Work travels

So now the work traveling really begins! I may get fun of for starting too many sentences with, you know it's recruiting season when ...but it's very true. I have begun the new job supporting the front office so my event schedule is looking pretty different.

Trip 1- St Gallen, Switzerland
I fly out to Zurich and hop a train to St Gallen. Not to self once again, learn German. I get to the hotel and upon arrival into my room, I find that I have the world's smallest bed. I am not even exaggerating! At 5, 3 barely I hardly fit into the bed length wise. I had dinner in the hotel restaurant, watched some bad British tv and then went to bed. In the morning, we had a presentation, networking reception and then interviews before heading off to the airport. Luckily, I was with a guy who went to the university and knew the good places to eat (obv a priority) and we had an amazing sausage and bread before leaving.

I knew this was going to be my first lesson on the difference between my old job and the new one but it really did make me laugh. Rule 1 on trains, book economy. Rule 1 of the front office, book first class. I walk to the train to get into my seat and the sales guy and trader ask why I am going that way. Response? Umm...that's the car I'm supposed to be in. Without trying I made them feel so bad that they joined the common folk in second class. Rule 2 on planes, book economy unless you are flying a long distance (flight from LN to Zurich might be 90 min). We get to the airport...question comes again, where's your seat? To their horror, economoy. After a failed attempt at paying to move me and asking them to move me once we got onto the plane, I got champagne from the flight attendent bc she felt bad that she couldn't upgrade me.

Trip 2- Vienna
I leave for Vienna on a Friday afternoon for a nighttime event. The event went well but had one of those, I feel old moments when I could not wait to get back to the hotel to rest, eat, sleep and the analysts on the trip were planning their big night out in Vienna. Worked out for me though...some dinner, a little wine, an amazing shower, cold air conditioning and then I slept for 12 hours. Amazing! I wanted to steal the bed. I was interested to figure out who was staying at this place because there was heavy security all over the lobby and on my floor.

Trip 3- Back to St Gallen
I get on the flight to Zurich, which couldn't be more of a business flight if you tried...London city (which is by the financial district) to Zurich. Upon boarding, we all realized that about 10 very interesting characters were joining us. 8am flight and they are yelling, laughing, drinking and carrying on. I nearly had enough when they began discussing why they were traveling. They were flying through Zurich to Milan where they were going to see the Tottenham football team play Milan. All I can say is omg...grown men acting like frat guys...awesome. The event went well and enjoyed meeting another one of my new clients. Parted ways later in the day and flew back to London. It was a really long day but was happy that the event worked out well.

Trip 4- Warwick
Nothing that exciting about this trip other then the fact that I went north in England and saw a lot of sheep and grass. It's amazing how college towns around the world all have the same feel- nothingness, backpacks, kids looking to steal food ;)

Trip 5- Madrid
Obviously, I was very excited for this one. It was a Monday night event, so Drew and I flew out there late am and headed off to the hotel. We were delayed out of Heathrow so only had enough time to quickly change, grab a snack and head down to the event. I heart the Spanish but god do they not care about time. I am 100% sure they hated me for acting american and reminding them that we needed to get started but cmon..it's already 8pm! We kicked off and finally wrapped up around 10:45. I can chalk this one up to practicing my espanol because the business insisted in doing the presentation in spanish- alrighty then! Synopsis of this trip- plane, taxi, hotel, taxi, plane....I am ok with it though because it was significantly warmer and the sun was out :-)