Friday /11am
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First company requiring business formal rather than business casual.
So the next few days are less full of pictures and a little more full of moving from place to place. Our next company visit, on the third day of our stay in London, was to UBS, in the old Square Mile of London (also so called are the financial services based primarily here). The architecture is industrial meets modern here, and especially around the businesses.
The first half of the UBS was one of my favorite company visits, since we had an amazing guest speaker, Paul Donovan, who was the director of Global Economics for the company. He gave us a great overview of the current economical outlook from their view in Europe, including notes on the current slow-paced recovery. Crossing fingers that Greece doesn't default an cause domino-like ripples.
We split into smaller groups again after leaving UBS, since one of the interns there had recommended nearby Brick Lane as a great place for international food. In our search, we stumbled across Spitalfields Market in the east end of London, so named for being the Hospital field at one time in history [a tidbit we learned later on a Jack-the-Ripper tour].
Spitalfields market waning at the end of the day. They have tons of clothes here, and I snagged a dress for 5 pounds!
Of course, when we finally arrived in Brick Lane we realized that our intern guide had been somewhat misrepresentational in her “international” designation. Brick Lane is of course home to a plethora of Indian restaurants, not necessarily multicultural ones. You do get to bargain with such a huge selection, and after much debate, we were finally drawn into one that offered us a 25% discount and a free round of drinks.
Day 4 found us back at the university’s London Centre in Heythrope College with an animated history professor giving us a overview of the enormous length of British history and culture. It was a great introduction to our next stop, the British Museum, free but controversial for tightly holding on to its plundered treasures.
The British Museum. So what do you think? Does the museum protect what treasures that might have been destroyed in the turmoil of their home countries or are the exhibits the rightful heritage of the land they were taken from and returned?
The gorgeous covered inside of the museum.
The Rosetta Stone, behind glass.
Acropolis replica.
We walked over to Chelsea in the late afternoon. We had been invited over for a small house party at the home of one of our University’s trustees.
We passed a couple daycare centers on our walk over. Imagine living here!
Obviously staged posh laughter.
Here we are all dressed up.
Day 5 was an early rising: we headed to the U.S. Embassy much too early in the morning. There, we were introduced a bit more to the expat view of London, and privy to a short bomb threat warning, whence were were instructed not to leave the room we had been placed in.
You can also tell that the American Embassy, out of all the places we’d gone to, had the smallest budget, by their lack of coffee and teas. I do believe that a good chunk of their money is going to building a new embassy, set to open in a few years.
The U.S. Embassy
A couple of the girls and I head over to TopShop at Oxford Circus (biggest and busiest) and did a bit of shopping before heading over to our next visit at Virgin Media.
Walking downtown.
Group photo, actually from a later date, but since I'm having trouble pegging the exact date, here's us in all our formal glory. Such a business outing group photo, yes? You can see our exchange office plastered with these, though we probably are prettier. 
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