Week six: ...and I still haven't stopped laughing

This week at the internship was a riot, as usual. On Monday, we had a staff video conference with UKTI Glasgow (Scotland) where all attendees had free lunch! So of course, Martin and I had more than enough reason to show up. About halfway through all of us stuffing our faces with sandwiches, we realized that all the Glasgow people were sitting there without food and just staring at us… oops. Once the meeting actually began, the assignment for everyone was to sit in groups and brainstorm ideas for how UKTI can be more efficient and effective. They were supposed to create points for the most flawless, successful events ever and the funny part to me was that they had to write them all down on huge sheets of paper using brightly colored markers and present them to other groups. I was hoping that eventually exercises like that would stop once you’ve reached adulthood, but apparently not. I sat there eating my crisps and drinking my coffee while the adults tried to get their creative juices flowing. It was quite entertaining. That same day, I ended up leaving work a little late, not because I couldn’t finish my work but because I was too busy laughing with my coworkers. I forget what we were talking about by now but I remember Andy looking at his watch and saying “Mai, what time are you leaving?” To which I told him that I’m staying longer because it’s like added time in football games, and I’m adding on time because of all the stops I’ve had to take on account of laughing too hard (we’re football fanatics together, what can I say?).

On Thursday, one of our coworkers, Matt, invited a bunch of us to go out to the pub for lunch. It was his last day at work on Friday, not Thursday, but they decided to get the sending off festivities early and start drinking on Thursday. Somehow it was agreed upon that I should try more British beers and so I tried two, but I didn’t like either of them and someone else had to finish them for me. I guess I’m still not English enough! I also got another vocabulary lesson, this time from Martin and Peter. Martin was trying to say that I had to try something called a Cornish pasty, but I kept on messing up the name when I said it. First I pronounced it Cornish “pay-sty” and it was supposed to be “pah-sty.” Martin claimed that “pay-sty” would mean that it’s white and sickly looking, which it is not, to which I then argued that the “pah-sty” had to be pasty-looking before it was cooked in the oven anyway. Then for some reason I said “Cornwall” instead of “Cornish.” Then I said “pastry” instead of “pah-sty” and I asked them “Where did the R go? It had to have been a pastry at some point.” Peter spent the whole time rolling his eyes at me. The lesson continued with the pronunciation with the word “glass.” Apparently in northern UK, they pronounce glass much like Americans would pronounce glass. However in the south, they say it something like how we would pronounce the word gloss (as in lip gloss). So I asked Martin, “How would you pronounce ‘gloss’?” and he thought that I said “glass”… it took him another minute to realize I was saying a different word, but when he tried to distinguish between their pronunciation of “glass” and “gloss,” I really could not see the difference… Finally, there was the word “film” (as in I’m going to develop some film). They said that some parts pronounce film as if it was spelled “fil-em,” adding that E in there for some random reason. Go figure right? The English language is ambiguous enough without all these different interpretations! And if you got lost several times while trying to read my attempt at retelling the conversation… don’t worry, we shouldn’t make much sense to most people anyway.

In midst of all this silliness though, I did work this week (surprising, though, right?). Per Martin’s request, I did research on Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Bahrain in particular. What I ended up composing as a result of my research is going to be the introduction for the mission out to the Gulf region, to spread UK business there. I also started keeping track of the bids for the 2018 Winter Olympics (people start planning really far in advance for these events!) and updated the suppliers list for London 2012, as more companies sign on to be a part of it. Even though 2012 is four years away, in the minds of those who are planning it, it is right around the corner! I also wrote an article on an event called Winning Beyond 2012 (which brought together UK companies, trade specialists, and senior officials from eight different sports international sports games), which is going to be posted on our Portal soon!

On Saturday, I went to the Cuban Carnival with two friends from the TWC program, Pam and Leslie (2 of 3 other roomies in DC, with 3rd being Alisa). It was exactly what I needed, a little Latino spirit! We ate amazingly good food, drank smoothies, and walked around to all the booths, which featured products from other countries in South America (Peru, Colombia, Jamaica, etc.), not just Cuba. The best part, however, was the dancing! They had a live band and live singers, and the atmosphere was incredibly lively! We spent half the time dancing in the crowd (and those people were also dancing). I actually started the dancing before we even got to the carnival grounds when I heard a song I knew echoing from that direction (“Ella me levantó” by Daddy Yankee) and couldn’t resist.

People dancing at the Cuban Festival

The stage and the gazillion people in front of it... haha

Plug for Mexico! Viva Mexicoooo!!

Rockin' them Cuban flag shirts!

This week in the world of Football and Me was an eventful one! On Wednesday, Germany beat Turkey 3-2 in the semifinals, letting Germany advance to the finals. Then on Thursday, Spain (my team!) beat Russia 3-0. The sad part was, Spain’s best player and the player that had scored the most goals in the entire championship, David Villa, had pulled a leg muscle about 34 minutes into the game and had to sit out for the rest of that game AND the final game. I happened to instigate some rowdiness later that night when I saw some Spaniards in the street decked out in Spanish gear and carrying a big Spanish flag and yelled “España, whoooo!!!”… which only led them to sing “Que vivaaaa España…” However, Sunday (today), was the icing on the cake (or whichever part of cake you like best, and if you don’t like cake then there’s always pie) because Spain took down them big bad Germans! So to complete this week’s theme of “still laughing”… HAHA SPAIN BEAT GERMANY!!! I had never yelled so loud in my life while watching a football game. Someone actually asked me if I was Spanish, simply because I was so vocal and making comments about everything. I had managed to make all my friends Spain fanatics (they were all cheering loudly with me at the pub), and even my 13 year old brother at home in California who didn’t even know what channel the game would be playing on changed his MSN messenger tagline to “Spain shall win the finals.” Football spirit is contagious!! And now that it’s over and Spain has won, there’s no more football to watch… I don’t know what to do with myself… maybe attempt to watch cricket? Naaaah…

Spain running around celebrating their victory!