My first week in NYC

I’ve been in New York a little over a week and so far things have been going well. I started my internship last Monday with a half a day of orientation. Orientation at BS is the same as every other place I worked. They went over dress code, security policies, showed us a video of what a great year 2006 was and how 2007 will be just as great, if not better… you know, the administrative stuff you always go over when you start a new job. Needless to say I was pretty bored. One thing that is different now than when I attended job orientations during high school and college… an emphasis on electronic communications like the proper use of cell phone, texting, and internet use during work hours. When I had my first job back at the Camp Zama library in 8th grade cell phones weren’t even thought of. Now I use mine at some point almost every day to make after work plans with my classmates in the city.


Speaking of electronic communication etiquette, someone needs to give that lesson to the sales clerks at Macy’s. I spent about half of my weekend there shopping for clothes and shoes since they were having a big sale and noticed that at some point at least 1/4 of the sales clerks were on their cell phones. I don’t know about you, but I would think that someone who has a customer service role where they are actually face to face with customers would know better than to use their cell phone while working…. Or tell their customer that they are going to lunch in ten minutes and can only assist you until then… but that is a different story.



Anyway, back to my internship… I sit on the 35th floor of BS’ headquarters building which is located in Midtown Manhattan. I have an office (which I share) that has a window with views of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. Every time I look out the window the soundtrack of Annie plays in my head… actually, when I’m walking around the city scenes of the movie pop into my head, especially the scene where the orphans have escaped from the orphanage and they are trying to get to Daddy Warbuck’s estate and they have to walk, like, 100 blocks to get there.



Outside of my internship things are well. I live in Brooklyn Heights which I have found out is one of the most expensive parts of the city, but my rent is cheap. Plus, my rent includes membership to this really awesome gym on the same block as my building. Seriously, this is the nicest gym I’ve ever been to. There are machines I’ve never seen before that work out muscles I didn’t know existed! And, they have lots of classes everyday that are free! My goal is to go at least four times a week. We’ll see how that goes.