Thrilling. Yesterday we interns met with a few of the members from our respective groups, and they were nice. But I still have yet to understand what "EMS Core Systems" really means, or what I'll be doing. My teacher nowadays is a man that Bloomberg flew in from London just to teach us, but who is of Middle Eastern descent like my friend Junaid, so the wonderful accent that comes out of his mouth is not what you'd expect! His name is Zamir and he's incredibly knowledgeable for having only been an employee for 6 months...

Today I also learned a bit about stocks and equities! Now I kinda understand this stuff more! Kinda good since I work at a financial company.

Bloomberg seems to be everywhere lately, which is confusing me since I had no idea what the company was or who the person was until about this year. He's almost fully integrated into my life... I of course work for him, indirectly, in his building. In NYC where I currently reside, he is the mayor. There is Bloomberg TV, radio, news, all across the media. The company just bought Businessweek mag. And at JHU, I take classes at the Bloomberg Physics & Astronomy building. An entire Bloomberg School of Public Health belongs to the university, as it is his alma mater. And he just gave the commencement speech to my dear senior friends at their graduation today. See? Everywhere. Check out his speech though, it was really impressive. He's done it before too.

Lately I've been reading Ender's Game, because I apparently missed the boat on that 10 years ago. I'm only at the part where the Launchies are undergoing initial training, and Ender was just transferred to Salamander Army. Funnily, in my intern training I can't help but feel like I'm in the same situation - we're all being trained as youths and we're expected to show our unique performances, try to stand out among our peers, the "best of the best" (which, c'mon, are CS majors, obviously.) At least for their needs in FSD, Financial Software Development. Oh, that's another thing; Bloomberg has millions of acronyms, and no one can remember them all. Anyway I'm really enjoying both the book and the internship. Thinking about how known and powerful Michael Bloomberg is right now, and where I was just hours ago, unknown and at the bottom of his own company, sitting in the basement of his building on one of his 270,000 terminals worldwide, And I felt like Ender. I don't know how the book turns out, but you expect him to win, you expect him to surpass everyone else and become the best among all ever. I had a false vision of that for me, haha, that I am at Level 1 now, in physically and hierarchically the lowest place, and maybe one day I'll be battling Bloomberg himself as the final boss before taking over the company. Haha, a long road. But this, and talk of stocks today, and how unknown people with unlikely companies and dumb-sounding ideas become the most unique and successful in the world, I wondered - and I don't really have an answer for this - which would I really rather want to be: powerful and well-known, or silent and unknown? Both have their perks.

So after work today, I stopped in the Bloomingdale's which is next to my office (and takes up a whole block in midtown, essentially). I guess they group the "Bloom___" companies together ;). It is a MAZE but it is the most amazing department store I've ever been in... especially because it's a maze inside! I took a look at what they had to offer... the above pics are of what I guess is some sort of jacket? It was see-through, made of single-ply 100% "metallic", whatever that is, and was $400. I'll take 5! Hahaha it's great to windowshop like this and imagine what life would be like if I were a wealthy NYC native, able to buy all this stuff at whim. I also spotted the fabled "cologne sprayers", people whose job is just to stand there and offer cologne samples, as Will and Grace has instructed me lol. I deftly evaded them.

In other news, Super Mario Galaxy 4 seems to be amazing. Good thing I elected not to bring my Wii to NYC, or else I'd just play that instead of go to work, lol.

The Gulf oil spill seems to be not amazing. Namely, the "worst environmental disaster in U.S. history." :(

Astoria, and Queens in general, is a very nice neighborhood. There are a lot of great-looking restaurants on 30th Avenue that I pass on my way to the subway, and I want to try them all! It's crazy to realize tomorrow will be my last day here, before I head to DC for a bit and come back to move into my East Harlem/Upper East Side apt. It was a short but nice stay. I'm making plans to go to one of those restaurants tomorrow with Sophie and Katie (my apartment-mates), at least. Then it's early to bed and 5:30 AM to rise. :( Catching that bus that arrives in DC by noon.

Speaking of DC, IMOGEN HEAP! I'm singing with the Vocal Chords at her DC concert! With my arrangement of her song "Earth"! So terribly psyched. Two days! Psyched. I'll post pics/vids. Here's a Chicago a cappella group that did what we'll do, but not as well ;). Also hoping to hit up the Jersey shore with the Prep guys, but time is sincerely at a premium :(. May not happen.

Way over my bedtime again :( Guess I'll sleep a lot on the bus to DC. Ciao!

Bloomberg Internship - Day One!

Welcome to New York City! I'm so psyched to be here for as long as even these short two and a half months. I'm going to try and pack everything I can into my time here... But that's already talking about a lot! I have a running list, I'll have to edit it frequently, but I'll post it here for myself and others soon. So much to do! I already love this city :).

Yesterday my Dad drove me up to NYC and we took it easy. We stopped at a very great trattoria called "Ornella" in Astoria, Queens, and I unknowingly chose their best dish - Buscatini, I think it was called - veal, chicken, California spinach, wild mushrooms, some cheeses all in one giant envelope-shaped pasta, like a giant ravioli. That and some Italian flan, several glasses of red wine and a complimentary shot of limoncello from Sergio, our caring waiter, and having the place unusually to ourselves made it a wonderful, extremely delicious experience! Go, if you can! Funnily I think I saw Sergio on the streets tonight...

Finally I arrived at Sophie's apartment in Astoria where I'll be staying for a week before I move into my real apartment (read: "dorm"), EHS, on the border of East Harlem ("El Barrio", Spanish Harlem) and the Upper East Side, 97th and 3rd. Sophie's place is small but pretty much all I would need! I have a small furnished room and the bed on which I currently am is very comfy. A shame I didn't know about it sooner, could have saved thousands on rent by living outside of Manhattan.. From here I walk 10 minutes to the N/R/W subways and the subway ride should be about the same as my ride on the 6 starting next week. (Hopefully that will be air conditioned!...) At EHS, I'll only walk two blocks to the subway, however.

Day 1 at Bloomberg was amazing. The building is beautiful and so well designed, filled with all kinds of art of various colors and shapes... A giant spiral of a couch to sit on, sculpture and light fixtures, and rainbows of color in large draperies and everywhere you look. Keystones of the principles Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who founded the company in 1981, set forth for the company are transparency - everyone can see what everyone is doing, and the same data - and a flat hierarchy, where no one really has a title over anyone else. Keeping that in mind, they designed the building with glass walls for every room, so everyone can see who is where.

Some cooler features of the building include a curved escalator - one of apparently 6 or 7 in the world - and a green room with polarized glass where you can see in but not see out. Film studios are right there in the building, and you can see the filming live. There are 22 evocative fishtanks, a koi pond among them, througout the building as well. And there are 3 "pantries" where you can walk up and get whatever you want to eat for free. It's truly comfortable and beautiful!

I'll be working the R&D department, under a project involved with "EMS Core Systems" or something... I have no idea what that is... But I will soon! For now, I'm in intern training until Tuesday. Today, we learned a lot about the Bloomberg proprietary software - which they call with narcissism "a Bloomberg," and I find that kind of odd... "Did you log into your Bloomberg?" Like saying, "Have you opened your Keleher lately?" But whatever, Mike's the mayor of NYC, and the founder of this company, and donator of probably a billion dollars to JHU for the building in which I have classes and a cappella concerts, so, I'm not complaining :).

Ah, I must sleep. I'm over my bedtime by a lot, but I wanted to write for posterity. Look for some pics soon. Also, I ran for a mile and a half this evening! Kudos to me. Looks like everything's turning around :).